The “Old Brickworks” in Oldau.
Ernst Bornemann, Heinrich Bornemann and August Timme, master carpenters from Neuwinsen, tried to become factory owners around 1900. They wanted to make well rings, fence posts and roof tiles from cement and gravel. They were provided with a barn on the Warms farm. The horse and carriage came from Berns-Hof and the starting capital from August Timme from Neuwinsen.
The company started with 3-4 workers. The company “Bornemann and Timme” was able to deliver cheaper than a regular steam brick factory. The first industrial company in Oldau was founded and it flourished. Transporting the gravel from the Tögen was difficult and time-consuming, so they decided to relocate their production facility. The concrete walls and also the oven and chimney were built near Ernst Bornemann's gravel pit in Tögen. Everything went well for three to four years until two South Winser homeowners complained whose houses were covered with Oldava cement tiles. The hardness and density of the brickworks are of such poor quality that the bricks break and allow rainwater to pass through. The Oldau brick makers soon had the houses re-covered with fired bricks. But the reputation of the “Bornemann and Timme company” was gone. The three brick makers stopped working and turned their backs on Tögen. The brickworks was left to decay.