Hainz is a clockmaking firm founded in 1836 by Ludvík Hainz; according to the National Technical Museum (NTM), it is the oldest Czech clockmaking firm [1]. In the 1880s its production programme turned to tower clocks [1]. The firm now produces in Lysá nad Labem [1].
The Prague Astronomical Clock and other commissions
The founder, Ludvík Hainz, a Prague clockmaker, took part in saving the mechanism of the Prague Astronomical Clock, which was threatened with destruction in the 1860s [1]. After its repair the clock was set running on New Year's Day 1866, and the firm has looked after it since then, except for the years 1948 to 1989, when it was nationalised [1]. The firm also supplied tower clocks to other Prague buildings, among them the tower of the Industrial Palace at Výstaviště Praha, where its mechanism was installed from 1891 until the building was reconstructed in the 1950s [1].
The 20th century and nationalisation
In 1948 the firm was nationalised under the communist regime [1]. According to the NTM curator David Hamr, five men named Ludvík in all passed through the Hainz family, and two of them paid for their work with imprisonment after 1948 [1].
The present day and the seventh generation
The family firm is now run by the seventh generation of the family, mainly in the field of tower clocks including the Prague Astronomical Clock, said NTM director Karel Ksandr [1]. A descendant of the family, Mariana Nesnídalová, donated a present-day wheelwork movement for tower clocks to the museum [1]. Of the family tradition Nesnídalová said: "It is almost unbelievable that today we have the chance to continue the work that our ancestors began 190 years ago." [1]
The exhibition Sága rodu Hainzů
To mark the 190th anniversary of the firm's founding, the NTM opened an exhibition titled Sága rodu Hainzů (The Saga of the Hainz Family) in Prague on 13 October 2026 [1]. It is open to the public until 28 March 2027 [1]. According to the curator Hamr the exhibition is conceived genealogically rather than technically and, in his words, "repays a certain debt" to the Hainz family [1]. Ksandr placed the presentation of the Hainz family in the NTM programme in which the museum recalls firms that survived the Nazi occupation and the communist regime and continue to operate after the restitutions, among them Koh-i-noor Hardtmuth [1]. The exhibition also shows a model of the Prague Astronomical Clock and a mechanism from the tower of the Industrial Palace, from the NTM collections [1].
Timeline
- — The National Technical Museum in Prague opened the exhibition Sága rodu Hainzů, marking 190 years since the founding of the oldest Czech clockmaking firm, Hainz. → ČTK / České noviny Pražská Drbna
What links here
Sources
- ČTK / České noviny — 13 October 2026