Aubert, one of the most important blacksmiths in Catalonia

2024-01-07 07:30:19

Direct witness of the Civil War and the post-war period, Carles Aubert Xipell (Barcelona.1929) has published his memories in the book Memoirs-Carles Aubert XipellImpremta Costa, 2023. The core of the book is made up of the experiences of Casimir Aubert Carreras (Olot, 1887-Barcelona, ​​1949), father of the author, who he arrived in Barcelona at the age of seventeen to work in a hardware storeat twenty-eight he became co-responsibility of the establishment and at thirty he created a DIN 631-634 screw factory with his partner Miquel Deu.

Casimir Aubert died in 1949, it was Carles Aubert who took charge of the hardware business. To do so, he had to leave his Economics studies at the University of Barcelona. He found himself with a business immersed in the impediments of the post-war period: Fiscalia de Tasse, energy poverty, lack of material and basic deficiencies. vto manage to push the business forward until reaching the economic development of the sixties. In the decades of the sixties and seventies and as the industry left the center of Barcelona, ​​Carles Aubert opened industrial hardware stores in the localities with industrial estates and kept the domestic ones in the center of Barcelona. At this timewas introduced in a society formed by the twelve most important ironmongers in Catalonia. Now, the company Aubert Subministres Industrials is one of the leaders of the sector at the state level.

The author and main protagonist, Carles Aubert Xipell, tells a story that begins with the lives of his ancestors, the Xipells and the Auberts, 19th and 20th century textile professionals in Manlleu, Girona, Olot, Sant Joan les Fonts and Castellfollit of the Rock It continues with the family experiences during the conflicts of the 20th century and the account of the experience of his uncle, the doctor Francesc Xipell Castellfollit, 1891-Canterbury. Victory Australia, 1969). Francesc Xipell lived in Australia with his wife Mary Gras Fort (saga of the Roura entrepreneurs of the cork of Calonge) and their children Joseph and Mary Elisabeth from 1935 until his death. Francesc Xipell is remembered for the help he offered to the Spanish refugees arriving in Melbourne; sometimes not knowing where the ship had gone. Thanks to his knowledge of medicine he saved people who arrived injured in the port of Melbourne. He helped so much that he became the consul of Spain in Melbourne, first in practice and then officially.