Johann Ertl became the first chairman of the board, and later the owner of 90% of all shares in the factory. The golden age of Johann Ertl’s factory arose in 1929. Production expanded even after 1930. Jute carpets and silk fabrics began to be made in the factory. Johann Ertl’s factory became the largest in Europe for the production of hemp sliver. The factory progressed very quickly, and from the initial 200 workers it multiplied its capacities in a flash. The golden age of the Johann Ertl’s factory began in 1929, when the factory in the former Yugoslavia had 880 employees. Production expanded and after 1930, jute carpets and silk fabrics began to be made there. The importance of this factory in Odžaci is probably best evidenced by the fact that the price of hemp for the whole of Europe was determined there.

Johann Ertl was also a member of the parliament of the newly established Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes after the First World War. He died in 1922, and his descendant Franz Ertl continued to run the business successfully. The factory operated until the Second World War, and then it was forcibly taken over by the German and Hungarian authorities. Franz Ertl remained loyal to Yugoslavia, did not support the Nazis, but anyway he was brutally killed by partisans in 1944.

In the area of the hemp factory, there were two outdoor pools and sports fields that were available to the factory workers. Snežana Lučar, the director of the Technical School located in Ertl’s villa – told us how she remembers that the inhabitants of Odžaci bathed in those pools until the seventies of the last century. Swimming pools, sports fields, as well as the factory itself – are in ruins today. Today, the building houses the Technical School. The building was renovated in 2004, and the renovation was financed by the Provincial Executive Council of Vojvodina.