Naxos Union
The Naxos Union in Frankfurt am Main was one of the first manufacturers of grinding machines . The owner was Dr. Arthur Pfungst Foundation . The first locations were the abrasives factory in Wittelsbacherallee in the Ostend district and the machine factory in Wächtersbacher Straße in Frankfurt-Fechenheim . In particular, the combination of abrasives and grinding machines made the Naxos Union unique. Their crankshaft grinding machines are still used today in many automotive plants. In the 1980s the Naxos Union was converted into a stock corporation and sold to the Rothenberger Group in Frankfurt. This also included the Diskus grinding machine factory and the Pittler Maschinenfabrik AG in Langen .
Due to its membership in the Rothenberger Group, the Naxos Union moved to Pittler AG in Langen in 1995. Diskus Werke GmbH relocated its company location from Frankfurt to Langen zu Pittler in 1993. The Naxos Schleifmittelwerk in Butzbach was taken over again in 2005 after an insolvency by the Rothenberger Group (Günter Rothenberger Industries GmbH) and renamed Naxos-Diskus Schleifmittelwerke GmbH Butzbach.
After the bankruptcy of Pittler AG, Pittler GmbH and the Naxos-Union in 1997, Naxos was taken over by the American group of companies Ingersoll and Pittler GmbH by the American group of companies PCC / Oregon and their production halls remained in Langen. The Pittler Berufsausbildung GmbH was taken over by the city of Langen and the Fraport Pro Region Foundation has been co-owner since 2006. Today it operates as Pittler Pro Region Berufsausbildung GmbH.
Diskus Werke GmbH changed location in April 2001 and moved from the Pittler site in Langen to Dietzenbach. In February 2001 the PCC Pittler GmbH was founded by the entrepreneurs Oppermann and Dr. Kovarts taken over. In June 2001, Pittler GmbH went bankrupt again and was taken over by Innoselect AG in Karlsruhe in January 2002.
In December 2001 the Naxos Union went bankrupt again. Naxos-Union GmbH (machine factory for crankshaft grinding machines) has been part of the EMAG group since May 2002 . With this takeover, the Naxos-Union has returned to its original location in Frankfurt am Main.
Pittler GmbH, now Pittler T&S GmbH, has been part of the Rothenberger Group (DVS Group / Diskus Werke AG) again since July 2002 and moved to Dietzenbach in April 2005. The factory halls in Langen were dismantled and demolished. The bankruptcy of Pittler AG was completed in 2008 and ended in the same year through a compulsory settlement. In 2009 Pittler Maschinenfabrik AG participated in the capital increases of the subsidiaries Herman Kolb GmbH and Präwema Werkzeugmaschinenfabrik GmbH. A revitalization of the Pittler Maschinenfabrik AG is to be aimed for.
history
The company was founded by Julius Pfungst, who, through a contract with the Société du Véritable Emeri de Naxie, Syra, obtained the exclusive right to sell real emery that was mined on Naxos in Germany. On October 15, 1871, the right was transferred to the newly founded Naxos Union, the "Society of the real Naxos emery". In the same year, steam-emery mills were set up in Sandweg 21 and a year later applications were made to include additional facilities that were necessary for further processing. Initially it was planned to use the rooms of a rabbit hairdressing shop on Sandweg for these extensions. However, Pfungst succeeded in acquiring a 2,064 m² plot of land in "Atzemer, Klickerbahn" (Wittelsbacherallee) and in 1873 received approval to set up a "25-horse" steam engine and to build a factory building with a house. The end of the 1870s began to design and build grinding machines . In 1880 the annual production was 250 machines, 60–70 workers processed about 150 quintals of raw emery per week.
After Julius Pfungst's death in 1899, the company was jointly run by his son Arthur Pfungst and daughter Marie Eleonore Pfungst and his widow Rosette. After Arthur Pfungst's death in 1912, Marie Eleonore Pfungst took over the management. In 1918 the factory was moved to Dr. Arthur Pfungst Foundation converted. The abrasives and grinding machine factory Naxos-Union recovered quickly after the end of the war and became a global company.
After the Nuremberg Laws came into force in 1935, the company boss gave the management of the factory and the chairmanship of the foundation to Dr. Exit Rudolf Herbst. In 1942 she was deported to the Theresienstadt concentration camp , where she died six months later. From 1942 to 1944, more than 700 citizens of other European countries had to do forced labor in the Naxos Union . Her further fate has so far remained largely unknown.
The Naxos Hall
The listed former factory hall at Wittelsbacherallee 29 stood empty for years after the shutdown and threatened to deteriorate. In 1999 the city of Frankfurt took over the industrial monument and used the hall as an event location. The Willy Praml Theater, founded in 1991, has had its permanent venue there since 2000 . This is also used on Tuesdays from March to early December by naxos.KINO , which shows documentaries followed by a film talk . In addition, the hall is the venue for the experimental stage teAtrum VII and the studio of the Bornheim youth shop . Guest performances and other cultural events from the field of modern dance theater, experimental music club culture and architecture also take place there. The Naxos Hall is part of the Rhein-Main industrial culture route .
See also
literature
- Volker Rödel: Factory architecture in Frankfurt am Main 1774–1924. Frankfurt 1986, ISBN 3-7973-0435-8
- Mile Braach : Marie Eleonore Pfungst 1862–1943. Frankfurt 1995 (Biographies / Fritz Bauer Institute), ISBN 3-932883-15-2
