Austrian Works Arsenal
The Österreichische Werke Arsenal was a wartime business complex in the south of Vienna , which became a major economic and political problem after the First World War .
prehistory
During the First World War, up to 20,000 people were employed in 18 factories in the area of the Vienna Arsenal . By May 1919, the number of workers had dropped to around 3,000. The first organizational measure that took place after the end of the hostilities was the separation from the military administration. A commission in the State Office for War and Transitional Economics advised switching to peace production. But this turned out to be difficult.
Years of decline
The mentioned commission had recommended the abandonment of the Arsenal site and the establishment of new replacement plants as recommended, but the local workers and the metalworkers' union had strictly rejected this because of the risk of losing further jobs. In the tense political atmosphere of 1919, radical measures were avoided and the general management of the state industrial works took over the seriously loss-making operation in October 1919. According to Rudolf Gerlich, it was then in a “state of complete disorganization” . There was no real production activity, but the employees had formed workers' groups, showed syndicalist tendencies and represented revolutionary potential. In the summer of 1920, the general management of the state industrial works entered into sales negotiations with private interested parties, for example with the Creditanstalt , whose group also included armaments companies. The bank did not want to give a job guarantee, whereupon the trade unions and the Social Democrats ( SDAP ) rejected this proposal. At the suggestion of Otto Bauer , in early 1921 it was converted into a public economic institution under the name of Österreichische Werke . In the years to come, the company became a symbol of the opportunities and problems of public economic management, with the opponents of socialization in particular often pointing out the deficits and mismanagement in the arsenal.
The works constitution of the Austrian plants contained extensive co-determination rights of the works councils, but they were soon accused of being aloof and pursuing their own interests. There was no uniform plan for the development of the company, the individual sub-operations operated in isolation, and production was split up. In 1922, lathes, drills, woodworking machines, saws, plows, pistols, hunting rifles, furniture and even small cars were produced.
Just a few months after the founding of the Austrian works , major financial difficulties arose. Even a loan from the Zentralsparkasse brokered by Hugo Breitner could not change the catastrophic situation. In October 1924, General Manager Max Ried retired from all functions of the company. He was replaced by a shop steward from the Lower Austrian Escomptebank. 2000 employees were laid off. By the end of 1925, the Austrian works were reduced to the machine factory. Inventories and machines were sold by 1929.
At the beginning of 1926 only 300 people were employed in the institution. Workplace democracy was largely eliminated. From 1926 to 1929, with the support of the municipality of Vienna, operations initially seemed to recover. There were also deliveries to the Soviet Union . From 1930 onwards the company was again operating at a loss, and in 1934 it was dissolved for political reasons.
In the politically heated atmosphere of the 1920s, in which the social democrats attacked their political opponents, not least because of various economic scandals (scandal over the Central Bank of the German savings banks , postal savings bank scandal, etc.), the company in the arsenal offered the other side the opportunity to criticize the public and economic sectors business democratic economic models.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Gerlich: The failed alternative. 1980, p. 317.
literature
- Rudolf Gerlich: The failed alternative. Socialization in Austria after the First World War. Braumüller, Vienna 1980, ISBN 3-7003-0242-8 , p. 317 ff., (At the same time: Vienna, University, dissertation, 1980).
- Ferdinand Steiner: The broken arsenal in Vienna. Four years of socialist economy. Herold, Vienna 1926.
Coordinates: 48 ° 10 ′ 55 ″ N , 16 ° 23 ′ 27 ″ E