Altmark chain works

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Former main entrance with the Alkett administration building at Breitenbachstrasse 34–36

The Altmärkische Kettenwerk GmbH (Alkett) was an important manufacturer of armored vehicles for the Wehrmacht during the Second World War . The main factory was in Berlin-Borsigwalde at Breitenbachstrasse 33-36. When other locations were added, the name changed to Altmärkische Kettenwerke GmbH .

founding

The Alkett were in 1937 as a subsidiary of Rheinmetall - Borsig AG founded. The company's headquarters were on the site of the former Rota Waggon- und Maschinenbau GmbH , which went bankrupt in 1928.

Plant I.

Tank production at Alkett in Borsigwalde

The property at Breitenbachstrasse 33-36 ( Lage ) first had to be expanded and converted at great expense. The administrative headquarters were on the street to the left of the main entrance. A canteen was set up for employees in the basement. To the right of the main entrance were the switchboard, the plant fire brigade , the workshop and a transformer station for converting the supplied medium voltage from 30,000 volts to 6,000 volts. Halls 1–8 were built behind the administration building.

With the ramp-up of production as a result of the increased demand for armored combat vehicles, another property was taken over on the opposite side of the street. Halls 9-12 were built on the site of the former Löwenberg factory at Breitenbachstraße 1–6 . The test center for foreign armored structures was located in Hall 12. Here, the Alkett engineers tested the T-34 and the Sherman tank , among others , in order to draw conclusions for their own production. Other facilities were located at Breitenbachstrasse 72.

The Breitenbachstrasse, which is completely enclosed by the plant, was closed to through traffic to protect against espionage , so that it took on the character of a works street. After the start of the war, Alkett rented additional workshops from the nearby Hartung-Jachmann AG and set up a technical department there. In addition, the cellar located under the courtyard was converted into an air raid shelter , which the civilian population also used. By 1942 the administration grew so strongly that additional office barracks were built in Holzhauser Str. 74–86. All of these plants were grouped under the name Plant I.

Plant II

Plant II ( Lage ), also called Maschinen und Gerätebau Tegel ( Maget ), was built in Berlin-Tegel in the immediate vicinity of the Borsig plant in Eisenhammerweg 56-60. Known among other things through the construction of various types of firearms such as MG 34 and MG 42

Plant III

Plant III ( location ) was located in Berlin-Spandau at Straße Freiheit 16-17 .

production

Production of Sturmgeschütz III and Sturmhaubitze 42 at Alkett

The Altmärkischen Kettenwerke were developers, partly sole manufacturers or licensees of some of the most important armored combat vehicles of the Wehrmacht.

The completed tanks were test-driven on Holzhauser Strasse. Since 10 to 20 new tanks left the factory every day, they were an integral part of the townscape of that time. The Alkett also repaired tanks that were delivered directly to the factory premises by rail from the front.

After Allied air raids on Berlin on November 23 and 26, 1943, the upper floors of the administration building fell down. The office barracks at Holzhauser Strasse 74-86 burned down completely. The management had now begun, parts of the production in the not yet put into operation new Reichsbahn - Ausbesserungswerk Albrechtshof (also called Falkensee) of the Berlin S-Bahn to relocate. After the air raid on October 6, 1944, 80 percent of Halls 1–5 in the main Borsigwalde plant were destroyed.

During the Battle of Berlin , Red Army troops occupied the plant on April 23, 1945.

Employees

Stumbling block for Hugo Kapteina

Between 3,000 and 4,000 people worked in Plant I. From 1941 onwards there were foreign civilian workers from Italy and Belgium who had more or less volunteered to work in Germany. They lived in an unguarded barrack camp at Holzhauser Strasse 42-50. Right next to it there was a guarded barrack camp for Polish forced laborers at numbers 26–40 ; Another guarded camp for Italian military internees was located in Dietrich-Eckhardt-Straße (today: Gorkistraße) / Am Nordgraben . Russian and Yugoslav prisoners of war were also used at Alkett .

Starting in 1943, the designer Hugo Kapteina built a resistance group at the plant that produced and distributed illegal leaflets and carried out acts of sabotage. For example, they welded idlers (rear deflection wheel) for the chain drives with excessive amperage, so that the weld seams did not last long. After his arrest in 1944, he was executed on April 20, 1945.

On the same day, Franz Hahne, a member of the factory, received the Golden Knight's Cross for the War Merit Cross with Swords, which was only awarded twice .

After the war

In the first months after the end of the war, the Soviet military administration (SMAD) ordered the dismantling of the plant. Since it where on the Yalta Conference established the French sector of Berlin was only a few weeks remained time, not everything could be taken away. With machines that had not been dismantled, a small production of everyday items such as pots and buckets that were urgently needed at first began. When production in mechanical engineering began in 1948, the Alkett had parted with large parts of the plant. The core of the plant, which was renamed Alkett GmbH in 1953, were Halls 10–12 in Breitenbachstrasse 1–6. Welding presses, gears, gears, metal planers, and stainless steel screws have now been produced here with moderate success. At the end of the 1950s, the company was renamed Alkett Maschinenbau GmbH . On the initiative of the Federal Treasury Department was in 1966 with other companies such as West Berlin Borsig , BMAG / Schwartzkopff , typographer ( Linotype ) and Werner GmbH in the German industrial equipment company mbH incorporated (DIAG). This company was 90% federally owned. Today the company is located in Essen .

literature

  • Klaus Schlickeiser: Borsigwalde then and now, housing and industry. Berlin, 1989, Borsigwalde working group then and now.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Klaus Schlickeiser: Borsigwalde then and now, living and industry. P. 590.
  2. ↑ Klaus Schlickeiser: Borsigwalde then and now, living and industry. Pp. 592-593.
  3. ↑ a b Klaus Schlickeiser: Borsigwalde then and now, living and industry. P. 596.
  4. ↑ Klaus Schlickeiser: Borsigwalde then and now, living and industry. P. 597.
  5. ↑ Stumbling block for Hugo Kapteina ( memento from February 12, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ), accessed on March 1, 2011.
  6. ↑ Klaus Schlickeiser: Borsigwalde then and now, living and industry. Pp. 602-603.
  7. Jump up ↑ covenant against evil . In: Der Spiegel . No. 34 , 1966, pp. 33 ( online ).