Old Prussian armaments industry
The old Prussian armaments industry deals with the production history and development of military goods for the old Prussian military system. Starting with the formation of the personal union of Brandenburg with Prussia in 1618 until the complete defeat of the old Prussian state in the war against Napoleonic France in 1806.
An independent arms industry developed only with great difficulty in Prussia. The reasons are due to the lack of almost all of the raw materials necessary for production. So decreed Brandenburg-Prussia and later Kingdom of Prussia only some easily degraded bog and a bit of copper in Rothenburg an der Saale . Otherwise, the grit can of the Holy Roman Empire did not have any significant deposits of raw materials. Among other things, there was a lack of lead for the balls, or tin for the manufacture of bronze.
history
Armaments industry in Brandenburg Prussia: 1618 to 1701
Due to the lack of an armaments industry of his own, Elector Friedrich Wilhelm was forced to cover his armaments needs from abroad. He had gunpowder and bronze cannons imported from the Netherlands , and iron cannons from Sweden . The rifles for the Brandenburg-Prussian army came from Liège , the edged weapons from Solingen , the pistols from Suhl . However, in 1645 the royal foundry in Berlin was founded by the Elector Friedrich Wilhelm.
Arms industry in the Kingdom of Prussia: 1701 to 1806
When the soldier king Friedrich Wilhelm I took office in 1713, the Prussian armaments industry had not yet progressed beyond the stage of manual operations. The state only had the gun foundry in Berlin, founded in 1645, a copper hammer in Eberswalde and a brass works in Finow . In Zehdenick there was an ironworks equipped with five meter high furnaces .
Under Friedrich Wilhelm I, an attempt was made to become independent of arms imports in accordance with mercantilist principles. This was followed by a systematic and systematic development of its own armaments industry. Characteristic of this policy was the emergence of the special purpose connection between the private armaments industry and the Prussian military, which is characteristic of Prussia. The army served as a safe sales buyer for the manufactured products, at the same time the private entrepreneurs had to adapt to the needs of the army.
In 1717 the royal powder factory was built in Jungfernheide near Berlin. An extremely fine and highly effective gunpowder was produced there, as it was only common for sports purposes at that time. In 1722 the rifle factory in Potsdam and Spandau was founded. This factory was headed by the two successful entrepreneurs Splitgerber & Daum , who also owned other armaments companies. The plant in Spandau supplied the rifle barrels, bayonets and ramrods and shipped the parts to Potsdam. There, locksmiths, foundries and stockmakers made the lock and set parts including the stocks and put the whole thing together into complete rifles. As early as 1723, one year after it was founded, the rifle factory was producing 10,000 muskets , which meant that it was initially independent of arms imports from Liège and Suhl. The iron for the muskets and pistols had to be imported from Sweden. In Berlin, the musket balls were cast from inexpensive lead extracted from the Harz Mountains . When selecting the locations, the planners always paid attention to the presence of large watercourses, because the heavy freight could be transported better on them than on the poorly developed roads.
The royal cannon foundry in Berlin manufactured a large part of the cannons for the Prussian army in the first half of the 18th century. This foundry used imported copper from Rothenburg adSaale and tin from Cornwall . The only domestic sources of production for bombs and grenades were the Zehdenick ironworks and the factory in Schadow , on the upper reaches of the Spree .
Friedrich Wilhelm also promoted the local textile industry. In 1713, the Royal Warehouse was built in Berlin , which, as a decentralized manufacturer, supplied the Prussian army with complete uniforms and other textiles. The team uniforms were made decentrally, from local wool production, while the fine officer's uniforms were made centrally in the warehouse using imported Spanish merino wool . The warehouse is an example of how civil economy was placed at the service of the army and yet benefited from it.
Arms production was increased under King Friedrich II . The local armaments industry was able to cope with the demands of the first two Silesian Wars (1740–45). After the conquest of Silesia in the First Silesian War, Prussia took over the municipal cannon foundry in Breslau and expanded it. During the first two Silesian Wars from 1741 to 1745 Prussia produced 444 guns. Other powder mills were also built during this time . In 1746 all the powder mills together produced 402,000 pounds of explosives and as much as 504,000 pounds of explosives in 1756.
The domestic iron industry, on the other hand, was lagging behind with its capacity, which forced Frederick II to import grenades and bombs from Sweden. That is why new iron works were built in Silesia by 1755, for example in Malapane , Kreuzburg , Gottow , Torgelow (Pomerania) and Vietz . The king had the know-how of the manufacture of ammunition and the necessary ores procured from Sweden through industrial espionage. During this time, the entire metallurgy was restructured. In place of the leasing that had been common up to now , other forms of company emerged that did not inhibit innovation, since entrepreneurs were only interested in short-term profits. In the field of metallurgy in Prussia, Friedrich Anton von Heynitz , who came from Silesia, had made great strides by introducing new technologies. In 1754 the ironworks in Malapane and Kreuzhütte produced 9,400 bombs.
The Seven Years' War far exceeded the capabilities of the Prussian arms industry. A total of 73,686,720 pounds of gunpowder alone was used in this war. Prussia was to a large extent dependent on imports from Holland and England. For this purpose, 32,000 rifles and sabers had to be bought in Holland between 1757 and 1762, as the rifle factories in Potsdam and Spandau also couldn't keep up with production. Iron cannons were obtained from Sweden, bronze guns and handguns from Holland, muskets from Liège and pistols from Suhl and Solingen.
The factories lacked staff and production capacities in general. An expansion of the production capacities in peacetime was, however, very limited. Once the need for peace, which is naturally very low for an army, had been met, the costs would have either had to be reduced, the prices added to the few sales products, or other sales markets opened up through exports. The latter was forbidden in the time of the cabinet wars in Europe, in which the partners could quickly become opponents.
During the Seven Years' War Austrians and Russians penetrated as far as Berlin and blew up the royal powder factory and the royal foundry there in 1760. The annual production of guns under Frederick II averaged 80 guns during his reign, a total of 3600 pieces.
swell
literature
- Martin Guddat : Gunner, Bombardier, Pontonier. The artillery of Frederick the Great . Mittler & Sohn publishing house, Bonn 1992, ISBN 3-8132-0383-2 .
- Karl-Volker Neugebauer : Basics of German military history. Volume 2 - work and source book, Rombach Verlag, Freiburg 1993, ISBN 3-7930-0602-6 .
- Wolfgang Seel: Prussian-German powder history. In: Deutsches Waffen-Journal. 19 (1983) No. 3, pp. 294-301, No. 4, pp. 462-465, No. 5, pp. 588-592, No. 7, pp. 862-867, No. 8, pp. 1020-1023, No. 9, pp. 1144-1146.
- Wolfgang Seel: Old Prussian saltpeter industry. In: weapons and costume studies. B. 25 (1983) H. 1, pp. 31-41.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Martin Guddat: Gunner Bombardier Pontoniere. The artillery of Frederick the Great . Verlag Mittler & Sohn, Bonn 1992, p. 27.