Askania works
The Askania Werke AG was a German producer of precision mechanical and optical industry . They were founded in Berlin in 1871 as Bambergwerke in Linienstraße 185 (near Hackesche Höfe ) and renamed Askania Werke AG in 1912 . A considerable amount of arms production was carried out in some cases . After 1945, the Askania works became part of various state- owned companies and successor companies in Berlin and West Germany .
history
In 1871, Carl Bamberg - son of a watchmaker and protégé of Carl Zeiss - founded a factory at Linienstraße 185 in Berlin that produced high-quality nautical , geodetic , geomagnetic and astronomical precision devices for marine , observatories , research and expeditions . For the ports in Cuxhaven (1874) and Hamburg (Kaiserkai, 1876), Carl Bamberg developed time balls to synchronize the deck watches and ship chronometers . Bamberg exhibited its products for the first time in 1876 at international trade fairs in London and Philadelphia and in 1879 at the Great Berlin Trade Fair . Thanks to outstanding innovations and reliable measurement technology, his company experienced rapid growth. Carl Bamberg moved the headquarters to Kaiserallee 39 (today: Bundesallee 86-88 ) in Friedenau in 1888 . The company worked with numerous renowned customers, such as Siemens & Halske or Schottwerke Jena , as well as with the Imperial Navy . Carl Bamberg died in 1892 at the age of 44. His widow Emma Bamberg, b. Roux, and later his son Paul Adolf Bamberg , who was still a minor in the year of his death, took over the management of the precision engineering company. In 1912, the then 25-year-old Max Hermann Roux (born October 26, 1886 in Leipzig ), a cousin of Paul Adolf Bamberg, joined the plant. Max Roux married Käte Wilhelmine Bolzendahl from Rostock on December 19, 1913 . There are three children from the marriage.
In Friedenau, Carl Bamberg's workshops for precision mechanics and optics developed and produced various series of high-precision scientific apparatuses in the period before and after the turn of the century, such as coordinate measuring devices for measuring large-format photographic glass negatives from the fields of physics , astronomy and geodesy (namely spectrogrammetry , Spectroscopy , distance measurement ); The company was thus mainly in competition with companies at the time such as Carl Zeiss Jena or Adam Hilger London and with these products achieved international reputation in the scientific field.
During the First World War , the company was a supplier to the Imperial Navy. The production program of 1914 included submarine compasses , rangefinders , sighting devices , pressure gauge with remote transmission for tethered balloons , cinema film cameras and geophysical equipment.
In 1919 the company merged with the precision engineering company Otto Toepfer & Sohn from Potsdam .
Askania Werke AG from 1921
The Askania Werke Aktiengesellschaft was created in 1921 through the merger with Central-Werkstatt für Gasgeräte GmbH in Dessau . The name refers to the medieval noble family of Ascanians who settled Brandenburg and Saxony .
Askania Werke AG, with locations in Berlin and the surrounding area, became the most important German company for aviation and navigation instruments . At the end of the 1920s, Askania AG had branches in Germany as well as branches in Paris , Houston and Chicago .
Since the 1920s, the company has also built film projectors ( Askanino , 1926), stereoscopic cameras ( Askania Bi-Pack , 1932), film cameras ( Askania Universal , 1923; Askania Z , 1931), which were used, among other things, for the UFA filming of the film The Blue Angel with Marlene Dietrich , in the film Quax, the Bruchpilot or in Leni Riefenstahl's The White Hell from Piz Palü were used. In 1935, the world's first portable shoulder camera, the Askania shoulder camera , was introduced. During the 1936 Summer Olympics , timing instruments and film cameras were used to record the competitions.
In particular, the shoulder camera was used during the Second World War for front-line reporting and for filming the German newsreel , among others by Horst Grund .
The night flight instruments, on-board instruments and pilot's watches helped pioneers in aviation, for example Ehrenfried Günther Freiherr von Hünefeld with his first crossing of the Atlantic or Elly Beinhorn with her long-haul flight records . Askania on-board instruments were installed in numerous aircraft, including those of Lufthansa .
Arms production and World War II
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The rearmament in 1935 increased the volume of orders and specialization for the armaments industry , including, for example, gyroscopic instruments for battleships and aircraft for the Heinkel works . Target optics for anti-aircraft guns and submarine periscopes were also built . The Askania Werke developed the flight management system of the German V1 - cruise missile and components for the V-2 rocket . During National Socialism , Max Roux was a military economist and headed the company as general director until the end of World War II.
During the Second World War, Askania Werke had a branch in Mariendorfer Ringstrasse (today: Schindler Aufzüge AG ). In Mariendorf, Marienfelde and Lichtenrade there were therefore numerous barracks for forced laborers from the Askania works. Due to forced labor, the number of employees rose to around 20,000 in 1940. These came from the western areas occupied during World War II such as Belgium , France and the Netherlands , but also from eastern areas such as Poland and later the Soviet Union . During a major Allied air raid on Berlin on August 24, 1943, at least 16 female forced laborers from the Soviet Union died in a camp on Ringstrasse. It is also known that towards the end of the war at the end of 1944 to 1945, the children of forced laborers from France and the eastern regions starved to death in the camps of the Askania plants on Rathausstrasse and Ringstrasse. In the spring of 1944, on the orders of the Jägerstab, parts of the production facilities were relocated underground to the shafts of salt mines south of Helmstedt to protect against bombing attacks . Prisoners of the Beendorf concentration camp , which was established in March 1944 and a satellite camp of the Neuengamme concentration camp , had to expand the shafts as well as the later necessary forced labor for production and the like. a. of autopilots, controls and steering systems for the Messerschmitt Me 262 aircraft and the V1 and V2 rockets.
Illegal operating cells of the Saefkow-Jacob-Bästlein organization were organized and active in the Askania plants in Mariendorf and Weißensee , which produced and distributed leaflets and sabotaged armaments production. They also tried to distribute food and clothing to forced laborers and to provide shelter and money for illegals. The group in the Askania works comprised around 50 men and women from 1933 to 1945. When the Saefkow-Jacob-Bästlein organization was broken up in July 1944, many members of these company cells were also arrested. Six of them were sentenced to death and executed, only the toolmaker Paul Hirsch managed to escape on the way to the trial before the People's Court on November 28, 1944. Since he could not be hidden in Berlin, he went east and crossed the war front . He died after the end of the war on August 21, 1945 in a camp in Kazakhstan due to exhaustion from his flight from Germany and the injuries he had suffered from torture during his detention. Only since September 2014 has a memorial plaque in Großbeerenstraße 2 commemorates the seven workers at Askania who lost their lives in the resistance against National Socialism . The chemical works Askania , on whose property in Rastenburg the Führer headquarters stood Wolfsschanze , have nothing to do with the Askania Werke AG, only used the name Askania in their company name.
Development in the post-war period
After the end of the Second World War and the death of the previous general director Roux, the Askania plants were split up. In January 1946, Askania Feinmechanik und Optik GmbH Teltow , a subsidiary of Askania Werke AG Berlin-Friedenau , emerged from the branch in Teltow . In the first few years, the factory mainly carried out reparation orders for the Soviet Union .
On July 29, 1947, the Askania plants in Friedenau and Mariendorf were occupied by the American military police, the factories closed and their management arrested. Despite a production program of cinema theodolite devices approved by the American military government , which u. a. were delivered to Askania Feinmechanik und Optik GmbH Teltow , the production of war equipment for a foreign power was feared (this meant the Soviet Union), even if the cinema theodolite devices built for purely scientific purposes were not primarily to be regarded as war instruments. According to newspaper reports, gyroscopic devices for airplanes, submarines and tanks, device parts for flight tests, observation instruments for remote-controlled projectiles such as V1 and V2, periscopes for submarines and similar precision instruments were found. On December 19, 1947, the six defendants were found guilty on all counts by an American military tribunal and sentenced to between four and ten years in prison. Furthermore, a dissolution of the Askania works was ordered and the entire property was confiscated on the basis of Section 2, Article 11 of the Control Council Act No. 43 (possession and manufacture of military equipment). In mid-January 1947, the director of the American military government, Colonel Howley , announced that the plant would not be closed, but could continue to operate under the control of the American military government. This mainly affected the factory in Friedenau with 650 people, in Mariendorf there was only one cabinet maker. The four sentenced without parole were pardoned in August 1948.
On January 1, 1948, the branch in Teltow was expropriated and merged with Elektro Feinbau to form VEB Mechanik Askania Teltow . A second Askania plant in the former Soviet occupation zone was continued as a state-owned company in Brieselang .
The watch production in Munich was continued as Askania regulator factory from 1946 . The plant was bought up in 1955 by Josef Müller , a co-founder of the CSU , and built up as AOA Apparatebau Gauting into a company for the manufacture of control and display instruments for cockpits as well as optical operating devices. After the death of his daughter Christa Müller, who was the company's managing partner until 2003 , her shares were inherited by Thomas Diehl, co-partner of the Diehl Foundation from Nuremberg .
The Berlin factory in Friedenau also produced astronomical instruments such as zenith scopes , meridian circles and astrographs after the war . In 1959, production was relocated to a larger plant in Berlin-Mariendorf . The company delivered equipment for observatories, for example to Caracas .
Askania Werke AG (Bodenseewerk Überlingen) 1947–1971
After parts of the armaments production had been outsourced from Askania to Überlingen on Lake Constance in the early 1940s, Askania Werke AG Bodenseewerk Überlingen was founded in 1947 . The Askania factories in Berlin-Friedenau in the Bundesallee continued to exist. In the economically difficult post-war period , various products were developed and built on the basis of existing knowledge: vices , marching compasses, ballpoint pens , pencil sharpeners , tape recorders, glasses, etc. A device for determining the trajectory of missiles and rangefinders were technical innovations.
The company was converted into a GmbH in 1949 in order to be able to receive bank loans and funds from the Marshall Plan . The processing of armaments orders ended with the Korean War in 1953. From 1954, analysis devices were produced for the American company PerkinElmer Inc. in the Lake Constance plant.
The development of flight controllers began in 1958. Later these devices were produced in a separate company, Fluggerätewerk Bodensee GmbH , later Bodenseewerk Geräteechnik (BGT). Today the Bodenseewerk belongs to the Diehl Foundation and bears the name Diehl Defense . There has been an Askania visitor center since 2012; In memory of their own traditions, glasses, wristwatches, writing implements, etc. are shown.
In the 1960s, a significant part of the production facilities of Askania Werke AG was transferred to other companies. Most of Askania was taken over by Siemens in 1971 .
Use of the "Askania" brand
The typical, historical company logo , the word and image mark “Askania” (the crown), was registered for Askania AG from 1998 to 2008. Askania Mikoskop Technik Rathenow GmbH has been using the barely changed word and image mark for the same product group that is to be registered until 2018 since 2003 .
In 2004, Askania AG was founded by eight shareholders in Berlin . Since 2006 clocks have been produced in a factory in Berlin that pick up on the tradition of the products of the former Askania factories. The newly founded Askania AG has owned this word and image brand for luxury products such as watches since 2004. In 2013, an Askania Museum was set up in Berlin's Uhlandstraße , in which historical instruments, precision devices and clocks are shown and compared to current clocks. The Askania factory and flagship store moved to Hackesche Höfe , Rosenthaler Straße 40/41, in 2007. The Askania Atelier with showroom and museum at 170 Kurfürstendamm has been there since January 2018 .
Products
Projection lenses
To the work produced by Berliner projection lenses belonging Askinar f1,9 ( focal lengths : 90, 100, 110, 120 mm), the optically a modified Petzval lens is. It is a lens for 35 mm normal film in which all lenses - including the two front ones - are individually. The order of the two rear lenses is also reversed compared to the Petzval lens.
A second, mid-1950s available lens series for the projection of medium format - slides (80 mm × 80 mm) was the Askadiar . This is a Cooke triplet in variants from f5.2 / 300 mm to f12.2 / 700 mm.
Cameras and projectors (selection)
- Askania Universal 35 mm camera (1923)
- Askanino projector (1926)
- Askania Z (1931); Askania Z camera Leitz (1956)
- Askania Bi-Pack (1932)
- Askania shoulder camera (1935)
- Askania AG 35 high-speed camera (1955)
- Askania AP X, XII projector (around 1960)
Aircraft instruments (selection)
- Askania remote compass Aero
- Askania airplane compass Emil
- Askania airplane compass Franz
- Askania turn pointer
- Askania remote and local tachometer
- Automatic stitch counter
- Askania longitudinal inclinometer
- Askania horizon type Sperry
- Askania gyro type Sperry
- Askania height Schreiber
- Askania tachograph
- Askania statoscope
- Askania variometer
- Askania statoscope variometer
- Askania probe compass
- Askania turning horizon
- Askania courses
- Tactile vibration recorder
- Accelerometer
- Askania autopilot
Astronomical and geodetic instruments (selection)
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- Askania Passage Instrument Ap 100 for meridian observations
- Askania gravimeter GS 11
- Askania vertical pendulum
- Askania balloon theodolite
- Askania small theodolite for underground operation
- Microphotometer
- Askania variometer
Measuring instruments (selection)
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- Askania coordinate measuring machines
- Askania compressed air knife
- Askania steam meter
- Capsule membrane measuring systems
- Askania compressed air balances
- Askania ring scales
- Askania calibration scales
- Askania pocket pyrometer
- Cable thickness measuring system
- Jet lance regulator
- Precision spherometer
literature
- Franz Maria Feldhaus: Carl Bamberg - A review of his work and precision mechanics. Berlin-Friedenau 1929, published by Askania Werke AG, Bambergwerk.
- Lothar Starke: From hydraulic regulators to process control systems - the success story of the Askania-Werke Berlin and the equipment and regulator works in Teltow. Berliner Wissenschaftsverlag 2009. ISBN 978-3-8305-1715-3 .
- Annette Neumann, Bärbel Schindler-Saefkow: "Freedom, it is the crop". Resistance in the Askania Werke AG against the Nazi regime . A contribution to Berlin's workers' resistance in World War II. Employee Chaja-Charlotte Boebel. Self-published, Berlin 2013. ISBN 978-3-00-041481-7 .
Web links
- Documents and newspaper articles on the Askania works in the 20th century press kit of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .
- Information about the career of Carl Bamberg
- Website of the microscope production in Rathenow
- Publications of the Askania-Werke AG, Berlin-Friedenau. (PDF; 20.6 MB) In: CIA. June 9, 1949, accessed on July 9, 2020 (English, extensive collection of technical data sheets and product information from the period 1930 to 1949).
Individual evidence
- ^ Gudrun Wolfschmidt: Navigare necesse est - History of Navigation , exhibition catalog, Vol. 14 Nuncius Hamburgensis , Hamburg 2008, ISBN 978-3-8370-3260-4 , pp. 93–95.
- ↑ Ernst von Angerer and Georg Joos : Scientific photography: An introduction to theory and Practice , Chapter VI, p. 159 ff. DNB 450085058
- ↑ Entry in the Berlin State Monument List , accessed on November 4, 2012.
- ↑ a b history , on: askania.berlin , accessed on April 21, 2018.
- ^ Advertisement, 1941. Askania Shoulderkamer. Schweizer Film = Film Suisse: official organ of Switzerland, accessed on June 18, 2020 .
- ^ Lexicon of film terms: Askania , accessed on December 3, 2015.
- ↑ See also: Film document from 1944.
- ↑ http://www.stadtentwicklung.berlin.de/denkmal/liste_karte_datenbank/de/denkmaldatenbank/daobj.php?obj_dok_nr=09055085
- ↑ a b Tempelhof camp locations Camps and accommodation for foreigners in Berlin-Tempelhof during the Second World War. A first compilation. (Status: Spring 2001)
- ↑ Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial List of subcamps
- ↑ Helmstedt-Beendorf (men's camp)
- ↑ Helmstedt-Beendorf (women's camp)
- ^ History
- ↑ 1947: ASKANIA and the war equipment construction newspaper report Der Sozialdemokrat from August 2, 1947
- ^ Industry Museum Region Teltow: VEB Mechanik Askania Teltow, accessed on December 2, 2015
- ↑ Gauting Apparatebau wants to move. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung , March 14, 2011, accessed on December 2, 2015
- ↑ Database query at the German Patent and Trademark Office with the reproduction of the trademark: Askania, accessed on October 20, 2011.
- ^ Hans-Martin Brandt: The photo lens. Structure and mode of operation of the most important lenses in world production. 1956, Friedr. Vieweg & Sohn, Braunschweig. Pp. 104, 187.
- ^ Hans-Martin Brandt: The photo lens. Structure and mode of operation of the most important lenses in world production. 1956, Friedr. Vieweg & Sohn, Braunschweig. P. 187 in connection with Fig. 39, p. 56.
- ↑ 99 p., Table of contents at the German National Library
Coordinates: 52 ° 28 ′ 6 ″ N , 13 ° 19 ′ 47 ″ E