BAE batteries

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BAE Batteries GmbH

logo
legal form Company with limited liability
founding 1899
Seat Berlin , Germany
management Jan IJspeert
Number of employees 168
sales 32 million euros
Branch Batteries
Website www.bae-berlin.de
As of December 31, 2014

Administration building of BAE Batteries GmbH

The BAE batteries GmbH (formerly: Akkumulatorenfabrik-Aktiengesellschaft (depreciation)), based in oberschöneweide up in Berlin since its founding in 1899, batteries and accumulators ago. The current range mainly includes batteries for industrial trucks, rail vehicles, IT, solar, telecom, UPS and stationary systems. The company operates in over 80 countries.

history

At the end of the 19th century, numerous complete industrial companies were established in the then Berlin suburb of Oberschöneweide. In 1895, AEG founder Emil Rathenau began to industrialize the wet meadows in Oberschöneweide. In 1899 the company for electrical companies built the first factory halls of the new battery works Oberspree AG and produced portable accumulators and batteries. Renowned architects received major orders for the construction of the factory complex. A factory in the historic building style for the manufacture of lead-acid batteries on behalf of the AEG was built directly on the Oberschöneweider residential area . Almost at the same time, Werner von Siemens and Adolph Müller in Hagen began producing such interconnected galvanic elements.

In 1904 the establishment of the trading company was VARTA GmbH ( V istribution, A ufladung, R Repa t ransportabler A kkumulatoren). In 1905 the Accumulatoren Fabrik Aktiengesellschaft (AFA) from the businessman Gustav Quandt took over the factory and began manufacturing portable lead-acid batteries for use in flashlights , telegraphs and electrical signaling devices . Starting from the 1920s, starter batteries for cars were added. Production continued successfully into the 1940s.

After the end of the Second World War , the factory owners were expropriated and the company was converted into a Soviet-German stock corporation (SDAG). It now produced almost exclusively flashlights and batteries for the needs of the Red Army . From the 1950s, the factory became the property of the newly founded GDR and now manufactured batteries and accumulators for domestic trade in a wide range of applications, both for household appliances and for technical systems. The production of flashlights and accessories was continued under the new name Belfa (battery and element factory). The BAE soon advanced to become the largest producer of batteries and accumulators in the GDR. From an administrative point of view, in the 1960s several companies in the electrical industry were combined to form a VVB called Installation Kabel Apparate (better known as IKA), to which BAE was also added. After the conversion of VVB into large-scale combines at the end of the 1970s, BAE products were offered under the new branded sales organization AKA electric .

The German reunification led to a change in the form of ownership to a company with limited liability , and BAE GmbH was created. The management agreed a license production for VARTA AG, which however did not bring in any profits. The company was saved from closure in 1993 through a management buy-out by East Berlin company directors and industry insiders. The new management tried to specialize in batteries for rail vehicles and forklifts, but this was also unsuccessful in the long term. In 2005, a new investor was looked for by tender, the Dutchman Jan IJspeert had found himself for the takeover. As an economist, he brought with him good knowledge and contacts and, among other things, secured the company's financing. From 2007 he will act as managing director while keeping the historical company name.

Production halls, administration buildings and company premises

The administration building and the main entrance to the factory premises at Wilhelminenhofstrasse 68 and 69 as well as a single hall on the site have been preserved from the first construction phase in the 1890s. In the 1920s, a new single-storey factory building as a clinker brick building with four rectangular entrance gates was built according to plans by Bruno Buch along Ostendstrasse 30–33 . The wing has a total length of 125 meters, which is divided into 26 axes, each with three rows of windows. Overhanging ribbons and a wide main cornice emphasize the horizontal. It features a hipped gable roof completed. During the GDR era, administration and social buildings were newly built on the company premises.

In 1991 the original company premises (about 180 m × 200 m in size) were reduced by a significant piece that fell under the administration of the Berlin Senate . The Environment Agency was commissioned with soil investigations which showed enormous pollution of the soil and the groundwater: lead concentrations around 40 g per kg of soil and 9000  µg LCKW (highly volatile chlorinated hydrocarbons such as tetrachlorethylene or vinyl chloride, which were used as cleaning agents). The pollutants had also penetrated the groundwater. Up to the year 2000, renovations were carried out with great financial (around EUR 3.6 million) and mechanical expenditure. This included an exchange of the contaminated soil, shut-off measures, the commissioning of unpolluted wells as well as the establishment of a level measuring point network and a groundwater purification system. The old listed industrial buildings have been restored since the late 1990s.

Products

The batteries (accumulators) are used in a wide range of applications. This includes:

Standby applications

Renewable Energy Systems

Motive power

Special applications

  • Batteries for safety-relevant applications
  • Batteries for special systems
  • Batteries for special vehicles

In addition to traction batteries, IJspeert sees low-maintenance and maintenance-free stationary batteries for the growing needs of the computer and solar industry as the main products: state-of-the-art and efficient UPS systems or decentralized small power plants are being developed, such as a small wind power plant that fits in a container. These are offered to partners in Germany and other countries for the electrification of remote areas and to operators of server systems. The development of mature storage technologies with the aid of renewable energy sources is also on the agenda. The production of batteries for industrial trucks and rail vehicles will initially be continued. With the profits, the old factory halls and equipment are gradually being modernized, and an extension is also planned.

Commitment to the German capital

BAE Batteries took part in the Be Berlin capital campaign “Ich bin ein Berliner”, which presents outstanding industrial products from the various areas of Berlin as an industrial location.

Web links

Commons : BAE Berlin  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Imprint
  2. ↑ Federal Gazette : Annual financial statements as of December 31, 2014
  3. ↑ a b Velten Schäfer: Energy storage for server farms. Dynamic development at a traditional Oberschöneweide location: the Berlin battery factory BAE . In: Berliner Zeitung , November 22, 2010.
  4. ↑ Monument complex of accumulators factory Oberspree
  5. ^ Information and history of the Berlin accumulator and element factory. from radiomuseum.org, accessed November 26, 2010
  6. ^ Institute for Monument Preservation (Ed.): The architectural and art monuments in the GDR. Capital Berlin-II . Henschelverlag, Berlin 1984, p. 313 .
  7. ↑ Presentation of surface and groundwater remediation on the website of the Berlin Senate, accessed on November 26, 2010
  8. ↑ Be Berlin, the capital city campaign , accessed on March 17, 2011

Coordinates: 52 ° 27 '26.2 "  N , 13 ° 31' 47.3"  E