Berndorfer Metallwarenfabrik

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The Berndorfer Metallwarenfabrik before 1898

The Berndorfer Metallwarenfabrik was a company in Berndorf in Lower Austria that has a historical connection to the German entrepreneurial family Krupp . The former company should not be confused with today's Berndorf AG , which later became part of the former company.

history

Arthur Krupp, sole owner of the company from 1891–1913
Company logo
Villa Klostermann (built 1886), Alleegasse 8, former management building of the Berndorfer Metallwarenfabrik, seen around 1979 from across the Triesting

The Berndorfer metal factory was by the two entrepreneurs Alexander Schoeller and Alfred Krupp founded in 1843, on 3 June of Schoeller acquired by Maria Wimmer, hammer mill owner in Bernsdorf, for 1900 guilders three Tagwerk meadows in Gfang between the Frehnerwalde and Juliana Wagenhofer and the Mühlwiese ½ day's work . In September 1843, the Wiener Neustadt district office approved the company to use the free water gradient between the Wimmer'schen Hammer in Unter-Berndorf and the Cornides'schen Metallwarenfabrik in St. Veit an der Triesting , as well as the construction of the necessary hydraulic and structural engineering. The entrepreneurs pushed their project forward quickly. They laid the foundation stone for the factory on September 16, 1843, and on November 16, i.e. after two months of construction, the roof structure could be placed on the first factory building No. 45 in Unter-Berndorf. This facility initially served as a cast house, later as an art bronze molding shop, and finally as the office of the factory management. At the end of 1844, the two planned buildings were completed and equipped with the efficiently working spoon rollers and sheet metal rolling machines. Hermann Krupp, who in the meantime had studied the relevant factory systems in Paris and had prepared himself for his future task, took over the technical management of the Berndorf factory, since his older brother Alfred was indispensable in Essen and his younger brother Friedrich was still too young. At the beginning of 1845 production began with 50 workers.

The new company was run as a kk privileged metal goods factory . For the time being, Krupp only acted as a silent partner. From then on, the company produced industrially inexpensive cutlery from Pakfong . With the help of a cast steel spoon roller, which was developed at Krupp, spoons and forks were manufactured in large numbers at low cost. A specialty among the company's products was the so-called alpakka silver , as it was extremely durable. Hermann Krupp , Alfred's brother, was appointed to the company as technical director in 1844 because the profit development fell short of expectations: it took the company ten years to go into the black. Hermann Krupp stayed in Berndorf until the end of his life.

Advertisement from 1906/07
Page 188 from the 1912 order catalog, with examples of jam containers

The Leobersdorfer train allowed from 1877 the suppliers to those factory with raw materials and rail transport of the products manufactured here in all parts of Austria-Hungary . That is why in the same year a bridge was built over the Triesting for a wing runway leading from the Triestinghof station (from 1898: Berndorf factory ) to the factory . Lignite was used to fire the ovens, which was mined on the other side of the Guglzipf in nearby Veitsau (today: Berndorf IV) from 1838 to 1959. The route and foundations of a cable car used to transport coal from 1898 can still be seen today.

Hermann Krupp died in 1879. His son Arthur Krupp initially took over a third of the company, which had already grown to 1,000 employees. In 1891 he acquired the other two thirds, which the nephews Gustav Adolph von Schoeller and Sir Paul Eduard von Schoeller had received from their uncle Alexander von Schoeller for one third each. 1,400 dozen cutlery were made every day. The table cutlery manufactured in the company was high-quality mass-produced goods for a wide range of buyers, but the Kaiserhaus was also one of the customers. Empress Elisabeth equipped the Achilleion in Corfu and the imperial yacht Miramare with cutlery from Berndorf. The service is now in the silver chamber of the Vienna Hofburg . Other customers were mainly hotels, railways and shipping companies. The bear , the heraldic animal of Berndorf, was used in the trademark together with the name Berndorf from 1890.

The company continued to grow under Arthur Krupp, and a branch was founded in Traisen . In 1898 the company donated the Berndorf City Theater . At the turn of the century, Czech workers were also hired and settled in Berndorf. The number of workers rose to around 4,000; the company's sample and price book from 1893 lists 305 different products. Product development was under the artistic direction of the architect Ludwig Baumann . In the course of time, bronze and nickel were added as processing materials .

Many social institutions in Berndorf were donated from the company's profits, such as residential buildings or the Berndorfer schools, which are still famous today . As socially as the company behaved towards the workers, it was viewed with suspicion by socialists , especially since it did not allow red , but only yellow works councils , which were acceptable to the company.

In 1897 Arthur Krupp submitted his application for the title of imperial and royal purveyor to the court , which he received in the same year. Krupp bought more and more processing companies in Vienna. Berndorfer no longer only produced cutlery and services, but, after Krupp acquired a Viennese cast house in 1896, also monuments such as the Goethe monument in Vienna that was made in 1900 .

Berndorf helmet

In 1914, at the beginning of the First World War , the company already had 6,000 employees at the Berndorf site alone. During the war, like all other similar factories, it was converted to an armaments factory. In Berndorfer also the first Austrian was helmet generated, the pattern was not satisfied, however, the armed forces command, so that when the Joint Army has been introduced the steel helmet "German model".

In 1918 Krupp bought and integrated the former court silver worker and chamber supplier Klinkosch .

The war was followed by a major economic slump when the crown lands broke away as customers. Nevertheless, the company received new orders, for example due to the increased demand of many parishes for church bells: After many bells had been confiscated during the war and melted down for war purposes, they now had to be replaced. A number of local chronicles, such as those of Gaaden or Windischgarsten , report that missing bells at Krupp were re- cast and replaced. Arthur Krupp converted the company into Arthur Krupp AG in the interwar period and withdrew more and more from the company.

After the Anschluss in 1938, the Arthur Krupp company was incorporated into the German Krupp concern , and so in the Third Reich , too, the Berndorfer - popularly known as - Berndorfer again became an important war company.

After the end of the Second World War , the factory was taken over by the Red Army and incorporated into the USIA companies . In 1946 the Berndorfer Metallwarenfabrik Arthur Krupp AG was nationalized by the Republic of Austria. In 1957, the two nationalized companies, Aluminumwerke Ranshofen GesmbH and Österreichische Metallwerke AG, merged with Berndorfer Metallwarenfabrik Arthur Krupp AG as the receiving company, whose name was changed to Vereinigte Metallwerke Ranshofen-Berndorf AG in connection with this merger (to continue the company's history after 1957 see there). In 1958 the company moved from Berndorf to Ranshofen .

In 1984 the final operations in Berndorf were made independent again and spun off into Berndorf Metallwaren GesmbH . This company was converted into Berndorf Metallwaren Aktiengesellschaft and 100% privatized in 1988 in the form of a management buy-out . In 1989 the company changed its name to Berndorf AG (for the continuation of the company's history after 1988 see there).

The former factory site now forms an industrial and commercial park which, like part of the outsourced operations , is managed by Berndorf AG . The Berndorf Cutlery brand with the bear as a symbol for cutlery is still in use. The branch of the company, which includes the production of cutlery, was sold to the French company Guy Degrenne in 2000, but this part was bought back in 2007.

literature

  • Erwin Schilder: Berndorf - past and present . Municipality, Berndorf 1975, OBV .
  • Peter Philipp Czernin: K. u. K. Workers' and factory town of Berndorf / Lower Austria. The Austrian prime example of the interaction between industrial and urban development . Dissertation, Graz University of Technology, Graz 1978, OBV .
  • Gunther Martin: The Silver Fleece. The Austrian Krupps in Berndorf . Series of publications by the Lower Austria Chamber of Commerce, Volume 10. Self-published by the Lower Austria Chamber of Commerce, Vienna 1978, OBV .
  • Peter Muschik: Berndorf. Traces of Krupp and Kaiser. An industrial giant is building a city . "Our living space" nature, culture, economy, Berndorf 1989, OBV .
  • Ingrid Haslinger: Client: Kaiser. The story of the former imperial and royal purveyors . Schroll, Vienna 1996, ISBN 3-85202-129-4 .
  • Ingrid Haslinger: Table culture by the Berndorf brand. The successful Lower Austrian company Arthur Krupps . Ketterl, Vienna 1998, ISBN 3-85134-007-8 .
  • Norbert Zimmermann (Red.), Berndorf AG (Ed.): People at work. 160 years of Berndorf Metallwarenfabrik . Berndorf AG, Berndorf 2003, OBV .
  • Dietmar Lautscham: Arthur, the Austrian Krupp. Arthur Krupp (1856–1938), a large industrial dynastic character, one of the last feudal lords of private capital, a brilliant patron, the creator of the working-class town of Berndorf . Berndorf, Kral 2005, ISBN 3-902447-12-5 .
  • Forum Museum. Lower Austria Museum Journal . Issue 4/2006. Folk culture Lower Austria, Association for regional cultural work, Atzenbrugg 2006, ZDB -ID 2138306-6 .
  • Isabel Bauer et al. , Krupp-Stadt-Museum Berndorf (Hrsg.): Berndorfsilber - tables with style . 1st edition. Kral, Berndorf 2007, ISBN 3-902447-20-6 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Signs: Berndorf , p. 171 f.
  2. ^ R. Ritter von Meinong:  The bridge over the Triestingbach on the wing runway to the Berndorfer Metallwaaren-Fabrik. In:  Allgemeine Bauzeitung , year 1882, (Volume XL), p. 14 f. (Text) (Online at ANNO ). Template: ANNO / Maintenance / abzand
    R. Ritter von Meinong:  The bridge over the Triestingbach on the wing runway to the Berndorfer Metallwaaren-Fabrik. In:  Allgemeine Bauzeitung , year 1882, (volume XL), p. 13 (plans) (online at ANNO ). Template: ANNO / Maintenance / abz.
  3. ^ Manfried Rauchsteiner (text), Manfred Litscher (photo): The Army History Museum in Vienna . Styria, Graz (et al.) 2000, ISBN 3-222-12834-0 , p. 69.
  4. ↑ Finanz Compass Austria 1961, page 643 (direct link via ZEDHIA on page 643 )
  5. ↑ Finanz Compass Austria 1987/88, page 1319 (direct link via ZEDHIA on page 1319 )
  6. ↑ Zentralblatt for entries in the Austrian commercial register 1990, page 169 (direct link via ZEDHIA on p. 169 )
  7. ↑ Berndorf Besteck is at home in Austria again  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . In: gast.at , June 15, 2007, accessed on June 14, 2011.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.gast.at  

Remarks

  1. ↑ The house at the time was shooting in poor condition (burn marks on the windows on the ground floor left) and served in the ground floor of a mature metal and (old) car dealers as (sales) stock. Unlike today, the property was freely accessible.
  2. ↑ The building, the abutments of which were arranged according to the knowledge of August Köstlin , is located in the area of ​​the former independent municipality of St. Veit an der Triesting (today: Berndorf II). - location
  3. ↑ Location of the lignite seam

Web links

Commons : Berndorfer Metallwarenfabrik  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files