Adolf Bleichert & Co.

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Adolf Bleichert & Co.

logo
legal form Company with limited liability
founding 1874
Seat Leipzig - Gohlis , Germany
management
Number of employees
  • 90 (1881)
  • 3,200 (1928)
  • 169 (1932)
  • 4,000 (1950)
Branch Cable car construction , automobile manufacturer , defense industry

The Adolf Bleichert & Co. , often Adolf Bleichert & Co. factory for cable cars, Leipzig-Gohlis called, was one in particular in cable car construction company with headquarters in Leipzig - Gohlis . The former company premises are under monument protection (see list of cultural monuments in Gohlis-Mitte ).

Adolf Bleichert - founder of the Bleichert cable car system (BDS)
Postcard from 1910 with the factory premises of Adolf Bleichert & Co Leipzig-Gohlis

history

1874 to 1918

After a cable car factory founded by Adolf Bleichert in 1874 was ended by the change of his partner Theodor Otto to Julius Pohlig in Siegen , Adolf Bleichert founded Adolf Bleichert & Co. in Leipzig-Neuschönefeld in 1876 ​​together with his brother-in-law, the businessman Peter Heinrich Piel soon earned a reputation as a manufacturer and builder of cable cars. In 1881 the company was relocated to Leipzig-Gohlis, from where it delivered cable cars all over the world with initially 20 technical and commercial employees ("civil servants") and 70 workers. The raw materials and heavy industries in particular showed great interest in the new systems. In 1888, Adolf Bleichert & Co. granted the American company Cooper, Hewitt & Co. , the parent company of the Trenton Iron Company, a license to build and sell Bleichert cable cars in the USA . Trenton Iron was soon able to sell a large number of cable cars in the USA as far as Alaska . In 1896, the company brought an improved eccentric clamping coupling for cable cars with the automatic clamp Automat onto the market, which formed the basis for the detachable material cable cars and gondola lifts , whose wagons, buckets or gondolas are automatically engaged and disengaged at the stations. When Adolf Bleichert died in 1901, the company had supplied and built more than 1,000 cable cars, including in France, Spain and Japan. The company was successfully continued by his sons Max and Paul .

Adolf Bleichert & Co., factory premises 1881–1908 in Leipzig-Gohlis

Up until the First World War , Adolf Bleichert & Co. built the following cable cars, among others:

The Adolf Bleichert & Co. was considered the leading cable car farmer who all records: the highest and longest cable car in Argentina , the longest above water in New Caledonia , the most powerful in France (500 t / h), the steepest in Tanzania (86%) , the northernmost in Svalbard (79 °) and the southernmost in Chile (41 °). The company had offices in Leipzig and Brussels, Paris and London.

Company sign for Adolf Bleichert & Co. Personen-Drahtseilbahnbau-GmbH

After powerful electric motors were available towards the end of the 19th century, the production program was expanded to include the construction of cranes, ship loading and unloading systems, electric monorail systems, storage yard bridges, etc. in 1895. The experience gained from practical experience in the cable car and the new drives by electric motors were combined to produce in-house crane tracks, hoists and other means of transport that did not run on ropes but on fixed hanging rails and could drive tight curves with the electric motors. Since this only allowed gradients of up to 5%, the steeper stretches were mastered with revolving ropes to which the cars were automatically coupled. In 1901 Bleichert Transportanlagenbau GmbH was founded for this line of business and Bleichert's Aerial Transporters Ltd. in Great Britain . (until 1914).

Due to the First World War , the international business connections were largely lost. During these years the company manufactured a large number of field ropeways, which were manufactured in Leipzig using a modular system. Max and Paul Bleichert were in recognition of the merits of their society by King Friedrich August III. elevated to the nobility by Saxony .

1918 to 1945

Exhibition poster, Dresden 2008

After the First World War, the business shifted to the design and construction of aerial ropeways for passenger transport, in particular a license agreement was signed with the South Tyrolean engineer and entrepreneur Luis Zuegg since 1924 and the "Bleichert-Zuegg" system for aerial ropeways was developed in further cooperation. that received worldwide attention. The company was able to appear with the following letterhead and provide bank accounts in Germany, Vienna, Prague, Budapest, Amsterdam:

“Adolf Bleichert & Co., Leipzig-Gohlis, oldest and largest factory in the world for the construction of cable cars and electric monorail systems. / Cable cranes / bucket elevators / belt conveyors. Factories in Leipzig-Gohlis, Leipzig-Eutritzsch and Neuss on the Rhine "

1000 RM shares in Adolf Bleichert & Co AG from January 1927

In 1920 another plant was opened in Leipzig- Eutritzsch . In order to limit the risk from the new business, Adolf Bleichert & Co. Personen-Drahtseilbahnbau GmbH was founded in 1924 and Bleichert Kabelbagger GmbH in 1928 , which manufactured cable excavators for open-cast mining. The Adolf Bleichert & Co. was supported by a 1926 general partnership into an AG converted. In 1928 the company had 1200 employees and 2000 workers and had subsidiaries in Neuss and Brno .

Cablecarril Chilecito-La Mejicana, La Rioja, Argentina, built in 1904
(Second) Kohlererbahn near Bozen, South Tyrol, built in 1913
(First) Tiroler Zugspitzbahn Ehrwald-Obermoos, Tyrol, built in 1926
Predigtstuhlbahn near Bad Reichenhall, built in 1928
(First) Table Mountain Railway near Cape Town, South Africa, built in 1929
Burgbergseilbahn near Bad Harzburg, built in 1929
Funicular Aeri de Montserrat, Catalonia, built in 1930
Teleférico del Puerto Barcelona, ​​built in 1931

During this time, among other things:

  • 1921/1922: Cable crane system at the Köster sawmill in Parey
  • 1923/1924: suspension bridge in Grimma
  • 1926: Nordkettenbahn near Innsbruck (route and technical concept), Austria

In particular, the following cable cars were built, some of them under the company Adolf Bleichert & Co. Personen-Drahtseilbahnbau-Gesellschaft mbH :

As a result of the global economic crisis from 1929 onwards, the German banking system collapsed in 1931. The Adolf Bleichert & Co. AG was able to hold out for another year at rapidly declining orders, but then had on April 4, 1932 bankruptcy login. This meant the end of the family company, but the company as such with its competence was continued in the rescue company Bleichert-Transportanlagen GmbH , founded on June 23, 1932, which continued production with 73 employees and 96 workers at the old site. With the consent of the creditors' council, the company was sold to the steel and rope manufacturer Felten & Guilleaume - Carlswerk AG , who was a major shareholder in Bleichert before 1932, as Paul von Bleichert left the company in 1927 for health reasons and sold his shares to this company would have. The Kabelbagger-GmbH had to file for bankruptcy shortly afterwards, the Personenseilbahnbau-GmbH was continued as a subsidiary of the Bleichert-Transportanlagen GmbH .

Among the aerial tramways operated up to the Second World War were:

In 1934, together with Ernst Constam, the first T-bar lift with a self-retracting bracket was installed in Davos , Switzerland , which was quickly followed by other systems in Megève and St. Moritz , among others .

Also, material ropeways , as the 1937-1940 built cable car in the ore pit Büchenberg or the then longest built in a section material ropeway Bulembu-Barberton included in the production program.

In addition to the construction of cable cars, electric carts had been converted into trucks with 1.5 tonnes since 1925 and up to 7 tonnes from 1936 and sold as Bleichert electric vehicles . In 1935 a two-seater convertible with electric drive (30 km / h, approx. 70 km range) was developed, which was built until 1939. Another source indicates that car production began in 1936 and names the EL 800 type . Another source confirms car production from 1936 to 1939.

During the Second World War , the National Socialists included the company in the armaments industry and had shell cases produced. The plants in Gohlis and Eutritzsch were partially badly damaged by bombs.

Since 1945

Bleichert-Lizard, electric cart from 1950
Emblem of the lizard
Exhibition stand of the company Adolf Bleichert & Co. at the Leipzig autumn fair 1952
Partial view of the former factory of Adolf Bleichert & Co. Leipzig-Gohlis (2008)

After the end of the war, the company was spared dismantling by the Soviet occupying forces . One began to clean up the destruction on the buildings and to manufacture spare parts for cranes, but also small parts for daily needs such as handcarts, spades and hoes. In the summer of 1946 the Soviet authorities took over the company as a Soviet joint-stock company under the company Bleichert Transportanlagen Fabrik SAG Leipzig N 22 and in 1950 incorporated it into the SAG "Transmasch" (Russian combination of transport and machines) under the company Bleichert Transportanlagenfabrik of the joint stock company Transmasch Leipzig . The company served to fulfill reparations payments to the Soviet Union and produced cable and truck cranes , loading bridges, milling shovels, ball shovels and electric carts, and soon also cable cars . Due to the expanding production, a new workshop was built in Eutritzsch in 1949. In 1950 the company had more than 4,000 employees. In 1953 SAG Bleichert became one of the last companies to become publicly owned by the GDR. Contrary to the wishes of the management, the Ministry of Mechanical Engineering deleted the name Bleichert from the address: SAG became VEB Schwermaschinenbau Verlade- und Transportanlagen (VTA) , and in 1973 VEB Verlade- und Transportanlagen Leipzig Paul Fröhlich . This became the parent company of the TAKRAF combine in 1985 . After the reunification , the traditional history of the former Adolf Bleichert & Co. ended in liquidation in 1991. The factory halls have been empty since then. Parts of the staff were taken over by TAKRAF. In 1993, the Leipzig State Archives took over the company Verlade- und Transportanlagen (VTA) GmbH i. L. Leipzig in addition to some files, the photo collection with around 15,000 black and white prints and other image sources as well as brochures and catalogs.

In West Germany, Felten & Guilleaume Carlswerk Actien-Gesellschaft in Cologne had lost most of its subsidiary with the end of the war and the takeover of Bleichert-Transportanlagen GmbH into a Soviet joint-stock company. That is why she founded Bleichert Transportanlagen GmbH in Cologne in 1946 for the parts of the company in the west . Felten & Guilleaume, who had taken over the company Gesellschaft für Förderanlagen Ernst Heckel , Saarbrücken in 1927 and J. Pohlig AG , Cologne in 1933 , united these companies in 1962 to form PHB Pohlig-Heckel-Bleichert Vereinigte Maschinenfabriken AG , Cologne. This company was merged with Weserhütte AG in 1980 to form PHB Weserhütte , which was one of the leading suppliers of machines and systems for the extraction and processing of raw materials, such as rope excavators and crawler cranes. In 1987 this division had to be closed due to high losses. However, Orenstein & Koppel (O & K) acquired the cable car department in Cologne in order to continue the current order to convert the Schauinsland cable car . With this company, now called PWH Anlagen und Systeme GmbH , not only the Schauinslandbahn was completed, but also the cableway to the Brévent in Chamonix and the Rofanseilbahn in Maurach am Achensee as well as various material cableways built. O & K belonged to the Hoesch Group , which was taken over by Friedrich Krupp AG . Krupp integrated PWH Anlagen und Systeme GmbH into its Krupp Industrietechnik GmbH , which then appeared as Krupp Fördertechnik GmbH . The cable car area was given up, however, and technical cable car drawings were sold to Doppelmayr . This also ended the remnants of the cable car tradition of Adolf Bleichert & Co. in West Germany . After the merger between Krupp and Thyssen , the company was renamed ThyssenKrupp Fördertechnik GmbH , a world market leader in the cable crane sector. The name PHB lives on in a Pohlig-Heckel do Brasil Indústria e Comércio LTDA founded in Brazil in 1955 , which was sold to Brazilian investors and produces transport systems for South America.

literature

  • Manfred Hötzel; Stefan W. Krieg: Adolf Bleichert and his work. Entrepreneur biography, industrial architecture, company history. (= Gohliser Historische Hefte, Vol. 8), Sax Verlag, Beucha 2007, ISBN 978-3-934544-35-2 . See review
  • Oliver Werner: A company under two dictatorships. From Bleichert-Transportanlagen GmbH to VEB VTA Leipzig - 1932 to 1963. (= contributions to economic and social history, No. 101), Steiner, Stuttgart 2004, ISBN 3-515-08544-0
  • P. Stephan: The cable cars. Their structure and use. Julius Springer Publishing House, Berlin 1914 ( digital copy )
  • G. Dieterich: The invention of the cable cars. A study from the history of the development of engineering. Hermann Zieger Publishing House, Leipzig 1908 ( digitized version )
  • Peter von Bleichert: Bleichert cable cars. Kindle Digital Press, 2013
  • Albert Innerhofer, Reinhold Staffler: Steel walkways - the cable car pioneer Dipl.-Ing. Luis Zuegg. Raetia Verlag, Bozen 1998.

Web links

Commons : Firma Bleichert  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Adolf Bleichert - the inventor of the German cable car system . Seilbahngeschichte.de. Archived from the original on October 11, 2011. Retrieved June 18, 2010.
  2. ↑ Dr. Manfred Hötzel: Adolf Bleichert and his work .
  3. ↑ a b Register A-Ad for the Leipzig Lexicon . Leipzig-lexikon.de. Retrieved June 18, 2010.
  4. ↑ Cable cars was the common term at the time, which meant in particular material cable cars for industrial transport. High-performance trucks and corresponding roads were only introduced at the beginning of the 20th century - cf. History of the German commercial vehicle industry from 1895 to 1945
  5. ↑ a b c d The factory for cable cars Adolf Bleichert . Leipzig-gohlis.de. Retrieved June 18, 2010.
  6. ↑ a b c Viola Hess: The factory for cable cars Adolf Bleichert . Lvz-online.de. August 11, 2009. Retrieved June 18, 2010.
  7. ↑ The cable cars were originally powered by steam engines, as powerful electric motors and the necessary power supply were only available at the end of the 19th century and internal combustion engines were available a little later.
  8. ↑ Trenton Iron later became part of the United States Steel Corporation or its subsidiary American Steel and Wire Company .
  9. ^ Herbert Pönicke :  Bleichert, Adolf. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 2, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1955, ISBN 3-428-00183-4 , p. 298 f. ( Digitized version ).
  10. ↑ a b c Adolf Bleichert cable car works . Deutsches-architektur-forum.de. Retrieved June 18, 2010.
  11. ↑ Gustav Einecke: The mining and ironworks in the Lahn and Dill area and in Upper Hesse . Mining and Hüttenmännischer Verein zu Wetzlar e. V., Wetzlar 1932, p. 195 ff .
  12. ^ Doihl mine in Luxembourg (photo in the 15th row) . Rail.lu. Retrieved June 18, 2010.
  13. ↑ Cable cars according to the Bleichert system In: Deutsche Bauzeitung No. 44 of June 2, 1883, pp. 257 and 261
  14. ^ The cable cars, p. 34 / n44, Prometna Banka timber transport system . Archive.org. Retrieved June 18, 2010.
  15. ^ The cable cars, pp. 80 / n90 ff., Grand Hornu, coal transport with ship loading station on the Condé-Mons Canal . Archive.org. Retrieved June 18, 2010.
  16. ↑ Wolfgang Maas: Until the mid-1920s, the cable car ran between Neuasseln and Kurl. Wall last witness of an era . derwesten.de. August 5, 2009. Retrieved June 18, 2010.
  17. ^ F. Schulte: The cable cars for backfill material from the Courl and Scharnhorst collieries of the Harpener Bergbau-Aktien-Gesellschaft. In: Glückauf - Berg- und Hüttenmännische Zeitschrift , 43rd year 1907, pages 875 to 879.
  18. ^ The cable cars, pp. 44 / n54 ff, Kordillerenbahn . Archive.org. Retrieved June 18, 2010.
  19. ↑ Subsystem in the ore mine for loading onto the railroad; Subsystems on the coast for unloading, for loading a storage area and for transport to the loading bridge in the sea; longest over-water cable car at the time; Cable car supports on pile foundations in soft seabed; lit with arc lamps at night; local mechanical drive of the dock leveler by steam power
  20. ^ A b Peter von Bleichert: Bleichert's Wire Ropeway at Thio, New Caledonia . Wire Rope News & Sling Technology. 2007. Archived from the original on October 8, 2008. Retrieved on April 24, 2015.
  21. ↑ K. Drews: Remarkable loading a. Transport systems for bulk goods from Adolf Bleichert & Co. in Leipzig-Gohlis. In: Polytechnisches Journal . 325, 1910, pp. 522-526.
  22. ^ The cable cars, p. 54 / n64 ff, cable car of the Portland cement factory Alsen Itzehoe . Archive.org. Retrieved January 12, 2011.
  23. ↑ The Agethorster cable car . agethorst.de. Archived from the original on October 16, 2014. Retrieved January 12, 2011.
  24. ↑ timber transport; 9.125 km over the Goatal / Ngoha Valley in the Schumewald / Shume Forest
  25. ↑ Cable car from the Schantunger Coal Mountains to the Toli railway station, which is about 100 km from Beijing on the Beijing – Hankau route. Total operating length around 26 km
  26. ↑ On the trail of the German protected areas / Kiautschou / The triumphal march of German technology . Jaduland.de. Archived from the original on October 14, 2011. Retrieved June 18, 2010.
  27. ^ The cable cars, p. 42 / n52 f., Coal transport railway near Beijing . Archive.org. Retrieved June 18, 2010.
  28. ↑ The cable cars, p. 32 / n42, Bleichert system for the Mines et Carrières de Flamanville with four-wheeled drives . Archive.org. Retrieved June 18, 2010.
  29. ^ The cable cars, p. 37 / n47 ff., Usambara mountain railway for Wilkins & Wiese . Archive.org. Retrieved June 18, 2010.
  30. ^ The cable cars p. 142 / n152, 144 / n154 coal transport railway in Spitzbergen . Archive.org. Retrieved June 18, 2010.
  31. ↑ The cable cars, S. 92 / n102, Erztransportbahn Catémou for the Societe des Mines de Cuivre de Catemou . Archive.org. Retrieved June 18, 2010.
  32. ^ The cable cars, p. 121 / n131 f., Loading station in Rummelsburg . Archive.org. Retrieved June 18, 2010.
  33. ↑ Die Drahtseilbahnen, p. 124 / n134 ff., Ship unloading station in Tegel . Archive.org. Retrieved June 18, 2010.
  34. ^ The cable cars, p. 108 / n118 f., Suspension railways in Rosenberg . Archive.org. Retrieved June 18, 2010.
  35. ^ Antje Hagen: German direct investments in Great Britain 1871-1918. ( Digitized at Google Books )
  36. ^ Adolf Bleichert & Co - cable cars . Sagen.at. Retrieved June 18, 2010.
  37. ↑ Royal Saxon nobility Dresden March 24, 1918 - entry in the Saxon nobility book July 14, 1919 under number 549a
  38. ↑ Cost estimate for '' Oesterreichische Zugspitzbahn A-.G. in foundation '' of September 6, 1924 for US dollars 88,434 . Ercl.net. Archived from the original on July 30, 2012. Retrieved June 18, 2010.
  39. ↑ Cost estimate for '' Oesterreichische Zugspitzbahn A-.G. in foundation '' of September 6, 1924 about USA-Dollar 88 434, page 2 . Ercl.net. Archived from the original on August 1, 2012. Retrieved June 18, 2010.
  40. ↑ 00:53: cf. Sign at the Hafelekarbahn, Innsbruck . Sagen.at. Retrieved June 18, 2010.
  41. ↑ Der Große Brockhaus, 15th edition, Leipzig, 1929
  42. ↑ 00:54: Sign at the Hafelekarbahn, Innsbruck . Sagen.at. Retrieved June 18, 2010.
  43. ↑ The vision of a cable car on the Jenzig . jenzig-gesellschaft.de. Retrieved April 8, 2014.
  44. ^ The Bleichert exhibition in Dresden-Loschwitz in the tower house of the suspension railway . Ercl.net. Archived from the original on July 28, 2012. Retrieved June 18, 2010.
  45. ↑ a b GTÜ Oldtimerservice ( Memento from October 15, 2018 in the Internet Archive )
  46. ^ Hans Christoph von Seherr-Thoss : The German automobile industry. Documentation from 1886 until today . Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Stuttgart 1974, ISBN 3-421-02284-4 , p. 296 .
  47. ↑ Harald H. Linz, Halwart Schrader : The International Automobile Encyclopedia . United Soft Media Verlag, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-8032-9876-8 , chapter Bleichert.
  48. ^ Poster from the Bleichert exhibition in Dresden-Loschwitz . Ercl.net. Archived from the original on July 30, 2012. Retrieved June 18, 2010.
  49. ^ Poster from the Bleichert exhibition in Dresden-Loschwitz . Ercl.net. Archived from the original on August 1, 2012. Retrieved June 18, 2010.
  50. ↑ The memorial of the company founder disappeared from the company premises.
  51. ↑ The Bleichert-Werke in Leipzig-Gohlis in 2008, part 1 ( Memento from February 22, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ), photos from casuscampari.pictures
  52. ↑ The Bleichert Works in Leipzig-Gohlis Part 2 . Ercl.net. Archived from the original on July 29, 2012. Retrieved June 18, 2010.
  53. ↑ The Bleichert Works Leipzig-Gohlis Part 3 . Ercl.net. Archived from the original on August 1, 2012. Retrieved June 18, 2010.
  54. ↑ Archivblatt01 (PDF; 597 kB) Archived from the original on September 12, 2011. Retrieved on June 18, 2010.
  55. ^ Website of Thyssenkrupp Fördertechnik GmbH . Thyssenkrupp-foerdertechnik.de. August 24, 2009. Archived from the original on April 9, 2015. Retrieved on April 23, 2015.
  56. ^ Website of the Pohlig-Heckel do Brasil . Pohligheckel.com.br. Archived from the original on April 12, 2015. Retrieved June 18, 2010.
  57. ↑ Information mainly from Julius Pohlig in www.cable-car.de ( Memento from November 5, 2010 in the Internet Archive )

Coordinates: 51 ° 21 ′ 47.2 "  N , 12 ° 22 ′ 32.6"  E