Depyfag

The Depyfag was an explosives factory in Cleebronn in the district of Heilbronn in northern Baden-Württemberg . In civil times, the company manufactured pyrotechnic ignition products for fireworks ; during the First and Second World Wars, light and signal ammunition was produced. The operation in Cleebronn existed under different names from 1884 to 1992.

history

The company goes back to the pyrotechnic company founded by Louis Kleinknecht in Meimsheim in 1852 , which was acquired in 1883 by the Cleebronn businessman Wilhelm Fischer (1859-1949) and relocated to Cleebronn in 1884. The location of the company was in the Schlossklinge below the Magenheim Castle . Initially, the manufacturing facilities consisted of a 3 × 4.50 m² laboratory and a separate storage magazine. Business flourished, however, and by 1908 the facilities had been structurally expanded a total of six times. Around 1900, 40 to 50 workers were involved in the production of pleasure fireworks. Owner Wilhelm Fischer became a royal Württemberg fireworks worker in 1907 and leased the company to his son Oscar in 1910, who became the owner in 1912 and also a fireworks worker in 1916. In 1913 the company had 86 employees and was the most important company in Cleebronn. The founder Wilhelm Fischer was made an honorary citizen of Cleebronn in 1929.

During the First World War , production was switched to signal and light ammunition, with a daily production of 25,000 cartridges being achieved. In 1915 there was a serious explosion that seriously damaged the company, but in which no one was injured. The reconstruction was only possible with the addition of the partner JF Eisfeld, and the company was renamed Wilhelm Fischer GmbH in the future .

In the 1920s the company developed economically and was converted to Wilhelm Fischer AG, Pyrotechnische Fabrik in Cleebronn , which succeeded in buying up several competitors, including in 1926 the Berlin art fireworks factory Deichmann & Co. in Berlin, whose former owner Felix Deichmann took over the technical Management took over. Also in 1926, the company also took over the pyrotechnic factory from Wilhelm Weiffenbach , which also made matches an important segment of the company, but at the same time the company also became dependent on Deutsche Zündholz -verkauf-AG . The match export center in Hamburg finally acquired the majority of the company's shares in 1927 and relocated its headquarters to Berlin, where it traded as Deutsche Pyrotechnische Fabriken AG (Depyfag) . The previous owner Oscar Fischer sold his last shares in 1930 and founded new companies elsewhere.

After severe hailstorms in April 1929, the company in Cleebronn was obliged by the community to shoot "heavy bombs" near the factory and the community's own wine press in order to influence the weather in the event of a risk of hail. After another severe hailstorm in 1932, however, the citizens were of the opinion that the hail had been brought about by the hail rockets in the first place, so that the hail rockets were then abandoned again.

In the 1930s there were further changes of ownership. The Klosterlechfeld GmbH Neumarkt acquired a large shareholding in Depyfag in 1937 and merged it in 1940 with the Orion-metal works to a total enterprise within the explosives group DAG / WASAG / Ligose. In the meantime, the production had been adapted to the ammunition requirements of the Second World War and switched to light and signal ammunition. At times more than 600 people were employed, who up to 1944 produced up to 15 million cartridges a year.

Forced laborers , mainly Russian civilian workers , were also employed in Depyfag during the Second World War . In 1943, the community refused to allow the site to be used as accommodation barracks. The workers were then housed in the Naturfreundehaus and in an older house in the village. After the roof structure of the Ochsen Inn , in which French prisoners of war were housed, burned down, the Friends of Nature House was demolished and rebuilt behind the wine press in Cleebronn.

At the end of March 1945, the factory was shut down and some of the factory facilities were dismantled. But as early as August 1945, under American management, there was a tentative new beginning, when ignition goods and pesticides were allowed to be produced again. Fireworks products were added again in 1948.

In 1950 Depyfag was liquidated and the operation in Cleebronn was added to DAG , which in 1953 re-established Deutsche Pyrotechnischen Fabriken GmbH Cleebronn there. In February 1953, there were explosions in Depyfag and another pyrotechnic plant in Cleebronn, in which a total of four people were killed. Towards the end of the 1950s up to 200 people were employed there, later it was around 160. In 1991, the Buck company acquired the facilities in Cleebronn and traded there under Buck-Werke GmbH & Co., Cleebronn , whereby production was partly based on other products and was already discontinued on March 31, 1992.

The fireworks company Zink Feuerwerk GmbH , which is still located in Cleebronn today, was founded in 1949 by Paul Zink, a long-time Depyfag employee who was also made an honorary citizen in 1974.

In 2014 a new company was founded under the name Depyfag , which sells various fireworks under this name.

literature

• KW Beisel: Chronicle of the Deutsche Pyrotechnischen Fabriken GmbH . Cleebronn 1956.
• Friedrich Trimborn: Explosives factories in Germany. A reference work on the history of the German explosives industry. Locher, Cologne 1995, ISBN 3-930054-20-5 , pp. 57/58.
• Wolfram Angerbauer : 700 years of Cleebronn 1279–1979. History of a community . Cleebronn municipal administration, Cleebronn 1979.

Coordinates: 49 ° 2 ′ 32.2 "  N , 9 ° 2 ′ 23"  E