Deutsche Spiegelglas AG
The German mirror glass AG (DESAG) was a 1871 in Berlin founded Aktiengesellschaft . It was created on the basis of the Gebrüder Koch'schen Glasfabrik in Grünenplan , which was a successor company to the Spiegelglashütte founded in 1744 on the Green Plan . The foundation of the stock corporation primarily served to raise funds for the establishment of a branch in Freden for the industrial production of mirror glass . In the 20th century, DESAG was transferred to Deutsche Spezialglas AG and finally to Schott AG , which today maintains a competence center for thin glass production with around 450 employees in Grünenplan .
Emergence
In the 1860s, Friedrich Koch (1836–1891), as a co-owner of the Gebrüder Koch'schen Glasfabrik, made the decision to manufacture cast mirror glass. This seemed lucrative, as the construction activity in the expanding cities at the beginning of the early days meant there was strong demand and the prices for mirror glass were high. In addition, there were only two manufacturers in Germany at the time, the mirror manufacturer Waldhof and the mirror glassworks Münsterbusch in Stolberg , both of which were in the hands of the French glass monopoly Saint-Gobain .
Since the capital of the Gebrüder Koch'schen Glasfabrik in Grünenplan was insufficient to set up a cast glass factory for industrial mirror glass production, Friedrich Koch founded Deutsche Spiegelglas AG (DESAG) in Berlin in 1871 . The new factory was built in Freden from 1871 to 1873, whereby the location on the Hanover Southern Railway was decisive for the choice of location . The establishment of the company coincided with the start-up crisis of the 1870s. The drop in prices for mirror glass caused further economic difficulties, as suddenly three more glassworks in Herzogenrath , Waldenburg and Schalke were producing this product.
description
In 1891 the long-time director Friedrich Koch, son of Friedrich Carl Ludwig Koch , died at the age of 54. It was his merit to bring the Green Planner plant out of the pre-industrial phase. His successor was Franz Krippendorf, who managed the company until his death in 1919.
In 1907 Deutsche Spiegelglas AG is mentioned as follows:
"Deutsche Spiegelglas-Aktien-Gesellschaft in Freden, Province of Hanover (Prussia), and Grünenplan, Duchy of Braunschweig
Make: Cast and blown mirror glass, occupied and unoccupied, thick raw glass, black mirror glass, alabaster glass, colored, opal mirror glass. Raw glass for glasses and watch glass factories, photographic and microscopic glasses.
4 glass furnaces, 58 open ports, Siemens system. Coal and wood. 800 workers. Hydro power 500, steam engine 1300 horse power. Company and pension fund. Freden (founded 1871), Grünenplan (founded 1765). "
The First World War led to the loss of sales markets for glass as well as to production restrictions due to the lack of glass raw materials and coal to heat the glass melting furnaces. After the war, demand rose, but prices fell and the outdated machines were inefficient.
In 1930 Schott AG from Jena had the majority of shares in DESAG and was represented on the supervisory board with four representatives. The majority of the shares were based on the joint acquisition of the Mitterteich glassworks in the Upper Palatinate. In 1943, Gerhard Schott from Jena, the son of Schott's founder Otto Schott, became director of DESAG. After the Second World War , the British military government allowed operations to resume in June 1945. This was due to the strong demand for window glass. A dismantling of the company as a reparation payment , which the Allies had planned , was not implemented. Communication between the main plant in Grünenplan in the British occupation zone and the Mitterteich plant in the American occupation zone proved difficult. Contact with the business partners of Schott AG in Jena was temporarily lost when American troops left Thuringia in August 1945 and the leading Schott employees went to the West.
Grünenplan plant
The Grünenplan plant ( 51 ° 57 ′ 16 ″ N , 9 ° 44 ′ 18.1 ″ E ) , which emerged from the Koch brothers' glass factory and previously from the Spiegelglashütte founded in 1744 on the Green Plan , was an important pillar of DESAG. Special glasses and optical glass were produced there, but also mouth-blown mirror glass and raw glasses. The specialization was due to the remote location without rail links, which did not allow for mass production. The number of employees increased continuously from 154 workers in 1883 to 424 workers in 1900. The highest level was reached in 1910 with 520 employees. Around 1870 the glass ovens in Grünenplan were still heated with beech wood. The glassworks kept 50 horses to transport the wood. Large investments were made in the company between 1904 and 1908. Among other things, the new emerged harbor house as a yellow-red geklinkerter corner building that still represents a striking symbol of the factory.
In 1930, the mechanical Fourcault process for lens drawing was introduced, which enabled the profitable mass production of spectacle lenses. In the late 1940s the works Grünenplan and Freden presented annually 30 million spectacle lens - compacts ago. During the Nazi era , armaments such as headlight glasses for anti-aircraft guns were manufactured from 1936 . After the Second World War, the workforce increased continuously from 800 employees in 1950 to almost 1,400 employees in 1970.
Freden plant
DESAG's Freden plant was built on the green field from 1871 . It consisted of a factory complex on a river island on the Leine in what was then Groß-Freden ( 51 ° 55 ′ 39.1 ″ N , 9 ° 53 ′ 45 ″ E ) and the foundry in Klein-Freden. ( 51 ° 55 ′ 51.5 ″ N , 9 ° 54 ′ 0.5 ″ E ) The construction of the new glass factory with siding cost 240,000 thalers. In 1873 the operation was poorly completed. Industrial glass production has increased continuously over the years. While 20,000 m² of raw glass was produced in 1875, it had tripled in 1881 to 60,000 m². The number of employees also increased from 160 in 1875 to 380 in 1882.
After the First World War, the lack of coal with which the glass furnaces were heated caused a decline in production. In 1919, large parts of the production facilities were shut down for the whole year. In the 1920s the Freden plant became unprofitable for various reasons, such as low capacity utilization and competitive pressure from other European glass producers. In 1927 Deutsche Spiegelglas AG sold the factory to the mirror glass factory Reisholz . She continued the operation under the name Deutsche Opakglaswerke until it was permanently closed in 1936. Around 2012 the factory buildings were finally demolished except for one multi-storey building.
- German watch glass factory
In 1920, DESAG and the French Jequier Group founded the German watch glass factory for the manufacture of watch glasses . It was headed by the general director of DESAG, Franz Krippendorff, and produced on the premises of the mirror glass grinding shop on the Leineinsel in Groß-Freden. In the early 1920s, 50,000 to 60,000 watch glasses were produced per day. The founding of the watch glass factory was necessary because there were no more watch glasses in Germany. Due to inflation and a lack of foreign exchange, it was not possible to obtain it from French manufacturers.
literature
- Handbook of German stock corporations (= large companies in the German Reich . Volume 4 , 48 year). Hoppenstedt, Berlin 1943, p. 3465 .
- Johannes Laufer: Deutsche Spiegelglas-AG 1871–1975. The story of a company between industrialization and the social market economy . Verlag Die Werkstatt, Göttingen 1994, ISBN 3-89533-114-7 .
- Johannes Laufer: From glass manufacture to industrial enterprise (= contributions to economic and social history. 75). Steiner, Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-515-07045-1 , pp. 265-267 (dissertation University of Göttingen 1995).
- Katja Engel: The Fredener Glasfabrik - a business crime story in: Alfelder Zeitung from August 21, 2015 ( beginning of free access online )
Web links
- German Spiegelglas-Aktien-Gesellschaft. albert-gieseler.de, accessed on October 21, 2017 (detailed description).
- Aerial photo of the Freden plant of Deutsche Spiegelglas AG
- Early documents and newspaper articles on Deutsche Spiegelglas AG in the 20th century press kit of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .