FCA Mirafiori plant
The FCA Mirafiori in Turin is a car factory of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles . It was built from 1937 to 1939 in the Mirafiori district of Turin and rebuilt and expanded in the post-war period after the destruction in World War II . The Centro Stile Fiat , Abarth and the Mirafiori Motor Village automobile museum are also located at the plant . The plant is known for its 220 meter long administration building and a test track next to the plant .
history
Fiat boss Giovanni Agnelli applied for the construction of a very large automobile plant in Mirafiori in 1936 because the Fiat plant in Lingotto , which opened in 1923, was no longer sufficient. Mirafiori, named after a castle built by Duke Charles Emanuel I of Savoy for his Spanish wife ( Miraflores , no longer exists), was at the time at the southern gates of the city, but was well connected by roads and railways. There was also enough space to expand the facility.
Mussolini hesitated with the approval because he feared too large a concentration of socialist and communist-oriented workers, demanded that other parts of the country be taken into account and because the 100-hectare facility near the border with its 22,000 employees could easily be targeted by air strikes in the event of war. Agnelli prevailed by promising the construction of facilities in central and southern Italy as a compromise. The construction work in Mirafiori began under the direction of the engineer Vittorio Bonadé Bottino in spring 1937, the inauguration by Mussolini took place on May 15, 1939. Due to the hostile attitude of the workers, Mussolini left the ceremony prematurely.
The production concept, the working conditions, the canteens, the changing rooms, the sanitary and social facilities of the plant were considered exemplary. There were also air raid shelters for around 110,000 people. Mussolini described the plant as the “perfect fascist factory”, although his party, the National Fascist Party , was not involved in the construction. The workers complained that wages were too low in view of the rising cost of living.
After Italy entered the Second World War in June 1940, Mussolini gave instructions to convert the Mirafiori factory to war production. For the production of trucks , armored vehicles and aircraft engines , the factory had to be almost completely restructured, which resulted in considerable costs.
A first air raid by the Royal Air Force on the night of June 11th to 12th, 1940 did no significant damage to the Mirafiori plant. The air raids in November and December 1941, on the other hand, devastated large parts of the plant with its production facilities, unfinished products, stocks, administrative and planning documents. By 1945 the plant was almost completely destroyed by air raids. Because of the poor food supply and worsening working conditions, a strike broke out at the Mirafiori factory in March 1943, which quickly spread to factories throughout northern Italy. Many of the strikers were arrested by the police and sentenced by special courts. This strike is seen today in Italy as the beginning of the anti-fascist resistance, the Resistancea .
After the armistice of Cassibile and the subsequent German occupation of northern Italy, production was temporarily stopped in September 1943. Despite the concessions made by the new fascist social republic, the strikes continued in late November 1943. The threats by the SS led, on the one hand, to the resumption of production and, on the other hand, to the formation of anti-fascist sabotage groups , which damaged production facilities in the factory or made them unusable. As a result, German authorities decided to dismantle systems and move them to Germany and other places, which was at least partially prevented by the sabotage squads by dismantling and stealing the systems in good time. In June 1944 another air raid and another strike ended further attempts at dismantling. The workforce in Mirafiori and Lingotto reacted to a major German order and corresponding unpaid extensions of working hours with another strike in November 1944, whereupon over 1,300 employees were arrested. In April 1945 the workforce occupied the plant in the course of the general uprising in northern Italy and defended it against a German attack. After the liberation, the remaining parts of the plant were reopened on April 28, 1945.
After the war, the factory was not only rebuilt, but also doubled to 200 hectares in the southwest between 1956 and 1958. Automobile production was resumed in 1947, initially with the Fiat Topolino and shortly afterwards with the modernized Fiat 1100 . The Fiat 500 and Fiat 600 models in particular represented the economic miracle (miracolo economico) of the 1950s. From 1969 to the 1970s, the work was affected by social tensions and numerous strikes, which were formative for this period with student protests. It also hit the headlines for links to left-wing terrorist organizations.
From 1974 onwards, the Fiat 131 was built, a mid-range car named after the Mirafiori plant. In the 1980s, the focus was on the production of the successful Fiat Panda and Fiat Uno models , followed by the Fiat Punto in the following years . In addition, almost all Fiat car models were manufactured in the plant. From 2008 the Alfa Romeo MiTo was produced in Mirafiori , and the Maserati Levante since 2016 .
See also
Web links
- Presentation on museotorino.it
- Presentation on istoreto.it
- ilsole24ore.com on the 70th anniversary of the opening (May 15, 2009)
Coordinates: 45 ° 1 ′ 46.7 ″ N , 7 ° 37 ′ 40.9 ″ E