Bachmann from Blumenthal & Co.

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Bachmann, from Blumenthal & Co., aircraft construction (BBF)
legal form Limited partnership
founding 1938
resolution 1954
Seat Fuerth , Germany
management Wolf-Werner von Blumenthal (Managing Director)
Branch Aircraft manufacturer , defense industry

The Bachmann, & Blumenthal Co., aircraft (BBF) in Fuerth was a supplier to the German aviation industry from 1938 to 1945.

history

Coordinates: 49 ° 28 ′ 48 ″  N , 10 ° 57 ′ 45 ″  E

Relief Map: Germany
marker
Bachmann from Blumenthal & Co.
Magnify-clip.png
Germany
Memorial plaque to the industrial airport (2013)

On November 14, 1938, the newly founded limited partnership bought the Gothaer Waggonfabrik's branch on the Fürth Hardhöhe . The managing director was Wolf-Werner von Blumenthal. Numerous additional buildings and a paved runway (1660 m × 50 m) were created for the new company . The main plant was on Würzburger Strasse , the so-called airfield railway , which connected the Fürth-Atzenhof airfield, two kilometers to the north, with the Fürth main train station . From 1940, a further four-story building was built right next to the site, which was used by the Reich Aviation Ministry as a central warehouse for aircraft components. This building is the only one that still stands today and is used by a furniture store. In addition, there were other company locations, e.g. B. in the nearby Burgfarrnbach and in the center of Fürth. The company was added to the list of particularly important war companies in 1943 and therefore relocated its headquarters to Berlin . After the war, the company existed nominally on, but the Fürth operation was on the dismantling list of the Allied Control Council . In 1950 the company was headquartered in Hamburg for a short time , and again in Berlin in the spring of 1952, but two years later the shareholders decided to liquidate the company.

Products

Bachmann, aircraft components produced by Blumenthal & Co. until 1945. Originally Bachmann, v. Blumenthal was busy building and repairing the Junkers Ju 87 . From 1940 the company worked very closely with Messerschmitt in Augsburg . At that time the company was mainly responsible for the repair of the Bf 110 and later the Me 210 and Me 410 . However, between 1941 and 1943, around 350 complete aircraft were also built in Fürth. At an armaments staff meeting on August 4, 1944 under the leadership of General Staff Engineer Roluf Lucht it was decided, u. a. to delete the samples He 177 and Me 410. Thus the repair of the night fighters from the Bf 110 was the last field of activity as well as the parts production for the Me 262.

The end

1957 - Spalinger S26 glider in front of the only remaining building (Elbag warehouse)
Illustration of the Gothaer Waggonfabrik plant in Fürth, around 1926. The buildings in the foreground were taken over by BBF and destroyed in 1945.

On February 25, 1944, the so-called “industrial airport” became one of the main targets of the air raids on Fürth . This meant the complete failure of production, which only slowly started up again after about two to four weeks. This attack left 139 people dead and 122 injured.

The next attack took place on September 10, 1944, more followed on November 26, 1944 and the last on April 8, 1945. Due to the repeated air raids, parts of the manufacturing and storage facilities had been relocated away from the actual production facilities. For this purpose, u. a the beer cellars of the Fürth breweries Grüner, Humbser, Geismann and Bergbräu used. Parts of the production were also outsourced to the Nuremberg congress hall . Another plant near the Unterschlauersbach airfield was under construction, but was not finished by the end of the war. On April 19, 1945 , US troops occupied the area. Soon after, most of the means of production disappeared.

Army Airfield "R30"

After that, the USAAF initially used the two nearby Fürth airfields and US troops also confiscated the remaining means of production.

  • April 30 - May 3, 1945, 362d Fighter Group equipped with P-47 "Thunderbolt"
  • May 2 - July 5, 1945, 425th Night Fighter Squadron, with P-61 "Black Widow"
  • May 5 - August 16, 1945, 371st Fighter Group, with P-47 "Thunderbolt"
  • then 142nd Fighter Wing with P-47 "Thunderbolt"

In 1946, numerous USAAF aircraft (mainly P-38 "Lightning" ) were parked on the field and gradually scrapped.

Nuremberg Fürth airport

Position of the airport on today's Fürth Hardhöhe . yellow = Bachmann von Blumenthal
orange = building of the Gothaer Waggonfabrik
green = Elbag warehouse of the Luftwaffe (today furniture store)

The company airport itself served as Nuremberg-Fürth airport for several years. The largest aircraft that could use the space were the Douglas DC-4 and the Lockheed Super Constellation . International flight operations ended on April 6, 1955, when the new Nuremberg - Kraftshof airport began operations. After that the Fürth and Nuremberg glider pilots used the area until 1957. After that, the area was built over with a satellite town.

literature

  • Winfried Roschmann, Udo Sponsel, Bernd Jesussek: Die Fürther Hardhöhe , Städtebilder Verlag Fürth 1999
  • Renate Trautwein, Oliver Wittmann: Learn to fly in Fürth-Atzenhof , emwe Verlag Nürnberg 2011
  • Barbara Ohm ua: Fly, just fly! , Genniges Verlag, 1995.

Web links

von Blumenthal & Co. The BBF in the FürthWiki The industrial airport Fürth in the FürthWiki

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Factory site and industrial airport on historical measurement table from 1945
  2. Fürth industrial airport near Forgotten Airfields