History of the companies in the city of Aschersleben
This article deals with the history of the industrialization of the city of Aschersleben .
Machine tool factory
In 1857 the entrepreneurs Billeter and Klunz founded a repair workshop. It met the need as there was a flourishing potash industry around the city. In 1864 a small foundry was established. In 1883 Billeter designed the first single-column planer . After the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/1871 , the manufacture of grinding machines was also started. At the turn of the century, the 150-strong company was converted into a stock corporation that was under US influence, as 56 percent of the share capital was owned by US corporations. After the Second World War, the company became Plant I of the VEB machine tool factory Aschersleben (WEMA) . The first planing and grinding machines were built in 1948 and, over the years, the largest and heaviest planing machines in the GDR. Furthermore, in 1953 the newly developed portal milling machines were included in the production of the plant.
The engineer and inventor Wilhelm Schmidt came to the city in 1895 and built the superheated steam machines ( superheaters ) he had invented under the company W. Schmidt & Co. in 1898 he founded the Ascherslebener Maschinen-Aktiengesellschaft (AMA) with the help of bank loans . In the industrial area on Wilslebener Strasse , he built what the local press says was "Germany's largest mechanical engineering plant" . This company was bought up in 1924 and production relocated to Magdeburg. The Aschersleben plant was torn down by 1934.
During the Nazi era, a branch of Junkers Flugzeug- und Motorenwerke was built on the site , producing fuselages for the Ju52 , Ju 87 and Ju 88 . Badly damaged by air raids during the war, the plant was completely demolished after the war. In 1951, the construction of WEMA-Werk III with several large halls began on this site for the newly created company VEB Werkzeugmaschinen Fabrik Aschersleben (WEMA) . With over 2500 employees, the company was together with Plant I the largest employer in the city during the GDR era. After the fall of the Berlin Wall , WEMA was taken over by Schiess AG . In 2004 it was bought by the SMTCL group, one of the largest mechanical engineering groups in China , and today it has over 350 employees again.
Potash works
Potash mining in Aschersleben started from the British Continental Demond Bork Baring Compagnie in London. The consortium led, as in Stassfurt to Aschersleben around 1876 successful test drilling through. The first shaft was built in 1882 after four and a half years of construction. From January 1883, potash salt was mined, mainly carnallite . The company had since been taken over by the mining entrepreneur Schmidtmann. He founded the Kaliwerke Aschersleben union in 1883 , which was converted into a stock corporation in 1889. It quickly developed into one of the largest German potash companies. Through the merger with the Consolidierte alkali plants Westeregeln AG and Salzdetfurth AG 1922 is one of the predecessor companies of K + S . In 1937, with the founding of the Vereinigte Kaliwerke Salzdetfurth AG , based in Berlin, the planned final merger of these three companies was completed and, as the management report said, the "previous nesting" was eliminated. By the end of the century, initially four and later a total of seven shafts were put into operation. The plant had up to 1000 employees. After the Second World War, SMAD also expropriated the potash works in Thuringia and Saxony-Anhalt and assigned them to the Soviet stock corporation for potash fertilizers in Germany . The eastern plants of Wintershall AG and Salzdetfurth AG were expropriated. The VEB potash and rock salt company "Saale" took over the plants in Aschersleben-Schierstedt, Staßfurt and Bernburg. The last shaft in Klein Schierstedt was closed in 1958. Potash mining in Aschersleben and the surrounding area was history. The VEB Karosseriewerk Aschersleben was set up on the site of Shaft IV , whereby almost all the buildings of the former potash plant including the overburden dump made of potash salt have been preserved to this day. The body shop, a former GDR military factory, has not survived.
Today there are a few smaller craft businesses on the site, as well as the Aschersleben vehicle works , which produces vehicle parts for box bodies with just a few employees .
Lignite mining
The landowner Schultze rode from Aschersleben to Hecklingen in 1828 and saw workers cleaning a well near the Johannis Hospital. He noticed that lignite came to light and was thrown away undetected. He reported this to the Justice Commissioner Eduard Douglas, who passed the information on to his father Wilhelm Douglas, who had been a Protestant pastor in Aschersleben since 1795. On May 24, 1828, government trainee Douglas, a son of Pastor Wilhelm Douglas, received the concession for the "Georg" mine. On June 30, 1828, it mined lignite underground for the first time . The Douglas family from Aschersleben acquired a lignite mine near Königsaue in 1835. This mined 50,000 tons of coal per year, which was processed into briquettes in the Douglas paraffin factory in Aschersleben until 1873 and later. In 1837 Eduard Douglas joined the company of his brother Georg Gustav Douglas.
In 1854 the Douglas family acquired mining rights for large parts of the 14 km long and 6 km wide brown coal deposit and opened the “Georg” mines near Aschersleben and “Jakob” near Königsaue. The "Antonie" and "Angus" mines were taken over in 1857 and consolidated on December 12, 1857 as the United Brown Coal Mine Georg . In 1862 the output of the Georg Aschersleben lignite mine was over 100,000 tons, the consolidated Jacob Königsaue brown coal mine 17,865 tons and the “Friedrich Julius” Wilsleben union 31,494 tons.
At the beginning of the 20th century, lignite mining went out right on the city limits of Aschersleben. The greatest coal thicknesses were reached in the Nachterstedter main seam with 30 to 50 m. Up to four seams with thicknesses between 2 m and 13 m were formed in the Königsaue lignite deposit. Coal production in open-cast mining began in the planning area in 1856 with the opening of the Nachterstedt open-cast mine in the north of what is now Nachterstedt. It took place in other opencast mines and their construction fields until 1991. The opencast mines near Nachterstedt and 1965 near Königsaue were built after both places were relocated.
Paper processing
The entrepreneur H. C. Bestehorn began in 1861 with the industrial production of paper packaging, bags and envelopes. At the world exhibition in Paris he discovered a steam-powered envelope machine . He bought two copies and was the first to introduce them in Germany. He increased the production of 5,000 envelopes a day tenfold and was able to produce with great profit. At the end of the century he was producing on an area of 16,000 m² a. also packaging for tea, coffee, cocoa and tobacco, the colonial goods . He exported all over the world. At peak times 600 people were employed. The Heckner Giant , the factory building from 1911 with a tower and three -arch house that can be seen from afar, testifies to this development. In 1926 the company bought the Gerson paper mill to expand production capacity. In 1945 the company was expropriated by SMAD. It was the VEB Optima founded, which became the leading operation of the packaging industry in the GDR.
After the reunification, the VEB Optima was closed. The Bestehornpark, an educational location with several schools, was built on the site for the 2010 Aschersleben horticultural show .
Conveyor system construction
Wetzel Maschinenfabrik und Eisengießerei GmbH was founded in Georgstraße around 1850 . In the beginning, the manufacture of special valves for the local potash works brought large sales, but over time the mechanical processing of metal became more important. After the construction of a larger workshop building in Georgstrasse in 1905, the construction of high-speed stranding, basket stranding and winding machines began in the same year. In 1946 the export orders for high-speed stranding machines, winding machines and pattern equipment increased, so that the three-shift system was introduced and a larger location was sought. After lengthy efforts, suitable rooms were found in the former MUNA and the decision was made to relocate the mechanical workshops and administration there. The old foundry stayed in the old factory. After the expansion of the new production facility, the relocation was carried out until July 1950. Later the operation of VEB Förderausüstungen Aschersleben became an operation of the combine TAKRAF . He made belt drums for conveyor belts.
Today the RULMECA company is located on the site and has a long tradition of manufacturing heavy idlers, belt drums and drum motors for conveyor systems. It employs 118 people.
Deep drilling company
The Henry Lapp AG for deep drilling was founded in 1888 by engineer Henry Lapp. Lapp owned patents on diamond and chisel drillings and quickly recognized the signs of the times, as the demand for coal, ores, salt and water was great. The company was primarily concerned with the exploration of potash deposits. Later he got involved, among other things, with the exploration of oil deposits on the Caspian Sea . Lapp employed 38 people and operated 13 drilling rigs. After Lapp's departure in 1919, his company became Deutsche Tiefbohr-AG (Deutag) . During the GDR era, the operation of the VEB Geologische Bohrungen Aschersleben , which no longer exists today.
At the height of development, Heinrich Lapp built a villa in the Westerberge in Salzkoth, which was completed in 1906 . After it had been sold after the First World War and operated as an orthopedic children's health clinic until 1990 after the Second World War, the extensive renovation of the house began at the end of 1992. Today belonging Villa Westerberge the European Tax and Law GmbH , which continues here forms managers, accountants, lawyers and accountants.
Pipeline and container construction
A coppersmith's shop founded in 1898 became the Thieme company in 1916 . In 1926 the company built a larger assembly hall on Heinrichstrasse and, thanks to many orders from the potash and armaments industries, developed into a medium-sized company. The production included complete heating and ventilation systems as well as pipelines for steam, gas and water systems. After the Second World War, Robert Thieme was expropriated in September 1948 . The hall crane system of the former anti-aircraft barracks on Güstener Strasse was acquired. During the GDR era, the company was called VEB Rohrleitungsbau Aschersleben , among other things, it manufactured large pipes and continued to expand the premises on Güstener Strasse. Today MCE Industrietechnik mainly produces pipelines for power plants on the site.
Grain and building materials trade
A company that had existed since 1857 was taken over by master baker Gustav Adolf Ramdohr in 1868 . The company Gustav Ramdohr AG grew rapidly through trade relations and the expansion of the railway network and expanded its business areas from trading in wheat and brewing barley to America. Operations were relocated from the company's headquarters in Haus am Markt 23 to the site on Oststrasse and Unterstrasse, where sidings and granaries were built. Ramdohr was repeatedly elected to the city council and in 1893 appointed as an expert to the stock market inquiry commission. In 1899 he was given the honorary title of Kommerzienrat by the German Kaiser. In 1910 his sons Willy M. Ramdohr (1865–1940, without descendants) and Richard Ramdohr took over the management . He was also the Grand Master of the Aschersleben Masonic Lodge . During the First World War, the company supplied the troops in the east with grain. Even Emperor Wilhelm II was a guest of Kommerzienrat Gustav Ramdohr in Aschersleben. In 1923, Ramdohr AG took over A. Nottrodt and now also sells fertilizers, roughage, chaff, straw and manufactured straw building boards (Solomit). From around 1940, the grandson of the company founder, Hans-Richard Ramdohr, ran with his first wife Annemarie Ramdohr geb. von Arnim continued to run the company together and from 1949 alone, but failed because of harassment from the GDR regime and was finally expropriated after his granaries had been set on fire. The 2nd Aschersleben large grain company Just (father of Richard Ramdohr's mother) was also expropriated and continued as BARO GmbH after the fall of the Wall . Liselotte Fürst-Ramdohr , Hans Ramdohr's sister, was a member of the inner circle of the Nazi resistance movement White Rose and died in 2013 at the age of 99. The divorced 1st wife Annemarie geb. von Arnim von Hans-Richard Ramdohr married the publisher Wolfgang Volkhardt, who rebuilt the Aschersleben-based KA-BE Verlag with a production area of 6,000 m² after fleeing the GDR in Göppingen in 1953 and acquired numerous patents. The Ramdohr'sche grain trade was continued from the 1970s in the form of the state VEB Ascherslebener grain trade , which later merged into the Saalemühle GmbH (today: Saale Mühle) and was relocated to Alsleben, where the grain trade with large silos and its own port facility continues to this day is operated. Hans Ramdohr's son, Ulrich Richard Ramdohr, also rebuilt parts of the former Aschersleben factory premises with purchases of 15,000 m² (+ ownership and stakes in a further 50,000 m²) into a hotel with event and training facilities and operates this business alongside its real estate and Housing company successful in southern Germany. From 2019, a beer brewery and beer trade will also be operated in Aschersleben, which is intended to tie in with the beer brewing tradition of his great-great-grandfather.
Growing of spices and seeds
The tradition of growing marjoram began in 1890, when marjoram was cultivated on arable land, particularly in the sea villages around Aschersleben . In 1906 the first marjoram factory was founded by the entrepreneur Gustav Biedermann and in 1918 four processing plants and one each in Königsaue, Ermsleben, Cochstedt and Groß-Börnecke were established in Aschersleben. As early as 1919, 95 percent of demand in Germany was covered by Aschersleber companies. In 1990, 100 years of marjoram cultivation and processing were celebrated in Aschersleben. Today different varieties such as B. Thuringian marjoram or Thuringian garden thyme grown and processed by the company MAWEA .
The cultivation of seeds is carried out by Betrieb Gartenland GmbH as a branch of Quedlinburg Saatzucht . For this purpose, a new plant was built in the industrial park at the beginning of the 21st century. In addition to flower seeds, the range also includes decorative pumpkins, sunflowers, Asian vegetables, organic seeds and seed ribbons.
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- ↑ http://media.k-plus-s.com/pdf/wachsen_erleben_kapitel_3.pdf ( Memento from September 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Page no longer available , search in web archives:
- ↑ Archive link ( Memento from January 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ FC Drosihn: Aschersleben in the 19th century. Aschersleben 1900. / as reprint : Naumburg 2000, ISBN 3-86156-041-0 .
- ^ Genealogical Handbook of the Nobility, Volume 117, 1998
- ↑ Commercial legal protection and copyright, Verlag Chemie 1970