HASAG

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Hugo Schneider burner and lamp factory in Reudnitzer Kohlgartenstrasse, around 1887

The Hugo and Alfred Schneider AG (HASAG) was a German company in the field of metal processing, also known as defense group was significant. During the Second World War , HASAG deployed tens of thousands of forced laborers in Germany and occupied Poland .

history

founding

Share over 1000 Marks in Hugo Schneider AG on May 28, 1920
Hugo Schneider around 1888
Factory brands of HASAG

In 1863 the lamp factory Haeckel & Schneider was founded in Reudnitz (from 1889 district of Leipzig ). It was designed as a manufactory , but by 1880 it grew into a medium-sized industrial company. The main business was the manufacture of lamps. Hugo Schneider, who initially only appeared as a partner, took over the company entirely in 1871, which he converted into the metal goods factory Hugo Schneider Aktiengesellschaft in 1899 . Since the growing company in Reudnitz was unable to expand, a large area to the north-east of it in Paunsdorf on the outskirts of Leipzig was acquired in 1897, west of the Leipzig-Wahren railway line . In the triangle between Torgauer and Permoserstraße (today's Leipzig Science Park ), a modern brass rolling mill was first built and in 1905 the company's headquarters were relocated there. As a manufacturer of lighting, heating and cooking items, HASAG began producing ammunition cases and other armaments as early as the First World War , which determined sales in the war years. After the war, attempts were initially made to keep the company going with items that were produced before the First World War. After the seizure of power in 1933, HASAG was able to reckon with armaments contracts with the armament of the Reichswehr and the Wehrmacht . These were lucrative for the company because no sales to retailers had to be organized, but the German Reich acted as a bulk buyer . HASAG therefore specialized in the production of armaments and became one of the largest groups in Germany in this sector. In 1930 HASAG had 1,000 employees and an annual turnover of 5 million Reichsmarks (RM).

In 1932 the later SS-Sturmführer Paul Budin became general director and SA-Sturmführer Georg Mumme became deputy general director. Later Social Director and Wehrwirtschaftsführer was Wilhelm Renner . Nazi functionaries were organized in the company management, other directors in the SS and the SA. Employees in management positions were almost exclusively members of the NSDAP , SS or SA. The chairman of the supervisory board was Ernst Schoen von Wildenegg .

time of the nationalsocialism

The company supplied ammunition to the Reichswehr from 1933 (from 1935: Wehrmacht ) and was officially classified as an armaments company in 1934. In 1939 the annual turnover was 22 million RM. The main factory in Leipzig was expanded from 1935 to 1939. Wilhelm Renner (father of Hannelore Kohl ) worked as operations director and authorized signatory at HASAG from 1939 until the end of the Second World War . The chief engineer Edmund Heckler , who also had a power of attorney, built the branch plants in Leipzig, Berlin , Taucha and Altenburg and managed the last three.

With the outbreak of World War II in 1939, it became difficult to find workers. Despite the duty of the women to serve, foreign workers were also recruited and soon replaced by forced laborers. The group preferred the use and exploitation of forced laborers from several concentration camps for production in a number of factories and maintained its own forced labor camps, which were administered by the SS . As early as 1939, HASAG took over three armaments factories in occupied Poland : in Skarżysko-Kamienna , Kielce and Czestochowa . The company used thousands of Jewish prisoners - with the aim of extermination through work . According to estimates by Polish historians, 18,000 to 23,000 of the 25,000 to 30,000 forced laborers at the HASAG works in Skarżysko-Kamienna did not survive their stay in the camp.

In 1944, HASAG received the special power of attorney "run-up bazooka " from the Reich Minister for Armaments and War Production Albert Speer . This made the group the sole manufacturer of this weapon in Germany and was able to further expand its works. At the end of the Second World War, the plant was damaged by air raids. On April 13, 1945, thousands of prisoners from the HASAG satellite camps of the concentration camps were driven on the death marches .

post war period

After the end of the war, the main factory in Leipzig began to produce saucepans, milk cans, lamps, etc. By 1947, all machines and systems were dismantled and confiscated by the Soviet Military Administration in Germany (SMAD) as reparations . Most of the buildings were then blown up. Only the administration building has been preserved. From the 1950s, several scientific research institutes of the Academy of Sciences of the GDR were established on the site . After institutes were closed and re-established after 1991, the Leipzig Science Park was created

Criminal law processing of crimes against slave labor

On November 15, 1948, on the orders of the Soviet military administration, the main hearing in the "Kamienna-Czestochowa Trial" began in front of the First Large Criminal Chamber in Leipzig on the crimes against the forced laborers of the Leipzig company HASAG in Skarzysko-Kamienna, and on May 24, 1949 the "Czestochowa Trial", also named after the place where it happened. The two processes belong together legally, even if they were conducted separately. A total of 45 people were charged with “grossly violating Jewish inmates of the detention camps in Kamienna and Czestochowa”. There were 25 defendants in the Kamienna trial. For both proceedings, the public prosecutor's office summoned around 120 witnesses from what was then the western zones to Leipzig, in addition to witnesses from Poland and the Soviet occupation zone .

In the Kamienna trial, chaired by District Judge Nathan Hölzer, the following judgments were made on December 22, 1948:

  • 4 death sentences
  • 2 Life sentences
  • 16 different penal sentences
  • 2 prison terms
  • 1 acquittal for lack of evidence.

In the Czestochowa trial, after hearing 84 witnesses and two medical experts, the following judgments were made on June 17 and July 29, 1949:

  • 4 death sentences
  • 2 life prison sentences
  • 10 penitentiary and 4 prison sentences ranging from 20 years to one year
  • 1 acquittal for lack of evidence.

Twelve of the defendants filed for revision , but they were not granted.

After 1949, various state- owned companies in the GDR used HASAG patents . For example, VEB Metallwaren Leipzig (MEWA) manufactured a high-intensity lamp based on a HASAG model. The VEB Leuchtenbau Leipzig had the rights to the word mark HASAG and extended it in 1963. Only in 1974 was canceled the mark.

In 2001, a memorial for forced labor was built on the former HASAG site near the former administration building. It is supported by the “Dr. Margarete Blank ”eV and can be viewed Tuesday through Thursday 10: 00-18: 00 or by appointment.

Goods and weapons produced

HASAG operations in 1944/1945

literature

Web links

Commons : HASAG  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Klaus Hesse: Armaments industry in Leipzig 1933-1945 , part 1, self-published, Leipzig 2000, p. 31.
  2. ↑ Robert Volz: Reichs Handbuch der Deutschen Gesellschaft, The handbook of personalities in words and pictures . Volume 2 (L – Z), Deutscher Wirtschaftsverlag, Berlin 1931, p. 1689.
  3. ^ Nazi history in Leipzig
  4. ↑ Manfred Kersten; Walter Schmid: Heckler & Koch: HK; the official history of the Oberndorf-based company Heckler & Koch. Insights into the history, description of the weapon models, presentation of the technology . Weispfennig, Wuppertal 1999, ISBN 3-00-005091-4 , p. 17.
  5. ↑ Armin Görtz in: Leipziger Volkszeitung , June 13, 2017
  6. ↑ Forced labor in the Hasag works in Skarzysko-Kamienna
  7. ^ Leipzig Permoserstraße. On the history of an industrial and scientific location . UFZ Environmental Research Center Leipzig-Halle GmbH, Leipzig 2001.
  8. ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from January 1, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.hytta-stuga.de
  9. ↑ http://publikationen.dpma.de/DPMApublikationen/shw_tm_bib.do?id=691167  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / publications.dpma.de  
  10. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original dated August 7, 2011 in the web archive archive.today ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / publications.dpma.de
  11. ↑ The Leipzig Forced Labor Memorial
  12. ↑ Development and products of HASAG, page 5, (pdf; 1.0 MB)
  13. ^ Walter Strnad: The concentration camp subcamp Schlieben. Book Chamber, Herzberg 2005.

Coordinates: 51 ° 21 '9.5 "  N , 12 ° 25' 59"  E