Heliowatt

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Heliowatt (1885–1923 Aronwerke , 1923 to " Aryanization " 1935 Nora-Radio GmbH ) was a German manufacturer of electrical equipment and devices. The founder was the physicist and entrepreneur Hermann Aron (1845–1913). From 1935, the company was first owned by the Siemens group, then by other owners. It ceased business in 1993.

Beginnings

The company emerged from a test workshop founded in 1883 by the Berlin private lecturer and electrical engineer Hermann Aron (1845-1913) in Koenigin-Augusta-Strasse 44 in Berlin-Charlottenburg . When the city of Berlin decided in autumn 1885 on an electricity meter he had developed , the first precise electromechanical watt-hour meter, and bought the first 100 copies, economic success began, followed by expansion abroad. In 1890 Aron opened a workshop and company in Paris , and in 1893 another in London . In the same year he renamed the company to “H. Aron Elektrizitätszähler Fabrik GmbH ”, with the main plant in Berlin-Charlottenburg and the branch plants in Paris and London. In 1897 further branches were opened in Vienna and Schweidnitz .

In 1900 the production facility was relocated to a five-storey factory building on Wilmersdorfer Strasse and the corner of Bismarckstrasse. The company initially dealt with the production of the pendulum electricity meters designed by Aron, but soon also with current and voltage converters, power limiters, telemetry systems, time switches, coin and payment counters. In 1905 Hermann Aron transferred the management of the business to his 25-year-old son Manfred (1884–1967). The branch in Vienna became Elektra-Apparatenbau Gesellschaft mbH in 1906. In 1908 Arons Werke already employed over 1000 people, including almost 500 in the Schweidnitz plant, and there were 32 offices and representatives in many European countries. In Schweidnitz the production of the individual parts of the counters and the complete production of the switchgear and electrical clocks took place; In Charlottenburg, where the head office was also located, the various types of meters and special designs were assembled and calibrated .

Radio producer

In 1912, a year before his father's death, Manfred Aron took over the majority of the company. The company name was changed by him in 1917 to "Aron Elektrizitäts GmbH", because other products than electricity meters were also manufactured, such as: B. voltage converters, power limiters, telemetry systems, time switches, etc. a. In 1918 the entire property in Charlottenburg became the property of Aron-Werke. The facade of the administration building on Wilmersdorfer Straße was redesigned in 1921.

At the end of 1923, Aron began manufacturing radio sets ( detector receivers ). Also because Aron was recognizable as a Jewish name, the reverse sequence of letters “NORA” was used as the brand name . In 1926 the subsidiary “Nora-Radio GmbH” was founded, and from 1927 “Nora-Radios” equipped with tubes were also manufactured. In the same year the branch was built on Charlottenburger Ufer 16 a / 17 a. In 1928 the top floor in the main building on Wilmersdorfer Strasse was expanded to accommodate a laboratory and a test field for the production of radio sets. In 1929, when the radio business already accounted for around 55 percent of total sales, the company was converted into a stock corporation . With a market share of 7.57% for radios, Nora was in fourth place in 1932, behind Telefunken , Saba and Mende . This proportion rose to 8.35% in 1934. During this time, three companies worked in Germany, two in Charlottenburg and one in Schweidnitz. In the main season of 1932 the company employed 3,300 people in the manufacture of radios, radio components and accessories such as loudspeakers and headphones.

Time of National Socialism and the consequences of the war

After the political upheaval in 1933, the company changed its name to "Heliowatt Werke Elektrizitäts-Aktiengesellschaft" under pressure from internal NSDAP cells . However, this did not save Manfred Aron from the severe reprisals of the Nazi regime and the Aryanization of his company. In 1935 he was arrested several times by the Secret State Police and finally forced to sell his family's shares in the company to Deutsche Bank at a considerable loss , with the Aron-Werke's house bank, Commerzbank , also playing an important role. Deutsche Bank passed these shares on to the Siemens group in the same year. In a press release dated October 23, 1935, Siemens announced the following:

“ The company Heliowatt (Nora) asks us to inform that, contrary to a remark by the Black Corps, the Jew Aron is no longer financially involved in its operations and that the company is an Aryan company. - We ascertain this, but at the same time we have to inform you that our investigations have shown that the leading positions of the above company are by far the largest part occupied by full Jews: The board member Gottschalk, the operations manager Veith, the chief technical engineer Dr. Stern, the head of the patent department Dr. Wallach and the first buyer, the Galician copper man. We will be happy to make such corrections, the next company please! "

In the following years operations continued to run well, but the market share slowly declined. Then came a temporary end with the Second World War . The Allied bombing raids on Berlin in 1943 destroyed the factory on the Charlottenburger Ufer, and the main Charlottenburg factory burned down completely during the street fighting in early 1945.

The factory in Schweidnitz was transferred to Poland by the Soviet military authorities on October 5, 1945 and was put into operation on August 3, 1946 as "Fabrykę Liczników i Zegarów Elektrycznych". In the course of the decades, the production range changed continuously towards electrical and electronic precision instruments, and the organizational affiliation and name of the plant changed several times. In 1991 the plant, now "Zakłady Wytwórcze Apadory Precyzyjnej" Mera Pafal "", was released for privatization and in 1992 it was privatized under the new name "Fabrykę Apadory Pomiarowej" Pafal "" SA. After further expansion and modernization, Apator SA from Toruń (formerly German Thorn) acquired a majority stake in FAP “Pafal” in March 2004. Today the plant specializes in the production of measuring devices for gas and electricity (see the article in the Polish Wikipedia ).

New beginning

After 1945, Heliowatt was brought back to life in West Berlin as "Heliowattwerke GmbH", and in 1947 the first newspaper advertisements appeared, reporting the restart of Nora production. The facility on Wilmersdorfer Strasse, which was destroyed in the war, was rebuilt by 1954. Very soon after the end of the war, the factory began producing everyday items made of pressed plastic, repairing electrical meters and radios, and executing orders for Bewag . Production of the first post-war radio model probably began as early as 1947, and in 1948 Nora radios were again offered in catalogs. However, it was not successful, and in 1949 only one model was offered under the brand name Heliowatt. The expansion of the model range and export efforts in the next few years did not bring lasting improvement. Likewise, fundamental contributions to the development of television technology in the early 1950s were unsuccessful. From 1953, in addition to Charlottenburg, production was also carried out in the Watter barracks in Fritzlar in northern Hesse .

In 1955 the company management decided to limit itself to the production of electric meters and time switches. This was followed in 1956 by the complete takeover of Heliowatt by Siemens and its resale to Bergmann Elektrizitätswerke AG . Siemens kept only the radio and television production, while Bergmann took over the rest of the Heliowattwerke product range. The production of radio and television sets came to an end. The catalog from 1957/58 still contained five new models, but in 1958/59 Nora only brought two TV sets onto the market. Thereafter, the Nora brand was practically discontinued by Siemens.

The End

Heliowatt itself now only produced high quality measurement and control technology. In 1964 the company was converted back into a GmbH . After several changes of ownership, most recently to a subsidiary of Schlumberger Holding in 1993, the last remaining plants in Berlin-Charlottenburg and Berlin-Wilmersdorf were finally closed in autumn 1996 , as the operational business has been in business since 1993 in view of international competition and the resulting price decline remained in deficit.

The new administration building of Heliowatt AG in Wilmersdorfer Straße 39, built between 1956 and 1957 by the Berlin architect Siegfried Fehr and Siemens-Bauunion GmbH, is a reinforced concrete masonry building with a flat roof, red clinker window parapets and vertical concrete strips between the windows, is now a monument expelled. Coordinates: 52 ° 30 ′ 40 ″  N , 13 ° 18 ′ 18 ″  E

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.luise-berlin.de/lexikon/chawi/a/aron_electrizitaetszaehler_fabrik.htm
  2. ^ District lexicon Berlin-Charlottenburg / Wilmersdorf of the Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein , online edition. Entry Aron Electricity Meter Factory
  3. ↑ Harold James: The Deutsche Bank and the Aryanization . CH Beck, Munich 2001, ISBN 3-406-47192-7 , p. 50.
  4. ↑ The database of the Humboldt University contains the following company names, all domiciled at Wilmersdorfer Straße 39 in Charlottenburg, some of which may be subsidiaries of the parent company, but perhaps also misinformation: Aron & Co GmbH (1900–1930), Aron Elektrizitäts-GmbH (1917–1933), Aronwerke Elektrizitäts-AG (1917–1933), Radio-Gesellschaft Aron & Co GmbH (1925–1930), Aron Elektrizitäts-GmbH (1933–1939). ( Jewish businesses in Berlin 1930–1945 ).
  5. ↑ Harold James: The Deutsche Bank and the Aryanization . CH Beck, Munich, 2001, ISBN 3-406-47192-7 , p. 50f.
  6. ↑ Deutsche Bank bought the shares of the Aron family with a nominal value of RM 7,464,000 at a price between 83 and 85%. ( http://www.luise-berlin.de/lexikon/chawi/a/aron_electrizitaetszaehler_fabrik.htm ).
  7. ↑ Manfred Aron was expatriated and fled to the USA with his family .
  8. ↑ http://www.radiomuseum.org/dsp_steller_detail.cfm?company_id=18
  9. ↑ Factory for clocks and electricity meters
  10. ↑ Wytwórcze Apendixy Precyzyjnej = Manufacturing facility for precision equipment
  11. ^ "Pafal" AG measuring instruments factory
  12. ^ Heliowatt shuts down production in Charlottenburg , Berliner Zeitung, November 15, 1995
  13. ↑ http://www.stadtentwicklung.berlin.de/cgi-bin/hidaweb/getdoc.pl?DOK_TPL=lda_doc.tpl&KEY=obj%2009096488