Union-Eisenwerke (Pinneberg)
The Union Iron Works were from 1856 to the 1960s, one of the most important industrial companies in Pinneberg , which employed temporarily more than 700 employees.
Foundation and first years
The works were built in Pinneberg in 1856, founded by the steel wholesaler Schemman and the metal goods manufacturer Thiel. Tin-plated, punched dishes were produced in the factory on Schauenburger Strasse .
1868 to 1878 (Miether brothers)
The Miether brothers bought the factory in 1868, and two years later the company did a considerable amount of business in the armaments sector: It supplied army crockery in the Franco-German War of 1870/71.
The factory director Theodor Miether was considered a socially minded entrepreneur who enjoyed a great reputation among his workers. He founded a company health insurance fund , a death benefit fund for the workforce, and on his own initiative reduced the daily working hours to ten hours. In Pinneberg, he worked on the beautification commission and in the preparation of a vocational school .
In order to raise capital for an enamel factory with a rolling mill , the company converted into a stock corporation in 1872 . At that time, the factory employed 300 people. Production was switched from tinned to enamelled dishes, but the intended expansion failed.
In 1876 the Revision Commission discovered falsified balance sheets . In addition, dividends had been illegally distributed. As a result, Theodor tenant came into custody , 1878, the corporation announced bankruptcy on.
1878 to 1903 (Herman Wupperman)
In the same year, Herman Wupperman acquired the factory. The entrepreneur, born in Texas in 1852, comes from the German Wuppermann family from Barmen (see Wuppermann family history in the web links). The changed spelling of his name is an adaptation of the American pronunciation. Wupperman kept his American citizenship all his life, which is why he kept the name spelling. The enamelling plant was modernized and expanded under Herman Wupperman's management. Around 1900 it had 600 employees and an annual turnover of around three million marks. Over 60% of the manufactured products were exported.
Wupperman provided social security for his employees through voluntary additional benefits and social facilities: In the former Pinnebergerdorf he had company apartments built from 1891 (see below). There were childcare options for the employees, including a cooking and household school for the girls who worked in the factory. Wupperman donated an altar for the Christ Church and had a gymnasium built on Lindenstrasse.
The Wupperman family moved to Düsseldorf in 1893. Five years later, Herman Wupperman died in a traffic accident after a hunt in Oberhausen. The technical and commercial directors continued to run the business in Pinneberg, and from 1903 Wupperman's oldest son, Herman Wupperman junior, too.
The Wupperman Monument
The initiative to create a monument in honor of the deceased entrepreneur came from the workers. The design was made by Clemens Buscher, and the Düsseldorf foundry Förster und Kracht was entrusted with the execution. The Hermanstrasse / Ottostrasse roundabout was chosen as the location. The unveiling took place on August 2, 1902, four years after the death of Herman Wupperman.
General view of the monument
Bust of Herman Wupperman
Lateral symbol figure "work" with gear and hammer
Lateral symbol figure "Commerce" with rod of Mercury and railway symbols (wheel and rail)
1903 to 1918 (sons of Wupperman)
The production process was optimized when the company was expanded to include Plant II on Hermanstrasse in 1903. During the First World War , the company profited from the need for armaments: cookware, field kettles, drinking mugs and individual parts for weapons production were manufactured at Wupperman.
In 1918 Otto Wupperman, son of Herman Wupperman, joined the management.
1919 until the Second World War (Otto Wupperman)
Even after the end of the war, the company was initially able to assert itself, although exports suffered from the fact that the exporting countries increasingly developed their own enamel industries. In 1925 the plant had 725 employees. In 1928 the company was converted into a stock corporation.
The global economic crisis of 1929 caused the export markets and also the domestic markets to collapse, from which the company never fully recovered. The plant had a waterworks , a gasworks and an electricity company and, with both sub-operations, took up a total of 312,000 m². These capacities could no longer be used, in 1931 only the plant on Hermanstrasse was still working.
World War II and post-war period
In the Second World War , the production of armaments again led to better capacity utilization. POWs and foreign workers also worked among the 560 employees .
There was a final upswing after the currency reform in 1948 , because private households had some catching up to do with household goods.
Decline in the 1950s and 1960s
In the 1950s, production steadily decreased. The technical development towards electric stoves made enamel pots and bowls less popular, instead plastics, aluminum and later stainless steel were increasingly used in households . As early as 1952, parts of the plant and land were sold to the city, including the water tower and the waterworks on Peiner Weg. Later, more properties were gradually sold, so that only the plant on Hermanstrasse remained unchanged. In 1963 the halls at Drosteipark were demolished, and in 1982 the rest of the buildings in Plant I had to give way to residential development.
Rationalization measures in the early 1960s did not have long-term success. In 1962, the gas heater manufacturer Haller-Meurer bought the remainder. Production in Plant II continued until 1984, but there was no sustainable concept for the successful continuation. In 1986 the AG listed in Hamburg went bankrupt.
Wupperman factory estate
On Peiner Weg and on the streets of Hermanstrasse and Ottostrasse, named after the sons of Herman Wupperman, the works settlement was built in the immediate vicinity of Plant II. Employees could live here at affordable rents. Most of the houses have been preserved, even if many of the buildings have been modified. The diversity of the designs is striking.
Apartment building on Peiner Weg
Semi-detached house on Ottostraße
Semi-detached house on Hermanstrasse
swell
- Johannes Seifert: The history of the Wupperman company, part I and part III .
- Frank Neumann: The history of the Wupperman company, part II.
- (Both texts published on the website of the Pinneberg City Museum).
- Dieter Beig in the Pinneberger Tageblatt, May 27, 2003: Wupperman files emerged .
- Marion Girke in the Hamburger Abendblatt - Pinneberger Zeitung, December 29, 2008: Big sons in stone and iron .
- Michael Rahn in the Hamburger Abendblatt - Pinneberger Zeitung, March 15, 2011: Problem with historical buildings (former cooking school) .