Hermania

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Hermania is the oldest German chemical factory and is based in Schönebeck .

history

It was founded in 1793 by Carl Samuel Hermann . The original purpose was to use waste from the royal salt works of the place. In 1794, Hermann turned to the Prussian king and asked for the saline waste to be handed over. These were given to him free of charge for two years. Then it was decided to continue the production with state funds. The Königl was created. Preuss. chemical factory . Hermann was employed as an administrator with a 10% share of the net profit. From 1802, Hermania was the first company in Germany to produce soda using the Leblanc process . This Schönebecker soda became the company's second most important product after Glauber's salt . A total of around 50 products were made. From 1801 to 1808 the botanist and pharmacist Friedrich Gottlob Hayne worked as an assistant in the company. In 1818 Carl Hermann discovered the element cadmium . After his death in 1846, his son Otto Julius Theodor Hermann continued the company. From 1870 a relocation and a new construction of the company were planned. During this phase, however, Otto Hermann suddenly died of a heart attack. His son Hans Hermann then took over the company and continued the new building plans. The new factory was opened on June 28, 1873 under the old name Königlich Preußisch chem. Factory inaugurated.

Hermania AG share of more than 1,000 marks from May 1921

In 1876, Hans Hermann died at the age of 39. In 1877 the company was transformed into a stock corporation, Hermania AG . Chemical products such as hydrochloric acid , soda and Glauber's salt were made. From pyrite was sulfuric won. In later times bath sulfur , potassium nitrate , sodium nitrate , zinc phosphide and cooling brine were also produced. In the mid-1920s, Hermania filed for bankruptcy . Chemische Werke Schönebeck AG was founded in 1927 from the bankruptcy estate . The production range now mainly comprised metal salts, heavy chemicals and raw and finished materials for the ceramic industry.

After the Second World War, the company was confiscated by the Soviet military administration, later expropriated and in 1947 transferred to public ownership as VEB Chemisches Werk Hermania Schönebeck . The plant was modernized. In particular, new plants were built for the production of frits for the ceramic industry, borax for the glass industry and pharmaceuticals, and calcium chloride . In 1960 the plant was incorporated into the VEB Fahlberg-List Chemical and Pharmaceutical Factory Magdeburg . From 1970 to 1972 the chemist Hans Bendix managed the Schönebeck company. In 1972/1973 a new plant for the formulation and packaging of herbicides was built . Weed killers have been produced for different uses. A little later, the company received a new natural gas- based thermal power station .

On August 9, 1988, there was a major fire in the formulation and packaging warehouse. 812 tons of pesticides were stored in the hall , which ended up in the Elbe with the extinguishing water . The hall burned down completely, sabotage was suspected.

After the end of the GDR, VEB Fahlberg-List was taken over by the Treuhandgesellschaft and the Schönebeck operating part and the contract manufacturing of the crop protection division of the main plant were sold to the Schirm Group in 1992. At that time there were 72 jobs in the Hermania plant, which extends over 15 hectares. The company has been operating under the name Schirm GMBH Division Hermania since 2001 . The Schirm Group became part of Imperial Logistics International as part of the takeover of Lehnkering in 2011. In 2017 it was sold to the South African joint stock company AECI.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Fires and explosions brought poison and death. In: Berliner Zeitung of March 2, 1994. Available online at berlinonline.de
  2. ↑ Rasenberger, From the sweet beginning to the bitter end , page 202

Coordinates: 52 ° 1 '33.4 "  N , 11 ° 43' 36.3"  E