Finow brass factory
history
The brass works in the Eberswalde district Finow was founded in 1698 and worked until 1945. It was the first industrial and commercial center of the Mark Brandenburg . The date of foundation is July 1, 1700, when production began under administrator Friedrich Luck. In 1702 the brass works was leased by Friedrich Müller, subsequently by the French Aureillon, Dittlof and Lejeune. In 1729 Splittgerber & Daum leased the brass factory for 55 years. In 1786 the Royal Mining and Steelworks Office in Berlin took over the administration. In 1863 the industrialist Gustav Hirsch bought the factory for 100,000 Prussian thalers. He was very concerned about the welfare of his workers - which was anything but common at the time - and significantly expanded the brass works settlement. Sheets, wires, boilers and tubes were produced, as well as ammunition cases , fuses and grenades as part of extensive armaments contracts . In 1872 there were 200 employees. In 1899 his nephew Aron Hirsch took over the business and founded the Hirsch Kupfer- und Messingwerke AG in 1906 . In 1907 950 workers were employed, in 1918 already 2390. In 1917 construction began on the new plant, which was inaugurated in 1920 by Siegmund Hirsch.
In 1931/1932 eight model houses with facades made of copper sheet , the so-called copper houses , were built at the foot of the water tower , which were designed to be quickly assembled and effectively transported. These houses are still used today as residential buildings.
Gustav Hirsch and later his nephew Aron and his son Siegmund Hirsch were not only responsible for the business, but also for the independent brass factory. They built a school with two teachers' houses, one of which is now a calibration office . In 1928 the brass factory was combined with the village of Heegermühle and the manor districts of Eisenspalterei and Wolfswinkel zu Finow . In 1929 the factory was the largest and most efficient brass factory in Europe. In 1932 the Hirsch family left the company as a result of the Berlin banking crisis . After the National Socialists came to power, the former junior boss Siegmund Hirsch emigrated to Egypt because of the family's Jewish origins. The former senior boss Aron Hirsch lived in Wiesbaden until his presumed suicide on February 22, 1942, with his wife Amalie, nee. Mainz, which committed suicide on August 27, 1942.
In 1941 the company belonged almost 100% to AEG and was renamed Finow Kupfer- und Messingwerke AG . In 1945 the new plant was dismantled according to orders from the Soviet military administration in Germany . VEB Walzwerk Finow started work there in the 1950s . In 1952/1953 the most modern hot strip mill in the GDR was built, and in 1960 cold rolling mill and pipe mill. In 1989 it was partially closed, in 1993 it was taken over by the Slovak steelworks Východoslovenské železiarne and subsequently the merger with a US company. In the meantime, Walzwerk Finow GmbH has specialized in the manufacture of welded steel tubes and cold-formed steel profiles and is a successful supplier to the automotive industry. After the second filing for bankruptcy and a lack of investors, the rolling mill stopped production on March 30, 2012.
Special structures
- Villa Hirsch (Erich-Steinfurth-Straße 12): built in 1916 according to plans by Paul Mebes from an existing single-storey residential building and the adjacent syringe house; last headquarters, vacant in May 2006. The garden area with a water basin in the axis of the water tower no longer exists.
- Archway house (Erich-Steinfurth-Straße 9 and 52) with leaded glazing by César Klein .
- Altes Hüttenamt (Erich-Steinfurth-Straße 10/11): Half-timbered building from 1736 with three officials' apartments, office and warehouse as well as a prayer room on the upper floor.
- Water tower : built in 1917/1918 according to plans by Paul Mebes, the brass factory supplied drinking and service water from six deep wells (four columns, 48.6 m high, iron water basin with 7 m diameter and 5 m height, spiral staircase with 260 steps up to the 44 m high platform). After the water tower was no longer in use, it was redesigned as a war memorial and was called the Hindenburg tower . From 2004 to 2011, the tower was extensively renovated, with a steel, circumferential viewing platform being attached to the tower and a lift and a stairlift installed. After the renovation was completed, the water tower now houses an exhibition on the copper houses and the former owners of the copper works. It also serves as a lookout tower .
- Copper houses: built in 1931/1932 by Robert Krafft (Altenhofer Straße 41–48) and Walter Gropius (Altenhofer Straße 2).
- Eichamt (Erich-Steinfurth-Straße 20): built in 1922/1923 as a community school, renovated in 1994.
- Stele in memory of the Eberswalder gold treasure , which came to light on May 16, 1913 during excavation work: 81 objects in a clay pot, from approx. 750 BC. The stele on Gustav-Hirsch-Platz was inaugurated on October 7, 2005.
literature
- Friedrich von Borries , Jens-Uwe Fischer: home container. German prefabricated houses in Israel. Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main 2009. Among other things, this work also provides intensive reports on the Hirsch family, their companies and the importance of the brass factory and the location.
Web links
- Förderverein Finower Wasserturm and its environment e. V.
- Refurbishment of the Finow water tower (as of April 2005) ( Memento from February 18, 2013 in the web archive archive.today )
Individual evidence
- ↑ http://www.moz.de/heimat/lokalredaktion/eberswalde/artikel4/dg/0/1/1015415/
- ↑ Water tower Finow - renovations on the website Förderverein Finower Wasserturm u. his environment eV
Coordinates: 52 ° 50 ′ 42 " N , 13 ° 43 ′ 29" E