Moosbierbaum refinery
Coordinates: 48 ° 18 ′ 57.5 ″ N , 15 ° 54 ′ 47.9 ″ E
The Moosbierbaum refinery was a chemical industrial company in Moosbierbaum in the municipality of Atzenbrugg in Lower Austria ( Tulln district ).
history
In 1913 (other sources: 1916) the company was established by the Škoda Group, which specializes in arms production, as the Skodawerke Wetzler AG powder factory and served as an armaments factory for the production of gunpowder during the First World War . The monthly production should correspond to 40 wagons of gunpowder, which began in 1917.
After the war, the factory was converted to various civilian products. At that time it was the most important production facility in the new little Austria for basic chemical products such as various acids such as sulfuric , phosphoric (from 1935), nitric and hydrochloric acid . But artificial fertilizers ( superphosphate ) were also produced.
From 1926 Skoda-Wetzler also ran the ammonia factories on a lease basis in the Vienna city gas works Simmering and Leopoldau . In addition, the AG participated in the " Sprengstoffwerke Blumau AG" and was responsible for the management. On account of the republic, Skoda-Wetzler AG built a TNT factory (1928), a powder factory (1930) and a nitroglycerine plant (1933) in Blumau .
Just before the “ Anschluss ” in 1938, Donau Chemie took over the majority of the shares. After the "Anschluss", however, it was immediately incorporated into IG Farben .
As in war , the German refineries were increasingly bombarded Moosbierbaum was used to make jet fuel expanded. Low-octane fuels were converted into high-octane gasoline using the HF process, a further development of the hydroforming process by the Standard Oil Company .
In addition, in Pischelsdorf , where Donau Chemie is located today, an expanded sulfuric acid plant was built. At that time, 6,000 to 8,000 people worked in the two factories, a large number of whom were also forced laborers ; from 1943, prisoners from the Stein prison were also employed here. Political prisoners who already had experience with organized activities in illegality founded the resistance group Austrian Freedom Front (ÖFF) here in 1944 . In addition to sabotage in the factory and propaganda in which grievances were denounced, the ÖFF also strove to eliminate Nazi rule and the establishment of a democratic Austria from autumn 1944.
Towards the end of the war, Moosbierbaum was also heavily bombed. On February 1, 1945 alone, 1,200 bombs fell on the plant and the immediate vicinity. Due to the strong protection of the flak , the plant was able to work until the end, albeit to a very limited extent. The plant was slowly and heavily dismantled only by the Soviet occupation forces. Crude oil was also distilled from Zistersdorf , which was delivered to the Soviets as reparation. According to the state treaty , the refinery was taken over by OMV , but the construction of the Schwechat refinery ultimately meant the end of the plant. In the year the site, which consisted only of ruins, fell back to its original owner, Donau Chemie. Donau Chemie continued to expand the plant in Pischelsdorf, so that some of the fallow land was sold to the Dürnrohr power plant . A golf course has existed on the rest of the site since 2000. Fortified fragmentation trenches, parts of industrial facilities, foundations and a few intact buildings can still be seen today. Insiders know basements and buildings in which filters of respiratory masks that were worn by staff during bombing can still be found today. Delivery notes from the years of the Second World War, e.g. B. Siemens still exist. For those interested, however, it is important that such finds remain at their place of discovery and are not carried away by "snoops". In forums you can find a lot about the work from that time and you can exchange ideas with people interested in history and specialists. The local history museum Zwentendorf offers a lot of information and shows a lot about the time in Moosbierbaum. A large part of the former southern works is now the contaminated site N64 (industrial site Moosbierbaum - sub-area north) of the Federal Environment Agency . Today one can still find sewer systems, flooded with crude oil products. The area is partly heavily polluted and polluted by hydrocarbons and ordnance .
Fragmentation trench (bunker)
Plant parts
Industrial plants
Manhole
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Web links
- Large combine of IG Farben "Donau Chemie AG" - Moosbierbaum at secretprojekte.at
- Pollution N 64: industrial site Moosbierbaum in contaminated sites of the Federal Environmental Agency
Individual evidence
- ^ History of Donau Chemie on the Donau Chemie AG website.
- ^ Shares in Skodawerke-Wetzler AG, 1926 on historical-wertpapiere.de .
- ↑ State Parliament Protocol 1964 Lower Austria State Parliament Protocol from December 22, 1964 with a speaker contribution about the history of Moosbierbaum.
- ↑ Hans Schafranek : Resistance and betrayal. Gestapo spies in the anti-fascist underground 1938–1945 . Czernin, Vienna 2017, ISBN 978-3-7076-0622-5 , p. 253-255 .
- ↑ Reconnaissance aerial photo of the Royal Air Force of the Pischelsdorf industrial plant on the NCAP website .
- ↑ Reconnaissance aerial photo of the Royal Air Force of the Moosbierbaum hydrogenation plant (North) on the NCAP website.
- ↑ Reconnaissance aerial photo of the Royal Air Force from western Tullnerfeld on the NCAP website.