Automobilwerke Ludwigsfelde

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VEB Automobilwerke Ludwigsfelde
legal form publicly-owned business
founding March 1, 1952 (as VEB Industriewerke Ludwigsfelde )
resolution June 27, 1990
Reason for dissolution Dissolution by the Treuhandanstalt and conversion into a GmbH
Seat Ludwigsfelde , German Democratic Republic
Branch Motor vehicle manufacturer

The automobile works Ludwig field were on 1 March 1952 in Ludwigsfelde (Brandenburg) as VEB industrial plants Ludwigsfelde founded. Later they were the main plants for commercial vehicle production within the Industrieverband Fahrzeugbau (IFA) of the GDR . Today the plant belongs to Daimler AG and is the company's third largest van assembly plant.

history

1936 to 1945

In 1936, Daimler-Benz Motoren GmbH , a subsidiary of Daimler-Benz AG, built a plant for the production of aircraft engines , the Genshagen aircraft engine factory , in a wooded area of ​​the Genshagener Heide on the outskirts of Ludwigsfelde . Before and during the Second World War, engines of the types DB 600 , DB 601 , DB 603 , DB 605 for various Luftwaffe aircraft were manufactured in the " National Socialist Model Company". The supplier was u. a. the Dreilinden engineering in neighboring Kleinmachnow , a subsidiary of Robert Bosch GmbH . At the end of 1943, over 14,700 people were working at the Genshagen plant, 38% of them voluntary and 55% forced labor, 5% prisoners of war and 2% concentration camp inmates. At the end of 1944 there were 16,600 workers. 68% of them were foreigners, prisoners of war or concentration camp prisoners. In 1940 3,176 aircraft engines were produced by 7,700 employees. The 16,600 workers at the end of 1944 produced 10,535 aircraft engines. That was a productivity increase of over 50%, which was due to extremely tough working conditions and long working hours. A final assembly hall was planned from 1940, which was in operation from 1942 and was called the Deutschlandhalle . The Daimler-Benz Genshagen subcamp was a subcamp of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp from September 1, 1944 to April 20, 1945 ; 1,100 female concentration camp prisoners who were transferred from the Ravensbrück concentration camp to Genshagen from October 1944 were used for forced labor in the aircraft engine plant.

After the end of the war, the production facilities of the Genshagen engine plant were dismantled . The production halls were blown up.

1951 to 1964

Industriewerke Ludwigsfelde IWL was founded on March 1st, 1952 in Ludwigsfelde. A completely new company was built with eleven production halls and a test bench for marine diesel engines. The first products were marine diesel engines and machine elements .

After the construction of a scooter began in 1953 , the first scooter rolled off the production line on February 6, 1955.

From 1955 to 1964 the Pitty, Wiesel, Berlin and Troll scooters were produced in a total of 233,215 units.

Scooter models

Pitty

Motor scooters of the Pitty type were built from February 1955 to April 1956 in a number of only 11,293 in the Ludwigsfelde industrial plant (IWL), which was assigned to the IFA. The pitty was driven by a modified and u. a. Fan-cooled two - stroke engine of the MZ RT 125/1 with 3-speed gearbox.

Wiesel SR56

Motor scooters of the type Wiesel SR 56 were built in Ludwigsfelde from June 1956 to April 1959 in a number of 57,400. The term SR stands for S tadt R oller. The improved and RT-125-2 engine served as the drive unit.

Berlin SR59

Berlin SR59 scooters were built from May 1959 to December 1962 in a number of 113,943. The term SR stands for S tadt R oller. In contrast to the Wiesel and Pitty, the Berlin type was fitted with MZ-125/3 motors that were drilled out to 143 cm³ and fan-cooled. From Berlin, all subsequent IWL scooters also have a 4-speed gearbox. The single-track trailer "Campi" shown in the gallery below is from 1962 and was manufactured in the IWL training workshop. Of these single-track trailers, at times in Leipzig by the Stoye-Fahrzeugbau-Leipzig company - known worldwide for its sidecar construction - at times in VEB Waggonbau Ammendorf and finally in the IWL training workshop, around 5,700 pieces have been produced.

Troll

Troll-1 scooters were built from January 1963 to December 1964 in a number of 56,513. The term TR stands for T ouren R oller. Like all IWL scooters, it has an MZ motor that has been specially modified for scooter operation. In the case of the Troll, it originally comes from the MZ ES 150 and has an output of 9.5 hp thanks to the power-reducing fan.

Start of truck production

On December 21, 1962, the GDR Council of Ministers decided to set up truck production at the Ludwigsfelde site. The foundation stone for the truck assembly hall (72,000 m²) with integrated press shop was laid on June 5, 1964.

1965 to 1990

  • IFA W50 as a dump truck

  • IFA L60

Almost eleven months later, on July 1, 1965, production began at VEB IFA-Automobilwerke Ludwigsfelde .

On 17 July 1965, the first truck ran IFA W50 from the band and on the same day Ludwigsfelde received the town charter .

The formation of the VEB-IFA Kombinat Nutzfahrzeuge Ludwigsfelde took place on January 1st 1978, whereby the Kombinat and the VEB IFA-Automobilwerke Ludwigsfelde were managed separately. On September 1, 1979, the automobile plant became the company's parent company.

From 1987 the L60 truck was added to the production program, which was supposed to replace the W50.

From 1965 to 1990 the IFA W50 and IFA L60 trucks were manufactured in around 60 basic variants and 240 country-specific versions. Around 70% of the vehicles were exported to 53 countries on four continents.

The units produced are shown below:

year W50 L60 total year W50 L60 total
1965 855 855 1979 26,800 26,800
1966 5,775 5,775 1980 27.001 27.001
1967 10,564 10,564 1981 28,201 28,201
1968 14,785 14,785 1982 29.004 29.004
1969 16,953 16,953 1983 28.101 28.101
1970 17,966 17,966 1984 30,300 30,300
1971 18,800 18,800 1985 32,294 32,294
1972 19,800 19,800 1986 32,516 32,516
1973 21,623 21,623 1987 29,606 1,734 31,340
1974 23,220 23,220 1988 22,378 6,604 28,982
1975 23,900 23,900 1989 20,071 8,081 28,152
1976 24,940 24,940 1990 13,405 3,870 17,275
1977 26,278 26,278 total 571,789 20,289 592.078
1978 26,653 26,653

Production of the L60 ceased in August 1990 and the W50 in December 1990.

After 1990

MB Sprinter (NCV3) flatbed truck

In the spring of 1990 a strategic partnership with Daimler-Benz was announced. As a result, a new type of vehicle called IFA 1318 was developed.

On July 18, 1990, however, the general director of the IFA-Kombinat announced at a meeting in Ludwigsfelde that Daimler no longer felt bound by the agreements due to the changed political situation. Other companies were also affected by this decision.

VEB Getriebewerk Brandenburg lost its independence as a supplier and became part of ZF Getriebe GmbH . The VEB engine plant Nordhausen no longer exists.

On June 27, 1990 the VEB-IFA Kombinat Nutzfahrzeuge Ludwigsfelde was dissolved by the Treuhandanstalt and thus the VEB IFA-Automobilwerke Ludwigsfelde was converted into a GmbH , which later became the Nutzfahrzeuge Ludwigsfelde GmbH . The press shop went to what was then Thyssen AG ; In 2011 the Spanish group GESTAMP AUTOMOTION took over the pressing plant from Thyssen-Krupp-Umformtechnik.

In the period from 1991 to 2007, federal and state subsidies totaling around 134 million euros flowed into the automobile plant. These subsidies served to modernize the plant and to maintain or create jobs.

In 1994, Nutzfahrzeuge Ludwigsfelde GmbH was taken over 100 percent by Daimler-Benz AG and is now part of Daimler AG as Mercedes-Benz Ludwigsfelde GmbH .

In 2012, fewer vehicles were produced in the plant than in previous years due to the euro crisis . This led, among other things, to a reduction in the weekly working hours with wages being waived by employees.

In 2015 the plant employed around 2,000 people, making it one of the largest industrial employers in the state of Brandenburg. Most of the production takes place in two shifts . Also because of the driverless transport vehicles integrated into the production process , which bring the parts required for assembly to the assembly line at precise timing, the plant is now considered particularly efficient, according to the company. The company intends to invest 150 million euros in the production of the successor model to the Sprinter .

The following models were and are produced here:

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Lothar Schulze, Manfred Blumenthal: East German and Czech motor scooters . Welz Verlag, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-9804294-6-6 .
  2. ↑ Barbara Hopmann, Mark Spoerer, Birgit Weitz, Beate Brüninghaus: Forced labor at Daimler Benz . Franz Steiner, Stuttgart 1994, ISBN 3-515-06440-0 , p. 52 f.
  3. ↑ Barbara Hopmann, Mark Spoerer, Birgit Weit, Beate Brüninghaus: Forced labor at Daimler Benz . Franz Steiner, Stuttgart 1994, ISBN 3-515-06440-0 , p. 53
  4. ↑ Helmuth Bauer: You can't get rid of inner images. The women in the Daimler-Benz Genshagen satellite camp (= series of publications by the Brandenburg Memorials Foundation . Volume 30). Metropol, Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-940938-88-6 .
  5. ↑ Simply done . In: Der Spiegel . No. 34 , 1990 ( online ).
  6. ^ Future of the Daimler car plant in Ludwigsfelde . (PDF; 216 kB) Answer of the state government to Minor Question No. 2634 of January 10, 2013. Brandenburg Parliamentary Documentation; accessed on September 12, 2015.
  7. ↑ Mercedes-Benz Ludwigsfelde plant relies on new technologies . (PDF; 159 kB) Press release , June 23, 2015; Retrieved September 5, 2015.
  8. ↑ New factory . Volkswagen AG; Retrieved September 5, 2015.