Junkers aircraft and engine plants

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“The flying man” , the logo of the Junkers aircraft works designed by F. P. Drömmer in 1924

The Junkers AG ( JFM ), based in Dessau was built in 1936 during the era of National Socialism from the fusion of aircraft factory Junkers AG Junkers engine GmbH . They were manufacturers of a large number of types of engines and aircraft, making them one of the most important armaments groups in the German Reich before and during the Second World War .

prehistory

The Junkers factories in Dessau in 1928
Junkers factory in Aschersleben : serial production of Ju-88 fuselages
Global bearer share certificate for 1,000,000 Reichsmarks from Junkers Flugzeug- und -Motorenwerke AG from October 1937

The engines and aircraft manufactured by Junkers-Motorenbau and Junkers-Flugzeugwerk enjoyed an excellent national and international reputation, while their sole owner, Hugo Junkers, was considered politically unreliable by the Nazi rulers. Junkers was therefore forced in 1933 to transfer his privately held patents to the company and to surrender 51% of his shares to the Reich Aviation Ministry without compensation. At the same time, Junkers was banned from his works and was placed under house arrest in his summer residence in Bayrischzell . After Junkers' death in 1935, his widow and heiress Therese Junkers left the remaining shares to the Ministry of Aviation in return for a payment of around RM 30 million .

Under the leadership of the new Junkers Director General Heinrich Kopp Berg both companies were on July 5 in 1936, to Junkers AG merged .

Locations

In addition to the main factory in Dessau, which employed up to 40,000 people at its peak, JFM operated factories in Halle / S. , Graefenhainichen and Jüterbog . In the following period, further branches were opened (year of completion in brackets):

Aschersleben (May 1935), Bad Langensalza , Bernburg- Strenzfeld ( Bernburg plant , October 1937), Halberstadt (March 1935), Kassel- Bettenhausen (MWK, engine manufacturing plant in Kassel , August 1940), Köthen (MZK, engine manufacturing branch in Köthen , April 1935), Leopoldshall (March 1935), Magdeburg- Neue Neustadt (MZM, Motorenbau-Zweigwerk Magdeburg ), Merseburg , Muldenstein ( Muldenwerke AG ), Schönebeck (Elbe) , Zittau ( Zittwerke AG , March 1944).

During the war, underground locations were added, such as Heimkehle and Dora-Mittelbau concentration camp . In the course of the war, many forced laborers and concentration camp prisoners were employed, sometimes under inhumane conditions. From 1944 onwards, these included young people from Belarus who had been abducted in the " hay campaign ".

The construction department with around 80 employees was relocated from Dessau to Gernrode in the Hagental house during the war . According to information from the Dora plant , at the end of the war, shortly before the arrival of the Soviet Army, the Americans secured tons of construction documents there. The last Junkers general director Leo S. Rothe (* 1900, successor to Heinrich Koppenberg from 1941 ) experienced the overrun in Ballenstedt in the Harz Mountains, faced the Americans and was interned by them in the Oberursel camp near Frankfurt for six weeks and then released. In 1955 he became the first president of the Federal Association of the German Aviation Industry , was later a board member of Messerschmitt AG and died on September 11, 1975 in Bad Nauheim.

Products

In addition to aircraft types such as the Ju 52 that had been redesigned for military purposes and were already produced , a number of fighter aircraft such as the Ju 87 (" Stuka "), the Ju 88 and aircraft parts and engines were manufactured under the Junkers Jumo brand. In 1937 the first series-production jet engine Jumo 004 followed , which was later used in the Messerschmitt Me 262 , among others . In the Second World War , the Jumo 213 and Jumo 222 were among the best high-performance engines.

Post-war development

The JFM moved its headquarters to Munich in 1951 in order to manage the business assets and land located in the Federal Republic of Germany. At the beginning of the 1970s, JFM became part of the Daimler-Benz group.

See also

literature

Web links

Commons : Junkers  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ History Traces blog entry, accessed September 27, 2012
  2. ↑ cf. Dietrich Wilde: In those Years Vol. 1, pp. 47–48, p. 74 Books on Demand 2011; Contemporary witness report
  3. ↑ Mittelbau private page, accessed September 27, 2012
  4. ↑ flugzeug-lorenz.de: "The History of Junkers Aircraft Works" by Holger Lorenz , accessed on September 27, 2012

Coordinates: 51 ° 49 ′ 56 ″  N , 12 ° 12 ′ 10 ″  E