Elmore's factory (Schladern)
The Elmore's work was a metal-processing companies in Windeck - Schladern and made copper tubes in an electrolytic process ago. Since 2013, the former industrial complex has housed a culture hall and a community and cultural center .
Alexander Stanley Elmore
DRP 59933 about a corresponding invention by Alexander Stanley Elmore from Leeds was published on November 26, 1891 (with retroactive effect from November 19, 1890).
The English parent company Elmore's Patent Copper Depositing Company bought the factory premises at Siegfall in Schladern through Elmore's German Austro Hungarian Patent Copper Depositing Company Limited on January 27, 1891 . The seller was Richard Berger, a businessman from Dresden . The purchase agreement included an existing building with a steam boiler and two turbines for electricity generation, the right to use water power and a concession for a paper mill.
On October 7, 1891, Elmore's Metall Actien Gesellschaft, with its registered office in Cologne, was notarized (document 9151). The share capital was one million marks. The executive board was the London secretary and businessman Harry Ellis, authorized signatory and operations manager Paul Ernst Preschlin.
Production facility in Schladern
Initially, sales for the new product were unsatisfactory, although in 1893 sales increased tenfold compared to the previous year. In 1894 the plant received at the World Expo 1894 in Antwerp , the Diploma of Honor . In 1896 production could be doubled compared to the previous year. In 1898 sales increased by 50% and orders had to be rejected for the first time.
At the World Exhibition in Paris in 1900 , Elmore's products were awarded the gold medal .
In 1902 Elmore's presented the largest seamless copper pipe in the world at the Düsseldorf exhibition of the Rhenish-Westphalian metal industry. It had a length of 5 m and an internal diameter of 2.5 m. With a wall thickness of 1 cm, it weighed 3.6 t.
1910 a factory was bridge over the victory built in 1911, the plant received a rail connection to the victory path .
On December 11, 1912, Paul Ernst Preschlin also became a member of the board.
First World War and Great Depression
From 1917 to the beginning of 1919, the work of Professor Dr. Schmalenbach forcibly administered. In the 1919 annual report it was reported that only one-sixth of pre-war production had been reached again and that losses of 20 million marks had resulted from exchange rate losses in foreign business. The following years did not bring a rapid upswing either. In 1920 the foreign business with the former war opponents collapsed, in 1921 not enough electricity could be generated due to the persistent drought caused by the Sieg and in 1922 the purchase of coal was made more difficult by the ongoing inflation, which finally resulted in the fantastic net profit of 468,514,142,392 in the 1923 financial year. Raised 281,474 marks. The company itself issued emergency notes for one and two million marks this year.
On March 31, 1924, Paul Ernst Preschlin resigned from the board. OT Post was appointed technical director and Mr. Weeber, commercial director, who also moved up to the board. The Goldmark opening balance of June 20, 1924 showed total assets of 30,414,956.62 marks. To compensate for the loss balance, the share capital was reduced from 30 million marks to two million gold marks at an extraordinary general meeting .
In 1925 and 1927 there were strikes at the plant.
National Socialism and World War II
The economic situation of the plant did not improve significantly until 1933, and the upswing collapsed again in 1938 due to the decline in export opportunities. In 1939 the work was placed under a legal administrator as hostile property. Due to the war, materials other than copper had to be used in 1940.
Around 1938, two barracks were built directly in the vicinity of the factory in Schladern "Auf dem Stein" near the signal box, which were painted green. Polish foreign workers, including women, who worked in Elmore's factory and in other factories nearby (Hermes, Langen) and on the railway, were housed here. Since the war against the Soviet Union , Soviet prisoners of war came to the camp, who had to do forced labor at Elmore's and the above-mentioned plants as well as on the railway (paving the tracks and the underground). They were guarded, starved, and whipped by the Nazis guarding them if they stooped for windfalls on their way to work. Some Langen workers would sometimes secretly send them groceries. At Elmore's there was probably no support from the workers as "a brown cloth hung" over the plant. Around 100 prisoners of war were housed in the barracks.
On November 12, 1943, the Hermann Weeber support facility of Elmore's Metall AG, Schladern, was founded. It served to support (former) members of the plant and their families in need, disability and old age.
In 1944 the military confiscated part of the facility as an engine repair shop. The plant itself built an air protection tunnel in the adjacent rocky slope. At the end of the war, on March 27, 1945, the retreating Wehrmacht blew up the Victory Bridge, and on April 6, Schladern was occupied by the Americans .
post war period
After the end of the war, the company was subject to the supervision of the military government as a foreign asset. On December 22, 1945, the board was appointed as asset manager. From April 1, 1946, production was allowed again, but only a tenth of the system could be used. From July 1, 1947, the production license was extended and galvanized and turned copper tubes and zinc alloy semi-finished products were allowed to be produced. In 1950 the disposal restrictions MRG 52 and 53 for foreign property were repealed.
From September 28, 1962, all Elmore's shares were owned by the copper and brass works in Osnabrück . On June 18, 1963, the general meeting decided to convert the stock corporation into a GmbH as Elmore's Metall-Gesellschaft with limited liability, with its headquarters in Windeck-Schladern.
From December 31, 1966, the plant was leased to the cable and metal works Gutehoffnungshütte Aktiengesellschaft from Hanover , which operated it in its own name and took it over by resolution of December 5, 1969. On March 31, 1995, production in Schladern was stopped and the factory closed.
Kabelmetal cultural center
The former shipping hall was expanded in 2013 as a regional project in cooperation between the Windeck Community Foundation, the Windeck community and the energy park at the waterfall to become the Kabelmetal community and cultural center , which also includes a beer garden .
Part of the premises and the site is rented to some craft and commercial enterprises. The Elmoresstraße in Schladern and the Preschlinallee in Windeck-Mauel are reminiscent of the productive times of Elmore's factory .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Wilhelm Pfanhauser : The electrolytic metal precipitates: Textbook of electroplating with consideration of the treatment of metals before and after electroplating . Springer-Verlag, 1928, ISBN 978-3-662-36963-0 ( Google Books ).
- ^ Rhein-Sieg-Rundschau v. September 14, 1994
- ↑ Civic and Cultural Center Kabelmetal
- ↑ Elmores - Schladern
source
- Yearbook of the Rhein-Sieg-Kreis 1998, Rheinlandia-Verlag Siegburg, ISBN 3-931509-38-9 , p. 135 ff., Heinz Patt: The Elmore's work in Schladern - From the history of the company 1893–1950
- Extra sheet Eitorf-Windeck, September 7, 2011