Killing & Son
| Killing & Sohn, Hagen iW
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|---|---|
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| legal form | Owner-managed company |
| founding | 1870 |
| resolution | 1927/28 |
| Seat | Hagen i. W. |
| Number of employees | 610 (1910) |
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Killing & Sohn was a mechanical engineering company based in Hagen in Westphalia. It emerged from the Killing & Rath company founded in 1858 by Caspar Diedrich Killing and his son-in-law Bernhard Diedrich Rath .
history
In the early years of the company, anvils were forged. Then came the production of nails, screws and other iron parts. The product range was expanded in 1865 to include the manufacture of iron gun mounts and other artillery supplies for the War Ministry. In 1868 the production of wagon fittings and finished wagons, which were also delivered abroad, began. In March 1870, Bernhard Dietrich Rath left the company, which subsequently became Caspar Diedr. Killing together with his son Friedrich Killing under the name Killing & Sohn .
On January 1, 1873, the company was converted into a stock corporation under the name Westfalia, Waggonfabrik auf Aktien. The collapse of the banking house caused by the stock market crash of 1873, in which the shares of the company, which has now been converted into a stock corporation, were deposited, drove the company into bankruptcy. However, father and son Killing managed to buy back the company from the bankruptcy estate - with the assets that the son Friedrich had meanwhile married. The previous owners took over the plant again and continued to run it.
At the beginning of the 1880s, the focus was increasingly on building passenger cars. After the death of Senior CD Killing in 1888, sole ownership of the company passed to his son, Friedrich Killing. This strengthened the performance of the company significantly through extensive land acquisitions and new buildings. In addition, by producing almost all iron parts required in-house - only the axle bushes and the springs were bought in - a high level of vertical integration and good capacity utilization. The number of employees rose from 150 in 1880 to 650 in 1910. The total production capacity in wagon construction in 1910 was around 250 passenger cars and 2500 freight cars per year.
After Friedrich Killing's death (February 15, 1900), his eldest sons, Hugo and Erich Killing, took over the company.
In 1927, Killing & Sohn was taken over by the wagon construction company Van der Zypen & Charlier , Cologne, together with the Düsseldorfer Eisenbahnbedarf (formerly Carl Weyer & Co.) with the participation of Deutsche Bank AG , and from then on the company operated as Vereinigte Westdeutsche Waggonfabriken AG (Westwaggon). In 1928 the Gastell brothers' wagon factory in Mainz-Mombach was added. For reasons of rationalization, the production facilities in Hagen and Düsseldorf were then closed and from then on Westwaggon only produced in Cologne and Mainz.
Business areas
The company's production spectrum included the following areas:
- Fittings, hardware and accessories department
The actual basis of the company's production was a forge, in which anvils were made. This was followed by the production of nails, screws and fittings, especially those for the construction of railroad cars. Even in the first few years a sales volume of 50,000 pounds of iron with a value of 25,000 thalers was achieved. In the 1860s material was also produced for the Prussian War Ministry, such as B. Pioneers' sponsors.
- Wagon construction department
It was here that all types of freight wagons for both standard gauge and narrow gauge were manufactured. In the period between May 1, 1871 and May 1, 1872 alone, a total of 11,876 open and 30 boxcars left the factory. From 1880 onwards, the construction of passenger cars was also added, all predominantly according to the standards of the Prussian state railways . From 1900 the company specialized in the construction of beer wagons and tank wagons as well as passenger and freight wagons for small railways. By 1910, a total of around 35,000 cars of the most varied types had been delivered.
Product gallery
Some samples are shown here as examples of the company's products. They come from the books The German Railway System of the Present in the 1911 edition.
four-axle compartment car BC4 Pr 98a, sheet D 22
two-axle BCi Pr 05 through car, according to sheet Ic 4
Wagon construction
Tank wagons
Refrigerator truck
Special wagons
literature
- R. Wilhelm Hoff: The German railway system of the present . Reimar Hobbing, Berlin 1911.
Individual evidence
- ^ The German Railway System of the Present, 1911 edition, pages 238–241
- ↑ Westfalenpost, August 4, 2008, Dr. Friedrich M. Killing, The rise and fall of a wagon factory
- ↑ The German Railway System of the Present, 1911 edition, page 238
- ↑ The German Railway System of the Present, 1911 edition, page 239
- ↑ The German Railway System of the Present, 1911 edition, page 241