Agricultural machinery factory Franz Richter

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The Franz Richter agricultural machinery factory in Döbeln was one of the most important agricultural machinery manufacturers in Germany from 1870 to 1940 thanks to its wide range of tillage, harvesting and processing machines . Franz Richter was one of the founders of the "Association of Manufacturers of Agricultural Machinery and Equipment" in 1897.

history

The origin of the company was a mechanics workshop founded by Carl Grieben in Döbeln in 1861, which in 1864 already had 100 employees. In 1870, Franz Ludwig Richter became a partner and in 1874 the sole shareholder of this company, which from 1875 was called “Factory of Agricultural Machinery Franz Richter” and at times had up to 600 employees. With an innovative and broad product range, the company subsequently developed into one of the most important agricultural machinery manufacturers in Germany with exports to France, Russia, Romania, Belgium, Sweden and Norway. In 1897 Franz Richter was one of the 17 founding members of the "Association of Manufacturers of Agricultural Machines and Devices" in Germany. In 1900 it was converted into a limited partnership (KG). At the same time, the sons Georg and Alfred Richter took over the management. At that time the company had around 400 employees.

In 1926 Hans Richter (son of Georg Richter) and Rudolf Thieme (son-in-law of Alfred Richter) became partners in the company, which at that time had 650 employees. As in the period from 1914 to 1918, arms production was at the fore of business activity from the late 1930s onwards. The management was now Hans Richter. After the end of the war, the machines and equipment were largely dismantled. In 1946 it was expropriated and transferred to public property. From 1947 agricultural machinery was produced again . In 1948 the company was given the name VEB Landmaschinenbau "Rotes Banner" Döbeln .

Products

The first products were bridge, cattle, table and pole wagons. From the middle of the 1860s, chopping machines were added, and from 1870 threshing machines and göpels were added. From the mid-1870s onwards, the range was expanded to include seed drills , tillage equipment, root crop harvesters and potato sorters.

In addition to the innovation of these product programs, haymaking machines and forage processing machines were added in the period that followed. This included the program from the mid-1920s

  • Trailer and tractor-trailer plows
  • Harrows and rollers
  • Broad sowing and seed drills
  • Hoeing machines and ridging plows
  • Fork and drum turner as well as hay and grain rake
  • Potato harvester and beet lifter
  • Hand, Göpel, motor and built-in threshing machines
  • Potato sorter
  • Potato and beet washing machines
  • Potato crushers and beet cutters
  • Slurry distributor

literature

  • Jaekel, H., Herrmann, K .: From the agricultural machinery factory Franz Richter, Döbeln, via the VEB Landmaschinenbau “Red Banner” to the cabin manufacturer Matec . Journal of the German Agricultural Museum, issue 26, Hohenheim 2007.
  • Dreyer, K .: Unforgotten agricultural technology - the fascination of once famous manufacturers . DLG-Verlag, Frankfurt / Main 2005, ISBN 3-7690-0648-8 .
  • Krombholz, K .: Agricultural machinery in the GDR - light and shadow . DLG-Verlag, Frankfurt / Main 2008, ISBN 978-3-7690-0717-6 .
  • Meyer, F., Herrmann, K., Krombholz, K .: One hundred years for the agricultural engineering industry . Maschinenbau Verlag, Frankfurt / Main 1997, ISBN 3-8163-0342-0 .