Agricultural machinery factory Hermann Raussendorf
With roots that go back to the middle of the 19th century, the Hermann Raussendorf agricultural machinery factory developed into one of the largest agricultural machinery manufacturers in Germany in the 1920s and 1930s, making a name for itself primarily with stationary straw presses and threshing machine combinations.
history
The origin of the company is the workshop for the repair of agricultural machinery that was opened by Friedrich August Raussendorf in Klein-Boblitz near Bautzen in 1856 . Later this company manufactured chopping and built-in threshing machines. The first mobile threshing machine was built in 1876.
Son August Raussendorf founded a carpentry shop in Klein-Boblitz in 1888, which is now a district of Mönchswalde . In the carpentry shop, he first made the wooden frames for the built-in threshing machines for his father's company, which his brother Johann Raussendorf had since taken over. Other products and partners were added later. After completing his apprenticeship as a carpenter, his son Hermann Raussendorf joined the company in 1907 and dealt with the development of straw presses to supplement the built-in threshing machines.
The first self-binding presses came onto the market in 1911. In 1914, 1,000 units had already been produced. At that time the company had around 40 employees. In the war years the company's activities came to a complete standstill, so that in 1919 Hermann Raussendorf practically re-established it.
The straw presses became the focus of the company, which expanded rapidly in the years that followed. Since the possibilities in Klein-Boblitz were limited, Hermann Raussendorf took over the properties of a former paper mill in nearby Singwitz in 1926 and relocated to this new location in 1927. At that time the company had 160 employees. The 10,000. The straw press was already being produced in Singwitz in 1928.
The range of presses was expanded and complemented by threshing machines. Raussendorf took over this program at the end of 1933 from a North German threshing machine factory "Erntesegen", which was based in Werdau / Sa. was relocated.
In 1934, with around 300 employees, the number was 25,000. Straw press produces. On the basis of innovations in straw presses and threshing machines, the company was able to expand its market position very significantly. In 1935 the first "Kombinus", a combination of a threshing machine and a straw press in steel, came onto the market. The smallest model of this new product line received an award at the exhibition in Frankfurt am Main in 1936. At the end of the 1930s, up to 1,000 threshing machines and up to 6,000 straw balers left the factory with around 700 employees. During this time, the Raussendorf company held around 50% of the straw press exports from Germany. Around 45,000 straw balers had been produced by 1939.
In the war years, the company was also active in arms production, but the focus remained on agricultural machinery production. In 1946 the company was dismantled. The remains came under trust management. Under the name Kombinus Dreschmaschinenbau Singwitz , it became a state-owned company with the traditional production program in 1948 . The operation was part of the Association of Publicly Owned Enterprises agricultural, construction and woodworking machinery and belonged in 1951 to the founding members of the in Neustadt in Sachsen resident combine progress agricultural machines . In this, the plant was combined with the agricultural machinery factory Bischofswerda (formerly Knauthe) to form the combine harvester plant in Bischofswerda / Singwitz .
Products
Main products in the 1930s were:
- Stationary straw presses (design with swinging piston) in various sizes and versions with baling channel widths from 800 mm to 1500 mm and straw throughputs from 900 to 5000 kg / hour
- Threshing machines, which were preferably supplied as a combination with appropriate straw presses, in wood and steel construction (several sizes each). With threshing channel widths of 1700 mm and 1800 mm and threshing drum diameters in the range from 380 to 530 mm, the grain throughputs were in the range from 700 to 2000 kg / hour.
In addition, there were head slides for the Pommritzer sugar beet harvesting process, the “Pommritzer farmer's crane” for stable management and chopping machines.
literature
- Chronicle of the Herrmann Raussendorf company on the 50th anniversary of the company in 1938 . (Company publication).
- Catalog of the Central purchase point for agricultural machinery and equipment in Halle / Saale . Halle / Saale 1938 (company publication).
- 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 .