Märkisches rolling mill
The Märkische mill was in the era of National Socialism a major subsidiary of Fritz Werner Machine Tools AG in Strausberg , mainly ammunition for the Army Ordnance Department created.
Industrial environment
The industrial and commercial area on Hegermühlenstrasse was expanded in the mid-1930s as part of the armament of the Wehrmacht on the existing Strausberg railway line . Here, next to the then Diamant shoe factory, the Alfred Friedrich aircraft repair facility for light aircraft was established in 1934 . In the Berlin area, there was a great need for repairs to school and sport aircraft. At the end of Hegermühlenstrasse, the closed electricity and waterworks were acquired. The works airfield was located on a 500 m long field in the north of Strausberg, where the final assembly hall was built - the founding cell of today's airfield, so to speak. The damaged aircraft arrived on the Strausberger Railway, were dismantled and reassembled under the supervision of the Reich Aviation Ministry , the fuselage and wings were transported separately by truck to the final assembly hall and flown in. Beate Uhse worked here from April 1941 to 1944 , who, under the nickname “Schlosser-Max”, completed around 700 flights as a so-called one-flyer.
production
Under the code name Märkische Walzwerk GmbH, the ammunition factory of Fritz Werner Werkzeugmaschinen AG was built in this growing industrial area in 1934. In the beginning the factory employed 50 people, but in the following years it became the largest factory in Strausberg. The factory was popularly known as “the roller”.
The company mainly produced ammunition for small arms up to 2 cm and was used to test new materials and technologies for cartridge production. The plant was also used for long-term testing of ammunition machines manufactured by Fritz-Werner-Werkzeugmaschinen AG in Berlin.
Forced labor in the Märkisches Walzwerk
In 1941, forced laborers from all over Europe began to work in the Märkisches Walzwerk . Around 1944 there were around 1,500 forced laborers and prisoners of war who had to work there. Compared to two other large plants of the parent company in 1944, the proportion of forced laborers in the total workforce was very high at 45% (German workers: 1,629 workers, forced laborers: 1,458 workers). In view of this magnitude, it can be assumed that the Strausberg population (11,674 inhabitants 1939) is aware of forced labor.
The director of the Märkisches Walzwerk, Fritz Wommelsdorf, made a statement in 1943 in a study by the Reich Ministry for Armaments and Ammunition . He stated there that the so-called Eastern workers at the time were best employed in mass production, as warehouse workers, assembly workers, foundry workers or auxiliary fitters. Even engineers among the prisoners of war would "only achieve a mediocre performance".
A special feature of the forced labor in the Märkische Walzwerk GmbH was what Fritz Wommelsdorf called "free rework". This punishment combined disciplining the prisoner of war with increased production. Apparently economically rational, the director stated in the study that food withdrawal should be reduced so as not to reduce the workforce unnecessarily. At the same time he advocates a strict use of this punishment.
Forced labor in Strausberg was not limited to Märkische Walzwerk, the Air Force Air Base also had 139 forced laborers for auxiliary work in 1944. The Strausberger Stadtwerke had 13 forced laborers.
Today there is a memorial plaque erected in 2002 near the former factory to commemorate the victims of forced labor. In the local history museum you can read the correspondence between the former Dutch slave laborer Pieter Flanderhijn and a student from Strausberg.
Concentration camp branch
The expansion of production in the ammunition factory led to the deployment of around 150 female prisoners from the Sachsenhausen concentration camp from autumn 1944 , who were housed in a separate department in the main building.
Dismantling after 1945
Most of the residents fled Strausberg on April 19 and 20, 1945 . The reasons for this were bomb attacks and artillery fire. On April 21, 1945, the 32nd Rifle Corps of the Red Army moved into Strausberg. By July 1945, most of the people who had fled had returned.
The ammunition factory operated until April 19, 1945 and was dismantled that same year after the war ended . After the Second World War , the Soviet armed forces maintained a supply base there, which can still be seen from some details and inscriptions on the site. The barracks were abandoned when the Russian troops withdrew in 1994. Since then, the site has been lying fallow and is waiting for renovation and subsequent use. The branch line of the Strausberg Railway that ran past the site was abandoned and dismantled in 2006 due to lack of demand. A last remaining track can be seen at the Elisabethstraße crossing.
literature
Günther Matthes : Forced labor in Strausberg during the Second World War . Mitteilungen Akanthus 12, 2002. Wommelsdorf, Fritz: In the large-scale production and new development of the Fritz Werner Aktiengesellschaft . In: Use of Eastern Workers in the German Machine Industry, Essen, 1943, pp. 103–118. (Federal Archives Lichtenrade)