MIP Mainz Industries Panzerwerke

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The Mainz Industries armored Werke GmbH (. Short MIP) , and later MIP rebuilders GmbH was a 1951 by Germans for up to 1994 United States Army held company headquartered in Mainz for the repair of military equipment including wheel - and tracked vehicles .

The company was based in the districts of Mainz-Mombach and Mainz-Gonsenheim on the site of the large sand , today: Gonsbachterrassen, as well as in Ober-Ramstadt in Hesse , where the company has the largest plant for the overhaul of tires and chains of military vehicles outside of the USA led. Today the Mombacher area is used by artists and for events in “ Halle 45 ”, but mainly as a commercial area. A successor company to the former MIP was active on the site until September 2008.

history

The history of Mainz Industries Panzerwerke goes back to the year 1951, when a repair shop for army equipment was founded in Mainz-Gonsenheim on behalf of the 7th US Army . For this purpose, the then Mainz Ordnance Depot , later Mainz Army Depot, was spun off by the US Army as a military organization and took over the tasks of the depot , which had been in Butzbach / Hesse, with local workers.

In 1953, the Braunschweig-based Luther Works signed a personnel contract with the US Army. The US Army provided the material and the property, and the Luther Works provided the German personnel.

In 1979, however, the Braunschweig parent company ran into financial difficulties, and so the Mainz management decided to separate the plant and continue it independently. It was then continued as MIP Mainz Industries Panzerwerke GmbH .

In 1980 this company took over a company in Ober-Ramstadt for the overhaul of tank tracks and truck tires.

In 1983, the Magirus-Deutz bus plant in neighboring Mainz-Mombach (the original Westwaggon plant , which had been taken over by Klöckner-Humboldt-Deutz (KHD) from Cologne in the 1950s ) to be made into the bus plant for Magirus-Deutz ) in trouble, and the new parent company IVECO (which Magirus-Deutz took over from KHD between 1975 and 1980) decided to close the recently modernized plant. Around 2000 employees were affected. Due to the ever increasing volume of orders, MIP decided to take over the Mombach plant and a large part of the employees there.

The company was renamed to MIP Instandsetzungbetriebe GmbH and from the beginning of the 1980s to the beginning of the 1990s it became the largest and most modern army repairs facility outside the USA. MIP was one of the most important employers in Mainz:

In 1987 the company had around 5700 employees and numerous sub-contractors across the region.

In the early 1990s, MIP management developed a conversion concept under the umbrella of the new parent company MIT Mainz Industrie Technologie Gesellschaft für Umwelt, Transport und Verkehr mbH . MIP became a defense technology subsidiary and numerous sister companies were established to position themselves in the civilian market. These were:

  • FFT Fahrzeugbau und Fahrzeugtechnik GmbH
  • FRT Fahrzeugrecycling Technik GmbH
  • MMT Mechanik und Motoren Technik GmbH
  • AST superstructures and special containers Technik GmbH
  • UET Environment and Disposal Technology GmbH
  • LBV Liegenschaften-, Betriebs- und Verwaltungs-GmbH
  • KGT plastic and rubber technology
  • Sirius Technologie Vertrieb GmbH
  • MIP Logistik Service GmbH
  • MIP Gummierwerk GmbH

From the beginning of the 1990s, MIT was a. a. sole manufacturer of Opel special vehicles, e.g. B. Police , fire brigade etc., first operator of a fully automatic automobile recycling plant, manufacturer of amphibious vehicles , special bodies , containers etc. In addition, future-oriented business areas such as B. Electronics recycling and continued serving with NATO-oriented military around the world. The conversion around the MIT group of companies became the largest conversion project of its time in Germany.

In 1994 MIT had to file for bankruptcy because the state government of Rhineland-Palatinate did not provide promised guarantees.

This meant the end for the last 800 employees. Parts of the company were taken over by former employees or competitors.

The special vehicle manufacturer FFT was still working on the site with around 200 employees until 1999. The company had been taken over from the MIT bankruptcy estate by the Nuremberg defense company Diehl Foundation . After Opel started building its own special vehicles in 1999, the company was deprived of its business basis.

Until September 2008, MIP Fahrzeugbau und Dienstleistungen GmbH was the last MIP successor to operate on the Mombach site. There one continued the activities for the US Army and NATO. The company employed up to 100 people and repaired, modified and painted military vehicles and weapon systems. Due to an enormous drop in orders at the main customer, the US Army, the MIP finally had to file for bankruptcy in August. In October 2008 the halls were cleared. Today nothing reminds us of the military past in Mainz-Mombach.

present

Imperial balcony at the Gastell brothers' wagon factory

The original MIP headquarters in Mainz-Gonsenheim was demolished in the late 1990s. A new housing estate has now been built there in Gonsenheim, the Gonsbach-Terrassen. One of the oldest halls in the Mombach area was converted into an event hall and is now known nationwide as the “ Phoenix Hall ”. The historical buildings facing south are classified as industrial monuments. The so-called Kaiser balcony, from which the German Kaiser is said to have inspected his troops during exercises on the site of the Großer Sand , is located on the corner of "Turmstrasse" and "Am Schützenweg" at one of the factory halls.

swell

  1. ^ Ober-Ramstadt ( Memento of October 8, 2007 in the Internet Archive )

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