Machine factory Buckau R. Wolf
The Maschinenfabrik Buckau R. Wolf AG (short Buckau-Wolf ) grew out of a company founded in 1838 Shipyard, was transformed into a mechanical engineering - companies based in Magdeburg-Buckau . In 1928 R. Wolf AG merged with Maschinenfabrik Buckau AG . Later the tradition was continued by VEB Schwermaschinenbau "Karl Liebknecht" in Salbke and VEB Schwermaschinenbau "Georgi Dimitroff" in Buckau. After the peaceful revolution in 1989 , several companies were spun off on the Salbker factory premises that still carry the name SKL. Moreover, in Grevenbroich the BWS , resulting in its name the name Buckau Wolf and continues the tradition of the company. BWS still sells products under the Buckau-Wolf brand .
history
Maschinenfabrik Buckau AG
Magdeburger-Dampfschiffahrts-Compagnie
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The company emerged from an initiative to start regular steam shipping between Magdeburg and Hamburg . At that time, there were no rail connections in the region. The idea was first discussed between Magdeburg merchants, the shipowner Mrs. Andreae and shipbuilder Albrecht Tischbein . This group sent out an invitation to form a company on December 23, 1836. Subscription for shares has been requested. On 29./30. December 1836, a meeting of interested parties took place in Magdeburg, which set the capital at 200,000 thalers, 8000 shares of 25 thalers each. At this meeting, 68 interested parties signed a list of drawings that signed amounts of 34,400 thalers. The first general assembly, which the company then founded, was held on January 5, 1837. The solemn constitution of the company did not take place until about a year later on January 28, 1838. However, July 18, 1838 was later set as the formal founding date, on which the approval of the application to found the stock corporation by the Prussian king was given. On the same day the company's first statute came into force. The company name was Magdeburger-Dampfschiffahrts-Compagnie . At the first general assembly the decision was made to buy a steamship. The opinion arose that the cheapest option to purchase was to build in your own shipyard. The first commercial director was the businessman Wilhelm Holtzapfel , and Albrecht Tischbein took over the technical management. The ten founding shareholders also included Johann Friedrich Andreae , who already operated 50 ships on the Elbe , and the Magdeburg businessman Jean Jacques Cuny .
Holtzapfel turned to the magistrate of the city of Magdeburg and asked that the company let the company use part of the city's warehouse at the Packhof. He also asked for permission to set up camp sites at the Elbkaimauer. Both were approved by the city, which was hoping for positive economic effects. Even in 1837 was a first steamship in Elbnähe built on Packhof in Magdeburg, where the 40 hp - steam engine from Fijenoord was delivered. The steam boiler for the wooden Crown Prince of Prussia was already manufactured in the Buckau machine factory of the United Magdeburg Shipping Compagnie . The ship's engine took up about two thirds of the entire ship space and was largely not yet adapted to the maritime purpose. The chimney and other surrounds were still bricked. The launch took place on August 17, 1837. The maiden voyage of the Crown Prince of Prussia from Magdeburg to Hamburg took place on April 3, 1838 and lasted two days. The second ship was named Paul Friedrich, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg . In 1838 the steamship builder Klaas Vuygk from Fijenoord near Rotterdam was recruited as an employee, who worked for the company until 1851.
In addition to the shipyard for steam ships, the construction of a machine factory for steam engines and boilers was planned. Since there was not a sufficiently large area available for this within the densely built-up Magdeburg urban area, on August 22, 1838 the Kloster-Berge-Stiftung acquired a property of 1.3 hectares (five acres and 16 square rods) in the district of Buckau for A little more than 1781 thalers acquired, above the brawn . Production started in the autumn of 1838. In 1839/40, the jelly was made navigable from its confluence with the Elbe to the workshop and expanded in the form of a port. The first workshop consisted of a small wooden house. This production facility was popularly referred to as the Alte Bude until the end of the 20th century .
In 1839, the first steamship “Stadt Magdeburg”, which was entirely produced in-house, was built as a side wheel steamer . The fourth ship was named Queen Elisabeth . In fact, on June 18, 1841 , the Prussian Queen Elisabeth took this ship from Magdeburg to the Herrenkrug . Since the machine factory gained in importance and orders outside of shipbuilding were to be accepted, the company name was changed to Magdeburger Dampfschiffahrts-Compagnie, mechanical engineering and boiler factory, also iron foundry . In 1839 200 workers were employed. However, the company's technical office was still located in Magdeburg in Holzhof 7 and 8 . Due to the company's good reputation, many foreign engineers from Belgium , France , Austria-Hungary , Poland and Sweden accepted a position in the office.
United Hamburg-Magdeburg Steamship Company
On January 1, 1841, it merged with a Hamburg steamship company to form the United Hamburg-Magdeburger Dampfschiffahrts-Compagnie . The company carried this name until 1883, when the Buckau factory was named Maschinenfabrik Buckau . The share capital was increased to 360,350 thalers, and the ships from Hamburg were added to the fleet. There were special ships for fast passenger traffic. In 1843 the tugboat business was added. The company had a pleasure gondola . In 1845 about 30,000 people were transported. With the advent of railroad traffic, this branch of business collapsed almost completely in a short time, but freight traffic remained important.
In 1844 the number of employees had risen to around 400. Two steam ships, 24 steam engines, ten hydraulic presses and a large brick press were completed. In addition, a large number of equipment was built for the sugar industry, which is important in the Magdeburg region, such as vacuum pans and pumps . Orders were received for the construction of four locomotives, 16 tenders and the establishment of a porcelain factory. This year the machine factory received a gold medal at a Berlin exhibition. The year 1845 was overshadowed by two serious accidents. The Crown Prince of Prussia was completely destroyed by the bursting of the steam collecting pipe . Since the insurance did not cover the damage, there was a significant economic loss. According to another statement, the Crown Prince of Prussia sank as early as June 1844 near Tangermünde to the height of the convertible top after damage to the steam system and the ship was largely damaged by fire. A boiler pipe burst on Queen Elisabeth in 1845 when the stoker tried to pierce it with a pipe cleaner . As there were illegal passengers in the engine room due to bad weather, several passengers were killed. However, the company's economic dynamism was unbroken. By 1846 the workforce had grown to 700 people. Steam shipping now drove as far as Dresden in order to compensate for the decline in Hamburg business due to the railroad, but profits in this division fell significantly. In 1847 Rudolf Wolf joined the company as an apprentice. In the same year Karl Gaertner worked in the company.
In 1847 about 800 people were employed. This made the Buckau machine factory the second largest machine factory in Germany after Borsig in Berlin . It was exported to Russia , Poland and Austria . Iron consumption had risen from 589 tons in 1843 to 1480 tons in 1846. Several mechanical engineers recruited from England and the Netherlands were active in the plant, with whose help the company trained its own skilled workers.
In March 1848 the Buckau machine works was affected by the effects of the revolution of 1848 . The workers stopped work and made demands against the factory management. Albrecht Tischbein then spoke to the workers and released them for the afternoon. While the social unrest didn't seem to have affected the company that much, the company went into insolvency . Due to the political uncertainty in Europe, it was not possible to recover existing claims against foreign creditors. The raw material prices rose, the order volume decreased. At the same time, expensive attempts had been made to maintain passenger traffic. The attempt to build up locomotive production turned out to be problematic, in spite of the full capacity. Locomotives manufactured for the Magdeburg-Wittenberger Bahn were not accepted because the performance of the machines did not correspond to the agreements. Efforted processes were unsuccessful. The inadequate endowment of share capital in relation to the size of the business and the very expensive procurement of capital by way of change were criticized. The management of the machine factory was described as insufficiently commercial and the commercial director of the shipping office in Magdeburg as overburdened. The fact that, in addition to his salary, Tischbein received remuneration based on gross sales and, in this respect, although he benefited from large sales but not from actual profits, was criticized. The company had debts of 530,000 thalers. The commercial director Wilhelm Holtzapfel is accused of also bearing responsibility for the precarious situation, as he has lost the overview.
In this situation, Martin Graff took over the management of the company, which he held until 1873. Graff severely restricted passenger shipping and sold superfluous ships. He instructed that all expenses had to be signed by him and that only orders could be accepted that had to be processed within three months and that the client guaranteed punctual payment. Ultimately, he asked the government for a loan of 240,000 thalers, but the government refused. Only 10,000 thalers were approved for the payment of current wages and customs duties, whereby a share priority had to be granted at the same time as security . In order to reorganize the company, Graff agreed with the creditors that they would take over priority shares valued at 550,000 thalers with an annual interest rate of five percent. While various other mechanical engineering companies closed, Buckau could continue to work, even if the workforce fell to 500 people. As a larger order, an order from Prussia for the urgent construction of four gunboats was received this year . However, the calculation failed, so that the order caused a loss of 15,000 thalers. Another problem was that in 1848/49 navigation on the Elbe had largely come to a standstill due to the Schleswig-Holstein War and the associated blockage of the Elbe by Denmark . In 1849 Tischbein left the company and founded a shipyard in Rostock . With him went his close colleague Abraham Andreae , called Brami Andreae.
The advancing industrialization in Germany and Europe brought extensive orders to the mechanical engineering sector in the following years, while shipping continued to suffer from the existing tariffs on the Elbe. Nevertheless, the new Magdeburg steamship was built for personal use . The fleet thus comprised five iron and one wooden steamship as well as four iron and six wooden barges . In 1852 the company then built the gasometer for Magdeburg's new gas works.
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In 1853 there were two major accidents. In a major fire, which according to other information should have already occurred on January 19, 1852, parts of the factory, especially the lathe building, were destroyed. Most of the joinery was also destroyed. The grinding shop and boiler house were damaged, goods in production were destroyed. Again, the insurance payment was low. Around 89,000 thalers had to be used for the reconstruction. In addition, the newly acquired steamship Dresden on the Elbe near Riesa was destroyed by a boiler explosion. Five people were killed. In 1854, the threat of war paralyzed business. The workforce was only 400 people. Hermann Gruson took over the technical management for about a year , after the works manager Kux had previously acted as technical director. However, Gruson came into conflict with the board of directors under silver streak through unauthorized behavior, so that he soon left the company.
The economy picked up from 1855, with the result that both branches of the company generated considerable profits. Graff formed a reserve fund, with the help of which the priority shares should later be replaced. Graff brought in Brami Andreae as the new technical manager in 1856, according to other information as early as 1855. Andreae was meanwhile working in St. Louis and could only be won back to Buckau with a very favorable contract. His annual income was 5000 thalers. Previously only 1,500 thalers were paid for wooden apples. The profits were used to add a 100-horsepower steamboat to the fleet of ships and, on Andreae's initiative, to purchase various large machine tools such as vertical drilling machines, planing machines and shears with pushing mechanisms. Above all, however, the planning began for a new foundry that should be able to produce pieces weighing more than 200 hundredweight . For the first time since 1848 a dividend was distributed . Under Brami's leadership, the company achieved a high technical standard. In particular, he introduced the Corliss control developed by Georg Henry Corliss , which he had got to know in America and which led to coal savings of around 50%. The plant sold hundreds of these machines. In 1862 an award was achieved at the London World's Fair .
However, shipping on the Elbe soon proved to be a problem again. In 1857 two new steam shipping companies were founded. The resulting competition in connection with the very low Elbe water levels in summer resulted in considerable losses for this division. Graff rejected calls to outsource shipping in the hope of an early abolition of the Elbe tariffs. The machine factory continued to make very good sales. In particular, there were orders from mining companies that needed very large steam engines to operate their systems. Graff planned the company's strategic orientation primarily towards the construction of large machines. The turnover exceeded 500,000 thalers and new investments were made. The Buckau machine factory survived an economic crisis that began in 1857 thanks to its reserves and larger orders. Orders from the mining industry were not lacking during the crisis. In addition, the city of Magdeburg placed a major order with a volume of 506,000 thalers in 1855/56 for the construction of a waterworks on the nearby Wolfswerder . Among other things, a water pump with 140 hp was used. However, steam shipping continued to incur losses. In 1858 the loss of the six steamships and 17 barges totaling 25,000 thalers. Due to the Sardinian War , the year 1859 turned out to be difficult for the German economy, whereby the machine factory was still well utilized by foreign orders and employed 500 people. The export business gained in importance. The freight volume on the Elbe, however, was low. In addition, there was a considerable drought that year, so that due to the low water level, shipping to Dresden had to be stopped as early as April 1859. In 1860 the company stopped the loss-making traffic to Dresden. The question of the abandonment of the river navigation branch became more and more urgent. Graff was publicly attacked for his continued detention. The Elbe tariffs, which are extremely obstructive for Elbe shipping, especially in competition with the railways, were reformed and reduced in 1863. Since the new regulation did not come into force until July 1st, the goods accumulated in anticipation of the favorable conditions. However, the extremely low water that then set in led to severe disabilities. The shipping branch continued to generate losses. The mechanical engineering division had suffered from a drop in prices for some time, but in 1863 it again achieved better results. The most important customer was the sugar industry. The Civil War , which impeded exports to North America, proved to be a hindrance .
From 1863 the engineer Wilhelm Riehn worked for the company until around 1868.
In Magdeburg, the company acquired a plot of land at Kaufhof 3 on which a new administration building was built. The technical office was relocated here in 1864.
From 1864 onwards a significant economic upturn began, which led to profits in both sectors. The engineering factory built a waterworks system for 100,000 thalers. The delivery of three boilers for the Prussian Navy is worth mentioning as a larger order. The company's port built on the Sülze received quay walls and a new assembly workshop was built.
In order to improve the unfavorable situation of Elbe shipping, the idea arose from around 1864 to use chain steamers on the Elbe , based on the model of shipping on the Seine . Andreae had got to know chain shipping abroad . First, Graff had a chain laid on the stretch between Neustadt and Buckau for about five kilometers for 35,000 thalers, along which special chain steamers pulled along from 1866 . The new technology enabled greater towing power with lower energy consumption and draft. The first chain ship built in Germany was built in Buckau under Andreae's leadership. The maiden voyage took place on September 1, 1868. Gradually, further sections were put into operation. In 1868 the chain was laid over 51 km between Magdeburg and Ferchland , until 1872 over a further 77 kilometers to Wittenberge and finally in 1874 another 105 kilometers to Hamburg . Upstream of the Elbe, another company had received the concession.
On May 15, 1866, in view of the imminent German war, the Buckau machine factory received the official instruction to demolish a shed. With such measures the apron of the fortress Magdeburg was prepared for a possible siege. 50 men from the workforce joined the military. Because of the war had reduced working hours are introduced. Another major burden was the outbreak of cholera and smallpox , from which five percent of the Buckau population died in a short time.
At the end of the 1860s, the economy picked up significantly. Maschinenfabrik Buckau benefited above all from orders from Russia and Austria, where industrialization was only now beginning on a larger scale. The product variety and flexibility had reached a considerable extent. There were elevators, a cotton mill , a distillery , steam dredgers , steam pumps , hydraulic presses, chain steamers , coal revitalization ovens , air pumps , locomotives with 12 HP, mills, pumping stations , tube evaporators , beet grinders , separating pans , ship engines with 200 HP, stationary steam engines with 300 HP, centrifugal engines , Water collectors , water squeegees , sugar factories and sugar crushers .
In 1869 the company paid a dividend of twelve percent. Due to the new chain ships, but also other electricity construction measures, the shipping division remained without a loss. A pension and widows' fund was set up with the profits. The effects of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/71 initially impaired economic activity, but then led to a strong growth in business activity after the victory of the German side. In 1871 a dividend of 18% was paid. The turnover of the machine factory rose in 1872 to almost 750,000 thalers. In addition, on July 1, 1870, the Elbe tariff was abolished, which gave the Elbe shipping division an additional boost. After 25 years at the helm of the company, Graff retired on August 24, 1872. Thomas Stephenson Golden was his successor .
Surprisingly, it soon turned out that the measures to regulate the electricity, which Graff had vehemently called for, had a detrimental effect on chain shipping, as the chain-independent paddle steamers of other companies benefited more than average from this.
The founders' crash that took place in 1873 impaired the company's business activities, with shipping suffering in particular, while the turnover of the machine factory fell only moderately. Noteworthy is a steam engine with 860 hp built in 1874 and used for water retention. Probably due to the unhealthy and very cramped living conditions in Buckau, cholera broke out again in 1873, which in turn cost many lives and led to considerable production restrictions. The following years were marked by the economic crisis. Sales fell from two to about one million marks. The old currency, the thaler, was abolished. Orders fell so far that there were layoffs and working hours were reduced from eleven to seven hours. In spite of this, mechanical engineering still made a profit, although this only made up for the losses in shipping.
On May 6th, 1875, the long-time technical manager Brami Andreae died, who had a major influence on the technical quality of the company's products and had shaped the good reputation of the engineering factory.
In the years that followed, the chain ships were profitable again, but the decision was made to sell all ships to the "Kettenschleppschiffahrt der Oberelbe" (KSO). With a resolution of September 12, 1880, the sale of the former KSO, which had been converted into the "Deutsche Elbschiffahrts-Gesellschaft" chain , was made in 1881 at a price of 300 marks each. The priority bonds that had been newly taken on in the meantime were later replaced by the sale of the shares. The machine factory was comprehensively modernized for almost 250,000 marks. A new model house, new storage rooms, offices and drying chambers were built. Two cupola furnaces were purchased for the foundry and the boiler shop was expanded.
Maschinenfabrik Buckau AG
From January 1, 1884, the name of the company was Maschinenfabrik Buckau AG . The share capital was halved to one million marks, with the investment value of the company's facilities being given as two million marks. The number of employees rose to 500. A number of large orders followed. In particular, large steam engines with up to 200 HP were produced for drainage in the mining and steel industry. A new, larger boiler shop was built, and mobile cranes and hydraulic elevators were purchased. At the same time, a tool shop was set up. The shipyard's workshop was expanded. An iron swing bridge was built over the brawn. However, the dividend was only 3%. In the following years there was a worse order situation, until 1888 losses arose which totaled 600,000 marks and were covered by the reserve fund. The number of employees fell to 200 during this period. The company was in crisis. In 1886 director Golden retired. C. Peters and Aefner followed him together. Both had previously belonged to the company.
The shipyard business declined and the management tried to open up new business areas. The production of cooling and ice machines based on the patent of the Buckauer engineers Hartung and Wepner was started. Seven machines were immediately sold at a total price of 250,000 marks. Facilities for the milling industry were built. However, both of these soon retreated to a new main line of business. Equipment for the lignite industry such as bucket ladder excavators for opencast mines and equipment for briquette factories was produced. As early as 1886, the patent for Schulz's tube dryer was acquired, with which excess water content was removed from the brown coal . In addition, a briquette press based on the Exter system was built as an extrusion press . The first major order was to equip the A. Ackermann briquette factory in Bitterfeld . In the years that followed, the tube dryer developed into a very popular product for the company.
On October 1, 1888, Reinhold Lange became the new director of the Buckau machine works. He bet on the company specializing in some special products. In particular, activities for the lignite industry were expanded. Since there was hardly any experience with questions relating to the processing of coal, difficult technical problems arose which, in addition to the director, primarily the chief designer Max Salzmann and the engineer Arthur Lange had to solve. The production of steam engines continued. A three-cylinder 1200 hp marine engine built in 1888 is worth mentioning.
Together with Siemens & Halske , Maschinenfabrik Buckau took part in the International Electrotechnical Exhibition in 1891 and exhibited a dynamo connected to a 500 hp steam engine , which resulted in several orders. Despite a major order for a 1,500 hp steam engine used for water retention, a generally unfavorable economic situation was reflected in the Buckau machine factory with a slight delay from 1891 onwards. The number of employees fell to 250. Sales were halved to one million marks, but increased significantly again in 1892. The alignment of production to cost-intensive, long-term planned special capital goods made the company more independent of fluctuations in the economic situation. By 1894 the number of employees had risen to 400 again. In 1892 a ship engine with 1600 hp was built. In the following years the machine performance increased to up to 3000 HP. In 1895 33 briquette presses were built as well as various large Corliss machines for use in power plants.
The continuing upswing led to rebuilding and expansion of the company. So in 1895 the boiler shop was equipped with hydraulic riveting machines. In 1896 a new assembly hall including a locksmith's shop and offices was built. It was now possible to produce steam engines with up to 5000 hp. The construction of a new boiler and machine house was completed in 1899 and a new foundry in 1900. The company's economic development was mainly supported by orders to set up large briquette factories. But the boilers of the new Magdeburg power station also came from the Buckau machine factory. New shell boilers were developed and patented. The shareholders received high dividends. A shortage of skilled workers was problematic. They worked overtime and night shifts. The share capital was increased to three million marks, according to other information to 2.25 million marks. The company's 60th anniversary was celebrated on May 21, 1898 in Bremer's concert hall at Leipziger Strasse 62 with 700 participants. Previously, the chairman of the supervisory board, Heinrich Fölsche, had given a speech in front of the assembled workforce in the factory courtyard and presented a new factory flag. The long-time director Reinhold Lange died on January 5th, 1901. He was succeeded by Max Salzmann.
From 1902 a crisis in the briquette industry made itself felt at the machine factory. In addition to the significantly lower order intake, the failure of major receivables had a particularly negative impact. In 1903 there were major layoffs, at the same time new fields of activity were opened up. A water gas welding plant was built, which in the following years produced considerable economic success and a new welding hall soon had to be built. Patents were acquired for various innovations, including gas engines . When the economy picked up again, the traditional priorities reappeared, particularly on equipping briquette factories. The number of employees reached 1,000 in 1905 and rose to 1,600 in 1906. Noteworthy was an order from the city of Berlin for the welding shop, which included the production of a five-kilometer-long pipe with a diameter of one meter. Despite the very good order situation, no profit could be made in 1906 because several debtors could not settle their claims. Due to the significantly increased production volume, Wilhelm Kleinherne was appointed director alongside Max Salzmann on February 1, 1906 .
On August 15, 1906, the machine factory Röhrig & König , located in Sudenburg and founded in 1848, was acquired, which was primarily active in the sugar industry and also successfully produced systems for the production of sand-lime bricks . Apparatus for breweries, distilleries and chicory factories were part of the production range. The operating part was then called the Sudenburg department, vorm. Röhrig & König continued. The company's enormous growth continued. As of December 31, 1907, the company had almost 2,000 employees. After economic problems in 1908 with a considerable decline in sales, sales increased again in the following years. After the share capital was increased to 6,000,000 marks in 1908, the expansion of the production range began. Following on from the activity for the lignite industry, bucket chain dredgers were built to meet the needs of large open-cast mines , which, along with the briquette factories, became an important pillar of the company. In 1911 five large excavators were delivered. The technology of the excavators has been continuously improved. After the use was initially limited to the excavation of overburden , from 1914 onwards, the lignite itself was excavated by the company's excavators. For the excavators, a track shifting device was integrated, with which a shifting of the railway tracks required for the removal of coal or overburden became possible depending on the progress of the excavation. Instead of a workforce of 70 to 80 for such an excavator, a number of five workers was now sufficient.
In 1911 a cartel agreement was concluded with Zeitzer Eisengießerei und Maschinenbau AG , which was renewed in 1922, 1927 and 1932. The companies agreed on supplies to the lignite industry.
With the beginning of the First World War , the company had to cope with the drafting of many employees for military service. However, the production range remained almost unchanged. With Salzmann's death in 1918, Kleinherne continued to run the company on his own. From 1920 he also ran the R. Wolf AG machine factory, which was later merged with. In 1921, the two companies initially formed an interest group.
In the post-war period, the demand for equipment for the lignite industry increased again, so that production was expanded significantly. The pre-war production level was not reached again until 1922. A new large hall was built for the construction of excavators. The onset of inflation and rising interest rates made it necessary to double the share capital to six million marks.
Strikes for higher wages and the sharp fall in the value of the mark put a strain on business activity in the early 1920s. With the end of the inflation, the Buckau machine works was able to establish a successful business activity again. In 1925, the Sudenburg plant again succeeded in receiving orders from abroad for the construction of sugar factories. In the following years were beet sugar factories in Turkey and cane sugar factories to South America delivered. The production processes have been extensively rationalized. The excavator assembly hall in the Buckau factory was enlarged and the jelly that ran through the premises was channeled. The excavator construction developed swivel excavators , which now combined the excavation of the overburden and the coal seam in one facility and were initially used in the Bitterfeld district from 1927 . Crawler excavators have been built since 1925.
R. Wolf AG
Foundation in Buckau
In 1862, Rudolf Wolf founded his own machine factory in Buckau, very close to the Buckau machine factory. After consulting with Buckau's mayor Christoph Griesemann , Wolf acquired a plot of land in Buckauer Feldstrasse on March 13, 1862 for 2,900 thalers, which until then belonged to the assets of the former Berge monastery , which had been managed by the provincial school board . Wolf first had to replace the lease to a master of the Watson file factory for 500 thalers. A workshop and a modest house were built. The topping-out ceremony of the factory building took place on April 26th, of the residential building and administration building on April 28th, 1862. Production was geared towards traction engines and began on June 12, 1862, according to other information on June 16. Metz, whom Wolf knew from his work in Stuttgart, became chief engineer. The locksmith Hergesell became the works manager, the commercial manager became the businessman Wallwitz. The first order was a long time coming. A first completed traction engine was used for threshing and was ordered by the landowner Bennecke from Athensleben . It was characterized by a low steam consumption. Wolf bought this first machine back in 1887, used it for 15 years in the company and in 1904 handed it over to the German Museum in Munich . In 1863 orders for three more traction engines followed. The manufacture of the first crankshaft caused particular technical difficulties . The company initially employed six workers, some of whom had previously worked in the Buckau machine works. The first worker was Wilhelm Hosse , who was hired on June 15 . At the end of the first year 30 people were already employed. The working hours were from 6:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., with a one-hour lunch break.
In the years that followed, Wolf sold Hornsby's threshing machines and built pumps and operating systems for the Schönebecker Saline. In 1865 the company took part in a first exhibition in Merseburg and received the Prussian State Prize in silver. Piston pumps produced by Wolf were mainly used after 1870 for construction work to expand the German rail network. In the beginning, the boilers required for the locomobile were not built in-house, it was not until 1868 that a boilermaker's shop was set up. Although the company saw itself as a specialist in locomobiles, large stationary steam engines were built especially for applications with greater power requirements. In the company's catalogs for 1869, the construction of stationary machines in 14 sizes between 2 and 60 hp was offered. A 60 hp machine cost 5400 thalers. The importance of stationary steam engines declined in connection with the increase in the performance of the locomobile, but such machines were still included in the 1900 catalog. Later they were only built on special customer requests. In the winter of 1870, the company supplied eleven boilers for the Magdeburg casemates , in which French prisoners of war were housed.
Wolf geared his company towards quality work. The working conditions were very difficult, the first wooden overhead traveling crane was not purchased until the beginning of the 1870s. Heavy loads were initially only moved with crowbars and rollers.
As early as 1864, the initially only one-story factory building was extended. Wolf's house was demolished in 1867, after only five years, and replaced by a spacious new building. Wolf lived here until 1889.
While the company grew slowly at first, it benefited considerably from the boom in the late 1860s and then employed 87 people in 1871. This year Wolf succeeded in exporting the first system abroad. Wolf took up the construction of Field boilers , which were characterized by a rapid development of steam with little space requirement and which had caused a sensation in the professional world. Ultimately, however, this construction did not prevail, so that production was later discontinued. In 1873 iron wheels were introduced instead of the wooden wheels previously used for traction engines. The first steam hammer was used in the forge at the plant. In 1874 the 500th locomobile was completed. In that year Wolf started the production of centrifugal pumps . Pumps with a wide variety of performance profiles were built. Depending on the application, systems for delivery heights from 0.75 m to 80 m could be supplied. The delivery rates varied between 100 and 120,000 liters per minute. Systems for large amounts of water and low heads were sold particularly frequently.
After drilling solutions had already been developed for the Schönebecker Saline in the early days, intensive work on deep drilling equipment resulted later . From 1872, drilling rigs using the Körber method were delivered in cooperation with the drilling inspector Köbrich . With the help of the systems built by Wolf, the deepest boreholes in the world at that time were created in Schladebach with 1748.4 m and later in Paruschowitz in Upper Silesia with 2002 m.
Especially in the early days, the Wolf company offered additional technical systems, as this made it possible to sell their own locomobile as drive machines. Transmission systems, especially for textile and paper factories, equipment for sugar factories, starch and chicory factories, salt pans, oil mills and tanneries were added. In particular, Wolf produced complete sawmills including a wide variety of woodworking machines.
In 1872 a new machine house and a new assembly hall were built. At the same time, the property was expanded. The garden created for Wolf in this way was gradually used for production purposes as well. The machine house was greatly expanded in 1896. The economic calculation of the complicated machines turned out to be particularly problematic . Many companies in the industry did not have a detailed overview of their own costs and only worked with estimates. In 1873 Wolf hired the businessman Albert Ballewski as a machine calculator in order to obtain an exact cost calculation . Ballewski turned out to be an excellent specialist. Based on his experience he wrote the book Der Fabrikbetrieb , published in 1905, which was published several times. Also in 1873 the company participated in the world exhibition in Vienna . Various other exhibitions followed within Germany.
The founder crash had a particularly negative impact on Rudolf Wolf. In 1876 only four people were employed. After a short time, however, orders were received again, mainly from the sugar and paper industries. It was not until 1880 that the order situation improved significantly and the company returned to its original workforce of around 100. Four steam barges were built that year. Boilers, propellers and deep drilling rigs were manufactured. Also in 1880, Germany's first international locomobile competition took place in Magdeburg. Wolf won the first prize here. At an exhibition in Berlin in 1883, Wolf products attracted a great deal of attention.
In 1884 280 people were employed. The company's goods have been exported to Chile and China , among others . In 1886/87 night shifts were used. A finished traction engine left the factory every other day. By 1888 the number of employees had risen to 550. The performance of the systems built also increased. In 1867, Wolf built a traction engine with an output of 20 hp, although its designer and a foreman were of the opinion that such a power would not be an option for traction engines. The Lokomobile was a great success, so that even further increases in performance followed. In 1875 systems with 40 hp were built. The Wolfs makes won prizes as the most efficient locomobile in several competitions. After the 1000th locomobile was completed in 1881, the 2000th was produced in 1888. In 1887 the company's 25th anniversary was celebrated in the assembly hall built in 1872. In the same year, a particularly large workshop was opened in which locomotives were assembled.
In 1888 Wolf suffered a stroke that prevented him from practicing his profession. Although he was still in charge of the management, large parts of the management function were taken over by the senior executives of the company Ferdinand Wolff , who became the company's director and Arnold Weese . In the technical area, Arminius Rauschenbach and the chief designer Gottfried Wegener excelled. The technical director Heinrich Storck had been employed in the company since 1886 .
The company carried out a special order for the construction of stationary steam engines in 1889, in which two 50 HP, one 150 HP and two 200 HP machines were supplied to generate electricity for the Royal Palace in Berlin. The Wolf company supplied a large number of machines for river boats. This activity resulted in the production of further components for mechanical ship propulsion systems. At the request of the shipowner Andrae , Wolf developed the Buckauer screw, an alternative to the conventional cast-iron screws, which was characterized by the fact that individual wings could be replaced if damaged.
Hydraulic riveting was introduced in the company in 1889 . In 1890, 336 traction engines were built with 770 workers. From this year the company manufactured systems for shooting ranges that were used for electrical lighting. Wolf also built the pulley systems , which were also operated by his company's locomobiles.
In 1891 the workshops were extended westward to the Magdeburg-Leipzig railway line, a forge and a large administration building were built. In 1892 a new, large machine hall was built on the northern property line. Participation in the International Electrotechnical Exhibition in Frankfurt am Main in 1891 and the World Exhibition in Chicago in 1893 took place and since 1888 exhibitions have been sent every year: the first exhibition in non-German-speaking countries was in 1892 at an exhibition in Plovdiv . From 1893 to 1912 the Wolf company took part in 249 exhibitions. The Wolf machines often supplied the exhibitions with electricity. Further participation in world exhibitions took place in 1906 in Milan , 1910 in Brussels and 1911 in Turin .
In the 1890s, the establishment of a network of agencies began. Initially, offices were opened in German-speaking countries from around 1885. Representations were set up in Berlin, Breslau , Frankfurt am Main and Cologne , which were run as branches from April 1, 1893. Branches were set up in Hanover , Danzig , Cannstatt , Munich , Königsberg and Nuremberg . Leipzig and Hamburg followed later . In Zurich , Posen , Lübeck and Vienna, agencies were set up that operated under the names of representatives. Vienna later became a branch. From 1894, agencies in non-German-speaking countries were added, some of which were later also run as pinnacles. Offices were established in Moscow , London , Milan , Saint Petersburg , Madrid , Kiev , Brussels , Lodz , Warsaw , Kharkov and other European and North African countries.
The workforce had risen to 900 in 1894. In the same year a building was set up to house the models. In 1895 the delivery of the 5,000th locomobile could be celebrated. The economic boom and the factory continued to grow. At the Berlin trade fair in 1896, the company received the rare award of the Royal Prussian Golden State Medal for commercial achievements . 500 traction engines were built in 1897 alone. However, the area of the plant at the previous location could not be expanded. With the leasing of a small neighboring area to build a joinery, the limit of spatial expansion was reached. Due to the lack of space, a four-story factory building was built in 1897, in which workshops and a locksmith's shop were housed. In order to still be able to expand further, 16,000 m² were leased in Buckau on the Elbuferbahn in 1895 and several large warehouses were built in which completed locomotives and wood were stored. In addition, plans began to build a new factory in Salbke, south of Buckau. Finally, in 1911, garages and horse stables were built on the other side of Feldstrasse in Buckau. Overall, the area used in Buckau ultimately amounted to 40,000 m². The number of people employed had risen to 1200 by 1898. After a short dent in 1900/01 with short-time work , full work began again in 1903.
Technically significant was the introduction of the superheated steam engine in 1900 , with the help of which the coal consumption of the locomobile could be significantly reduced. The main designer here was Adolf Mertz . Corresponding experiments with the use of superheated steam were carried out at Wolf from 1896. Despite the emergence of diesel engines to compete with the company's traditional products, R. Wolf was able to increase sales. In 1905 the 10,000 traction engines were built.
Establishment of the Salbke plant from 1905
In the same year a modern new plant was built in Salbke. As early as 1899, a seven-hectare piece of arable land near the railway was bought here. On January 12, 1899, the Wanzleben district committee granted a concession to build a machine factory, boiler shop and iron foundry for the municipality of Salbke. Due to the unfavorable economic development at the turn of the century, construction of the new plant was not started at first, so an extension of the permit was requested annually. However, a construction plan that took into account the logistical processes of production was drawn up in 1904. Construction work began in March 1905.
First a test hall for locomobile and a warehouse was built. The power generated by the locomotives in the test hall was used to generate electricity. The annihilation of performance by braking with a Prony bridle , which was applied in previous years , was only used in exceptional cases. 63% of the energy required in the plant in 1911 was supplied by the machines in the test field. The main power station and the water supply were connected to these halls. In the same year, the boiler shop was set up, to which an assembly for large locomobiles and a workshop for processing cast parts were connected. This was followed by the central warehouse, an administration building with dining rooms, the model carpentry with 1425 m², which was relocated from Buckau to Salbke in 1909, and the model warehouse with a floor area of 2420 m². Many of the buildings were expanded again after just a few years. The factory premises comprised 14.5 hectares of which 56,168 m² were initially built on.
The canteen, operated by 14 employees, offered space for 200 people at the same time. There was no alcohol ban in the factory . Bottled beer bought in the canteen could be drunk during working hours . Coffee was given free of charge to both workers and factory officials. 5200 liters of coffee were served every day. Water and milk were given out at cost price. These measures reduced alcohol consumption.
The iron foundry was set up in 1907 with a floor area of 6560 m² and an annual capacity of 8000 t. The first casting took place on May 26, 1908 in the presence of Rudolf Wolf. Until then, the Wolf company had to commission other foundries to cast according to its own models. West of the iron foundry, a metal foundry was built in 1910, in which special alloys for locomotive construction were produced. Up to 1912, 5.5 km of standard and narrow gauge rails had been laid in the area of the plant. In 1912, 439 cranes were in use in both plants. The plant operated a laboratory and a material testing institute, in which the raw materials and preliminary products obtained were examined for their quality. Ultimately, a total of 145,253 m² was available in Salbke, of which a little more than a third was built up by 1912.
After the Salbker plant went into operation, the balance within the company shifted. The large locomotives were now being built in Salbke, while Buckau produced smaller locomotives. Salbke's importance grew steadily.
After a decline in orders around 1908, sales increased significantly in the years up to 1911. Exports remained an important pillar. There are now agencies in 35 countries.
In Salbke, threshing machines and straw presses for agriculture were also manufactured. From the autumn of 1908, workshops were set up to manufacture these products, which were completed in 1909. In 1910, R. Wolf exhibited an 800 hp superheated steam locomobile ( presumably in a compound version ) at the World Exhibition in Brussels , which, coupled with a generator, supplied the electricity for the German section of the exhibition at night. She alternated with a 1000 hp machine from Lanz , Mannheim, which worked during the day. The Wolf company supplied nine superheated steam boilers for the construction of the old Elbe tunnel in Hamburg .
The company's founder, Rudolf Wolf, died on November 20, 1910. Due to illness, he had previously had to largely withdraw from the management of the company. A special achievement by Wolf was his social commitment before the time of the social insurance . In 1881 he founded a pension, widows and orphans' fund for his employees and in 1895 a spa and convalescent home in Braunlage (Harz). A workers' benefit fund followed in 1899 and a company civil servant benefit fund in 1904, which was used to help in emergencies that were not caused by their own fault and prolonged illness. The company operated a rental savings bank . The employees were able to have this automatically deducted from their wages, which were subject to ten percent annual interest and paid out at the time of the quarterly rent payment. In 1911 1,500 savers took part in this savings bank. A voluntary funeral fund had been set up, into which the employees paid 0.60 M a year, with the company adding half of it. In the event of death, part of the funeral costs were covered. This health fund provided benefits for illnesses lasting longer than 20 weeks. In accordance with legal requirements, the company introduced a factory health insurance fund, disability insurance and accident insurance. In both the Buckau and Salbke plants, there were accident stations with dressing rooms and sick rooms, each of which was manned by a plant employee trained as a medical assistant. There were company fire departments in both plants.
As early as 1907, the company's workers had founded the R. Wolfschen Werke workers' association , which was to excel particularly in the creation of welfare institutions for workers. The association, which is independent of the factory management but is supported by it, already had 1200 members in 1912. A pension and survivors' insurance, a health benefit fund, a death benefit fund and a fund for support in extraordinary emergencies were operated for the members of the association. Of particular note is the association of the legal form of a GmbH founded savings and Building Association Wolf field the settlement of the west of the plant Wolf field justified. However, the GmbH failed financially, so that the settlement was later taken over directly by the factory.
A large number of apprentices were trained. The apprenticeship period was usually 4 years, the daily working time 10 hours, including breaks.
In 1911 the company had an average of 3374 employees. In the company's catalog there were 88 locomotive designs. The 15,000 traction engines were delivered as early as 1911. Significantly more than half of the goods produced were exported. The number of employees at the Wolf company in 1912 was almost 3,400, and sales were 19.5 million marks. The Wolf company was heavily involved in advertising its products. In 1911 alone there was contact with 1,551 publications in which advertisements were placed. Advertisements were placed in 841 newspapers, including around 300 foreign newspapers. The catalogs were published in eleven languages. Posters were used on a larger scale. In 1911 15,510 posters were posted, about two thirds of them abroad. Exhibitions in the respective regions were used to open up international markets. The company exhibited in Allahabad in what was then British India and in Buenos Aires in 1911 . The international orientation of the company was expressed in the fact that business mail could be conducted in seven languages. In addition to German, there were correspondents for English, French, Italian, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish. On average, 200 to 250 fitters were on the road to set up, maintain or repair the machines.
The company had five telephone lines in 1911, which had made about 3900 long-distance calls that year. However, there were already 141 telephones within the company. Telegrams were of greater importance , in 1911 7,500 were sent, 8,600 were received. Goods were obtained from 2200 suppliers for the necessary material purchases.
In 1913 the company was converted into a stock corporation with a capital of twelve million marks. Max Wolf remained technical director general.
First World War
The beginning of the First World War was a major turning point for Wolf AG, which was largely dependent on exports. At times, 60% of production had gone abroad. Production fell significantly in the first weeks of the war, as normal rail traffic was severely restricted by mobilization and raw materials and intermediate products did not arrive on time. In addition, around a quarter of the workforce was drafted into military service. The export opportunities also collapsed. Although locomotives were purchased by the armaments industry or the military themselves, the declines due to the lack of export business could not be made up for. Ultimately, short-time work had to be introduced and production had to be converted to armaments-related goods. The utilization then increased sharply.
From around 1915 onwards, a large number of the jobs that were made available by employees drafted into the military were filled by women. In 1916, 204 women worked in the Buckau plant and 510 in Salbke, also working night shifts. From January 1916 the company was allowed to recruit machine fitters from the occupied territories in Poland and Russia . More than 100 locksmiths came to Magdeburg from these areas. For 1917/18 their number is given as 87.
On August 13, 1915, around 6:00 p.m., a major explosion occurred during a thunderstorm. Three people were injured. Shrapnel flew through the air, hissing and whistling, and some of them hit the Kreuzhorst on the other side of the Elbe . Houses and tombstones in an adjacent cemetery were damaged.
In 1915, the Christian Hagans machine factory in Erfurt was taken over and continued as a factory department. Aschersleber Maschinenbau AG was also added during the First World War . The company founded by Wilhelm Schmidt , formerly known as W. Schmidt & Co. , had become known for Schmidt's superheated steam machines and the construction of very large systems. The purchase was necessary due to the start of the production of steam plows and road tractors for which the capacity of the previous workshops was insufficient. In Aschersleber factory diesel engines developed for power stations and cell filters . Heinrich Notz took over the management of the Aschersleber plant . The Magdeburg steam plow factory John Fowler & Co. was taken over in 1917 the Dessau steel foundry R. Becker & Co.
Time from 1918
With the end of the war, the company tried to switch production back to peacemaking. However, the difficult economic situation in Germany led to a significant drop in production figures. The company tried hard to rebuild the broken ties with foreign countries. The order situation improved significantly. The production volume tripled within a short period of time. However, the high inflation in the early 1920s was problematic. Even after the end of the period of inflation, the situation remained difficult for R. Wolf AG. Many customers had problems with the financing of the goods and canceled, invoices were not paid. Exports, which were so important before, only slowly got back on track. In order to reduce costs, negotiations were carried out with competitors about the merging of work areas, which later succeeded in particular with Heinrich Lanz AG. In 1920/1921 Wolf AG negotiated with Hugo Stinnes AG Hamburg about taking over the sole agency of Stinnes AG for Wolf products in East Asia . However, the negotiations failed.
In July 1923, R. Wolf AG took over the Grade Motorenwerke in Magdeburg-Wilhelmstadt , after which an interest group was formed from 1919. The company, founded by Hans Grade in 1905 , built motorcycles, crude oil engines and boat engines. The engine construction of the Grade plant, which was closed in 1925, was relocated to Salbke and formed the cornerstone for the diesel engine construction that was later operated in Salbke for many decades. The same applies to the diesel engines, cell filters and pumps previously built in the Aschersleber factory . Building on the experience of the two plants that were taken over, construction of two-stroke diesel engines began in Salbke in 1925.
An interest group was formed with the Buckau machine factory as early as 1921. Shares were exchanged and several positions in the directorates were held in personal union. In addition to Rudolf Wolf junior, the son of the company's founder, the industrialist Otto Gruson was a member of the supervisory board . Both companies have now made agreements and divided markets among themselves.
Problems arose in 1923 with the occupation of the Ruhr area by French and Belgian troops. There were no raw materials or intermediate products. Wolf AG was forced to order short-time work. After just three weeks, however, it was back to work. The enormous inflation caused problems. The company issued its own emergency money . In 1924 the official currency was stable again. Wolf AG generated a profit of 13.7 million gold marks, a substantial part of which was invested in the expansion and modernization of production.
In 1924, Wolf formed an interest group with the financially troubled Heinrich Lanz company from Mannheim . Wolf AG took over a bank guarantee for Lanz for 5.5 million marks and there were agreements when signing supply contracts. However, this contract initially did not pay off for Wolf AG. The guarantee was actually used because of arrears in payment, so that Wolf AG had to pay 2 million marks. Otto Gruson criticized the one-sided profiting of the Lanz company. However, by drawing on the guarantee, Wolf AG was able to force Lanz to convert its legal form into a stock corporation. From Wolfscher's side, Messrs. Wilhelm Kleinherne and Werhahn were then sent to the Lanz AG Supervisory Board. On March 9, 1926, a contract was signed between the two companies to split production. From April 1, 1926, Lanz took over the production of threshing machines, straw presses, elevators and mobile motors from Wolf, while Wolf also produced stationary and mobile locomotives, stationary motors, steam boilers, steam road tractors, steam and motorized road rollers as well as steam and motorized plows Cable system from Lanz AG took over. The contract resulted in the exchange of relevant employees, tools, patents and the unification of the branches of both companies at home and abroad.
However, this business turned out to be disadvantageous for Wolf AG. While the abandoned agricultural machinery industry developed positively, the demand for locomotives fell significantly. Lanz AG rejected the merger of the two companies that Wolf AG had actually prepared with the conclusion of the contract.
Wolf AG ran into financial difficulties. The previously important stationary locomobiles have been displaced from the market by diesel engines and, with increasing electrification, by electric motors. In agriculture, the universally applicable tractors , which were also built by Lanz, outstripped the locomobile more and more. It was foreseeable that tractors would take over this market entirely.
In 1926/27, the productions that had previously been located in Aschersleben were relocated to the Salbker plant under the direction of Heinrich Notz. Notz became director in Salbke. The Dessau steel foundry was shut down in 1926. In 1928 the Erfurt plant was closed and the locomotive construction stopped. The background to this was an agreement with the Henschel company , which in return stopped building locomotives.
Wolf AG, however, worked at a loss, the share values fell. In this situation negotiations were held to merge with the Buckau machine factory.
Fusion to the machine factory Buckau R. Wolf AG
After the formation of the community of interests between Maschinenfabrik Buckau and R. Wolf AG in 1921, Maschinenfabrik Buckau R. Wolf AG was created in 1928 from the merger of the two companies . Maschinenfabrik Buckau had offered Wolf AG to take over their assets by way of the merger. The chairmen of the supervisory boards of both companies proposed the merger on December 17, 1927. The shareholders then approved the merger proposal at an extraordinary general meeting on January 17, 1928. The Wolf shares were exchanged for shares in Maschinenfabrik Buckau at a ratio of 2.5 to 1. The new group was called Maschinenfabrik Buckau R. Wolf AG. From 1922 to 1928, Johannes Gottlob Paul Voigt was the managing director and director .
The production program included equipment for the lignite industry, the chemical industry, steam engines and diesel engines, and during the war also armaments. In addition to excavators and briquette factories, rotary ovens , vibrating screens , drums for industrial processes and drying devices were manufactured in the Buckau plant . Stone presses and equipment for sugar factories were built in Sudenburg, locomotives, diesel engines, steam boilers, steam engines, plowing devices and steam plows, cell filters, lathes and centrifugal pumps were built in Salbke.
The Grevenbroich machine factory, which was completely taken over in 1927, was part of the original interest group . The production of facilities for the sugar industry in Grevenbroich was completely transferred to Salbke. The production of electric motors and centrifuges was also relocated from Grevenbroich to Magdeburg . Many employees changed locations. In Grevenbroich, a modern enamelling plant continued to operate, which mainly supplied the food industry. Also in 1928, production in the Sudenburg plant was discontinued and the machines were set up again in Salbke, where the corresponding conversion work was completed around the early summer of 1929. The production of the merged company was thus mainly concentrated on the two locations in Buckau and Salbke. There was an export quota of 40%. The workforce had grown to over 6,000 people. For Buckau-Wolf, the global economic crisis was accompanied by a significant drop in sales. Since the end of 1928 there has been a clear decline in orders. Initially, sales in the export business fell, and from the beginning of the 1930s, domestic demand also fell. By September 1931, incoming orders fell by 51% in the domestic business and by 13% in the international business compared to the previous year. In 1932 the order situation deteriorated further. The share capital was reduced in 1931 in response to the difficult situation from 12 to 10 million marks. The crisis was countered with improved cooperation with other companies. Together with the Buckau-based Fried. Krupp Grusonwerk AG opened a sales office for Europe on July 1, 1931. Supported by both companies, an agency opened in India a month later. The competition from British companies in Southeast Asia should be better met. The cooperation with the Grusonwerk had already started in 1927 when both companies founded a working group for the cane sugar industry. Gruson supplied the sugar cane rolling mills, Buckau-Wolf supplied other suitable equipment. In order to survive better in international competition, Buckau-Wolf intensified its activities in Central and South America and expanded its network of representatives there. In 1932 a general agency was established in Persia .
Also in connection with the crisis is the takeover of the machine factory Otto Gruson & Co. , founded in 1871 by Otto Gruson in Magdeburg-Buckau , in which Rudolf Wolf entered as a silent partner at an early stage, is to be seen. As early as 1871 Otto Gruson & Co. had produced 7,000 tons of castings in its own iron foundry. Otto Gruson's factory continued to operate as an independent company. In 1932, the Brackweder boiler and furnace construction company was taken over. Later, in 1942, Buckau-Wolf took over Zeitzer Eisengießerei und Maschinenbau AG .
The production range now included excavator construction, the construction of systems for briquette, sugar and sand-lime brick factories as well as alcohol burners, water gas welding, the construction of steam boilers, boiler steam engines, steam engines, cell filters, diesel engines, pumps, bucket-chain dry excavators, settling devices for the toppling of earth masses, inclined elevators, conveyor systems and other transport systems, bucket elevators for shaft conveyance, track moving machines, drying systems.
Even in the time before the First World War, the company was considered technically and operationally progressive. Due to the fact that production was geared towards large objects, assembly line work was only introduced to a limited extent. In 1932, only 3% of the 4,000 people employed in the Salbker factory were involved in work on the assembly line.
National Socialism and World War II
After the seizure of the Nazis until then strong in industrial firms trade unions were banned and the Nazi- oriented German Labor Front replaced (DAF). On May 26 and 27, 1933, the German Labor Front carried out a large parade on the Cracauer Anger . Buckau-Wolf provided a factory band for this. Wilhelm Kleinherne himself canceled his participation for health reasons. Another large parade of the German Labor Front in the early days of the National Socialist tyranny took place on Friday, July 14, 1933 on the Cricketer sports field . Buckau-Wolf also had to send a delegation for this purpose. The entire morning shift had to take part in this, regardless of whether the individual belonged to the labor front at all. In addition to the workers, this affected employees and the members of the management. The Salbker plant stopped production at 3:25 p.m., although the working hours had to be incorporated the next day. On such occasions, all employees had to purchase the festival plaques issued by the DAF for 0.25 marks. The official affixing of a picture of Adolf Hitler together with the ceremonial unveiling was requested shortly after the NSDAP came to power from the employee council of the Wolf department; the costs for this were to be borne by the company. In the following time it became common for the operation to bear the costs of the NSDAP party branches. In August 1933, for example, it was requested that the plant take over the SA flag from the newly formed Sturmbann I / 26 , which was needed during a NSDAP party rally scheduled for September. Buckau-Wolf actually paid 10 Reichsmarks for this. National Socialist Company Cell Organizations (NSBO) existed in the factories . At the end of August 1933, the NSBO of Maschinenfabrik Buckau demanded that all members of the company greet each other both inside and outside the factory with a Hitler salute.
Full membership of all factory employees in the German Labor Front was sought, but was still not achieved in 1935. It was therefore requested to submit the entry declarations. New appointments should only be made if the applicant could prove a membership in the DAF. Nevertheless there were refusals. On January 14, 1936, General Director Wilhelm Kleinherne spoke to 14 refusing workers in order to get them to join the DAF. Three then stuck to their refusal and gave financial reasons.
Diesel engine construction had steadily gained in importance. Improved models have been produced since 1930. The engines were also used in shipping since 1935. In 1936 the production of four-stroke diesel engines began.
Around 1938, the Berlin bank director Oswald Rösler was the chairman of the supervisory board . A well-known member of the supervisory board was the Cologne banker Friedrich Carl von Oppenheim . On July 16, 1938, the company's 100th anniversary was celebrated. After company roll calls and marches, company celebrations took place from 3 p.m. The workforce of the Salbker factory celebrated again in the Bremer concert hall, the Buckauer in the Schützenhaus in Rotehornpark . Among other things, a factory band performed. The plant management celebrated in Magdeburg's Harmonie at Otto-von-Guericke-Strasse 64. The workforce's ceremony cost the company 30,000 marks, while the board celebration cost 38,000 marks.
In the run-up to the Second World War , armaments were produced in the plant. As early as 1937, sales from armaments orders rose significantly. The focus was initially on the Otto Gruson factory in Buckau. Anchors , gear clutches , gear wheels and gear sets were made here for the Navy . The 7.5 cm Gebirgsgeschütz 36 was manufactured between 1936 and 1944 . It emerged field kitchens , parts for torpedoes and submarines . After the war began, field howitzers and the 8.8 cm cannon were built for the Tiger tank . From 1944 to 1945 the 8 cm anti-tank launcher 600 was developed for the Wehrmacht , which was only produced in small numbers due to the near end of the war. Due to the armaments contracts, the need for labor had risen sharply, but at the same time many employees were called up for military service. This included Eugen Keidel , who was drafted in 1944 and who later became mayor of Freiburg im Breisgau, who had been working in the plant since 1938 and was in a leading position at that time. Women therefore increasingly worked in production. In the early days, it was still possible to hire qualified skilled workers from other parts of Germany and Austria, which was forced to join. Then skilled workers from the countries of Western and Southeastern Europe occupied by Germany during the course of the war were conscripted. They were housed primitively in accommodations at Fermersleber Mertensstrasse 16 , in the hall of the Stiller Society House in Alt Fermersleben 32 , on Blumenstrasse in Salbke and on Feldstrasse in Buckau. The camp at Mertensstrasse 16 was intended for 400 people. Construction material for this camp was made available on December 20, 1943. Some of the camps were run by camp leaders. The National Socialist Blei has been handed down as a warehouse inspector for Buckau . In 1940 and 1941, most of these workers came from France and the so-called protectorates . Later prisoners of war and forced laborers had to work at Buckau-Wolf, including people from the Diana forced labor camp in Westerhüsen . At the address Am Hopfengarten 8 , today's Friedrich-List-Strasse , there was a labor camp for Russian prisoners of war. Many of the forced laborers perished because of the poor working and living conditions. The field memorial of the United Nations in Westerhüsen commemorates their fate. The working hours of the foreign as well as the German workers comprised 60 working hours per week. A catalog of penalties was issued for so-called followers , which stipulated punishments for violations of work discipline. In July 1944, 5,827 people worked in the company's main plants. Of these, 1,442 were prisoners of war and 967 were foreign forced laborers. The actual core workforce numbered only 2,329 men. 597 German women, 295 German conscripts and 197 apprentices were employed.
Denunciations occurred in the company that reported alleged or actual violations of regulations of the Nazi state. From January to April 1943, 14 workers were reported. In 1944 they were sentenced to several years in prison, eight of them died in custody. After the end of the National Socialist tyranny, two men were accused of informing people. Between 1947 and 1949, one of the defendants was sentenced to two years in prison in court proceedings at the Magdeburg Regional Court and Halle Higher Regional Court. The other defendant was acquitted.
Air defense measures were in place for the plant. To the west of the Alt-Fermersleben road, roughly opposite the confluence of Sophienstrasse, was on the company premises, at least from 1941 and probably only until 1943, the fourth light anti-aircraft train 5/124 . Nevertheless, the plant suffered extensive damage from air raids. Initially, the companies only had a limited number of shelters. In 1944/1945 a large protective bunker was built. The company was able to have the damage caused by the air raids replaced by the war damage office. A final payment of 3 million Reichsmarks was made on February 21, 1945. Buckau-Wolf had received payments totaling 8 million Reichsmarks. Extensive damage occurred in the heavy air raid on Magdeburg on January 16, 1945 . The large turning shop located in Buckau had to stop working.
In preparation for the approach of US troops on Magdeburg, an anti-tank barrier was erected in front of the Buckau plant from overturned trams and barbed wire . In front of the then Salzstrasse and the tram depot, the Reich Labor Service in Buckau had set up two 8.8 anti-aircraft guns . On April 12, 1945, US troops coming from the west reached Salbke and occupied the Salbker plant. The prisoners of war were freed and their guards, if they had not yet fled, captured. The employees still present at the plant were sent home. In the course of the fighting, American artillery fire caused major damage to the plant facilities. In the early morning of April 14th, there was a bombing raid by the German Air Force . The attack particularly hit the Otto Gruson plant in Buckau and the Salbker plant and caused serious damage. On the evening of the same day, German troops blew up an ammunition train with 17 wagons standing in the marshalling yard. There were violent explosions, which also led to damage. As a result of the various effects of the war, the Salbker factory was about 70% destroyed. The fighting continued. Tanks were also used on the German side. The US tanks had to evacuate Salbke on April 17th and withdrew to the Magdeburg Südost train station in Westerhüsen. From 10:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. there were heavy air raids on Magdeburg as well as artillery fire. A bomb hit the entrance to the air raid shelter at the Buckau plant, killing three workers. On the evening of April 17th, the US troops advanced again and reached the Buckau plant. The people still in the Buckau factory bunker were allowed to leave it on April 18th.
Labor Movement and Resistance
Buckau-Wolf and the companies that were absorbed into the company were among the largest industrial employers in the region. Accordingly, the factories were an important field of activity for the labor movement . Various well-known protagonists of the movement were part of the workforce. Karl Artelt , later one of the leaders of the Kiel sailors' uprising , spent his apprenticeship here from 1904 to 1908. Erich Weinert , who later became known as a poet, was one of his colleagues . The later SPD politician and Minister Ernst Thape learned the trade of machine fitter in the Buckau machine factory. A little later, Otto Schumann , who subsequently worked as a politician, learned the profession of lathe operator. After 1945 he was temporarily chairman of the works council. In the 1920s and 1930s the communist Georg Heidler worked as a fitter for the company. After the First World War, Ernst Brandt , who later became the SED Agriculture Minister of Saxony-Anhalt, worked at Rudolf Wolf AG and became a member of the works council .
During the time of National Socialism there were resistance activities in the plant. A larger resistance group existed around Otto Schumann. Mention should be made of Heinz Sommer , who worked in the Buckau factory, and Franz Rekowski , who was employed in the planing shop from 1935 to around 1943 and who acted against the National Socialist dictatorship in the factory. The trained locksmith and Social Democrat Ludwig Wellhausen , murdered in Oranienburg concentration camp in 1940, worked as a fitter for Buckau-Wolf. The lathe operator Adolf Jentzen paid for his commitment with his life and died in 1943.
Continuation after 1945
Magdeburg location
A first company meeting after the end of the fighting took place on April 22, 1945 in the Buckau plant with 250 participants. As early as April / May 1945, works councils were formed in the Buckau and Salbke plants, against the resistance of the company management. The lathe operator Franz Bühnemann headed the seven-member Buckau works council . His deputy was the lathe operator Otto Schumann, who later belonged to the state parliament of Saxony-Anhalt for the SED . The lathe operator Otto Kolditz was chairman of the twelve-person Salbker works council . A well-known works council member was the later CDU member of the state parliament, Franz Weichsel . A works council was elected at the Otto Gruson plant. Later, the formation of the works council was approved by the US occupation forces. Wilhelm Kleinherne initially remained head of the company. In the run-up to the planned withdrawal of the western allies in the course of the change of the occupying power to the Soviet armed forces, the occupation authorities, in cooperation with the company management, recorded the existing capacities and valuable positions. Before the withdrawal of the British troops, which had meanwhile been deployed, on June 30, 1945, important documents and 18 special machines were transported to the western occupation zones. Skilled workers were poached. Johannes Rödel, who was deputy group manager, and members of the board of directors also left Magdeburg and moved to the western part of Germany. However, Kleinherne and other management staff stayed on site. The clean-up work is said to have been organized primarily by the works councils and the workforce. Little by little, production was resumed. In the foundry of the Salbke plant, which was still half destroyed, the first gear rim was cast on September 14, 1945 . The company mainly dealt with repair work for electricity, water and gas works and the corresponding pipeline networks. We also work on the repair of railway and Elbe bridges.
Wilhelm Kleinherne tried to maintain the company's previous management structure and to bypass efforts to change the management level in line with the new rulers. However, the works councils of Buckau and Salbke then implemented a significant downsizing of the management team in mid-September 1945 against the opposition of the corporate management. 414 people were dismissed in this connection. This often affected former members of the NSDAP . The engineer Kurt Riese and the department head Gustav Schulze were newly appointed to the management. The factory was confiscated by the Soviet military administration in Germany . On December 29, 1945, at a meeting of shop stewards, works councils and some senior executives, in the presence of Magdeburg's mayor Otto Baer , it was decided to dismiss Kleinherne in the casino of the Buckauer plant. At the same time, the directors Philipp Capitaine, Otto Wirmer, Josef Schöbl and Heinrich Notz had to leave the company. The supervisory board was dissolved and operations were initially subordinated to the Magdeburg city administration and, on March 20, 1946, to the province of Saxony. Half a year after the Soviet troops moved into Magdeburg, the entire previous board was arrested. Kleinherne and other board members then went to the branch in Grevenbroich , which was located in the western occupation zones and was not accessible to the Soviet authorities.
At the end of 1945 there were 1,077 employees in Buckau and 1,756 in Salbke. Production in the second half of 1945 was worth 4.5 million marks. The KPD and SPD groups formed in the factories. The KPD had 110 members in the Buckau plant and 130 members in Salbke. The membership of the SPD was somewhat weaker and numbered 100 people in Buckau and 110 in Salbke. In Buckau the KPD provided 5 of 6 works councils, the SPD only one. The distribution was similar in Salbke. 5 of the 7 works councils were members of the KPD, 2 belonged to the SPD.
In 1946 the former Otto Gruson machine factory was spun off from the company and managed separately as a Soviet stock corporation (SAG). On March 1, 1947, the rest of the company was transferred to a SAG and continued to operate under the name Maschinenfabrik Buckau Wolf of the Soviet Mechanical Engineering Company (AMO) Magdeburg . The general director was the Soviet major general Yelissejew . Other members of the management were the main engineers Zhukov and Yevichkin and the chief engineer Mamajew. On the German side, Kurt Riese was appointed head of the entire company, Karl Riefenstahl as director of the Buckau plant and Max Bohne as director of Salbke.
In March 1948, the United States and the other Western allies imposed an economic blockade , so that the Soviet Union did not receive the marine diesel engines needed to build a fishing fleet from Great Britain . In response, the Soviet military administration in Germany instructed that the capacities required to build the engines required should be built at Buckau-Wolf. Under the direction of the designer Hans Günter Rost , the variants required for the requirements were developed, built and delivered from an already existing engine series. This development reached its climax with the even more powerful 6DV148 series , the first test run of which took place on December 21, 1950. Up to 1965 engines based on this development were built with a number of 40,000 and were mainly used in the area of the member countries of the Council for Mutual Economic Aid (COMECON).
The works were integrated into the planned economy system of the GDR , which was founded in 1949 . The SED , which emerged from the forced unification of the SPD and KPD in 1946, now played a dominant role in the further life of the company. In the run-up to the local elections in the province of Saxony on September 8, 1946 , Anton Ackermann , member of the central executive committee of the SED, spoke at a staff meeting. The Stalinist waves of purges within the SED had an impact on operational issues of the company. In April 1950 Buckau-Wolf's director of culture, Albert Wildt (SED), was arrested by the state security on the company premises. Wildt's attempt to escape failed. Wildt, who was then excluded from the SED, was accused of being the head of a Trotskyist group with ties to Western Trotskyists. In addition, he had used anti-Soviet literature in the works party school. Phenomena of Stalinism such as personality cults and lavish propaganda were common. Thus the reported New Germany on 18 December 1949 that the 38-meter high chimney in preparation for the celebration of the birthday at the factory Salbke of Buckau Wolf Stalin should be clothed so that he, the shape of the tower of the Kremlin have.
In 1948 a company sports association (BSG) was founded and initially run as BSG Diesel Magdeburg . Part of this company sports community were the water sports enthusiasts from the former Buckau-Fermersleben water sports club , who at times competed as Buckau-Wolf . The company employee Wilfried Bust won several GDR championship titles in canoeing for the BSG . In 1950, the actors in the DEFA film, Mayor Anna Eva Rimski , Klaus Becker and Edith Hancke, visited the plant and then the neighboring state railway repair shop in Salbke.
The first walking excavator built at Buckau Wolf after the Second World War was built in 1950. It is noteworthy that the toy manufacturer Rolf Funke based in Westerhüsen produced the model of a walking excavator manufactured by the company in 1952 .
VEB Heavy Machinery "Karl Liebknecht" (Salbke)
On October 7, 1951, the 2nd anniversary of the founding of the GDR, the company was given the name Heavy Machinery "Karl Liebknecht" by Hermann Matern from the Central Committee of the SED and began trading in 1954 after the handover of the SAG companies was signed on December 31, 1953 in the public property of the GDR as VEB Schwermaschinenbau "Karl Liebknecht" (SKL) . The workforce was 3972 people. Hugo Baumgart , SED party secretary of the large forge of the SKL in Salbke, was a member of the SED's central committee from 1954 to 1967.
On December 4, 1952, by a resolution of the GDR government, the Christmas bonus paid up to then was replaced by an end-of-year bonus, which was dependent on the performance, but in particular on the fulfillment of the annual plan. The change was often associated with financial disadvantages and met with considerable criticism from employees. The SKL was one of the Magdeburg focal points of these discussions and protests. On December 13, 1952, four departments of the early shift did not start work. The night shift of the engine turning shop was not ready to work despite urging from the management. In the Salbker part of the company, 60% of the night shift were on strike, about which the day shift was informed. During the day shift, 2,000 employees from tinsmiths, administration and other departments were on strike. Discussions took place with the company and SED party leadership about power cuts, supply and poor social conditions in the company. Attempts by the company party leadership to appease the situation were hindered by cheering and whistling concerts and provocative demands. At first it was not even possible to get the SED members of the workforce to take up work. Work stoppages occurred in the morning hours of December 15 and 16.
The popular uprising of June 17, 1953 particularly affected the SKL. The entrance gates were broken into with heavy trucks on the morning of June 17th. The company guards provided by the police were beaten. 4,000 SKL employees joined the demonstrations. Despite the suppression of the uprising on the afternoon of June 17, parts of the early shift were still on strike on June 18. However, work then resumed in the morning hours.
On January 1, 1956, the Buckau factory was separated from the SKL and attached to the Georgij-Dimitroff factory, the former Otto-Gruson machine factory. The seat of the remaining plant was now in Salbke. Work organization should be improved by ending the division of the company between two locations. In 1956, the Salbker plant employed 8024 people, including 400 apprentices. Wolf's old production facilities in Buckauer Karl-Schmidt-Straße served as a company vocational school. In order to defuse the difficult situation with the supply of food, the company ran its own pig fattening facility in the post-war period.
The initially very extensive product range was re-profiled and adjusted. In addition to four-stroke diesel engines in the power range between 75 and 540 hp for use on ships, steam engines, locomobiles with outputs between 120 and 320 hp as well as systems for the chemical industry were developed. Machines for the sugar industry and vegetable oil production were produced. However, it soon became apparent that the days of locomotives and steam engines were over. At the Leipzig spring fair in 1957, only 35 V 32 locomotives were ordered. At the end of 1957, the production of locomotives was stopped and the locomotive hall was converted into a diesel engine test field. The traction engine building tradition established by Wolf ended with that. After the Neptun shipyard in Rostock converted a series of cargo ships built there from steam engine drives to diesel engines, steam engine construction for ship drives ended in the 3rd quarter of 1958. The previous steam engine hall was converted into mechanical workshop V. In 1958 an additional 100 large diesels could be produced in this way. A total of 18,687 diesel engines were built between 1950 and 1959. The most powerful model achieved an output of 1,000 hp. VEB Starkstrom-Anlagenbau Magdeburg (VEM) designed the diesel electric stations produced. The stations were used to generate electricity on ships and in the military sector.
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The SKL delivered its goods to 40 countries and employed 9500 people. Between 1950 and 1968 Waldemar Vinz was the company's technical director. From 1952, the German designer Heinz Ullrich was head of SKL boiler construction. After 1959, the sculptor Hans Helmbrecht was temporarily employed as head of the company's advertising department. Siegfried Rudert , who later became a university professor, worked at the SKL from 1965 to 1970 . The production of diesel engines continued to gain in importance. In 1963 it had a share of 83.4% of the total production of the plant. An increase to 92.7% was planned by 1970. Around 1964 the filter construction carried out in the SKL was relocated to Staßfurt . At around the same time, chemical plant construction was promoted as part of a chemistry program announced by the GDR government. Some of the workers freed up in filter construction were transferred to the chemical plant construction department of the SKL, known as the industrial plant construction department. Students from the Institute for Chemical Apparatus Construction at the Technical University of Magdeburg and staff from Böhlen and Leuna joined chemical plant construction. The newly established chemical plant construction then comprised 50 employees and was housed in the rooms of the construction department above Kesselschmiede II in Salbke. In the summer of 1964, the project planning department moved to the Magdeburg School of Applied Arts and Crafts on Brandenburger Strasse in Magdeburg's old town. The department headed by F. Trojosky then moved into a new office building in Magdeburg's Otto-von-Guericke-Strasse 107 on August 23, 1967. In total, around 600 people worked in the industrial plant construction. The production took place in the SKL and especially in the boiler shops of the plant. Plants for refineries, Parex plants that were used to extract paraffins from crude oil, autoclaves for the production of aerated concrete , facilities for boiling pulp for the paper industry and a large number of equipment for the chemical industry such as absorbers , separators , were planned, manufactured and delivered Furnaces, condensers, washing towers , heat exchangers and reactors. Many of the products were delivered to the Soviet Union or the other countries of the Council for Mutual Economic Aid in the so-called Eastern Bloc. Trial operation of the first Parex plant in the petrochemical combine Schwedt / Oder began on May 15, 1971 . Continuous operation followed in December 1971. An oil refining plant was built in Mauritania in cooperation with the Austrian company Voestalpine . SED politician Werner Guse was the deputy director for industrial plants .
In 1970 the plant became the main plant of the combine for diesel engines and industrial plants formed in 1969 . In addition to the SKL, 10 other companies belonged to the combine, whereby the SKL provided two thirds of the total production of the combine.
On March 24, 1975 Egon Krenz visited the SKL as the first secretary of the Central Council of the FDJ. He visited several departments. At the end there was a meeting with members of the FDJ in Kesselschmiede I. The SKL was often the host of official delegations. On June 21, 1978, Nicolas Chaoui , General Secretary of the Lebanese Communist Party , visited the plant together with Alois Pisnik , 1st Secretary of the SED district leadership in Magdeburg. In speeches in the hall of Boilermaker's 3, both spoke out against the Israeli invasion of southern Lebanon in the course of Operation Litani .
In November 1976, the SKL under plant director Otto Gennrich concluded an agreement on scientific and technical cooperation with the Magdeburg Technical University .
The SKL operated landfills in the vicinity, which still cause problems as areas affected by contaminated sites . In addition to areas on Salbker See I , the SKL Westerhüsen landfill should be mentioned.
Around 1980 a mainframe computer of the type ES 1055 was put into operation, and in 1986 a newly built facility for electrical smelting at SKL started work. In 1988 the company celebrated its 150th anniversary with various festive events. In October 1985 Lutz Modes replaced Lothar Schiffel as general director of the combine. He held this position until 1990. At the same time he was operations director of the Salbker plant.
In the time of the GDR, SKL motors were used as drive machines on more than 4000 ships. 50,000 engines were used in the inland and ocean-going vessels of the Soviet Union. The on-board units were also exported to western countries. In a balance sheet for the 150-year celebration was lifted that a first engine of the type 8 VD 24/24 AL-1 of the new VD series 24/24 on the based in the Netherlands and the Federal Republic of inland tanker Elise was used.
Another important field of application of the SKL engines was their use as a diesel generator on land. More than 750 of these systems were delivered to India , 400 to Indonesia and 1000 to China . Deliveries for India already included around 40 of the new 8 VD 24/24 AL-1 engines. Other larger sales areas were Egypt with 200 engines for poultry farms, cotton mills and waterworks, as well as Iran , where the application area mainly related to cold stores, cement and ceramic factories.
Hans Standhardt was structurally responsible for many engines during this time . He worked for the SKL from 1954 to 1992, and from 1959 to 1970 as a department manager in the field of diesel engines. From 1970 to 1992 he was the chief designer responsible for research and development of large diesel engines. During his time, 138 patent applications were made, 45 of which were foreign applications in the areas of structural design, maintenance, technology and functional processes. These included basic patents that have become common property in national and international engine construction over the years and are still in use.
Nevertheless, the company's situation turned out to be difficult. In the 1980s, there was a considerable investment backlog in the production of diesel engines, among other things . In addition, there were delivery problems at suppliers. It was therefore not possible to meet the existing demand for diesel engines, generator sets and spare parts. The situation was somewhat better for the construction of industrial plants for the petroleum processing industry. An important customer here was the Schwarze Pump gas combine . Since the security of the GDR energy supply depended on this production, the supply had priority so that production ran more smoothly. In order to improve the situation, renovations were carried out both at the main plant and at the suppliers in cooperation with the Magdeburg Technical University . In this way, a flexible system for manufacturing cylinder heads was created. Further investments, including those at suppliers, concerned injection technology and metallurgy in the combine’s foundries. In total, the GDR invested a billion marks over a period of about four years .
From 1988 there were plans to develop engines in Kiel together with MaK based in the Federal Republic of Germany . Both sides hoped that this would improve market access in Eastern and Western Europe.
From 1985 to 1989 the later SPD politician Silke Schindler was employed as a project engineer in the SKL. Katrin Budde , later chairwoman of the SPD parliamentary group, completed an internship at the plant in 1983.
Under the code name Eva Schnell , Inge Viett , a terrorist in the Red Army faction , moved to Magdeburg in 1987 with the support of the State Security and worked for the SKL. She was responsible for organizing the company 's children's holiday camps. At that time, the SKL was running the Mönchemühle Blankenburg children's holiday camp in the Harz region and another in the Altmark . There was also an exchange object on the Baltic Sea and exchange places in Poland and the CSSR. A total of around 1000 vacation spots were available in the summer. In the course of the political change in 1989 Inge Viett was arrested on June 12, 1990 and later sentenced to a long prison term for attempted manslaughter, of which she only had to serve around half.
In the immediate run-up to the fall of the Wall, problems arose because SKL employees left the GDR and suddenly they were absent from their jobs. Various political groups formed in the company during the fall of the Wall. The largest grouping was the New Forum . However, Democracy Now , Democratic Awakening , the United Left and the Social Democratic Party were also represented in the GDR . In particular, the New Forum called for the removal of directors and functionaries and advocated a depoliticization of the company in the sense that the dominant position of the SED should end. There was a demonstration in front of the main building. The company newspaper Motor , until then an organ of the SED company organization, became a medium for discussion. Articles of the oppositional currents appeared there, but also an article Thinking ahead is asked of Inge Vietts, who reacted to the positions of others under her name Eva Schnell, warned of the approaching capitalism and emphasized the importance of the union.
In 1990 the Treuhandanstalt took over the state- owned assets of the GDR, including the SKL. On June 19, 1990, the combine was transformed into SKL Motoren- und Systemtechnik AG i. G. In addition to the main plant, another eleven companies belonged to the company. The first works council elections took place from July 10 to 12, 1990. The works council chairman was the engine fitter Peter Wand. On September 27, 1990, the GDR Prime Minister Lothar de Maizière (CDU) visited the plant.
The collaboration with Krupp MaK Kiel, which had already begun in the GDR era, was continued. In September 1990 a cooperation for the development of the M20 engine was presented. At the same time, with the participation of the employees of Krupp MaK, the business situation of the SKL was examined against the background of the now prevailing market economy . It turned out that the product costs were considerably too high and the vast majority of the supply contracts did not yield any profit. The aim was to increase labor productivity and streamline the range. The subsequent sharp decline in orders from Eastern Europe following the introduction of the D-Mark on July 1, 1990 and the rising costs, especially from the newly introduced wage rates, were problematic. The 40-hour week was introduced between July and October 1990 .
There were mass layoffs. On October 24, 1990, it was announced that the diesel engine manufacturing division would be cut by 2,491 positions by December 31. The first redundancies for operational reasons took place on June 30, 1991, there was a social plan . A supervisory board was formed for the company . On November 20, 1990, Peter Adams was elected as the first chairman of the supervisory board . Deputy chairman was Hasso Düvel . Further members were Hans Vieregge , Günther Radtke , Walter Hirche , Manfred Link and Jürgen Begemann . In addition, the deputy minister for fisheries economy of the Soviet Union, Vladimir Mikhailovich Sosno and the chairman of the Soviet inland fleet Leonid Wassiljewitsch Bagrov belonged to the board of directors. The five employee representatives included Peter Wand and Karl Pilz .
At the end of 1990, the modern IF Prisma 100 production line , which was built by the Berlin company Fritz Werner during the GDR era, was handed over. The 23 million DM investment served to enable an increase in productivity of 500%. The development was carried out together with the Technical University of Magdeburg. Lothar Niederhoff was the head of the SKL development team .
In order to significantly reduce the company's costs, various areas were now run as profit centers for the purpose of later privatization. The plant was to be converted into the structure of an industrial park . In 1991 an extensive job creation measure for around 700 workers was approved to implement the redevelopment program . The Labor and Social Affairs Minister of Saxony-Anhalt, Werner Schreiber, presented Lutz Modes with a sponsorship check for 64.2 million DM on December 13, 1991.
The SKL was ultimately divided into several companies and various buildings on the factory premises were demolished. One of the new companies was SKL Industriepark GmbH . Another part of the SKL became SKL Motoren- und Systemtechnik GmbH . At the end of the 1990s, she and her mother, MTU Friedrichshafen , developed diesel and gas engines. In 2000 the bank went bankrupt because the European Union or Treuhandanstalt and MTU could not agree on the legacy issues. In 2001 Joachim Laempe and Reinhold Gies bought the company and ran it as SKL Motor GmbH . In June 2005, the two shareholders with equal rights separated, and Gies managed the company alone until the end of 2007.
Since January 2008, SKL Motor GmbH has been a member of the Tognum Group, which includes MTU Friedrichshafen. SKL Motor GmbH still produces heavy fuel oil and diesel engines, since 2012 as MTU Reman Technologies GmbH . Mechanical and plant engineering as well as the execution of repairs are also part of the company's business activities. In July 2011 225 people were employed. The factory premises used by SKL Motor cover 45,000 m².
Other spin-offs from the GDR operations were SKL Spezialapparatebau GmbH and Magdeburger Eisengießerei GmbH . In 1996 Stork Comprimo SKL GmbH was founded.
VEB Heavy Machinery "Georgi Dimitroff" (Buckau)
The Otto Gruson Magdeburg-Buckau machine factory, which was founded by Otto Gruson in 1871 and taken over by the Buckau R. Wolf AG machine factory in 1930, became part of the Soviet stock corporation (SAG) AMO after the expropriation in 1945.
During the popular uprising of June 17, 1953, workers from the neighboring Ernst-Thälmann-Werk (SKET) who had already walked tried to get onto the premises of the Dimitroff-Werk. The factory gate was blocked by the police. Around 300 workers therefore gained access to the factory premises via side entrances. There were violent clashes with the police, which were later prosecuted. At this point in time, party meetings were taking place in the company, at which the lifting of the norm increases that caused protests were announced.
On January 1, 1954, the company was transferred from the legal form of the Soviet stock corporation to a state-owned company of the GDR. The company name was now VEB Schwermaschinenbau " Georgi Dimitroff " Magdeburg-Buckau (GDW). On January 1, 1956, the Buckau section of the former Buckau R. Wolf AG machine factory, which had since been given the name of heavy machinery construction "Karl Liebknecht" as a state-owned company , was separated and merged with VEB heavy machinery construction "Georgi Dimitroff" (previously Otto Gruson) . The production program included equipment for the lignite and chemical industries as well as large gears and cast products. Excavators, briquette factories, large gears, conveyor systems and equipment for cement factories were built. The excavators were used in the GDR open-cast lignite mine and in the Comecon countries, such as Poland and the Soviet Union. Outstanding designer in excavator construction was Johannes Goedecke , who had been with the company as an engineer since 1938 . After 1945 he was appointed head of the excavator construction design office.
Social institutions were established in the company. There was a kindergarten, women's rest rooms, a sewing room and a textile sales point. On March 25, 1958, Magdalena Baranova , Georgii Dimitrov's sister, visited the plant. In November of the same year, operations director Wolfgang Oehlwein guided the Vice President of the People's Chamber, Hermann Matern, through the company. On June 9, 1959, the foundation stone was laid for the construction of the so-called chemistry hall. The 7.13 million mark building was put into operation on June 30, 1961 and was used to manufacture compressed gas generators , which were delivered to the Schwarze Pump gas combine and exported to Yugoslavia . Lignite was gasified under pressure at high temperatures in the pressurized gas generators.
The move of skilled workers from the GDR to West Germany also proved to be problematic for the Dimitroffwerk. Employees were absent almost every week.
As in other industries of the GDR was in Dimitrov plant an operational battle group formed. During the construction of the Berlin Wall along the inner-German border on August 13, 1961, the unit of the plant was temporarily deployed at the border. At the beginning of August 1961, the plant had already received a secret special order to build anti-tank barriers , the purpose of which was unclear to the employees. The barriers were then used as part of the construction of the Berlin Wall. In the aftermath of the building of the wall, attempts were made to avoid imports from the non-socialist economic area in accordance with the government's demand for interference exemption and to convert the respective demand to domestic products or imports from socialist countries. This was only partially successful.
As a company newspaper, the drive appeared regularly as the organ of the management of the SED company party organization .
The economic situation of the company was difficult in these years. The given plan was often not fulfilled, production was lost. Edgar Freistedt , who later became the director of the plant, assessed the company's reputation within Magdeburg as "very bad" at that time. In 1962 a working group was set up by the superordinate Association of People's Own Enterprises (VVB) with the aim of stabilizing the plant's situation.
For a short time there were plans within the framework of the GDR chemical program to significantly expand the production of chemical equipment in the Dimitrov factory, but the project then did not take effect.
In 1963 the company was divided again. The former Dimitroff factory, formerly Maschinenfabrik Otto Gruson, was connected with its foundry and gear manufacturing to VEB Schwermaschinenbau "Ernst Thälmann" ( SKET ) and the other part, formerly Maschinenfabrik Buckau, while retaining the name VEB Schwermaschinenbau "Georgi Dimitroff" , with around 3000 employees. At the same time it was placed under the then VVB BAUFA Leipzig . After Wolfgang Oehlwein, Ludwig Schwarzbauer was appointed plant director. The production of open pit equipment, equipment for peat briquette factories and, to a lesser extent, for the chemical industry continued. In May 1963, a large new crane runway was added to the part of the factory premises known as the Elbwiese . An order in that period, which took place from November 1965 delivery of compressed gas generators for the Yugoslav Pristina built gasworks . Also of importance is the commissioning of the newly developed surface mining excavator was it 3150 in Welzow-South on 23 December 1966. In the summer of 1966 Kurt Schoenefeld new plant director. The company's situation had improved in the meantime. In 1967 Walter Ulbricht awarded the company the Lenin plaque .
In 1968, as a result of the changed energy policy, there was a drastic decrease in the need for open-pit mining equipment. In the energy supply, the focus was increasingly on crude oil , so that the need for coal and thus also for open-pit mining technology fell. Orders were canceled. There was a risk that production capacities would no longer be utilized. Orders in this area fell by 70%. It became necessary to focus on new product groups. There were ideas to build waste incineration plants or ship unloading plants, but they were never implemented. There were more specific plans to take over the production of the bucket wheel excavator SRs 1200 and to manufacture components for the SRs 2000, which is still under development, from the Lauchhammerwerk. This sometimes led to disputes between the employees involved in the two companies. There was already competition between the companies from earlier times, which has now continued between two state-owned companies. In fact, the development of the components of the SR 2000 proved to be extremely problematic.
Production of automotive slewing cranes
Since full capacity utilization was not achieved with the takeover of bucket wheel excavators, the competent state authorities decided to start series production of slewing cranes , which had previously been produced by VEB Hebezeugwerk Sebnitz , as early as 1969. This decision was surprising insofar as the Dimitroffwerk was engaged in long-term individual production in heavy mechanical engineering and was not designed for such series production. Part of the production of the ADK 63 was taken over with 240 pieces in 1969. At the beginning of April a delegation traveled to Sebnitz to familiarize themselves with the production.
In addition, the development of an ADK 100 crane , which was exhibited as ADK 125 at the Leipzig spring trade fair in 1970 , was started from a functional prototype that had been manufactured in Sebnitz . The long-term plan was to develop truck-mounted cranes with lifting capacities from 6.3 to 160 t, which should also be marketed internationally. The production of the automobile slewing cranes in series production, with the continuation of the limited production of bucket chain excavators and bucket wheel excavators, caused great difficulties because experience was lacking and the necessary prerequisites could only be created gradually. In the GDR vehicle production, there was a lack of suitable axles, driver's cabs, transmissions and motors for the new products, so that a lot of improvisation and individual solutions became necessary. The production of 350 ADK 125s was planned for 1970, which, in view of the many problems, represented a completely unrealistic requirement. However, a contradiction could not be put forward in a meaningful way. The large hall previously used for the construction of the compressed gas generators was converted in the course of the preparation for ADK production, with the result that the assembly of the compressed gas generators during operation was no longer possible in the future. The production of equipment for peat briquette factories was also discontinued.
In March 1969, the company was informed that from 1971 the entire production of the ADK 63 would be taken over. All stocks, documentation and tools as well as some employees were therefore taken over from Sebnitz.
Both the ADK-63 production and the preparation for the ADK-125 production started completely unsatisfactory. In the first quarter, the plant was already one month behind in fulfilling its plan. There were also qualitative problems. Instead of the expected quality mark 1 , the ADK 63 only received the quality mark 2 . Nevertheless, the VVB announced that the entire ADK-63 production was to be taken over as early as 1970 and that series production of the ADK 125 would begin in September 1970. The mood in the company was extremely bad. Violent disputes in the company's management bodies about causes and responsibility were the result. Within the company's management staff, who came from Magdeburg, a front was formed against the director of the plant, originally from Leipzig , whose authoritarian management style was criticized.
Right on time for the Leipzig Spring Fair in 1970, two samples of the ADK 125 were successfully completed, but they were not yet approved for road use . That is why a crane had to be transported to Leipzig on a low-loader. The crane slipped off the low-loader while it was being loaded for transport , but was only slightly damaged, so that the trip to Leipzig and the exhibition at the trade fair could take place, which the Dimitroffwerk considered a success. The plan to start series production of the ADK 125 was faced with serious problems when a supplier from Rochlitz announced that the planned delivery of hydraulic cylinders was not possible. The production of axles planned at ZEMAG in Zeitz also caused considerable difficulties.
In view of the ongoing difficulties, the perspective plan for the years 1971 to 1975 provided for the development and start of production of slewing cranes with load capacities of 40, 63 and 100 t.
In the harsh winter of 1969/1970, as was the case in other years and also in other companies, despite its own major problems, the company had to provide employees for municipal winter service and handling transport problems.
Surprisingly, the works director Kurt Schoenefeld was appointed General Director of VVB in July 1970 as the successor to Rudolf Schuhmacher . The technical director Edgar Freistedt initially took over the management of the company as a substitute and was appointed plant director on September 1st. At the suggestion of the Magdeburg district , the Dimitroffwerk established a friendly relationship with a machine factory in Novo Gorlovka near Donetsk in the Soviet Union. Delegations were exchanged several times, and employees were also employed in the respective partner company.
The Dimitroffwerk had a holiday home in Bad Suderode in the Harz Mountains , in which courses were also held regularly for senior staff.
There was an official demand that GDR companies produce more consumer goods. There was a meeting with the SED city management at which the Dimitrov factory was presented with a list of products that were short of supplies to the population. The demand for a production of consumer goods for a company active in the construction of heavy machinery seemed bizarre to the management, but it was implemented. The city of Magdeburg also gave the plant some land for the construction of single-family houses and apartments in need of renovation for members of the plant. The employees selected for this should carry out the necessary construction work on their own with the support of the company. In quite a few cases, company employees were assigned to do this.
In addition to the production of ADK, there was again an increasing demand for large open-cast mining equipment. A requirement for 11 excavators of the type Es 3150 was registered for the period 1972 to 1978. Instead of a lack of utilization, there were now indications of insufficient capacity.
After delivery of the ADK 125, it turned out that the brake systems on the axles were faulty. All axes had to be replaced. The recall also affected vehicles exported to Yugoslavia. The axles were later manufactured by the Rába company located in Győr , Hungary . Problems also arose due to the lack of deliveries of transmissions. Except for the gearbox, a large number of completed ADKs were in operation and could not be delivered. The problems in ADK production led to criticism from the superior who did not accept the references to the difficult situation in the course of the profile change and the objective problems that could only be influenced by the company to a limited extent. This was followed by a check by the Workers and Peasants Inspection , which ended in sharp criticism. The work of the commercial department was criticized, as the stocks of material and finished products were viewed as excessive. A working group was set up by the VVB general director to investigate management activity, which, however, assessed the situation objectively, but did not consider the fulfillment of the plan for the production of the ADK 125 to be assured. A criticism from the GDR Defense Ministry due to poor processing of complaints and the lack of delivery of ADK spare parts was rated as particularly problematic. A control by the technical inspection ended with the criticism that the ADK 125 series production had started without testing. The ASMW then prohibited the delivery of ADK 125 until the existing defects had been rectified. At the beginning of November 1972 there was a backlog of 18 million marks.
On November 9, 1972, the deputy chairman of the GDR Council of Ministers, Alfred Neumann, visited the plant. He admitted that the problems were caused by the short-term change in production, but at the same time called for a solution on site. Ultimately, the plan was met. Overtime, including during the Christmas holidays and on New Year's Eve, meant that a third of the annual production was delivered in November and December.
On the occasion of a city party active conference in Magdeburg's town hall , the 1st Secretary of the SED district leadership, Alois Pisnik , sharply criticized the Dimitroffwerk for high financial losses in connection with the hasty start of series production without sufficient testing of the ADK 125. Pisnik quoted from critical letters from customer service employees from China and Egypt , who had sent these to departments of the Dimitrov factory and in which they reported deficiencies found.
The technical problems in ADK production persisted. Faulty seals on the hydraulic cylinders made extensive repair work necessary on completed ADKs. Products that had already been delivered, for example in Greece and the ČSSR, were also affected. In addition, there were no transmissions from Praga in the ČSSR.
The SED district leadership, the general director and the party organizer of the VVB criticized Freistedt and the works party secretary heavily and indicated a replacement of Freistedt, which did not take place. In a joint meeting of the plant and company party management, the party side criticized the plant director and the specialist directors. A report by the district inspection of the workers 'and peasants' inspection came to a more differentiated result. The report complained about high economic losses and damage to its reputation. The series approval by the VVB and the ASMW were unjustified. However, the State Planning Commission and the Ministry of Heavy Machinery had allowed the violations. In general, the transfer of ADK production to the Dimitroffwerk, which had no experience in the field and no appropriately qualified development staff, had been rash.
Another problem arose when the state financial auditors temporarily refused to confirm the balance sheet because deficiencies in the implementation of the inventory , in the materials and warehouse management and errors in the accounting had been found.
The technical building conditions for vocational training were improved in 1972 with the transfer of new training facilities.
Another production changeover
When the conversion difficulties had been overcome, the central state organs decided in November 1973 that the production of the car slewing cranes would be transferred to VEB Maschinenbau Babelsberg and instead, in addition to the increasing production of bucket chain excavators, the production of bucket wheel excavators would also be relocated from Lauchhammer to Buckau . The new development of the bucket chain excavator ERs 1120 was determined. According to a resolution of the GDR Council of Ministers, the relocation of ADK production was to begin in 1974. However, the new production changeover did not take effect until 1975. After only six years, the automotive slewing crane production was outsourced in favor of the increased need for opencast mining equipment due to the renewed change in energy policy. In total, the Dimitrov factory had produced 3158 ADK 63 and 650 ADK 125. In the early days after ADK production was handed over, the factory still manufactured the frames for slewing cranes.
Now the specialization in open pit equipment followed, which was retained until around 1990. The Es 3150 was built and developed into the Es 3750. The production of the ER 710 was cut back by Köthen. The Dimitroffwerk built bucket wheel excavators of class 0 as well as the bucket wheel excavator SRs 1300. In addition, there were bucket chain exchange devices, trench scoops and loading devices for the SRs 6300. Renewed reconstructions on the factory premises were necessary, some of which were delayed considerably. In addition, new machine tools were needed.
An accident in the company's own power plant occurred at the end of 1973. A deflagration led to a 10-meter-long crack in the chimney, which took several weeks to repair. The cause was coal dust deposits from the time before the plant was converted to natural gas . The power supply was limited, the heating failed. With a previously established energy network with neighboring companies, the supply could be restored with restrictions.
On the basis of a submission by the former commercial director, a further check by the workers and farmers inspection took place at the beginning of January 1974. A working group was set up and even police interrogations of the planning manager and the economic director were conducted. The report of the working group found fundamental deficiencies in the work of the plant for the period 1972/1973, with responsibility for deficiencies in the inventory management being assigned to the commercial director. In addition, however, the report recommended that the general manager also take disciplinary action against works manager Freistedt, which however did not take place. The Central Committee Secretary Kurt Hager praised the Dimitroffwerk for the work involved in commissioning the Welzow-Süd opencast mine.
The lack of labor was problematic. The Dimitroffwerk employed 100 fewer people than planned in the position plan. In 1975 the plan provided for 2,850 employees. In the course of the planned increases in production, the plan was for an increase to 3260 employees by 1980. However, despite considerable efforts in recruiting workers, the target number was not fully achieved. Polish employees had also been working in the company for a long time. Among other things, the plant created apprentice dormitories in new building blocks . In addition, workers' quarters were built using lightweight construction. In 1979, however, the number of workers had dropped to 2,600. As in the rest of mechanical engineering in the GDR, the shortage of sheet steel also posed a problem.
In addition, there were difficulties in the production of open-cast mining equipment, as the Köthen conveyor system did not deliver the supplies it needed as planned. In its own production, the Dimitroffwerk found it difficult to ensure the manufacture and delivery of spare parts for its own products. Even with the delivery of the opencast mining equipment, the large number of problems resulted in some considerable backlogs. The need for opencast mining equipment at home and abroad increased so much in the late 1970s and early 1980s that the situation arose for the plant to fend off orders.
Important events in production were the commissioning of the excavator Es 3150 in the Greifenhain opencast mine on November 1, 1976, as well as the implementation of the trial operation of the ER 710 until December 31, 1976 in Jänschwalde . Exports went to Romania , Hungary and the Soviet Union. Due to shifts in the GDR open-cast mining equipment program, the production of assemblies for other companies became necessary to utilize the Dimitroff factory. After a year and a half of construction and construction costs of 2.4 million marks, production hall 12 was put into operation in 1977. Cutting work was carried out here on 2000 m². Hall 14/15 was created as a further new hall, which was used early for partial commissioning. SED Politburo member Hermann Axen visited the Dimitrov factory to start production. On September 17, 1979, a new center lathe from Škoda was put into operation in the new hall. The Es 3150 was the first large-scale open-pit mining device to receive quality mark 1 in 1979 after a test by the ASMW, and then even the quality mark Q in 1980. The SRs 1300 received a gold medal at the 1980 Leipzig spring fair.
Furthermore, at the request of the City of Magdeburg, the Dimitroffwerk was active in dealing with public tasks, such as the redesign of the Domplatz , the Elbe promenade and the restoration of the Magdeburg city hall . Further requests related to the renovation of old apartments and the city theater.
On January 1, 1979, the previous VVB mining equipment, cranes and conveyor systems was dissolved and the new combine TAKRAF was formed, to which the Dimitrov factory also belonged. In 1979, the scheduled handover of opencast mining equipment succeeded.
The Dimitroffwerk received the distinction of operating in exemplary order and security . On the 30th anniversary of the GDR, the plant received the ribbon of honor from the Magdeburg SED district leadership.
In the early 1980s, the use of electronic elements in opencast mining began. First, an electronic program control was used in the SRs 1301. From 1987 all excavator types were delivered with the corresponding microelectronics. The plant's equipment was also partially modernized in this regard.
In order to improve the supply of the population with consumer goods, industrial companies were still encouraged to also produce products for the consumer sector. In this context, the Dimitroffwerk manufactured the HP 500 car trailer from December 1981 in the company's former container construction. On October 8, 1986, the 10,000. Car trailer celebrated. By the early 1980s, the plant had already produced 40,000 hedge trimmers .
On December 31, 1981, Edgar Freistedt left the company as a result of taking on a role in the Magdeburg Armaturenkombinat. In January 1982 Karl-Heinz Richtetzki became the new operations director of the plant.
From 1981 to 1985 62 opencast mining machines were built. The Ers 100 mini-bucket-chain swing excavator was in development; it was produced after only a year of development from around 1986 and served as the basis for a new series. In 1987 the 100th ERs 710 bucket chain swing excavator was completed. A new large kitchen was built in 1987 for 8.4 million marks. On January 4, 1988, Hans-Joachim Lauck , GDR Minister for Heavy Machinery and Plant Construction, visited the Dimitrov factory. This year the company celebrated its 150th anniversary. Various company employees received awards on this occasion. The factory employee Siegfried Fricke received the Karl Marx Order , the highest award in the GDR.
After the political change in 1989 , the plant initially remained as a branch of the then privatized Takraf Schwermaschinenbau AG . It now operated again under the old traditional name Maschinenfabrik Buckau (MFB). The machine factory Magdeburg-Buckau GmbH was then liquidated on January 1, 1995. The company was most recently a subsidiary of 3B TEC Aufbereitungssysteme GmbH and traded as 3B Maschinenfabrik Buckau GmbH . The company was deleted from the commercial register on August 16, 1996.
Other commercial uses then existed on parts of the factory premises. The company Pape Disposal GmbH and Funke Industrie-Transporte GmbH worked here .
Location Grevenbroich, West Germany
The original Grevenbroich machine factory was founded in 1878 under the company Langen & Hundhausen by Eugen Langen , Carl Jacob Langen and Hermann Hundhausen . In 1890 the company was converted into a stock corporation under the company Maschinenfabrik Grevenbroich AG . The innovatively active company soon employed 1,400 people and was active in the manufacture of systems for beet and cane sugar factories. In 1927 production for the sugar industry was relocated to Magdeburg-Salbke. An enamelling plant remained in Grevenbroich as a plant of Buckau-Wolf AG.
After the Second World War and the confiscation of the Buckau-Wolf factory there, Director Wilhelm Kleinherne from Magdeburg came to the remaining branch in Grevenbroich. The company's headquarters were officially relocated to Grevenbroich in 1947, while the administration was located in Neuss . Initially, production was focused in particular on the manufacture of spare parts for machines that had been delivered in the past. With the currency reform in June 1948, the business situation improved considerably. A large number of orders were received from Germany and abroad. Almost all former departments have now also been set up in Grevenbroich. The company's capital was now DM 10 million, after having previously been 20 million Reichsmarks. From 1949 to 1951, Heinrich Notz, the long-time manager of the plants in Aschersleben and Salbke, headed the Grevenbroich plant. Special machines were manufactured for the sugar industry. A large order involved the delivery of several briquette factories to Australia. The further expansion of the plant took place according to a general expansion plan. New workshops were built in stages. In addition, the stock of machine tools was expanded. Production in the high-pressure boiler construction department grew particularly rapidly , and in 1953 it accounted for the largest part of the new orders. From 1948 to 1953 the company had already invested DM 12 million in expanding the plant in Grevenbroich. In 1954, a dividend was paid out to shareholders for the first time in 10 years. The excavator construction department also saw a revival. Further new workshops and a research institute were inaugurated. In the years 1956/1957 the construction of diesel engines came up. Buckau-Wolf took over the Kiel- based Bohn & Kähler Maschinen- und Motorenfabrik AG , which was now operated as a branch. A plot of 100,000 m² from the former Germania shipyard in Kiel was taken over to expand the production facilities. The expansion of the Kiel plant was completed around 1961/1962. Bohn & Kähler were involved in the sale of vibratory compressors . This special program was continued. Incidentally, the branch was mainly active in the construction of diesel engines. From Sulzer AG in Winterthur one came license for the construction of large diesel engines for use in ships.
In order to round off the production profile, the manufacture of gearboxes, clutches and gears was started in Grevenbroich in 1958. In Grevenbroich, the construction of large conveyor belt systems for use in power plants and the lignite industry took place. Buckau-Wolf New India Engineering Works Ltd. was established as a subsidiary for the Indian cane sugar factory market. founded. The company had production facilities in Pimpri near Poona , which soon employed 500 Indian workers.
In the years 1959/1960 various constructions for sand-lime brick factories to be built were made. After the completion of the expansion of the Kiel plant, further investments were made in Grevenbroich. A pipe storage hall and a staff and social building were created. In addition, there was an extension to assembly hall I. A total of 60 million DM had been invested between the relocation of the headquarters and 1962. At that time, the company had plots of land with an area of 400,000 m². In 1963, in addition to the Indian subsidiary, the Maschinenfabrik Buckau R. Wolf AG included the subsidiaries Maschinenfabrik Grevenbroich AG , Bohn & Kähler Motoren und Maschinenfabrik AG Kiel , Stahlwerk Augustfehn AG Augustfehn and Zeitzer Eisengießerei und Maschinenbau AG .
The company has been operating as BWS Technologie GmbH since 1998 . BWS stands for Buckau-Wolf Supraton .
Buildings
Some of the buildings of the former Buckau-Wolf AG were later placed under monument protection. A remarkable technical monument is the plant's dishing press , which was built in 1910 and was dismantled at the end of 2010 / beginning of 2011 and is to be rebuilt in the Magdeburg Technology Museum .
Salbke plant
The following buildings are interesting from a historical or architectural point of view in the Salbker factory:
Boilermakers
After the establishment as a plant of R. Wolf AG, the boiler forge was established in 1906, according to another statement as early as 1905. The elongated structure extends in an east-west direction over a length of 121 meters. The width is about 65 meters and includes four ships, the southernmost being a bit narrower. The hall takes up an area of 8140 m². Red brick was used as the building material . What is particularly striking is the Art Nouveau east facade , which consists of the four curved gables of the individual naves and is structured by the large windows and the alternation of exposed brickwork and plastered surfaces. Originally the three northerly ships each had a large iron sliding gate on this side.
In later times the hall was raised a little and received horizontal ribbon windows on the long sides. Additions were made to the west side in 1928 and later. Additions were also made on the south side later, but they were removed again in the 1990s.
Foundry hall
In the years 1907/1908, according to a different but inaccurate statement in 1909, the monumental three-aisled hall of the iron foundry was built from brick parallel to the main street . The art nouveau facade, divided by pilaster strips, and the curved roof are remarkable . The architectural design harmonizes with the boiler shop. The middle aisle is supplied with daylight by a skylight band in the ridge of the hall roof, the individual glass surfaces of which are framed by bars made of rolled profile iron. The south facade of the building was simply erected in simple iron framework with brick lining of the compartments in order to make it easier to expand the hall to the south if necessary.
The hall reaches a length of about 120 meters with a width of almost 50 meters. The central nave has a width of 17.15 meters, the side aisles of 12.3 meters each. Riveted rolled sections were used for the main supports. The girders of the side aisles are riveted trusses with a curved lower flange . The hall covers a constructed area of 6339 m² and in 1912 was the workplace of 350 people.
Coiled pipe construction
The snake construction, located directly at the main gate, dominates the appearance of the plant with its five-story clock tower on the northeast side of the building. The SKL logo is visible from afar on the tower. In addition to its rather representative function, the tower also housed a system extending over several levels, which was used to fill pipes with sand in order to stabilize them during bending.
The monumental-looking building was built in 1938 on an L-shaped floor plan as an extension to a building that was built in 1911. Five halls were expanded to the east and another longitudinal hall was created on the north side. The facade, made of clinker bricks in different shades of red, takes on the design of the brick facades of the older neighboring buildings in a more modern form. The simple structure largely dispenses with decorative elements. There are only very narrow cornices . The roof is designed as a flat roof. The east side of the building is 84.8 meters long and has 24 axes, each formed by a high, narrow window. The 17-axis north facade is 80 meters long and is structured by wide rectangular windows and three gates. The goals are framed by strips of clinker brick placed across corners. The same applies to the windows of the tower. The depth of the extension is 14.75 meters. The roof structure consists of iron purlins on iron girders.
The building was built in order to be able to fulfill armaments orders - probably from the Air Force - as well as the requirements of the four-year plan .
Glass picture in the canteen and culture building
Recognized as a monument which is in the north of the main entrance located canteen and cultural buildings built glass picture The seven arts . The picture was created around 1951 by the artist Walter Bischof and is located in the vestibule above the main entrance.
The glass picture, which dominates and shapes the very high and steep vestibule , is considered to be an outstanding art-historical testimony to the attempt to continue modernism in the post-war period.
Buckau plant (former Buckau machine factory)
Of the buildings at the Buckau plant, the development along Schönebecker Strasse is a listed building. These are several halls built between the 1920s and 1940s, each of which has its western gable facing the street. The facades are designed quite uniformly. The brick facades are structured by large iron windows. The halls originally included the tinsmith, the excavator assembly, the large excavator hall, the construction workshop and the tool magazine. In addition, a five-storey administrative wing is attached to the south, which was built in 1935 according to plans by Paul Schaeffer-Heyrothsberge and also has a brick facade made of red and brown stones.
A much older assembly hall is located even further south. This hall, built in 1896 with the addition of an existing iron foundry, is set back and does not directly border the street. The hall was planned by the Buckau architect and local politician Christian Andreas Schmidt . The hall is structurally in a very poor state of preservation. The so-called ox - eye located on the gable end is striking . The hall is covered by a gable roof , which has a continuous lantern .
To the south of the hall is an elongated factory building erected in 1883/1884. This four-story building, also built by Christian Andreas Schmidt, housed the cleaning shop and the model house. This building also has facades made of red bricks, which are structured by pilaster strips . Other noteworthy buildings are a classicist house from around 1805 and a post-classicist house, which was built around 1870 and was last called the Karl-Liebknecht-Haus .
Buckau plant (former machine factory Rudolf Wolf)
In today's Karl-Schmidt-Strasse, the former Feldstrasse, parts of Rudolf Wolf's Buckau factory have been preserved. Several buildings made of yellow and red bricks run along the street, all of which were built by Christian Andreas Schmidt. The facade structure corresponds to the neo-renaissance style . The 15-axis administration building was built in 1891. It has a yellow brick facade, an attic and three flat risalits . The central part is particularly emphasized, as there is a flat oriel in front of the central projection. The roof balustrade bears a clock.
To the south of this is a house built in 1881 as a two-storey office building and expanded in 1885 into a three-storey workshop building. In the middle of the building is the renewed R. Wolf lettering . In the vicinity of the workshop there is a remnant of the facade of a hydraulic riveting workshop built in 1889.
Villa Wolfs, built in 1867, is located at Karl-Schmidt-Straße 13a. The executive architect was Gustav Ebe . In 1889 the villa was fundamentally redesigned according to plans by Christian Andreas Schmidt and given a new façade, but parts of the late Classicist character of the villa were retained.
literature
- Edgar Freistedt: Sharp Twists, A Professional Life in Socialism and Capitalism. BuchWerkstatt, Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-940281-36-4
- Günter Hammerschmidt : Magdeburg company founder, Part IV , Magdeburg 2010
- Conrad Matschoss : The machine factory R. Wolf Magdeburg-Buckau 1862–1912 , Magdeburg 1912
- Th. Merten, Eckhard Schmidt: A broad field - 125 years of Maschinenfabrik Buckau R. Wolf AG , publisher: Maschinenfabrik Buckau R. Wolf AG, Hoppenstedt Wirtschafts-Archiv GmbH Darmstadt 1963
- Erich Pleißner: Concentration of freight shipping on the Elbe. In: Journal for the entire political science , Verlag der H. Lauppschen Buchhandlung, Tübingen 1914 Supplement L, pp. 92–113, digitized version at www.archive.org
- Sabine Ullrich: Industrial architecture in Magdeburg. Engineering industry. State capital Magdeburg, City Planning Office, Magdeburg 1999
- Monument Directory Saxony-Anhalt , Volume 14, State Capital Magdeburg, State Office for Monument Preservation and Archeology Saxony-Anhalt, Michael Imhof Verlag, Petersberg 2009, ISBN 978-3-86568-531-5 , 49 f.
- State capital Magdeburg, city planning office (Ed.): Magdeburg. Architecture and urban planning. Verlag Janos Stekovics , Halle (Saale) 2001, ISBN 3-929330-33-4 , pp. 286f.
- Maschinenfabrik Buckau R. Wolf AG (Ed.): 100 years Buckau-Wolf. The history of our house from 1838 to 1938. Magdeburg 1938
Web links
- Homepage of MTU Reman Technologies GmbH
- Homepage of the bws-technology
- Early documents and newspaper articles on the Buckau R. Wolf machine factory in the 20th century press kit of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .
- Private homepage to Buckau Wolf
Individual evidence
- ↑ wrongly referred to as Alfred Tischbein
- ^ A b Günter Hammerschmidt, Magdeburg company founder , Part IV, Magdeburg 2010, page 204
- ↑ 100 years Buckau-Wolf, page 44
- ^ Conrad Matschoss, Die Maschinenfabrik R. Wolf Magdeburg-Buckau 1862–1912 , Magdeburg 1912, page 11
- ^ Günter Hammerschmidt, Magdeburg company founder , Part IV, Magdeburg 2010, page 217
- ^ A b c Günter Hammerschmidt, Magdeburg company founder , Part IV, Magdeburg 2010, page 219
- ^ Günter Hammerschmidt, Magdeburg company founder , Part IV, Magdeburg 2010, page 228
- ^ Conrad Matschoss, R. Wolf's life story in Die Maschinenfabrik R. Wolf Magdeburg-Buckau 1862–1912 , Magdeburg 1912, page 27
- ^ Günter Hammerschmidt, Magdeburg company founder , Magdeburg 2010, page 51 f.
- ↑ Willy Otto Riecke, Chronicle Prester-Cracau , self-published Magdeburg 1932, page 294
- ↑ Jürgen Bönig, The introduction of assembly line work in Germany until 1933, On the history of a social innovation , Volume 1, Lit Verlag Münster 1993, ISBN 978-3-89473-111-3 , page 389
- ↑ Maik Hattenhorst, Magdeburg 1933 , Mitteldeutscher Verlag Halle (Saale) 2010, ISBN 978-3-89812-775-2 , page 193 f.
- ↑ Maik Hattenhorst, Magdeburg 1933 , Mitteldeutscher Verlag Halle (Saale) 2010, ISBN 978-3-89812-775-2 , page 286 f.
- ↑ Maik Hattenhorst, Magdeburg 1933 , Mitteldeutscher Verlag Halle (Saale) 2010, ISBN 978-3-89812-775-2 , page 196
- ↑ Maik Hattenhorst, Magdeburg 1933 , Mitteldeutscher Verlag Halle (Saale) 2010, ISBN 978-3-89812-775-2 , page 196 f.
- ↑ Eugen Keidel , Internationales Biographisches Archiv 08/1992 from February 10, 1992, in the Munzinger archive , accessed on February 7, 2011 ( beginning of the article freely accessible)
- ↑ Peter-Ernst Schmidt, Foreign, forced, concentration camp, prisoner of war and labor education camps during the Nazi era in Magdeburg , March 2007
- ↑ Dieter Skiba, Reiner Stenzel, In the name of the people, investigation and court proceedings in the GDR against Nazi and war criminals , edition ost, Verlag Das Neue Berlin, ISBN 978-3-360-01850-2 , page 213
- ↑ Helmut Menzel, The Flak Regiment 52 and the Air Defense of Magdeburg 1939 to 1945 , Magado-Selbstverlag Burg, 2018, page 118 ff., 269
- ↑ Ingelore Buchholz , Maren Ballerstedt, A monument was erected for them , publisher: Landeshauptstadt Magdeburg, Stadtarchiv, 1997, page 45
- ^ Günter Hammerschmidt, Magdeburg company founder, Part IV, Magdeburg 2010, page 296 f.
- ^ A b Günter Hammerschmidt, Magdeburg company founder , Part IV, Magdeburg 2010, page 298
- ↑ Th. Merten, Eckhard Schmidt, A wide field - 125 years of machine factory Buckau R. Wolf AG , publisher: Maschinenfabrik Buckau R. Wolf AG, Hoppenstedt Wirtschafts-Archiv GmbH Darmstadt 1963, page 29 f.
- ↑ Th. Merten, Eckhard Schmidt, A wide field - 125 years of Maschinenfabrik Buckau R. Wolf AG , publisher: Maschinenfabrik Buckau R. Wolf AG, Hoppenstedt Wirtschafts-Archiv GmbH Darmstadt 1963, page 30
- ↑ Andreas Schmidt, “… ride with you or be thrown off. The compulsory union of KPD and SPD in the province of Saxony / in the state of Saxony-Anhalt 1945-49 ” , Lit Verlag Münster 2004, ISBN 3-8258-7066-9 , page 142
- ↑ Heinz Thüm: rust, Hans Günter. In: Guido Heinrich, Gunter Schandera (ed.): Magdeburg Biographical Lexicon 19th and 20th centuries. Biographical lexicon for the state capital Magdeburg and the districts of Bördekreis, Jerichower Land, Ohrekreis and Schönebeck. Scriptum, Magdeburg 2002, ISBN 3-933046-49-1 , p. 602 f.
- ^ Province of Saxony before the election in New Germany on September 4, 1946, page 1
- ↑ Michael Kubina, From Utopia, Resistance and Cold War: The Untimely Life of the Berlin Council Communist Alfred Weiland (1906–1978) , Volume 1 of Dictatorship and Resistance, LIT Verlag Münster 2001, ISBN 978-3-8258-5361-7 , page 250
- ↑ Thomas Klein, "For the unity and purity of the party" , Volume 20 of Zeithistorische Studien, Böhlau Verlag Köln Weimar 2002, ISBN 978-3-412-13401-3 , page 123
- ↑ Venerated by all working people in New Germany of December 18, 1949, page 1
- ↑ Hubert Hartert, “Mayor Anna” speaks to activists in New Germany from April 13, 1950, page 3
- ^ Wilfried Lübeck: June 17, 1953 in Magdeburg. “If the friends hadn't been there, there would have been a defeat.” In “and the most important thing is unity. June 17th in the districts of Halle and Magdeburg “ , Lit Verlag, Münster / Hamburg / London 2003, ISBN 978-3-8258-6775-1 , page 107 f.
- ↑ a b Wilfried Lübeck: June 17, 1953 in Magdeburg. “If the friends hadn't been there, there would have been a defeat.” In “and the most important thing is unity. June 17th in the districts of Halle and Magdeburg “ , Lit Verlag, Münster / Hamburg / London 2003, ISBN 978-3-8258-6775-1 , page 115
- ^ Wilfried Lübeck: June 17, 1953 in Magdeburg. “If the friends hadn't been there, there would have been a defeat.” In “and the most important thing is unity. June 17th in the districts of Halle and Magdeburg “ , Lit Verlag, Münster / Hamburg / London 2003, ISBN 978-3-8258-6775-1 , page 126
- ↑ Karl-Heinz Werner, Reinhard Bauerschmidt, Together in the Fight for Peace and Progress in New Germany, June 22, 1978, page 3
- ^ Mechanical and plant engineering in the Magdeburg region at the beginning of the 21st century Verlag Delta-D Magdeburg 2014, ISBN 978-3-935831-51-2 , page 116
- ↑ Hans Standhardt's website ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Mechanical and plant engineering in the Magdeburg region at the beginning of the 21st century; Verlag Delta-D Magdeburg 2014, ISBN 978-3-935831-51-2 , page 116 f.
- ↑ Mechanical and plant engineering in the Magdeburg region at the beginning of the 21st century Verlag Delta-D Magdeburg 2014, ISBN 978-3-935831-51-2 , page 117 f.
- ↑ Mechanical and plant engineering in the Magdeburg region at the beginning of the 21st century Verlag Delta-D Magdeburg 2014, ISBN 978-3-935831-51-2 , page 119
- ↑ Inge Viett: I have never been more fearful. Rowohlt Taschenbuchverlag, Reinbek 1999, ISBN 3-499-60769-7 , page 308
- ↑ Inge Viett: I have never been more fearful. Rowohlt Taschenbuchverlag, Reinbek 1999, ISBN 3-499-60769-7 , page 316
- ↑ Inge Viett: I have never been more fearful. Rowohlt Taschenbuchverlag, Reinbek 1999, ISBN 3-499-60769-7 , page 317
- ↑ Inge Viett: I have never been more fearful. Rowohlt Taschenbuchverlag, Reinbek 1999, ISBN 3-499-60769-7 , page 318 ff.
- ↑ Mechanical and plant engineering in the Magdeburg region at the beginning of the 21st century Verlag Delta-D Magdeburg 2014, ISBN 978-3-935831-51-2 , page 120
- ↑ a b Mechanical and plant engineering in the Magdeburg region at the beginning of the 21st century Verlag Delta-D Magdeburg 2014, ISBN 978-3-935831-51-2 , page 121
- ↑ Mechanical and plant engineering in the Magdeburg region at the beginning of the 21st century Verlag Delta-D Magdeburg 2014, ISBN 978-3-935831-51-2 , page 123
- ↑ a b Mechanical and plant engineering in the Magdeburg region at the beginning of the 21st century Verlag Delta-D Magdeburg 2014, ISBN 978-3-935831-51-2 , page 122
- ^ Günter Hammerschmidt, Magdeburg company founder , Part IV, Magdeburg 2010, page 359
- ^ Edgar Freistedt: Sharp twists, A professional life in socialism and capitalism. BuchWerkstatt, Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-940281-36-4 , page 15
- ^ Edgar Freistedt: Sharp twists, A professional life in socialism and capitalism. BuchWerkstatt Berlin, 2012, ISBN 978-3-940281-36-4 , page 15 f.
- ^ Edgar Freistedt: Sharp twists, A professional life in socialism and capitalism. BuchWerkstatt, Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-940281-36-4 , page 26 f.
- ^ Edgar Freistedt: Sharp twists, A professional life in socialism and capitalism. BuchWerkstatt, Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-940281-36-4 , page 28
- ^ Edgar Freistedt, Scharfe Wendungen, A working life in socialism and capitalism , BuchWerkstatt Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-940281-36-4 , page 35
- ^ Edgar Freistedt, Scharfe Wendungen, A professional life in socialism and capitalism , BuchWerkstatt Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-940281-36-4 , page 39 f.
- ^ Edgar Freistedt, Scharfe Wendungen, A professional life in socialism and capitalism , BuchWerkstatt Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-940281-36-4 , page 41
- ^ Edgar Freistedt, Scharfe Wendungen, A professional life in socialism and capitalism , BuchWerkstatt Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-940281-36-4 , page 51 f.
- ^ Edgar Freistedt, Scharfe Wendungen, A working life in socialism and capitalism , BuchWerkstatt Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-940281-36-4 , page 59
- ^ Edgar Freistedt, Scharfe Wendungen, A professional life in socialism and capitalism , BuchWerkstatt Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-940281-36-4 , page 59 f.
- ^ Edgar Freistedt, Scharfe Wendungen, A working life in socialism and capitalism , BuchWerkstatt Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-940281-36-4 , page 63
- ^ Edgar Freistedt, Scharfe Wendungen, A working life in socialism and capitalism , BuchWerkstatt Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-940281-36-4 , page 65
- ^ Edgar Freistedt, Scharfe Wendungen, A professional life in socialism and capitalism , BuchWerkstatt Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-940281-36-4 , page 66 f.
- ^ Edgar Freistedt, Scharfe Wendungen, A working life in socialism and capitalism , BuchWerkstatt Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-940281-36-4 , page 68
- ^ Edgar Freistedt, Scharfe Wendungen, A working life in socialism and capitalism , BuchWerkstatt Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-940281-36-4 , page 94
- ^ Edgar Freistedt, Scharfe Wendungen, A working life in socialism and capitalism , BuchWerkstatt Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-940281-36-4 , page 80
- ^ Edgar Freistedt, Scharfe Wendungen, A working life in socialism and capitalism , BuchWerkstatt Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-940281-36-4 , page 81 f.
- ^ Edgar Freistedt, Scharfe Wendungen, A working life in socialism and capitalism , BuchWerkstatt Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-940281-36-4 , page 115
- ^ Edgar Freistedt, Scharfe Wendungen, A working life in socialism and capitalism , BuchWerkstatt Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-940281-36-4 , page 106
- ^ Edgar Freistedt, Scharfe Wendungen, A professional life in socialism and capitalism , BuchWerkstatt Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-940281-36-4 , page 127
- ↑ 3btec.com - Official website of 3B TEC Aufbereitungssysteme GmbH, the last parent company of Maschinenfabrik Buckau GmbH
- ^ Maschinenfabrik Buckau R. Wolf AG (Ed.), Th. Merten, Eckhard Schmidt: A wide field. 125 years of Maschinenfabrik Buckau R. Wolf AG. Hoppenstedt Wirtschafts-Archiv GmbH, Darmstadt 1963, p. 30.
- ^ Maschinenfabrik Buckau R. Wolf AG (Ed.), Th. Merten, Eckhard Schmidt: A wide field. 125 years of Maschinenfabrik Buckau R. Wolf AG. Hoppenstedt Wirtschafts-Archiv GmbH, Darmstadt 1963, page 31
- ^ Maschinenfabrik Buckau R. Wolf AG (Ed.), Th. Merten, Eckhard Schmidt: A wide field. 125 years of Maschinenfabrik Buckau R. Wolf AG. Hoppenstedt Wirtschafts-Archiv GmbH, Darmstadt 1963, page 31 f.
- ↑ Th. Merten, Eckhard Schmidt, A wide field - 125 years of machine works Buckau R. Wolf AG , publisher: Machine works Buckau R. Wolf AG, Hoppenstedt Wirtschafts-Archiv GmbH Darmstadt 1963, page 32
- ↑ Th. Merten, Eckhard Schmidt, A wide field - 125 years of machine factory Buckau R. Wolf AG , publisher: Maschinenfabrik Buckau R. Wolf AG, Hoppenstedt Wirtschafts-Archiv GmbH Darmstadt 1963, page 106
- ↑ bws-technologie.de - Official website of Buckau-Wolf Supraton in Grevenbroich
- ↑ a b c Monument Directory Saxony-Anhalt , Volume 14, State Capital Magdeburg, State Office for Monument Preservation and Archeology Saxony-Anhalt, Michael Imhof Verlag Petersberg 2009, ISBN 978-3-86568-531-5 , page 50
- ↑ List of monuments Saxony-Anhalt , Volume 14, State capital Magdeburg, State Office for Monument Preservation and Archeology Saxony-Anhalt, Michael Imhof Verlag Petersberg 2009, ISBN 978-3-86568-531-5 , page 49
- ↑ Monument Directory Saxony-Anhalt , Volume 14, State Capital Magdeburg, State Office for Monument Preservation and Archeology Saxony-Anhalt, Michael Imhof Verlag Petersberg 2009, ISBN 978-3-86568-531-5 , page 498 f.
