Michel works

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The Michel-Werke GmbH & Co. KG was a German electrical equipment manufacturer based in Augsburg . The company was founded in 1932 and incorporated into the war economy in 1938 as a key operation in German arms production . Mainly electrical components for Messerschmitt AG aircraft and control systems for V weapons were produced . In addition to the main factory in Augsburg, there were branches in Vorarlberg and relocation sites in the Allgäu at the end of the war .

After 1945, the company resumed the manufacture of non-military products from the range of the prewar period in individual subsidiary operations. As recently as 1994, the administrative headquarters were in Augsburg-Kriegshaber , Ulmer Strasse 161a. The name of the company was later changed to Michel-Werke Beteiligungs-GmbH , whose business area today is primarily the management and leasing of company-owned real estate. Since 2003, the company has been located in Neusäß , Kobelstrasse 55.

Armaments factory

The company was founded in 1932 by the engineer Johann Michel under the name Michel - Factory for electrical devices Augsburg . Initially, electrical parts for radios were manufactured. In the course of the armaments economy, the owner-managed company developed from 1936 into one of the most important suppliers of electromechanical control technology, especially for aircraft manufacturers . These included components of the on- board electronics, switch boxes, plugs, relays , electromagnetic coils , fuses, magnetic switches, remote controls for on-board weapons , for example for the MG 17 or the MG FF . The main customer was Messerschmitt AG . The name was changed to Michel-Werke GmbH & Co. KG only at the beginning of the 1940s.

As a key company in German armaments production , the company was incorporated into the centrally controlled defense industry in 1938 and was under the Augsburg Armaments Command until the end of the war . Between the years 1939 and 1944, the total turnover of the Michel works increased 18-fold. The main plant in Augsburg (Plant I) was located on Rehmstrasse in the Siebentischwald . In 1942 the building complex on Ulmer Strasse (Plant II) was completed. In addition to the Augsburg plants, the company also set up branches in Bregenz and Hard (Vorarlberg) from June 1941 . From mid-1944, additional relocation sites were built in Scheidegg and, from April 1945, in Lindenberg im Allgäu . In 1944, the company employed around 4,000 permanent employees.

As a result of the increasing air raids on Augsburg , more and more areas were relocated to Vorarlberg from May 1942. Among other things, the company set up a complex, state-of-the-art Bakelite press facility for the manufacture of plastic housing parts in the Harder plant . For the Bregenz plant, the Innsbruck Armaments Command established on July 16, 1943 that the total of 373 "followers" were producing between 140,000 and 160,000 series connectors per month and an average of 3,000 delay switches . Within a short period of time, the output of series connectors was doubled to 300,000 pieces per month. Around 80% of the employees in Bregenz and Hard were women. From 1944 onwards, the Michel-Werke employed a total of 652 people in Vorarlberg, around 100 of whom were foreign workers or prisoners of war .

From January 1944, production in Bregenz expanded again. The company was integrated into the airborne weapons program and had to deliver 3,000 to 6,000 units per month. In addition, there were electrical charging switchgear for other weapon building programs. Due to the permanent shortage of labor, the Innsbruck armaments command for the Michel works in Vorarlberg was considering hiring commuters from nearby Switzerland. Interestingly, the St. Gallen employment office wrote to the German authorities offering the placement of literally "around 100 first-class metalworkers", which at the time would have clearly violated Switzerland's neutrality policy . Ultimately, the job placement failed due to the safety regulations of the German authorities, as parts for the "secret production" were also produced in the Bregenz plant. The market segment of Michel works was one of those days undoubtedly the -art technology . This also included rocket fuse circuit relays for the V2 .

In autumn 1944 the company built two larger wooden factory barracks in Scheidegg ( code name Schaltbau Scheidegg ) at its own expense . In addition, the armaments command confiscated the workrooms of the Scheidegger ski and cardboard factory Hanser & Wilhelm. The armaments command set up other relocation sites in the Lindenberg hat factories, which the Michel works moved into from April 1945. Large production rooms were located here, including in the basement of the Ottmar Reich hat factory, as well as in the Aurel Huber hat factory and the Wiedemann brothers' hat factory, where the material warehouse and accounting were set up.

Forced labor

In April 1943, the Michel works were awarded the title of war model company and Johann Michel was appointed military manager. However, the title said little about the proximity of the owner to the Nazi regime. Michel came from a modest, originally social democratic background and from December 1943 was suspected of sabotage and destruction of military strength . In the spring of 1944 he was arrested by the Gestapo. The armaments command accused him of deliberate delivery delays, which caused aircraft production in the Messerschmitt works to come to a standstill.

After his release from Gestapo imprisonment, the Augsburg Armaments Command took full control of the production of the Michel works and, according to the files, “the instructions for use and the securing of workers”. Against this background, at the end of August 1944, the armaments command set up a subcamp of the Dachau concentration camp for women in the complex of the Augsburger Michel-Werke in Ulmer Strasse . It is estimated that around 500 Hungarian Jewish women had to do forced labor for various armaments factories in Augsburg. The satellite camp existed from September 7, 1944 to April 25, 1945.

The rooms were on the second floor of the main north wing of the building. About 300 women worked directly at the Michel works, both in Plant II on Ulmer Strasse and Plant I on Rehmstrasse. An estimated 200 concentration camp prisoners were deployed about one kilometer from the camp at Kuka AG . Others were employed at Industriewerke Lohwald AG in the production of camouflage colors . Several times the women were assigned to clearing work all over Augsburg after bomb attacks. The guard was carried out by SS personnel. According to prisoners' statements, the working and living conditions were bearable under the circumstances. The work took place in 12-hour shifts. According to Johann Michel, the meals for the prisoners corresponded to the canteen meals of all employees of the Michel works. According to the research carried out by Wolfgang Benz , Barbara Distel , Angelika Königsede and Wolfgang Kucera, the women received medical care from company doctors. There were verifiably no deaths in the "Michel-Werke subcamp".

post war period

At the end of the war, almost all of the production at Michel-Werke was relocated from Augsburg to the Allgäu, but mostly to Vorarlberg. The Austrian engineer Walter Zumtobel appropriated the branches in Bregenz and Hard . For this purpose, he offered the French authorities in occupied post-war Austria a collaboration, since, in his words, “the product range of the Michel works is important for the reconstruction of Austria”. Nonetheless, they recognized the importance of the factories for French armaments and agreed to hand over corresponding series orders for transformers and high-frequency relays to Zumtobel for the French Navy . Orders were also carried out for the French Air Force .

Although there was no longer any connection to the Augsburg parent company after the end of the war, Zumtobel began producing electronic components under the name Michel-Werk from September 1945, initially as a sequester on behalf of the French military administration and later as a leaseholder of the Austrian authorities Hard or Michel-Werk Bregenz . At the end of December 1949, Zumtobel achieved a merger and the relocation of the two plants to Dornbirn . On January 1st, 1950 he founded two companies, the Michel-Werke, leaseholder Dipl. Ing. Walter Zumtobel and the company Elektrogeräte und Kunstharzpresswerk W. Zumtobel KG .

From Augsburg, Johann Michel tried in vain to get his property back, or at least something in return for the machines, or a fee for the branded products sold under his name. Zumtobel informed him in writing that his “hands were tied” and literally that “his [Michels] property came to Austria after the seizure of power and in connection with the seizure of power for war-related reasons” and therefore it was forfeited to Austria . On this basis, production continued under the name of Michel-Werke in Dornbirn until the end of December 1952. In the course of the seizure and administration, Johann Michel put his loss of assets at around 90%.

In 1952, the total turnover of the Michel works in Vorarlberg was 3,480,000 schillings . On January 1, 1953, the Michel-Werke company, leaseholder Dipl. Ing. Walter Zumtobel was incorporated into the electrical appliances and synthetic resin pressing plant W. Zumtobel KG , which was founded in 1950, thus laying the cornerstone of today's Zumtobel Group .

The Augsburg Plant II on Ulmer Strasse, which was only completed in 1942, was occupied by US units after the end of the war. The US authorities shut down production and relocated the bombed-out European headquarters of the NCR Corporation in Berlin to the complex. After returning his property in Augsburg, Johann Michel succeeded in renting the site and part of the building permanently to the NCR and the Schwäbische Landeszeitung ( later Augsburger Allgemeine) from October 1946 . The head office of Michel-Werke GmbH & Co. KG remained on one floor until 1994. The NCR later built a large industrial center with the NCR skyscraper on the rear property.

In the spring of 1946, Johann Michel resumed the production of electrical devices and electronic components in Augsburg in the former Plant I in Rehmstrasse and in the wooden barracks in Scheidegg. From 1948 onwards, these included fan heaters , tape recorders and radios. As before, production was mainly carried out as a sub- supplier. The amplifier tubes from Michel-Werke Scheidegg were of particularly high technical quality at that time . As early as March 1946, Michel received extensive orders from the Center national de la recherche scientifique for deliveries to France. The Michel works in Augsburg and Scheidegg were also favored by the US Army when placing orders due to their technical advantage. These included electromedical devices ( electrocardiographs ) as well as electroacoustic components for radio transmitters and special devices for radar applications .

Patents

Johann Michel filed numerous patents from 1936 onwards . The so-called Michel connector , which was used for the armament systems of all German fighter planes , achieved great popularity and distribution . The space-saving connector was held in place by a spring-loaded cover on one side and a groove on the other side and enabled the on-board weapons to be changed quickly and easily without screwing. In connection technology , the Michel connectors were of course a step forward for non-military purposes.

Many inventions and utility models went into series production directly at the Michel works. Michel sold several patent rights to other companies. In the post-war period alone, he registered over 50 inventions with the United States Patent and Trademark Office . These include above all electromagnetic relays, control systems, magnetic switches, eddy current measuring devices, magnetic heads and minute counters for tape recorders, but also a rotating toothbrush, electric hair scissors, thermal displays for frozen products, accessories for cameras, electrostatic puppet and magnetic board games.

present

At the beginning of the 21st century the name was changed to Michel-Werke Beteiligungs-GmbH . The object of business today is the administration and leasing of all kinds of assets, in particular their property, as well as the provision of related services. The company has a stake in AGH Augsburger Gewerbe Hof GmbH & Co. KG and GHS Gewerbehof am Siebentischwald GmbH. The company has been based in Neusäß since 2003 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Martin Broszat , Klaus-Dietmar Henke , Hans Woller : From Stalingrad to currency reform. On the social history of upheaval in Germany. Walter de Gruyter, 2009, p. 582.
  2. ^ Letter from Johann Michel to the Reich Aviation Ministry dated June 20, 1940, archives of the German Air Force, accessed on November 19, 2019.
  3. ^ Armaments command Augsburg, 1938-1945 archive portal of the German digital library, accessed on November 19, 2019.
  4. ↑ Martin Broszat, Klaus-Dietmar Henke, Hans Woller: From Stalingrad to currency reform. On the social history of upheaval in Germany. Walter de Gruyter, 2009, p. 582.
  5. ↑ Harald Walser: Bomb deals. Vorarlberg's economy during the Nazi era. Studies on the history and society of Vorarlberg. Vorarlberger Authors Society, 1989, p. 313.
  6. ↑ Harald Walser: Bomb deals. Vorarlberg's economy during the Nazi era. Studies on the history and society of Vorarlberg. Vorarlberger Authors Society, 1989, p. 159.
  7. ↑ Harald Walser: Bomb deals. Vorarlberg's economy during the Nazi era. Studies on the history and society of Vorarlberg. Vorarlberger Authors Society, 1989, p. 313.
  8. ^ Christian Feurstein: From family business to corporate family. The Zumtobel Group from 1950-2000. LIT Verlag Münster, 2009, p. 59 f.
  9. ↑ Rocket fuse switch box, around 1945 archive of the German Air Force, accessed on November 19, 2019.
  10. ↑ Martin Broszat, Klaus-Dietmar Henke, Hans Woller: From Stalingrad to currency reform. On the social history of upheaval in Germany. Walter de Gruyter, 2009, p. 583.
  11. ^ Lindenberg im Allgäu Bavarian State Ministry for Science and Art - House of Bavarian History, accessed on November 21, 2019.
  12. ^ Memoirs of Luis Schulte's contemporary witnesses in conversation, accessed on November 21, 2019.
  13. ^ Armaments Command Augsburg, 1938-1945 archive portal of the German Digital Library, accessed on November 21, 2019.
  14. ↑ Martin Broszat, Klaus-Dietmar Henke, Hans Woller: From Stalingrad to currency reform. On the social history of upheaval in Germany. Walter de Gruyter, 2009, p. 583.
  15. ^ Armaments command Augsburg, 1938-1945 archive portal of the German digital library, accessed on November 19, 2019.
  16. ^ Armaments Command Augsburg, 1938-1945 archive portal of the German Digital Library, accessed on November 21, 2019.
  17. ↑ Wolfgang Benz, Barbara Distel, Angelika Königseder: The place of terror. History of the National Socialist Concentration Camps. Volume 2. CH Beck, 2005, p. 286.
  18. ↑ Wolfgang Benz, Barbara Distel, Angelika Königseder: The place of terror. History of the National Socialist Concentration Camps. Volume 2. CH Beck, 2005, p. 286.
  19. ^ Christian Feurstein: From family business to corporate family. The Zumtobel Group from 1950–2000. LIT Verlag Münster, 2009, p. 16 f, p. 64 f.
  20. ^ Christian Feurstein: From family business to corporate family. The Zumtobel Group from 1950–2000. LIT Verlag Münster, 2009, p. 68 f.
  21. ^ Christian Feurstein: From family business to corporate family. The Zumtobel Group from 1950–2000. LIT Verlag Münster, 2009, p. 72 f.
  22. ↑ Martin Broszat, Klaus-Dietmar Henke, Hans Woller: From Stalingrad to currency reform. On the social history of upheaval in Germany. Walter de Gruyter, 2009, p. 583, footnote 85.
  23. ^ Christian Feurstein: From family business to corporate family. The Zumtobel Group from 1950–2000. LIT Verlag Münster, 2009, p. 11 f., P. 72 f.
  24. ↑ Martin Broszat, Klaus-Dietmar Henke, Hans Woller: From Stalingrad to currency reform. On the social history of upheaval in Germany. Walter de Gruyter, 2009, p. 583.
  25. ↑ The NCR high-rise will be demolished Augsburger Allgemeine on December 18, 2015, accessed on November 22, 2019.
  26. ↑ Kriegshaber - 70 years of Augsburg district memoirs of Heinz Wember, accessed on November 22, 2019.
  27. ↑ Manufacturer information and history of Michel-Werke Augsburg Radiomuseum Luzern, accessed on November 22, 2019.
  28. ^ Association of German Electrical Engineers (Ed.): Electrotechnical magazine. Edition B. Volumes 1 to 2. VDE Verlag, 1949, p. 227.
  29. ↑ Martin Broszat, Klaus-Dietmar Henke, Hans Woller: From Stalingrad to currency reform. On the social history of upheaval in Germany. Walter de Gruyter, 2009, pp. 583-584.
  30. ^ Association of German Electrical Engineers (Ed.): Electrotechnical magazine . Supplements, Volume 71. VDE Verlag, 1950, p. 674.
  31. ↑ Inventor: Johann Michel Google Patents, accessed November 24, 2019.
  32. ↑ Hans Joachim Michel CompanyHouse AG, accessed on November 22, 2019.
  33. ↑ GHS Gewerbehof am Siebentischwald GmbH Genios, accessed on November 22, 2019.
  34. ↑ Excerpt from the commercial register Michel-Werke Beteiligungs GmbH Registeranzeiger, accessed on November 22, 2019.
  35. ↑ Company data on Michel-Werke Beteiligungs GmbH Verband der Vereine Creditreform eV, accessed on November 22, 2019.