Tractor factory Schönebeck
| VEB Tractor Plant Schönebeck (from 1984 VEB Tractor and Diesel Engine Plant Schönebeck )
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| legal form | publicly-owned business |
| founding | Early 1945 (as FAMO-Fahrzeugbau Schönebeck ) |
| resolution | 1990 |
| Reason for dissolution | Change of name to Landtechnik AG Schönebeck |
| Seat | Schönebeck , German Democratic Republic |
| Number of employees | around 7,300 (late 1980s) |
| Branch | Agricultural technology manufacturers , tractor manufacturers , engine manufacturers |
The state-owned company VEB Tractorswerk Schönebeck , from 1984 to 1990 VEB Tractors and Diesel Engine Works Schönebeck , was the only tractor manufacturer in the GDR from the mid-1960s .
location
The factory site was on the eastern outskirts of Schönebeck and extended in the north to the Röthe, an alluvial forest area on the banks of the Elbe . Since the 1960s, a factory housing estate has been built on the southern outskirts of Schönebeck, about one kilometer west of the plant, to accommodate the additional workers required, and a prefabricated housing estate in the 1980s.
Company history
Origins
The company's origins date back to the Founded in 1885, company Hoyer & Glahn (from 1897 Fahrradwerke " World Wheel " formerly Hoyer & Glahn, 1900 metal industry Schoenebeck AG ), the FAMO vehicle and engine plants Wroclaw and the Junker works in Schoenebeck (Elbe) back . At the beginning of 1945, the FAMO works relocated the production of tractors to the Junkers works in Schönebeck. This company was dismantled after the war.
Development after the Second World War
In 1945, the production of handcarts, bicycles and baby carriages began on the site of the bicycle factory, and in the following years, based on the FAMO product range, the production of spare parts and later the development and production of vehicles for agriculture began.
In 1948 there were the two companies Metallindustrie Schönebeck and FAMO-Fahrzeugbau Schönebeck , which were merged in the same year and assigned to the Association of Volkseigener Fahrzeugwerke IFA under the name “IFA-Fahrzeugwerke Schönebeck / Elbe” . Later the name changed first to Schlepperwerk and then Tractorwerk Schönebeck, which in 1956, together with the two other tractor factories of the GDR in Nordhausen and Brandenburg, was assigned to the headquarters of the state-owned farms of agricultural machinery. In 1958, VVB Agricultural Machinery and Tractor Construction emerged from the main administration .
In 1964 the tractor operations and with it the Schönebeck tractor factory returned to VVB Automobilbau. In 1970, when there was only tractor production in Schönebeck, the company was reassigned to VVB Agricultural and Food Technology. In 1973 he became part of the combine progress agricultural machinery .
In 1984 merged with the also to combine progress agricultural machinery belonging, formed in 1955 Dieselmotorenwerk Schoenebeck for tractor and diesel engine Schönebeck . At the end of the 1980s, this company had a turnover of around 1,200 million GDR marks and around 7,300 employees, 4,600 of them in the tractor factory, 2,300 in the diesel engine factory and 400 in various parts of the company.
Development after the reunification
In 1990 the company left the Association of the Combine Progress and came under trust management as Landtechnik AG Schönebeck . In 1993 the tractor range of Anton Schlueter Munich , which was liquidated at the same time, was taken over and the name Landtechnik-Schlueter GmbH was temporarily used . In 1995 this branch of business was given up again. As a result of several attempts at privatization , the Doppstadt company took over the company in 1999 . The Doppstadt Schoenebeck existed until the year of 2006.
Products
A 40 HP tractor came from the FAMO product range, which later became the RS 01/40 pioneer , which was first produced in Zwickau and then in Nordhausen . The first chain tractors produced in Brandenburg were also based on FAMO products. A new development in Schönebeck was the 30 HP tractor RS 04/30 , which was then produced in Nordhausen from 1953 due to inadequate production conditions. The Schönebeck company was established as the central development center for tractors in the early 1950s.
In the 1950s and 1960s, the focus for the Schönebeck company was on the single-arm implement carriers, the development of which began in 1951 and was based on the “Mole” implement carrier developed by Scheuch in the late 1940s. This included the following products:
- RS 08 with 2-cylinder two-stroke engine (1953 to 1956)
- RS 09 with 2-cylinder diesel engine (1957 to 1962)
- GT 122/124 with 4-cylinder diesel engine (1963 to 1972)
A total of around 120,000 of these equipment carriers were produced.
Wheel tractor / tractor RS08 "Mole" in January 1953
RS09 in October 1957
In the mid-1960s, development work was in progress on a series of tractors, but only the larger model with 100 hp went into series production. The following products were created on this basis:
- ZT 300 (standard tractor, 1967 to 1982)
- ZT 303 (standard four-wheel drive tractor, 1972 to 1982)
- ZT 320 (standard tractor, 1983 to 1990)
- ZT 323 (standard four-wheel drive tractor, 1983 to 1990)
1967 - Preparation for series production of the ZT 300
ZT 300
ZT 303
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When the ZT 300 was presented in September 1967, it had a flat tire at the front right, which spread like wildfire among the employees. The ZT 300 was too heavy and too expensive to produce, which is why it was initially difficult to sell. Problems arose again and again because the parts required for production were not available. This meant that parts of tractors that had already been manufactured were dismantled and returned to production in order to achieve the required quantities.
As part of the production of consumer goods in the GDR , car trailers were also built from the 1970s .
In 1973 the production of the self-propelled forage harvester E 281 and its further developments was taken over by the company Progress Harvesters Neustadt in Saxony .
The focus of the product range after 1990 was:
- Series of self-propelled forage harvesters "Maral" as a further development of the progress forage harvesters
- Production and development of the Deutz Gigant forage harvester
- System tractors Systra 40 and 53 as well as their further development Systra 550 and 750, later Doppstadt trac 80 and 900k
- From 1993 to 1995 some tractors from the Schlüter program (Eurotrac 1400LS, 1700LS, 2000LS, Supertrac 2200LS)
- From 1996 to 1999 LTS trac 160, later Doppstadt trac 160
- From 1999 to 2006 the Doppstadt-Trac tractors based on the MB-Trac (80, 900k, 100, 130, 150, 180, 200)
Trivia
- Production took place in three shifts. In the canteen , 100 people prepared meals for the workers. At peak times, up to 600 apprentices were trained at the same time.
- A small part of the products were exported to western countries, but in percentage terms in larger margins to young nation states (i.e. African developing countries that were assigned to the socialist camp).
- The annual sports festival also included shooting with air rifles and throwing hand grenades into practice.
- An in-house newspaper was published; The tractor worker .
literature
- Krombholz, K .: Agricultural machinery in the GDR - light and shadow . DLG-Verlag, Frankfurt / Main 2008, ISBN 978-3-7690-0717-6 .
- Collective of authors: The nationally owned combine progress agricultural machinery Neustadt in Saxony and its companies 1945 - 1990 . Publication of the traditional association KOFO Neustadt / Sa. eV, Neustadt in Saxony 2005.
- Operating party organization of the VEB Traktorenwerk Schönbeck (Ed.): Operating history of the VEB Tractor Factory Schönebeck, Part I 1885 - 1945, Part II 1945 - 1961 . Edited by Wilhelm Lohoff, Magdeburg 1983.
- Kirchberg, P .: Plastic, sheet metal and planned economy: the history of automobile construction in the GDR . Nicolaische Verlagsbuchhandlung, Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-89479-259-0 .
Movie
- The Tractor Builders von Schönebeck, MDR documentation from the search for traces in ruins series , 2007
Web links
Coordinates: 52 ° 0 ′ 56 " N , 11 ° 45 ′ 34" E