Malchow ammunition and explosives factory
The former ammunition and explosives factory near Malchow , camouflaged as Albion , was built in 1938 for Gesellschaft mbH for the utilization of chemical products ( Verwertchemie ), a subsidiary of Dynamit AG (DAG), which also operated other explosives factories . The plant went into operation at the end of 1939 and until 1945 produced detonators , detonators , detonating cords and, above all, the explosive nitropenta .
history
The structurally weak and remote region in the Mecklenburg Lake District was ideal for the location of an armaments factory . The 360 hectare factory site was remote, inexpensive and well camouflaged by the forest. A good transport connection was given by the Karow – Malchow – Waren railway line . The Plauer and Petersdorfer See in the course of the Elde-Müritz waterway were used to supply the chemical factory with water .
After the end of the war, the factory itself was roughly dismantled by the Soviet Army and the machines and factory equipment were brought to the Soviet Union as reparations . From 1948 to 1952, large parts of the facilities were systematically destroyed or blown up.
Manpower
In 1939 288 people were employed, in 1941 around 2030 people, in 1943 around 4939 people and in 1945 around 5299 people worked in the plant. Because of the high demand for soldiers to be deployed at the front, the factory initially employed about as many forced laborers as regular workers and, from 1943, additional prisoner women from the Ravensbrück concentration camp .
The work today
Today the structure of the plant in the forest can only be guessed at. The former factory site is now a natural refuge , with bats living in many ruins . In addition to the bunkers and ruins, the forced laborers' quarters, the heavily developed train station and waterworks, the administration building and parts of the company apartments have been preserved.
literature
- Christiane Sawatzki, Eberhard Fromhild Treu, Gerhard Bröcker, Alfred Nill: The ammunition and explosives factory in Malchow 1938–1945 , City of Malchow 1995
- Literature about ammunition and explosives factory Malchow in the state bibliography MV
Web links
Individual evidence