Nokia factory in Bochum

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Nokia factory in Bochum

The Nokia plant in Bochum in the northern district of Riemke was one of the 15 production sites in nine countries of the Nokia telecommunications group .

The origins of the plant in Bochum go back to 1956. In the meantime, the factory was considered the most modern and largest television factory in Europe. At times, the Nokia factory in Bochum employed more than 4500 people. Until mid-2008 it was the only production and development facility for mobile phones in Germany, after other companies had already relocated production abroad. The site was closed on June 30, 2008 after production had ceased completely on May 1, 2008.

history

Graetz, SEL, Alcatel

The factory goes back to the Graetz company . It was opened as Graetz-Fernsehwerk IV by Erich Graetz in 1956. The plant offered 1200 jobs. There were televisions manufactured and especially TV tables resting. The location had its own access point for local rail passenger transport, the Bochum Graetz stop, since 1993 Bochum Nokia, since 2009 Bochum Riemke.

One of the employees was the engineer Heinz Kaminski , who later founded the Bochum observatory . Fritz Graetz sold his company to Standard Elektrik Lorenz on March 25, 1961 because he could not find a successor in his family.

At the end of 1970 there was overproduction at SEL , only 600,000 of the targeted 800,000 color television sets could be sold.

At the end of 1986 SEL was sold to Alcatel .

Nokia era

The plant in Bochum came to the Finnish Nokia in March 1988 because Nokia had acquired the audio and video sectors and the Schaub-Lorenz and Graetz brands from SEL.

Initially, televisions and satellite receivers ( d-box ) were built. In 1989 Nokia started producing cell phones in Bochum. A fully automated high-bay warehouse was built. In 1993 the company contributed financially to the renewal of the line on the Bochum – Gelsenkirchen railway line, which was then marketed under the name Nokia-Bahn . The train stop near the plant was officially called Bochum NOKIA from 1993 to 2009 . In 1998, following discussions with the then Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, Wolfgang Clement, the plant was expanded. The topping-out ceremony for the new Nokia production hall took place in August 1998. Until the year 2000, CRT screens and televisions were still produced.

In December 1999 the foundation stone was laid for the 13,900 m² development center on Rensingstrasse in Riemke. German and Finnish coins and a mobile phone were placed in a metal cylinder. The four-story building with two wings and a glass roof hall was built by Deutsche Immobilienleasing. 600 employees were supposed to develop developments in the areas of telematics and "Internet connection for the car".

In 2001, 341 of the 3000 jobs at the Bochum site were cut. At the same time, temporary workers were hired. In 2005, positions in the multimedia sector were cut.

Factory closure in 2008

On January 15, 2008 Nokia announced its intention to close the plant in Bochum: for reasons of competition, production should be relocated to Romania . Nokia boss Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo gave three reasons: The production of several different models required greater flexibility, which the plant in Bochum could not guarantee, suppliers close to the company refused to come to Germany and the cost-output ratio in Bochum was disadvantageous . In Bochum, only about six percent of Nokia cell phones would be produced, while about 23 percent of the direct labor costs were incurred in the factories in Bochum.

Nokia employed around 2,300 permanent employees in Bochum, of which around 2,000 became unemployed, and around 800 temporary workers . DHL and suppliers were also affected by the plant closure . The working conditions in the plant were very flexible, overtime and weekend work as well as work on public holidays were a matter of course, as was the reduction in workloads in the event of a lack of orders.

The decision was criticized by trade unions, political parties and the state government of North Rhine-Westphalia.

A total of 88 million euros in public funding went into the Bochum location. Nokia says it has met all of the commitments made in connection with the 1990s subsidy . The Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology stated that the federal government would be available for talks with the company.

According to a report by Capital, the operating result in Bochum was EUR 134 million profit (EUR 90,000 per employee) in 2007. Nokia rejected this information as misleading.

In spring 2008, Nokia and the works council agreed on a social plan with a volume of 200 million euros: 185 million euros for severance payments and 15 million euros for a transfer company . The just under 2,300 people were May 1, 2008 released and received an average of a settlement of around 80,000 euros. The plant was closed on June 30, 2008.

In February 2008, Nokia began producing in the Nokia factory in Cluj in Jucu in Cluj county with about 2,200 employees, which was closed 2011th

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Our story continues ... NOKIA. Company brochure, 2007
  2. ↑ Out for the cell phone location Germany . In: Handelsblatt , January 15, 2008 ( online )
  3. ^ Nokia plans closure of its Bochum site in Germany. Nokia press release. January 15, 2008 ( online )
  4. ↑ Communist Intelligence Service No. 3, Bochum January 13, 1971, page 3
  5. ^ WAZ Bochum, December 9, 1999
  6. ↑ a b Nokia fires 2000 employees in Bochum. In: Die Welt , January 15, 2008 ( online )
  7. ↑ Lower job cuts in Bochum than feared. In: Heise.de , June 11, 2005 ( online )
  8. ↑ "The decision on Bochum is in place" In: Handelsblatt online, January 23, 2008 ( online )
  9. ↑ DHL examines job cuts due to Nokia closure . In: Die Welt , January 16, 2008 ( online )
  10. ↑ Nokia closes the Bochum plant. In: Der Tagesspiegel , January 15, 2008 ( online )
  11. ↑ Nokia is sticking to closure plans. In: N24 , January 17, 2008 ( online ( memento from January 23, 2008 in the Internet Archive ))
  12. ^ Damage to the image of Nokia. In: Ruhr-Nachrichten , January 17, 2008 ( online )
  13. ↑ The Federal Government is available for intensive discussions .
    BMWI press release , January 16, 2008 ( online ( memento of the original from January 27, 2008 in the Internet Archive )     Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.bmwi.de
  14. ↑ Nokia makes big profits in Bochum . In: Der Spiegel , January 30, 2008 ( online )
  15. ^ Nokia plant closure: Social plan with a volume of 200 million euros . In: Heise.de , April 8, 2008 ( online )
  16. ↑ rp-online.de September 30, 2011: The Nokia lesson
  17. ↑ 7800 layoffs and loss of billions. The sad end of Nokia. In: Stern , July 10, 2015 ( online )

Coordinates: 51 ° 31 ′ 3 ″  N , 7 ° 12 ′ 8 ″  E