Appelburg fur farm

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Appelburg fur farm

The Appelburg fur farm in Plau am See covered 52 hectares and was Europe's largest mink breeding facility . Martens, foxes, dingoes and sheep were also bred.

Appelburg

Advertisement of the GEZ 1933
"Germany's largest fur farm" (Advert 1964)

With a lot of water and forest in mind, the Joint Noble Fur Animal Breeding (Berlin) wanted to build a fur farm in Plau am See . The Appelburg estate on the southern edge of the city was particularly suitable. Originally one of the castles to defend Plau, the Appelburg was destroyed several times and completely demolished in 1721. The site was rebuilt in 1823 with an adobe building. This half-timbered house was a popular excursion destination for the Plau farmers in the 19th century . After 1936 it served as the administration building of the fur farm. Since 1932 it was leased to Ludwig Strauss, NSDAP member and later local farmers leader. Because of the many unemployed and the 60 promised jobs, the city decided on the fur farm. Strauss received a high severance payment.

lease

On April 9, 1936, the city treasury signed a 20-year lease with the GEZ . The annual rent amounted to 1400 Reichsmarks . As a registered association, the GEZ had 3,454 investors. It turned out that an association was not allowed to run a business of this size and not conduct business. That is why it was converted to GEZ Betriebsgesellschaft mbH on October 1st, 1936. In a second lease on May 15, 1937, the GEZ agreed to set up an outdoor enclosure for real foxes . This contract was also concluded for 20 years. For the 34.11 hectares leased from the municipal forest, he brought an annual rent of 1500 Reichsmarks. Biting the foxes damaged the beech, pine and larch stands. There wasn't just a bad smell in the time of the satchel ; However, as an investigation initiated by Mayor Cletus Schöffler showed, sewage treatment plants in health resorts and a sausage factory were also responsible as causes. The farm produced good yields.

foxes

At the beginning of 1942, the GEZ was renamed the economic association "Deutsche Edelfurztier-Zucht" . The Plau farm also included six smaller farms and a contract breeding farm. The manager was Eggert von Ploetz . Silver, blue and platinum foxes were bred to produce silver fox , blue fox and platinum fox skins . Because of the Allied air raids on Berlin , the company moved its headquarters from Berlin to Plau in 1944. On October 7, 1944, 900 Ostland silver foxes, blue and platinum foxes were brought from Latvian state farms to the Plauer farm via Riga and Stettin. Another 500 followed. At the end of the war in southern Mecklenburg , the Red Army occupied the farm area. Operation continued poorly. In order to feed the remaining foxes with fish, the Russians confiscated fishing gear and barges. They did not pay the rent. On April 1, 1947, the city of Plau signed a new three-year lease with the USSR Ministry of Foreign Trade with an annual rent of 3,000 Reichsmarks. The leased area (= operating area of ​​the farm) was 49.6 hectares. The separation of roads and building sites had reduced the total area of ​​the Appelburg township from 82 hectares to 79 hectares. After two years the lease from 1947 was canceled. On March 17, 1949, the fur farm came back into German administration. On the basis of the contract of 1947, a lease contract was concluded with the German Economic Commission on May 20, 1949 . When the German Democratic Republic was founded, the Appelburg fur farm became public property . The legal entity initially remained the municipal commercial enterprise as the successor to the Plau City Treasury. The lease payments were stopped on April 1, 1950. The Ministry of the Interior (GDR) paid the city of Plau the outstanding rent of 2,250 German marks and the contractually agreed property tax of 1,223.75 DM. On January 1, 1951, the legal ownership of Plau was transferred to the regional association of state-owned estates in Schwerin.

Mink

The young state-owned company had 799 silver foxes and 328 mink foxes. In the first year of breeding there were 2051 young foxes and 2121 young minks. In 1957 the stock of silver foxes comprised 6110 animals. The rearing losses in silver fox were reduced from 9% to 0.8% between 1953 and 1961. In the 1950s, prices fell; the enormous consumption of fox fur diminished their prestige , and silver fox fur was now considered an attribute of lighter girls. Therefore, the Appelburg company switched to the American mink . The American mink because the European wild mink is nowhere near as beautiful and dense. In 1956 there were 1,300 cultivated ores. The 1961 large-scale breeding experiment with Andean chinchillas was successful . 21 blue and silver foxes each were released in 1963 for educational and visual purposes alone. At the same time, the mink population had grown to 33,586.

Students in the upper grades received instruction in productive work (GDR) . One day a week they were used in state-owned businesses, including the fur farm. Their main task was to remove the animal excrement from under the cages. The facility was continuously expanded and modernized. In 1974, 105,000 mink were bred (and "furred"). Lined up in a row, the mink scales would have been 20 kilometers long. Each shed had 240 enclosures. The daily feeding trip through the sheds was 50 kilometers. In Appelburg and the six affiliated farms, 55 tons of mink feed were fed every day . For this, the farm operated its own slaughterhouse , its own waterworks and a fully biological sewage treatment plant . The nine watchtowers were closed by the building authorities and demolished in 1961/62.

meaning

The fur farm developed into the largest breeding business in Europe. At the same time, it was the central training center for fur farming apprentices in the GDR. The training period was two years, or, if stretched to become a “skilled worker in fur farming”, four years. In 1979 a new apprentice dormitory with 40 places was built. The medical practice opened on August 28, 1974, a branch of the rural outpatient clinic, moved into the former apprentice dormitory (the manor house). At the end of the 1950s, the first company apartments were built on Millions' Way. 20 years later, the first private homes for employees were added on Parkweg. The fur farm, which was inaugurated in 1974, included the cultural center with 300 seats and the public restaurant “Appelburg”, single accommodation, a kindergarten, a day nursery and a children's holiday camp. Sports groups waved prizes, honors and awards at competitions. Many apprentices were organized in the basic organization of the Society for Sport and Technology "Robert Nawroth". Every year in the last days of February the fur festival was celebrated. It corresponded to the farmers' harvest festival and concluded the furing, which began in December. It was also the start of the pairing in the first week of March.

Success was inevitable: As a model operation, the Appelburg fur farm brought the state millions in foreign currency . Between 1950 and 1990 the animal population grew from 4,500 to 250,000. In 1967 the farm had 185 employees. 45,242 furs sold brought a profit of 5,604,500 DM. Breeding animals were imported from the Soviet Union, the United States, the Netherlands, Finland, Sweden and Denmark. They were mainly carried out in brotherly socialist countries . The company name changed frequently. The last one was VVB Tierzucht, Furztierzuchtkombinat (Z) Appelburg . All of the skins were auctioned off abroad in Leipzig . VEAB (tR) Leipzig paid an average price of 103.78 DM in 1957. Four years later, 114.07 DM was achieved. The cost rate could be reduced by a third (to 61.30 DM) between 1959 and 1961. Between 1951 and 1961 the annual gross wage of a worker rose from 3000 DM to 5800 DM. In the production brigades 69% of the workers had a skilled worker certificate.

Turn and end

Ruin of the sewage treatment plant

The turning point and peaceful revolution in the GDR brought the end of the world-famous fur breeding farm. The economic situation worsened, the animal rights activists did not want animal breeding for fashions. The company halved the animal population to 100,000 young and breeding animals. The state-owned company became the Appelburger Nerz-Futter-Service GmbH . In 1990 attempts were made to keep the company zoo established in 1953. It was set up to give the chatters and their guests an insight into the keeping of fur animals; because for veterinary and hygienic reasons the company premises were not allowed to be entered. Storks, nutria, Siamese cats and other animals were also kept. In 1963 the zoo had more than 40,000 visitors.

The farm's biggest environmental problem was the soil pollution caused by the animal excrement. The fur farm was closed on September 1, 1991. Graduate agricultural engineer Alfons Knaup, employed since 1956 and director of the company since 1970, handed the farm over to the Treuhandanstalt . Apart from the apartment blocks in Appelburg, a tannery at the confluence of Bundesstraße 198 with Bundesstraße 103 is the last evidence. There is a model of the farm in the Plau Castle Museum.

Affiliated farms

Mink shed in Klueß (2017)

In order to get closer to the source of inexpensive forage fish, VE Pelztierfarm Appelburg established a branch in Bergen on Rügen in 1957 . Among other things, because of the problems of the great distance to the parent company, at the end of the production year 1960, the branch was subordinated as a legally independent company to the Council of the City of Rügen, Agriculture Department.

The fur farms in Klueß and Zirtow also belonged to the Plauer business. The total length of all sheds was 73 km. In Zirtow near Wesenberg , the largest fur farm in Europe is said to have been in operation in 2017 with a population of 40,000 animals. In a court settlement in 2014, the operator, Appelburger Futter-Service GmbH, based in Leizen, promised to finally close the facility at the end of 2017. This means that there are no longer any fur farms in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.

literature

  • Heidemarie Ruchhöft: Chronicle of the city of Plau am See . Plau am See 2010 (publisher: Druckerei AC Froh, Inh. Thomas Leppin, Plau am See), pp. 81–83.

Web links

Commons : Furztierfarm Appelburg  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Remarks

  1. ↑ Common (or also non-profit) Edelfurztier-Zuchtvereinigung e. V., seat (1930): Berlin-Britz, Grüner Weg 4, management Max Fritsch --- (1933): Friedrichstraße 136
  2. ↑ for mink and fox a mixture of lean fish, slaughter by-products, potatoes and grain.
  3. ^ VVB = Association of Publicly Owned Enterprises
  4. ↑ In 1941 the monthly wages of the farm workers were RM 132.50. Guards received RM 157.50, construction workers RM 149.85, workers in the feed kitchen RM 173.25, and farm workers RM 171.65. The salaries of senior staff at the time are unknown.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Norddeutsche Zeitung of June 23, 1962.
  2. ↑ a b Heidemarie Ruchhöft: Chronicle of the City of Plau am See (2010), p. 81.
  3. ↑ a b Heidemarie Ruchhöft: Chronicle of the City of Plau am See (2010), p. 82.
  4. ^ Information from Alfons Knaup, Plau am See
  5. ^ Klaus Löhle, Ulf D. Wenzel: Rabbits and Edelfurztiere , 2nd edition. VEB Deutscher Landwirtschaftsverlag Berlin 1987, p. 68.
  6. ↑ a b Heidemarie Ruchhöft: Chronicle of the City of Plau am See (2010), p. 83.
  7. ↑ J. Beck: The training of fur breeders in the GDR . From: Job description for the training profession fur breeder . Published in: Der Brühl , January / February 1964, VEB Fachbuchverlag Leipzig, pp. 5–6.
  8. ↑ Without naming the author: Determined work in Bergen was successful . In: Der Brühl , September / October 1954, Fachbuchverlag Leipzig, p. 10.
  9. ↑ Fur animal breeding in Zirtow closes (Nordkurier of October 26, 2017) .

Coordinates: 53 ° 25 ′ 28.5 ″  N , 12 ° 15 ′ 47.9 ″  E