Föhrenwald powder factory

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Manor house, Föhrenwald powder factory
The still preserved mansion of the powder factory Föhrenwald 2018

The Föhrenwald powder factory is located in the extensive Föhrenwald between Wiener Neustadt and Neunkirchen in the municipality of St. Egyden am Steinfeld . It was a grenade and ammunition factory and is no longer in operation today.

history

The Nobel Dynamit AG in 1890 established a factory for dynamite and gunpowder in the pine forest of Saubersdorf, since 1970 parish St. Egyden am Steinfeld . Grenades were made in this factory . The factory itself was built in 1890 by around 400 workers, most of whom came from Italy . A licensed office for blasting technology was located in the 1st district in Vienna. An explosion is reported from 1911 that also resulted in two deaths.

At the beginning of the First World War , in 1914, between 80 and 100 workers were employed here. Grenades were manufactured in shifts around the clock. After the end of the First World War, operations had to be stopped.

During the Second World War , additional barracks and bunkers were built, in which ammunition was probably manufactured. For the most part, this ammunition was made from captured ammunition from the enemy. After the end of World War II, the factory was shut down and came under Soviet control.

Today only the three-storey administration building, the so-called “manor house”, remains. The barracks settlement about 600 meters southeast has not been preserved. On the ground near the former barracks settlement as well as in the adjacent forest one can still find notches of former railway tracks, which branched out from the former St. Egyden station. The mansion has been fenced in since 2011 and is not allowed to enter due to its dilapidation .

The area around the ammunition barracks still causes problems even in the 2000s, as the forest floor is still contaminated with phosphorus from production and also from duds , which in hot temperatures can lead to forest fires through spontaneous combustion . Volunteer fire brigades have been injured several times during extinguishing work . In 2016, a fire fighting pond was built next to the Holzweg , which holds 750 cubic meters of water.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Advertisement from Dynamit Nobel AG. :  Wiener Kommunal / Communal-Kalender und Städtisches Jahrbuch , year 1909, p. 796 (online at ANNO ).Template: ANNO / Maintenance / wkk
  2. ↑ Explosion in the powder factory. In:  Das Vaterland , July 15, 1911, p. 5 (online at ANNO ).Template: ANNO / Maintenance / possibly
  3. ^ History of Saubersdorf
  4. ↑ Urban Exploring to the powder factory of the Kaiser and Nazis near Wiener Neustadt . In: The Gap . January 12, 2016 ( thegap.at [accessed October 4, 2017]).
  5. ↑ My district of July 17, 2017: Plan against Föhrenwald Inferno (accessed on October 6, 2017)

Coordinates: 47 ° 46 ′ 33.1 ″  N , 16 ° 9 ′ 34.5 ″  E