Heavy mechanical engineering Wildau
Schwermaschinenbau Wildau is an industrial site founded in 1890 in the Brandenburg city of Wildau on the south-eastern outskirts of Berlin . Over the decades, locomotives , aircraft , armaments and machine parts were manufactured here.
The resident company was initially BMAG ( Berliner Maschinenbau AG formerly Louis Schwartzkopff ), after World War II initially LOWA (Association of State-Owned Locomotives and Wagon Construction Companies), from 1950 "ABUS" (equipment for mining and heavy industry), from 1969 the SKET (Heavy Machinery Combine "Ernst Thälmann") and from 1990 the SMB (Heavy Machinery AG Wildau). In the northern part of the factory, the Maffei-Schwartzkopff-Werke started production in 1907, and AEG from 1936 . In 1949 both parts of the factory were combined.
From 1952 to 1990 the Wildauer Werk bore the name of the chairman of the State Planning Commission of the GDR, Heinrich Rau . The area of the industrial site destroyed by the Treuhandanstalt is now used by the Technical University of Applied Sciences Wildau and some smaller successor companies to the heavy machinery plant.
Schwartzkopff's locomotive factory
In 1897 the Berliner Maschinenbau AG (BMAG) bought a large piece of land in Wildau directly on the Görlitzer Bahn in order to build a locomotive factory. The connection to the Dahme and thus the waterway towards the Spree was realized by means of a branch canal. The factory was handed over just three years later. From 1910, electric locomotives were also built, and economic success continued. In 1913, the 5,000th locomotive was delivered.
Berliner Maschinenbau AG developed from the iron foundry and machine factory founded by Louis Schwartzkopff in Berlin in the middle of the 19th century. This company developed quickly and produced mining equipment, steam pumps, points, railway sleepers, turntables and also rifles and gun parts. In 1867, the then "iron foundry and machine factory of L. Schwartzkopff" produced its first locomotive, a 1B freight locomotive "Weishaupt" for the Lower Silesian-Märkische Eisenbahn .
At the time the Wildau factory opened, the founder was no longer alive and the company was headed by Ludwig Witthöft as general director. With the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, the AG soon profited from the production of war goods . While production at the Wildau plant initially had to be throttled by drafting and placing orders from hostile foreign countries, locomotives and torpedo parts were soon built for use in the war. In 1915 a modern hammer forge was inaugurated, in 1917 autogenous metalworking was introduced with the construction of a hydrogen production plant and in 1918 a water de-icing machine was built. A prisoner of war camp was set up in the factory as early as 1916 to compensate for the labor shortage.
After the First World War , the plant was further enlarged. In 1922 it received the Reichsbahn's largest collection order for 700 superheated steam locomotives .
The factory site, which is now perceived as belonging together, was separated into two companies along the branch canal at this time. BMAG produced in the south and Maffei-Schwartzkopff-Werke in the north, which from 1907 built pumps, turbines and electric motors.
The global economic crisis did not stop at Wildau in the early 1930s either. In October 1930 the metalworkers also went on strike at the Wildau plant and brought production at BMAG to a standstill. The Maffei Schwartzkopff works were closed, turbine production was relocated to Munich and all workers were laid off.
Arms production in World War II
As part of the armament of the Reichswehr and Wehrmacht , armaments were increasingly manufactured in Wildau from 1934 onwards. Orders were placed for guns, gun barrels, mine launchers, cartridges , aircraft propeller hubs, parts for torpedoes and submarine equipment.
The closed factories north of the branch canal were taken over by the AEG in 1936 and from 1938 only manufactured armaments for the air force . It practically became a branch of the Junkerswerke Dessau, which manufactured aircraft fuselages ( cells ) and other aircraft parts. These were transported with the Reichsbahn to the Henschel aircraft works on the site of today 's Schönefeld Airport and assembled there.
The last express locomotives were built at BMAG in 1940. The company was completely converted to armaments production and now manufactured so-called "war locomotives" of the class 52 . A total of 6,719 pieces left the plant in Wildau. The share of direct armaments was a third of production. Locomotive construction accounted for two thirds.
From 1942 prisoners of war and forced laborers were interned in Wildau and used to work in industrial plants, to build the air raid tunnels and in agriculture. There were a total of 13 camps in the village by the end of the war, the largest of which is directly on Jahnstrasse. Around 10,000 people were detained in this way in 1945, 6,000 of them work for BMAG. Today only the foundations of the barracks and the west-facing staircase, a memorial stone on the Wildau cemetery and a memorial in front of the swimming pool in Jahnstrasse remind of the sufferings of these people.
On March 8, 1944, the plant was the target of an Allied bombing raid, which caused some damage but could only briefly affect production.
From 1943 onwards, the plant received splinter protection trenches and a bunker system was built for the workers on the western slope. The Wildau workers Erich Horlitz, Paul Schütze and Otto Grabowski were executed in 1944 because they were active in the resistance against National Socialism and the war.
Occupation and post-war period
On April 25, 1945, Wildau was occupied by the Soviet army . The place received a Soviet local commander. The Soviet plant commander Tarasov was responsible for the continued operation and dismantling of the Wildau plant during this time. This took place from June 1945, the last locomotive, an E h 2 locomotive, left the factory in November 1945 and was put into service with the Reichsbahn under number 42 856 in Brück (Mark). The dismantling dragged on until 1946 and ended with the complete vacancy of all halls. AEG's production halls were even completely torn down by 1948, only the administration building remained.
On February 3, 1949, the " LOWA -Lokomotivbau Wildau VEB" was founded, so that the remains of both "Schwartzkopff" plants became a state-owned company . The first production using old scrap-ripe machines included the repairs of wagons, dump plows for the USSR , but also the construction of ash boxes. At the Leipzig trade fair in 1950, a diesel-powered light rail locomotive was presented, which was produced in Wildau.
By order of the SMAD , the VEB was renamed "ABUS" (equipment for mining and heavy industry) in June 1950. In the future, Wildau should no longer deal with locomotive construction and specialize in heavy machinery construction.
VEB Heavy Machinery "Heinrich Rau"
In 1951, 2000 people again worked in the plant, which now also manufactured rolling mill equipment. The Soviet soldiers left the plant. In 1952, the company was renamed "Heinrich Rau" (SHR) for heavy engineering and the newly built forge was opened. In 1954 the company policlinic was opened and the sports stadium in Hoherlehme was built. In 1969 the plant became part of the heavy machinery construction combine "Ernst Thälmann" ( SKET ) with headquarters in Magdeburg . The Wildau company had around 3,500 employees and primarily produced crankshafts for marine diesel engines (mainly export), roller bearings, machines for pipe production, but also consumer goods for the GDR internal market . In 1970 the sports and swimming pool was opened with a lot of voluntary work.
The Wildau site since 1990
After the political change and before the end of the GDR, Schwermaschinenbau AG Wildau (SMB) was founded on July 1, 1990. It belonged 100 percent to the Treuhandanstalt . All social facilities were closed or handed over to the Wildau community. In December 1991 the plant still had 1,700 employees.
In June 1993 the ring rolling mill was shut down. In December 1993 the number of employees was still 700. In August 1994 Wildauer Kurbwellen GmbH was spun off. Together with Schmiedewerke Gröditz , this company has been part of Georgsmarienhütte Holding GmbH since 1997 . The Technical University of Applied Sciences Wildau (FH) acquired a northern part of the former company premises and set up its new campus there.
Individual evidence
- ↑ NN: 100 years of the Wildau-Hoherlehme industrial site. In: Wildauer Heimatbuch. Horb am Neckar 1999, p. 48 ff.
- ^ HJ Caesar, B. Welsch, H. Zissel: Our work - VEB heavy machinery construction "Heinrich Rau" Wildau. In: Wildauer Heimatbuch, Volume II. Horb am Neckar 2001, p. 35.
- ^ HJ Ceasar, B. Welsch, H. Zissel: Our work - VEB heavy machinery construction "Heinrich Rau" Wildau. In: Wildauer Heimatbuch, Volume II. Horb am Neckar 2001, p. 33.
- ^ U. Bohm: The foreign workers in Wildau. In: Wildauer Heimatbuch, Volume II. Horb am Neckar 2001, p. 18.
- ^ HJ Ceasar, B. Welsch, H. Zissel: Our work - VEB heavy machinery construction "Heinrich Rau" Wildau. In: Wildauer Heimatbuch, Volume II. Horb am Neckar 2001, p. 56.
- ^ HJ Ceasar, B. Welsch, H. Zissel: Our work - VEB heavy machinery construction "Heinrich Rau" Wildau. In: Wildauer Heimatbuch, Volume II. Horb am Neckar 2001, p. 140.