Spreewerk Lübben
The Spreewerk Lübben is an ammunition disposal company and former ammunition manufacturer in Börnichen, a district of Lübben .
The company's history began in 1944 with the start of construction during World War II . The factory was probably intended to serve as a supplier for the ammunition plant in Krugau . The end of the war in 1945 preceded the activation of the plant. The buildings erected then lay fallow for over a decade. On May 1, 1957, the GDR government ordered the establishment of an ammunition plant at this point. The company was organized as a state-owned company . The nearby Spree was the namesake of this facility. From 1961 the ammunition factory mainly produced ammunition for handguns. This enabled the GDR plant to produce ammunition in excess of the peace requirement for the first time. As early as the 1960s, the company was one of the largest employers in the Lübben district with over 800 employees . A major expansion took place in 1985 with the installation of new machines and the construction of a new hall. The production facilities for ammunition were among the most modern in Eastern Europe. In addition to ammunition, Spreewerk Lübben z. B. cartridges scrubber for rebreathers ago.
With the political change in 1990, the entire production was stopped. The management decided to focus the plant on ammunition disposal. The US company General Atomics acquired Spreewerk Lübben from the Treuhandanstalt in 1992 and invested 60 million marks in a rotary kiln , which is the heart of the plant. On April 1, 1995, this furnace went into continuous operation as an incinerator for explosives and the disposal capacity grew to 15,000 tons of ammunition per year. A serious accident occurred in 2002 when four employees were killed in an explosion. First, ammunition from the National People's Army was disposed of , followed by cluster munitions from the Bundeswehr . International orders were also accepted later. The Spreewerk Lübben in Vogelgesang operates a warehouse on the site of the former WASAG for the interim storage of the ammunition delivered .
The realignment of the Spreewerk Lübben resulted in massive job cuts. Of the more than 800 employees, 150 were initially left; this number then fell to 70. When short-time working had to be introduced in 2016 , the number of employees was halved again. The large overhangs after the end of the Cold War have already been destroyed. That is why civil components such as airbags are also disposed of at the Spreewerk Lübben .
On March 16, 2018, there was an explosion on the premises, killing one employee.
literature
- Gerd Mischinger: Publicly owned company (VEB) Spreewerk Lübben (SWL) to Industriepark Spreewerk Lübben GmbH (ISL). Self-published, Kodersdorf 2007
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f Torsten Richter: Börnichen plant celebrates world renown. In: Lausitzer Rundschau . May 31, 2007
- ^ A b Jan-Hendrik Hartwig: The findings of the Federal Intelligence Service on the economy of the German Democratic Republic. Herbert Utz Verlag , 2017, ISBN 9783831646029 , p. 158
- ↑ From ammunition manufacturer to disposal company. In: Der Tagesspiegel . November 14, 2002
- ↑ Lothar Seveke: immersion technique of MEDI . 3rd April 2016
- ^ Annekatrin Looss: In the Spreewerk 300,000 landmines are turned into a pile of ashes. In: The world . February 8, 2000
- ↑ a b Gerhard Hegmann: In Lübben everything that can kill is disposed of. In: The world . 2nd March 2017
- ↑ Nico Wendt: Vogelgesang remains only an ammunition store. In: Torgauer Zeitung . October 9, 2014
- ↑ Investigations after the Spreewerk explosion continue in: Lausitzer Rundschau , March 29, 2018