Union foundry Königsberg

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Union foundry locomotive factory and mechanical engineering company
legal form AG
founding May 1, 1828
resolution 1931
Seat Koenigsberg
Branch Mechanical engineering
Locomotive construction
Shipbuilding

The Union foundry was a mechanical engineering company in Königsberg , East Prussia, which existed from 1828 to 1931 .

history

The merchants Gustav Schnell , Friedrich Laubmeyer and Carl-August Dultz founded an iron foundry in Königsberg on May 1, 1828, which was named Union Foundry from 1845 .

mechanical engineering

Boilermaker of the Union Foundry
Prussian T 14 built by Union in 1917 with serial number 2315

On April 1, 1846, Johann Gottfried Dietrich Wilhelm Ostendorff took over the management of the Union foundry, and the construction of steam engines and boiler production began. On December 5, 1855, the Union foundry delivered the first steam locomotive to the Prussian Eastern Railway .

After Ostendorff's death in 1876, Elias Radok (born November 16, 1840, † March 30, 1910), who previously worked for A. Borsig in Berlin, ran the company. The company was converted from a general partnership to a stock corporation on June 2, 1881. Rudolf Laubmeyer was elected chairman of the supervisory board. The board now included Elias Radok and Arthur Ostendorff (* May 18, 1850, † July 24, 1891), the son of Gottfried Ostendorff.

In 1891, Dultz's shuttle valve was patented, which made a significant contribution to the rapid introduction of the composite steam locomotive , as it overcame the starting difficulties of this design.

After the death of Elias Radok, the chief engineers Georg Panck and Paul Fischer took over together with a former government builder. D. Max Hartung the work. Paul Fischer resigned in 1920 for health reasons, Georg Panck died in 1923, Max Hartung took over the plant management until Paul Brehm joined in November 1925.

The Union foundry in East Prussia , which is isolated from the rest of the Reich territory , did not receive any DRG locomotive quotas, and negotiations with the Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft were mostly unsuccessful. This led to severe economic problems in the company. In 1927 the Union foundry received orders for the construction of the DRG series 64 and 80 as part of "Ostlandhilfe" . The last locomotive was delivered in 1929. From March 17, 1930, however, the company in the Königsberg outskirts of Contienen was run as a branch of F. Schichau GmbH , which then took over the Union foundry completely in 1931.

shipbuilding

In 1855, the paddle steamer Schnell started building iron ships and continued successfully. In addition to paddle steamers, tugboats and cargo steamers were built, later fish steamers and passenger ships were added. A total of at least 189 new buildings were delivered.

present

Today the company is called Pribaltijskij Sudostroitelnij Sawod Jantar (Прибалтийский судостроительный завод Янтарь) , translated as " Ostseewerft Jantar " or "Ostseewerft Bernstein".

swell

  • Union foundry: 100 years of Union-Gießer Königsberg Pr. 1828–1928 , commemorative publication for the 100th anniversary.

Web links

Commons : Union Giesserei  - Collection of images, videos and audio files