WASAG

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Westfälisch-Anhaltische Sprengstoff-Actien-Gesellschaft
legal form Corporation
founding 1891
resolution 2001
Reason for dissolution takeover
Seat Coswig , Germany
Branch chemistry

The Westfälisch-Anhaltische Sprengstoff-Actien-Gesellschaft (WASAG) was a major German company for the manufacture of explosives , explosives and ammunition.

history

Founding time and first years

Share of the Westfälisch-Anhaltischen Sprengstoff-AG from May 1922

The WASAG company was founded in Düsseldorf in 1891 by a consortium headed by Max Bielefeldt with its headquarters in Coswig (Anhalt) . The consortium included entrepreneurs Hugo Stinnes , Gustav Poensgen and Hugo von Gahlen . Twenty shareholders were involved in the establishment of the company. The aim was to break the monopoly of the powder factories around Dynamit AG at that time .

After initial difficulties at the Coswig site - parts of the originally planned production facilities had to be relocated to Reinsdorf bei Wittenberg in 1894 at the instigation of the local authorities - the company quickly developed into one of the most important producers of explosives for the civil and military sectors. After the First World War , the company was integrated into the IG Farben Group , where it became the largest German manufacturer of explosives.

time of the nationalsocialism

At the beginning of 1931 Dynamit AG, formerly Alfred Nobel & Co. , Rheinisch-Westfälische Sprengstoff-AG Cologne - Troisdorf (RWS), Deutsche Sprengstoff-AG Hamburg, Rheinische Dynamitfabrik Opladen, Westdeutsche Sprengstoffwerke, Siegener Dynamit-Fabrik (both based in Cologne) and the Dresdner Dynamitfabrik to the new Dynamit AG with headquarters in Troisdorf. Together with IG Farben, which was founded in 1925, in which Cologne-Rottweil AG , based in Cologne ( United Cologne-Rottweiler Pulverfabriken AG until 1919 ) was absorbed, a cartel emerged that almost had a monopoly on the manufacture of explosives in the German Empire of the Weimar Republic held.

After the takeover of the Nazi party were from the Army Ordnance Department of the Reichswehr (1935 Wehrmacht ) for the following massive German rearmament called for greater production capacity for ammunition. In order to meet these requirements, WASAG and DAG founded Deutsche Sprengchemie GmbH in 1934 , which, with the support of the state-owned collecting society for Montanindustrie GmbH, built new explosives and ammunition plants on state land. Deutsche Sprengchemie GmbH later became a sole subsidiary of WASAG.

The DAG continued the same activities in its subsidiary Gesellschaft mb H. for the recovery of chemical products (in short: " Verwertchemie "). This operated more than 30 explosives and detonator factories, including in Hessisch Lichtenau , Empelde , Forst-Scheuno and Allendorf (today Stadtallendorf) . The latter was the largest ammunition factory in Europe at the time. During the Second World War, more than 15,000 forced laborers and concentration camp inmates had to work there, who were housed in camps administered by the SS near the factories. In 1938 another plant for the production of nitrocellulose was built in Aschau am Inn , which after the war became the property of WASAG as part of the unbundling of IG Farben AG .

post war period

After the Second World War , the company's property was confiscated by the Allies. The majority of the production facilities were located in the Soviet zone of occupation , including WASAG producing in Klietz from 1934 to 1945 . The Reinsdorf plant was completely dismantled. According to the decision of the Allied High Commission, IG Farben AG was dissolved with Act No. 35 of the AHK and the business activities were distributed to twelve successor subsidiaries to be set up in accordance with the implementing regulation for Act No. 35 of 23 May 1952, including WASAG- Chemie AG . This was released on May 29, 1953 by the tri-power controllers from IG Farben control.

By the mid-1950s, the brothers Berthold and Harald von Bohlen and Halbach succeeded in acquiring four fifths of the company's shares by continuing the company's head office in Essen under the name “Wasag-Chemie Aktiengesellschaft” . Through targeted acquisitions, the company once again developed into the leading supplier of explosives.

In 1958, WASAG-Chemie AG's sales were distributed 37.6% to plastics, celluloid and the like, 33.5% to explosives and detonators and 28.9% to fertilizers and chemicals; increased by around 20% compared to the previous year.

At the general meeting in 1971 the board of directors disclosed a loss of 30 million marks from the chemicals, explosives and toys division for the previous year.

After reunification

A realignment of the company was sought in the 1990s. The armaments division was sold and a focus on the plastics technology division was made. So was z. B. acquired WAFA Kunststofftechnik GmbH & Co. KG , which however had to file for bankruptcy in 1997 . These activities brought the company to the brink of collapse.

As of 1 May 2001, the WASAG Chemie AG was charged with belonging to the H & R Group Salzbergen GmbH lubricant refinery to the new company H & R WASAG merged .

Environmental damage and accidents

One of the most serious accidents occurred on June 13, 1935 at the explosives factory in Reinsdorf near Wittenberg . It killed over 100 people.

Memorial stone for the WASAG accident in 1944 in Coswig (Anhalt)

On November 14, 1944, 94 people were killed in an explosion in a warehouse for nitroglycerin precursors at the Coswig plant.

In Elsnig ( Saxony ) an attempt was made in a pilot project to eliminate the environmental damage caused by the former WASAG plant, in particular pollution by the pollutants TNT and 2,6-dinitrotoluene .

At the Sythen site , large areas of wastewater containing explosives seeped away between 1916 and 1922; as a result of the long-term contamination of the groundwater, the operation of private wells had to be banned. In September 2016, the entire site was bought by the Recklinghausen district for one euro . On December 31, 2018, the Wasag site in Sythen was finally closed.

literature

  • Wolfram Fischer : WASAG: The history of a company, 1891–1966. Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1966.
  • Westfälisch-Anhaltische Sprengstoff-Actien-Gesellschaft: Development history of WASAG 1891 to 1941. Hoppenstedt, Berlin 1941.
  • Maximiliane Worch: Series: Family businesses on the stock exchange. Part 12: H&R Wasag - The chemistry is right , in: GoingPublic Heft 3/2011, pp. 34–35.

Web links

Commons : WASAG  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Wolfram Fischer: WASAG. The history of a company 1891–1966. Essen 1966.
  2. ^ Franz-Joseph Peine : The Federal Republic as a person obliged to rehabilitate an old armament , in: Natur und Recht 2005, 151, 151ff.
  3. ↑ cf. Report from Chemie Ingenieur Technik 1952, p. 427.
  4. ↑ cf. z. B. corresponding news in Chemie Ingenieur Technik 1955, p. 61; Chemical engineer technology 1960, p. 250.
  5. ↑ Chemie Ingenieur Technik 1960, p. 250.
  6. ^ Report in the magazine CAPITAL No. 10/1971 under the headline "Bohlen is not lost yet."
  7. ↑ Worch, GoingPublic 3/2011, p. 34.
  8. ↑ M&A Review , Issue 5/1997: Top Deals , short message on WASAG Chemie AG.
  9. ^ Share check of July 4, 2001: Wasag-Chemie merger agreement .
  10. ↑ Wasag company is founded in 1891
  11. ^ Raimund Haberl et al .: Constructed Wetlands for the Treatment of Organic Pollutants , in: Journal of Soils and Sediments 2003, pp. 120f.
  12. ↑ Halterner Zeitung: The prohibition zone in Haltern-Sythen is expanded (with a bird 's eye view of the facility in 1916)
  13. ↑ Waltroper Zeitung: The WASAG area now belongs to the district
  14. ↑ Wasag shed goes up in flames. In: Recklinghäuser Zeitung, April 10, 2019.