Waggon- und Maschinenbau GmbH Donauwörth
| Waggon- und Maschinenbau GmbH Donauwörth (WMD) | |
|---|---|
| legal form | Company with limited liability |
| founding | 1946 |
| resolution | 1971 |
| Reason for dissolution | Takeover by Bölkow GmbH in 1965 and later merger with Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm (MBB) |
| Seat | Donauwörth , Germany |
| Branch | Manufacturer of railroad cars and aircraft components |
The wagon and Maschinenbau GmbH Donauwörth (WMD) was a manufacturer of railroad cars and aircraft components in Donauwörth .
The beginnings
The origin of WMD was the in 1908 from pensions Josef Scheidemandel Trasswerk founded in Donauwörth for producing trass powder from Suevite .
In 1914, at the beginning of the First World War, the plant had to be shut down because the power generation systems for a powder factory were needed. When Josef Scheidemandel died in 1916, his widow took over the business. However, one year later the company had to sell the plant and the property to the city of Donauwörth. The city in turn sold a few months later to the factory owner Emil Loeffellad from Stuttgart .
The machine factory, completed in 1920, was unable to produce anything due to a lack of orders; It was not until the factory received an order from the Deutsche Reichsbahn to manufacture buffers for railroad cars in 1924 that production began. After five years of production, the owner Emil Loeffellad had to lay off the entire workforce because there were no new orders.
Under the National Socialists , Emil Loeffellad had to sell the factory to the Army High Command , who leased the factory to Maxhütte . The buffer factory became an ammunition factory, employing over 3,000 people in 1939. In April 1945 the machine factory was completely destroyed.
Development after the war
On September 16, 1946, former employees, the city of Donauwörth and the Stuttgart bank director A. Lieb founded Waggon- und Maschinenbau GmbH Donauwörth. The new company with 395 employees and the manufacture of post-war products started on the site of the former buffer factory.
In the following years, the production of road scooters and railroad cars began. The production program included the SBB RIC dining car , the VB 141 single-axle trailer and the ETA 176 and VT 55 railcars . In 1951, WMD manufactured the track wagons for the rail-road omnibus for the Deutsche Bundesbahn and, from 1962, some LR40 road scooters. British Rail bought five rail buses in 1958 , the only ones of a total of 22 that were bought from a foreign manufacturer to test this type of vehicle. In 1964, with a series of 10 vehicles, the first fully welded aluminum railcar, namely the KBE ET 201… ET 212 "Silberpfeil" aluminum multiple unit for the Cologne-Bonn Railways at that time, was built and delivered.
In 1954 WMD and SIAT ( Siebel Flugzeugwerke ATG ; Allgemeine Transportanlagen-Gesellschaft) began producing aircraft assemblies. When the aircraft construction ban that came into force after the war was lifted in 1956, WMD considerably expanded its participation in aircraft production by supplying construction segments. At the beginning of 1957 WMD became the main shareholder of SIAT.
In 1965 Bölkow GmbH became the main shareholder of WMD and thus also of SIAT; Both companies remained independent until 1971. In May 1968, Bölkow GmbH merged with Messerschmitt to form Messerschmitt-Bölkow GmbH. This was again in 1969 through the merger with Hamburger Flugzeugbau GmbH , a subsidiary of Blohm & Voss , the Messerschmitt-Bolkow-Blohm GmbH (MBB).
At the end of 1971 Waggon- und Maschinenbau GmbH Donauwörth was completely integrated into MBB GmbH.
Succession
In January 1972, a plant in the transport division of MBB was built at the Donauwörth location. In 1992 the helicopter areas of MBB and Aérospatiale (France) were spun off into the new company “ Eurocopter Deutschland GmbH” (ECD) based in Donauwörth.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Augsburger Allgemeine: In 100 years from the line to the Eurocopter company .
- ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original from October 15, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
