Ringhoffer works

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Facade of the former Ringhoffer factory in Smíchov

The Ringhoffer Werke AG , tschech. Ringhofferovy závody as were a company of engineering in Czechoslovakia . Main products of the factory were brewing - and sugar plant equipment , as well as travel and freight wagons , locomotive tenders , railcars , and trams . After taking over all the well-known wagon construction companies in Czechoslovakia, around 1937 the company was known as Ringhoffer-Tatra Werke AG, which was then the largest producer of rail vehicles in the world.

history

The beginning

The company's history began in 1769 when the young coppersmith journeyman Franz Ringhoffer (1744–1829) from Müllendorf , Kom. Ödenburg / Hungary near Eisenstadt, came to Prague from a Burgenland family and set up a workshop in Prague's old town where he brewed pans and made vessels for breweries . His only son and heir Joseph Ringhoffer (1785–1847) acquired a water mill in Kamenice near Eule in the south of Prague in 1822, which he converted into a copper hammer mill and which was later expanded to include a copper rolling mill . In 1832 he was appointed imperial and royal court coppersmith master by Emperor Franz I. He received the license to manufacture copper and brass goods. He turned the handicraft production facility that his father had founded into a factory with around seventy employees. The company produced work equipment for beer breweries, spirits distilleries and sugar factories and delivered to all crown lands of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy .

R. Ringhoffer Smichow wagon factory

Factory photo of a Viennese light rail vehicle manufactured by Ringhoffer around 1900

Josef's eldest son Franz Ringhoffer II set up a larger company in New Town and built the F. Ringhoffer wagon and tender factory in the south-western suburb of Smíchov in 1852 , where he began manufacturing railway wagons in 1854 , initially goods and from 1860 as well Passenger cars . Since the Bohemian Western Railway via Smíchov did not yet exist at that time, the wagons had to be brought by wagon through the city center to the Prague State Railway Station (today: Praha Masarykovo nádraží ) four kilometers away . In 1867 the factory was expanded to include a new hall and a few ancillary businesses and the construction of saloon cars began. The salon wagon for Emperor Franz Joseph I (from 1902), which is now exhibited in the National Technical Museum in Prague , later became known . The company started exporting.

After the death of Franz Ringhoffer in 1873, his son Franz III took over . Freiherr von Ringhoffer founded the company with the brothers Emanuel and Viktor. Under his leadership, it grew into one of the largest industrial companies in Austria-Hungary . Not only were all types of rail vehicles built, such as electric locomotives , railcars , tenders for steam locomotives and trams , but also production facilities for sugar factories, distilleries, breweries and cooling systems for cold stores .

Ringhoffer-Werke AG

Ringhoffer-Werke AG's founding share for 2000 crowns from 1911

In 1909, his eldest son Franz Freiherr von Ringhoffer the IV (1874–1940) took over the company, which he converted into a stock corporation in 1911 . After the First World War and the establishment of Czechoslovakia in October 1918, his brother Hans (Hanusch) Freiherr von Ringhoffer (* 1885, died on January 1, 1947 in special camp No. 1 Mühlberg of the Soviet NKVD ) gradually acquired shares in all the larger wagon manufacturers in Czechoslovakia. So in 1923 the previous Nesselsdorfer Wagenbau in Kopřivnice became his property. From then on, the company operated as Tatra-Werke, Automobil- und Waggonbau AG . In 1925 the products of the Ringhoffer-Werke A.-G. Prague - Smíchov , the Nesselsdorfer Wagenbau-Fabriks-Gesellschaft Kopřivnice and the Staudinger Waggonfabrik Studénka, jointly marketed by the Ringhoffer family by the Export Association of Czechoslovakian Wagons in Prague .

In 1928 Hans (Hanusch) Freiherr von Ringhoffer also acquired the majority of the shares in the Studénka wagon factory. From November 9, 1929, it traded as Moravskoslezská vozovka, as By the mid-1930s, Ringhoffer bought the wagon factories in Kolín and Bohemian Leipa ( Česká Lípa ).

Ringhoffer-Tatra Werke AG

Ringhoffer-Tatra company logo

In 1935, the Ringhoffer Werke merged with Tatra-Werke AG, automobile and wagon construction in Kopřivnice . The new industrial group was named Ringhoffer-Tatra Werke AG (Czech: Závody Ringhoffer-Tatra as ).

In 1937 the following companies belonged to Ringhoffer-Tatra AG:

After the death of Franz Ringhoffer IV. In 1940, his younger brother Hans (Hanusch) Freiherr von Ringhoffer (1885-1946) took over the management of the group and worked with Albert Speer , Minister of Armaments in the German Reich , on which armored rail vehicles were also built.

nationalization

On March 7, 1946, the company was nationalized in accordance with Decree No. 108 of the President of Czechoslovakia of October 24, 1945 , and Ringhoffer was expropriated. The company then operated as Tatra, národní podnik , until it was split up again into the individual companies. The rail vehicle manufacturing companies were merged in 1958, including the Slovak Poprad wagon factory, under the name Československé vagónky Tatra np , based in Studénka. Tatra in Kopřivnice only produced motor vehicles from then on.

The former Ringhoffer plant in Prague - Smíchov initially traded as Vagonka Tatra Smíchov np , from 1963 as a part of ČKD as ČKD Tatra np. Since 2001 it has belonged to the Siemens group. The most important product of the plant from 1951 to 1999 were the so-called Tatra trams , which were exported to almost all countries of the then Eastern Bloc .

Products

Products of the F. Ringhoffer wagon and tender factory, 1893

See also

literature

  • Ferdinand Seibt , Hans Lemberg , Helmut Slapnicka: Biographical lexicon on the history of the Bohemian countries. Published on behalf of the Collegium Carolinum (Institute) , Vol. III, R. Oldenbourg Verlag München, 2000, ISBN 3-486-55973-7 , p. 472 ff. There: bearers of the Ringhoffer industrial dynasty with short biographies of: Ringhoffer, Emanual, knight von (since 1900), technician; Ringhoffer, Emanual Josef Franz Freiherr von, industrialist; Ringhoffer Franz, copper various master; Ringhoffer Franz Freiherr von (since 1873) industrialist; Ringhoffer, Franz Freiherr von, industrialist; Ringhoffer, Franz Seraph Josef Freiherr von, large industrialist; Ringhoffer Hans (Hanusch) Freiherr von, industrialist in Prague- Smíchov , (* 1885 in Prague, died 1947 in Special Camp No. 1 Mühlberg ), General Director of the Ringhoffer Group, Governor of the Czech National Bank, Royal Consul General of Norway.
  • The Ringhoffer Group in words and pictures. Insert in Prague Press December 25, 1927
  • Ludvík Losos, Ivo Mahel: Salonní vozy Ringhoffer. NADATUR et al., Praha 1999, ISBN 80-85884-92-5 .
  • Lubomír Kysela: Přehled vozů v podnikovém muzeu DP Praha. Dopravní podnik, Prague 1980.
  • Martin Harák: Trams of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy . Tramway and trolleybus companies in Austria-Hungary. Verlag bahnmedien.at , Vienna 2015. ISBN 978-3-9503304-9-6 .

Web links

Commons : Ringhoffer Works  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ share
  2. ↑ Catalog of the Czechoslovak Wagon Factory Export Association in Prague from 1925
  3. ↑ Timeline of the Tatra Mountains ( memento of the original from March 26, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.gerolt.de