Walther Bachmann aircraft construction
| Walther-Bachmann-Flugzeugbau KG | |
|---|---|
| legal form | Limited partnership |
| founding | 1923 (as Aero-Sport GmbH ) |
| resolution | 1945 |
| Seat | Ribnitz , Germany |
| management | Walther Bachmann |
| Number of employees | 2,350 (1942) |
| Branch | Aircraft manufacturer , defense industry |
The Walther Bachmann aircraft KG was an aircraft factory of the defense industry in Ribnitz .
Company history
In 1923 Walther Bachmann founded the first German land and sea flight school, Aero-Sport GmbH, in Warnemünde . The entrepreneur, born in Stettin in 1889 , was a front-line officer in the naval forces during the First World War and from 1917 to 1919 an in-flight officer for the Warnemünde Seaplane Test Command.
In 1933/34 the Air Force took over the Warnemünde airfield. Walther Bachmann found good conditions in Ribnitz with the nearby Pütnitz airfield for the construction and testing of land and sea aircraft and relocated Aero-Sport GmbH from Warnemünde to Ribnitz. From 1937 the company traded under the name "Walther-Bachmann-Flugzeugbau KG". Like the aircraft construction companies Arado and Heinkel in Rostock , Bachmann in Ribnitz was also generously supported by the National Socialists who wanted to advance their war interests. The employment and earning opportunities were very good, so that the city of Ribnitz experienced an economic rise with "Bachmann" in the 1930s.
Initially, repairs were mainly carried out on seaplanes, mostly Heinkel types. Later the plant also acted as a supplier for other aircraft factories. In 1940, the Reich Aviation Ministry designated Ribnitz as the main repair company for the Arado Ar 196 aircraft and a year later for the standard bomber of the German Air Force Heinkel He 111 . From the end of 1944 beam bomber of the type Arado Ar 234 repaired.
The company opened a branch in Barth in 1938 , where it manufactured assemblies and weapon parts for equipping the Wehrmacht. In 1942 the company employed 2,350 people.
The labor shortage during the Second World War was compensated for by the use of prisoners of war and forced labor . Above all workers from France , Poland and the Soviet Union were deployed in Ribnitz. The working and living conditions of the foreign workers in the Bachmann plants were very different. Male and female Eastern workers and French prisoners of war were strictly separated from one another. Many Ukrainian girls and women were among the slave laborers from the Soviet Union . The food in the Boddenstrasse community camp was inadequate, especially for the Eastern workers. Her everyday life was characterized by poor care and a long, tiring day at work. Numerous civil workers were also employed in the arms factory. In 1942, around 60 Poles worked for Bachmann. A year later, eleven more Polish workers were added who worked as locksmiths, electricians and fitters. In 1944, 264 French “civilian workers” were employed in the Bachmann works, who either had training as metal workers or were semi-skilled workers.
With the occupation of the city of Ribnitz by Soviet troops on May 1, 1945, the dismantling of undestroyed facilities began. All buildings with the exception of the design office and the administration building were blown up. Walther Bachmann's attempt to get the factory back to set up civil production failed. The expropriation was confirmed on April 17, 1948.
literature
- Edwin Sternkiker: Biplane and jet bomber over Ribnitz, Die Walther-Bachmann-Flugzeugwerke 1934 to 1945 Verlag Redieck & Schade, Rostock 2010, ISBN 978-3-942673-35-8
Individual evidence
- ↑ Aviation exhibition : From gliding to jet, aircraft construction in Ribnitz Rostock-Laage Airport (accessed November 30, 2011)
- ↑ Walther Bachmann Flugzeugbau Forced Labor in the Baltic Sea Region 1939-45, Geschichtswerkstatt Rostock eV in cooperation with the State Center for Civic Education Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania (PDF)
- ↑ Edwin Sternkiker: (May 4, 2005) Fear dominated the first days (PDF; 117 kB) Ostsee-Zeitung (accessed November 30, 2011)