Wilhelm Siedersleben & Co.

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The company Wilhelm Siedersleben & Co. , Bernburg , was one of the most important agricultural machinery manufacturers in Germany from 1860 to 1940 and has made a name for itself primarily through its innovations in the field of seed drills . In 1897 she was one of the 17 founding members of the "Association of Manufacturers of Agricultural Machines and Devices"

history

The origin of the company was the construction of the first large seed drill in Germany with a working width of 12 ft (3.76 m) by Wilhelm Siedersleben in 1856. The seed drills, which were initially only intended for personal use, found such great interest that Siedersleben initially settled in his father's farm Belleben and from 1868 in Bernburg in the factory built in 1865 with the series production of such machines.

The company founder Wilhelm Siedersleben died in 1892. Together with 8 other personalities, he is counted among the founders of the German industry of agricultural machines and devices. After his death, his wife Johanna continued the business. Josef Braun, engineer at Siedersleben, represented the company in 1897 at the founding meeting of the "Association of Manufacturers of Agricultural Machinery and Equipment" in Germany. In 1903 Rudolf Tramnitz, son of the commercial manager Oswald Tramnitz, joined the company and in 1904 he married the daughter of the company founder Johanna Siedersleben. In 1925 Heinrich Zorn married the granddaughter of the company founder, Johanna Tramnitz, and in the same year took over the commercial management of the company. From 1933 Heinrich Zorn was a managing partner of the Siedersleben company.

By the end of the 1930s, the company had brought almost 160,000 seed drills and more than 60,000 hoeing machines onto the market, a substantial part of which was exported. At that time, the company had around 450 employees.

During the Second World War, the operation was largely spared from destruction and then from dismantling by the occupying powers. Therefore, under the direction of the owner Heinrich Zorn, the production of traditional products could already be started again in 1945. From May 1945 about 200 people were employed. From May 1946 to April 1949 about 2,800 seed drills were delivered to the USSR as reparations.

In 1953 it was expropriated. The company came to VVB Agricultural, Construction and Woodworking Machinery as VEB Landmaschinenbau Bernburg . At that time it had around 350 employees.

Products

As early as the late 1850s, the seed drill program was expanded to include link rollers and chippers. In 1961, Siedersleben presented the first two-row beet lifter, which "was of great importance for the further development of this machine group".

Mineral fertilizer spreaders with a combination of agitator fingers and spreading drum followed in 1867 and a grain mower with rigid tines in 1872. In 1895 it became a "depositing machine with self-binding and swinging deposit of the sheaves". However, neither fertilizer spreaders nor grain mowers have shaped the product range of this company. The absolute focus was on the seed drills, the general development of which was largely shaped by innovations from Siedersleben. There was also an award at the World Exhibition in Vienna in 1873.

The seed drills, which have given the company a globally recognized image, came onto the market under the protected name “Saxonia”. This brand name was continued to be used by the successor company, VEB Landmaschinenbau Bernburg . In the 1980s, the entire range of products of the combine progress agricultural machinery was sold in the Federal Republic of Germany under this brand name.

From the mid-1920s, the seed drills had a standard seed wheel that made it possible to dose all common types of seed by changing the speed and an adjustable gate valve. A major further development took place again in the mid-1930s. For several decades, these solutions became the basis for developments in the field of seed drill technology.

In addition to the seed drills, the company also took top places in the DLG tests in the first decades of the 20th century with its hoeing machines in the range of up to 4 m working width.

The innovative activity in beet harvesting technology was reflected in different versions of simple beet lifters and two-row harvesting machines for topping and lifting. In 1903 and 1921 the company received awards from the Association of the German Sugar Industry. The company was way ahead of its time at the beginning of the 1920s with a multi-row sugar beet harvester that combined topping and lifting. From the 1930s onwards, beet harvesting technology was no longer a priority.

literature

  • Meyer, F., Herrmann, K., Krombholz, K .: One hundred years for the agricultural engineering industry . Maschinenbau Verlag, Frankfurt / Main 1997, ISBN 3-8163-0342-0 .
  • Franz, G. u. a .: The history of agricultural engineering in the XX. Century . DLG-Verlag, Frankfurt / Main 1969.
  • Krombholz, K .: Agricultural machinery in the GDR - light and shadow . DLG-Verlag, Frankfurt / Main 2008, ISBN 978-3-7690-0717-6 .
  • Dreyer, K .: Unforgotten agricultural technology - the fascination of once famous manufacturers . DLG-Verlag, Frankfurt / Main 2005, ISBN 3-7690-0648-8 .
  • Fischer, G. et al.: The development of agricultural machinery in Germany - reprint of the 1910 edition . VDI-Verlag, Düsseldorf 1987, ISBN 3-18-400784-7 .
  • Association of the German Agricultural Machinery Industry: History calendar for agricultural technology and agricultural machinery . Berlin 1927.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Fischer, G. et al.: The development of agricultural machinery in Germany - reprint of the edition from 1910. VDI-Verlag, Düsseldorf, 1987, ISBN 3-18-400784-7