Wilhelmshütte (Sprottau)

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The Wilhelmshütte Sprottau was an ironworks and mechanical engineering plant in Nieder-Eulau ( Polish Iława ) in Lower Silesia ; the place was incorporated into Sprottau ( Polish: Szprotawa ) on June 1, 1925 .

history

Founding years (1828-1853)

In the years 1828 and 1829 arose at the site of a former ironworks and blacksmith on the north bank of the Bober ( polish Bóbr ) about 3 km west of Sprottau and south of the road to Mallmitz ( Polish Małomice ) a new, based on the local turf iron ore working iron foundry and, connected to this, an enamelling plant (1828) and a mechanical engineering department for the manufacture of agricultural machines (1829), which were incorporated as a stock corporation in 1830 as the Wilhelmshütte plant . The production of steam engines began there as early as 1837 .

In 1841 the businessman, councilor and previous tenant Julius Baller, who also ran a paper mill in Klein-Eulau, took over the plant. It worked with a blast furnace , two cupola furnaces , two enamel furnaces with eight muffles and a mechanical engineering workshop with forge fires. At the trade exhibition in Berlin in 1844, “J. Baller and Co., Eisenhütten- und Enaillierwerk Wilhelmshütte ”, including various agricultural machines. Towards the end of the 1840s, however, Baller ran into considerable financial difficulties, and in April 1850 his creditors united in the “Actien-Verein der Wilhelmshütte und Papier-Fabrik zu Eulau” and took over both plants. In November 1853 the ironworks in Nieder-Eulau (with parts also located in Klein-Eulau) and the paper mill in Klein-Eulau, both bankruptcy assets of the Actien-Verein, had to be foreclosed.

Liebermann & Co., iron and enamel factory Wilhelmshütte (1854–1870)

The Wilhelmshütte then came into the possession of the Berlin company Liebermann & Co. of the factory owner Josef Liebermann and his sons and partners Benjamin (1812-1901) and Louis (1819-1894; father of the painter Max Liebermann ). "Liebermann & Co., Eisen und Emaillirwerk Wilhelmshütte", exhibited their products at the First General German Industrial Exhibition in Munich in 1854 ( threshing machine , oat grist mill , chopping machine , malt squeezer, beet cutter, enameled kitchen utensils) and renovated the plant, that expanded its product range quickly, but also somewhat haphazardly. In addition to agricultural machines, there were pumps , switches , wheel sets for railroad cars , equipment for gas works , equipment for distilleries and mills , iron bed frames , tower clocks , etc. When the engineer Adolph Mestern joined Benjamin Liebermann in 1856, the company became a subsidiary, although it continued to be a daughter the Liebermann & Co., renamed “B. Liebermann & A. Mestern, Maschinenfabrik und Eisenwerk Wilhelmshütte ”, and she registered her exhibits at the World Exhibition in London in 1862 with this provenance . The diversity of production was limited and already in 1857 began with the construction of Corliss - steam engines , made in Germany by only a few companies, however, were even exported from the Wilhelmshütte. A railway connection from Sprottau station to the factory premises was completed in 1870.

In 1866 a branch was established in Waldenburg - Altwasser , where various steel constructions for mining , headframes , machines, elevators and cranes were built.

Wilhelmshütte, Actien-Gesellschaft for mechanical engineering and iron foundry (1870–1934)

In the spring of 1870, the company was sold to the newly founded "Wilhelmshütte, Actien-Gesellschaft für Maschinenbau und Eisengießerei" (Wilhelmshütte, Actien-Gesellschaft für Maschinenbau und Eisengießerei), whose founders were general director Adolf Mestern and Emil Rathenau , who was an apprentice from 1855 to 1859 in the Wilhelmshütte of his grandfather Josef Liebermann, and the Berlin bank owned by Abel & Witowski. The company flourished until the First World War . 1886 belonged to the plant in Eulau a pattern shop , a commercial foundry, a machine foundry, an investment casting foundry , a Emaillierhütte, a machine and boiler making, mechanical workshops, Fitters and Montierwerkstätten, a brick factory , a gas station, a narrow gauge works railway and a small hydroelectric plant. In 1888 a factory for bath stoves was attached to the plant, in 1897 an in-house vocational school was opened, and in 1910 the company's own hydropower plant on the Bober was modernized with two Francis turbines from JM Voith in Heidenheim with a total of 1050 hp.

After the war, however, the company ran into trouble. As early as 1923, the factory in Altwasser was sold to the local Carlshütte AG for iron foundry and mechanical engineering and connected to it. Even this measure could not ensure the survival of the company, and in 1927 it merged with the Eisenhüttenwerk Marienhütte bei Kotzenau AG with its two plants in Kotzenau and Mallmitz ; the merged company was renamed "Eisen- und Emaillierwerke AG". As early as January 1932, this new company stopped making payments and went into liquidation .

Wilhelmshütte Eisen- und Emaillierwerke AG (1934–1945)

On March 4, 1934, the work Wilhelmshütte was released from the liquidation mass and newly established by the February 21, 1934 for this purpose and on 27 February with commercial law registered "Wilhelmshütte iron and Emaillierwerke AG" bought in the city Sprottau 34% Was a major shareholder. Operational purposes were still iron and steel foundry, boiler shop, machine, apparatus and valve construction, metal processing and enamelling. During the Second World War , part of the production was devoted to warfare purposes, including forced labor and prisoners of war .

Post-war period (1945–1999)

After the end of the war, when Silesia was occupied by the Red Army , most of the plant's machines were dismantled and transported to the Soviet Union as spoils of war or reparations . However, the administration of the city of Szprotawa, which was now under Polish administration, was interested in the creation of jobs and therefore in the restoration of manufacturing capacity in the ironworks, and on May 10, 1946 Poland took over the plant, which had previously been under Soviet administration, under the new name “Huta Anna ". In the course of the following years - renamed several times - it was gradually equipped with new machines, and in 1953 7600 tons, in 1958 even 16,000 tons of products were produced, some of which were also exported . Investments and expansion continued in the 1960s, and total annual production rose to over 30,000 tons. The plant, by far the largest employer in Szprotawa, was also involved in the cultural and social life of the city: it ran a kindergarten, a school, a clinic, an orchestra and a cultural center in the Iława district, financed road and house construction, supported the local community Football club and owned holiday homes for its staff in Mielno (formerly German Mellendorf) and in Świeradów-Zdrój (formerly German Bad Flinsberg).

When the Polish central planned economy after the end of socialist rule in 1989 in a market economy has been transformed, the 1963 came Dolnośląskie Zakłady Odlewnicze renamed (DZO) Company under the fast-growing competitive pressure and increasing difficulties. Sales shrank, production had to be restricted and the workforce reduced. Nevertheless, the debt grew, and in 1999 the bankruptcy was declared . Since all attempts to find a buyer to take over and continue the business were unsuccessful, it was finally decided to demolish the workshops and sell the land below. Today, large parts of the former factory premises are industrial wasteland . There are memorabilia and photos in the city history museum.

Coordinates: 51 ° 33 ′ 47 ″  N , 15 ° 30 ′ 0 ″  E

Web links

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Johann G. Knie: Alphabetical-statistical-topographical overview of the villages, spots, cities and other places of the royal. prussia. Province of Silesia. . . . , 2nd edition, Graß, Barth and Comp., Breslau, 1845, p. 125
  2. ^ "Muffel", in Duden
  3. ↑ Johann G. Knie: Alphabetical-statistical-topographical overview of the villages, spots, cities and other places of the royal. prussia. Province of Silesia. . . . , 2nd edition, Graß, Barth and Comp., Breslau, 1845, p. 125
  4. ↑ Official directory of. . . . Items sent in for the trade exhibition in Berlin in 1844 . Berlin, 1844, p. 184, no.2046
  5. ↑ At this time, many Silesian industrial companies suffered from their relatively remote location. It is not known whether this or the overwhelming competition from the blossoming Ruhr area was one of the reasons.
  6. ↑ Leipziger Zeitung , first supplement to No. 132 of the Leipziger Zeitung, May 12, 1850
  7. ↑ Leipziger Zeitung , first supplement to No. 178 of the Leipziger Zeitung, July 29, 1853, p. 3746: Necessary sale
  8. ^ Catalog of the General German Industrial Exhibition in Munich in 1854 , pp. 161 & 162
  9. ↑ Christof Biggeleben: The "bulwark of the bourgeoisie": the Berlin merchants 1870-1920 (= Society for Company History [Hrsg.]: Series of publications for the journal for company history . Volume 17 ). CH Beck, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-406-54993-4 , p. 157 ( excerpt [accessed March 15, 2020]).
  10. ^ Felix Pinner: Emil Rathenau and the electric age ; (Wilhelm Oswald (Ed.): Big Men, Studies on the Biology of Genius, Volume Six), Akademische Verlagsgesellschaft, Leipzig, 1918
  11. ↑ His first name often appears as Adolf.
  12. ^ Felix Pinner: Emil Rathenau and the electric age ; (Wilhelm Oswald (Ed.): Big Men, Studies on the Biology of Genius, Volume Six), Akademische Verlagsgesellschaft, Leipzig, 1918
  13. ↑ Zygfryd Piatek: The Lower Silesian coal field in the 19th century from the perspective of the structural development of the regionally important industrial sectors . In: Toni Pierenkemper (Ed.): The industrialization of European mining regions in the 19th century . Steiner, Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3-515-07841-X , p. 210 ( google.com [accessed March 15, 2020]).
  14. ^ Journal for Capital and Rents , Seventh Volume, Berlin, 1871, pp. 108-109
  15. ^ Statute for Wilhelmshütte, Actien-Gesellschaft für Maschinenbau und Eisengießerei , in: Extraordinary supplement to No. 26 of the Official Gazette of the Royal Government of Liegnitz 1870, Liegnitz, June 25, 1870, pp. 170ff (1-8)
  16. ↑ Mestern died in August 1883; his successor as general director was B. Leistikow, who had previously managed the branch in Altwasser.
  17. ^ The limited partnership Abel & Witowski was converted into an OHG in November 1870 ; Shareholders were Eduard Abel and Ignatz Witowski. ( Königlich Prussischer Staats-Anzeiger , No. 380, December 1, 1870, p. 4867. )
  18. ↑ Breslauer Bezirksverein: The Marienhütte near Kotzenau and the Wilhelmshütte near Sprottau , in: Journal of the German Engineers Association , Volume XXX, Berlin, 1886, p. 406
  19. ^ Wilhelmshütte AG, Waldenburg
  20. ↑ http://www.lueben-damals.de/kreis/kotzenau_marienhuette.html
  21. ↑ In 1934 the factory premises in Kotzenau came partly to "Maschinenfabrik AG, formerly Wagner & Co.", which had bought the paper machine manufacturer Füllnerwerk in Warmbrunn and then moved from Köthen to Warmbrunn and there cast straightening cylinders for machines for paper production, and partly to the "Fahrzeugbau Wilhelm Schrottke KG" from Haynau , which manufactured vehicle trailers and bodies ( Marienhütte Kotzenau, near Lüben - pictures, stories, documents ).
  22. ↑ 1947: "Zespół Fabryk Dolnośląskich - Odlewnia Zeliwa i Emaliernia"; 1948: "Dolnośląskie Zakłady Metalurgiczne 2"; 1950: "Dolnośląskie Zakłady Metalurgiczne i Apendix Chemicznej"; 1963: "Dolnośląskie Zakłady Odlewnicze" (DZO).