WesWorld

Repository for data pertaining to the subject. Companies represented have substantial interests in several business sectors.

While its roots go far back into the Nineteenth Century the industrial combine Österreichische Metallwerke was founded only in 1934, to consolidate many of the industrial holdings of the Österreichische Credit-Anstalt and the Austrian branch of the House of Rothschild. With the union of Austria and Germany consolidation was considered the logical response to the massively expanded domestic market, and necessary to play a significant role in the foreign trade in the changed circumstances of the later 1930s.

The original core of the concern included such long-established companies of the Wiener Neustädt locomotive works, the machinery works of the former Austrian Südbahn, the Vienna machine building firm of Paukerwerke, and the Austrian Saurer Works. To these could be added the concern’s interests in other German, Czech and Polish metallurgical works, an inheritance of the Rothschild’s from before the Great War.

The concern was quick to take advantage of the expanded market to acquire in 1934 two specialist steel firms, the Steirische Gußstahlwerke in Mürzzuschlag and the Feinstahlwerke Traisen in Traisen, and the Enzesfelder metal fabrication firm. The Graz Machine and Wagon Works and the crane-manufacturing firm of Palfinger followed in 1935. In 1936 it joined with other corporate partners to create the aluminium works at Ranshofen, one of the largest and most modern aluminium plants in Europe.

The acquisition in 1937 of the smaller industrial combine Mansfeld, once a part of the financial empire of Hugo Stinnes, saw the Österreichische Metallwerke expand beyond the former Austrian provinces. Mansfeld operated several extraction and refining works in Saxony and Thuringia, and Österreichische Metallwerke was quick to use it as a base for further expansion. Acquisition of machinery works in Suderburg, Sangerhausen, Nordhausen and Zeitz soon followed.


Subsidiaries of the firm include:

Enzesfelder Metallwerke AG, Wien (metal fabrication)
Feinstahlwerke Traisen AG, Traisen (steel castings and forgings)
Grazer Maschinen und Waggonfabrik AG, Graz (machine tools and railway equipment)
Mansfeld AG, Werk Allstedt, Allstedt (copper and non-ferrous metals refining)
Mansfeld AG, Werk Hettstedt, Hettstedt (rolling mills)
Mansfeld AG, Werk Rothenburg, Rothenburg (iron and steel)
Maschinen und Apparatebau AG, Nordhausen (machine building)
Maschinenfabrik Sangerhausen AG, Sangerhausen (machine tools)
Österreichische Aluminiumwerke AG, Ranshofen (aluminium smelting and refining)
Palfinger AG, Salzburg (cranes and materials handling equipment)
Paukerwerke AG, Wien (machine building)
Steirische Gußstahlwerke AG, Mürzzuschlag (precision steel castings)
Südbahn-Werke AG, Wien (locomotives and railway equipment)
Suderburger Maschinenfabrik und Eisengießerei AG, Suderburg (machine building)


Affiliates of the firm include:

In Germany

Vereinigte Oberschlesische Hüttenwerke AG, Gleiwitz (iron and steel)
Vereinigte Oberschlesische Hüttenwerke AG, Zawadzkie (iron and steel)

Abroad

Vitkovicke horni a hutni tezirstvo a.s., Czechoslovakia (iron and steel production)
Slaskie Kopalnie i Cynkownie Spolka Akcyjna, Poland (zinc mines)
Towarzystwo Kopalni Zakladow Hutniczych Sosnowieckich Spolka Akcyjna, Poland (coal, iron and steel)

The troubled times following the Great War saw the formation of a number of industrial combines in Germany; some under the leadership of an entrepreneur, others as a defensive combination of leading firms in an industrial sector; still others were formed by Germany’s investment banks as a means to shore up their holdings in individual enterprises. Deutsche Industrieanlagen was such a combine, organised in 1921 by the Dresdener Bank.

The original core of the combine comprised several well-established manufacturing firms located in or near the city of Berlin. These included Fritz Werner Werkzeugmaschinen – a machine tool factory that before the Great War had diversified into the manufacture of munitions and munitions-making equipment; the Berliner Maschinenbau, formerly the locomotive-building works of Louis Schwartzkopff; the Mergenthaler Setzmaschinenfabrik, manufacturer of printing equipment; and the Märkisches Walzwerk, a rolling mill in Potsdam. With some exception, these firms had been heavily involved in the manufacture of munitions during the Great War, and much effort and capital was expended to convert the factories to peacetime production.

Nevertheless, by the latter part of the 1920s the Dresdener Bank was ready to use Deutsche Industrieanlagen as a vehicle to expand its direct holdings in German industry. In 1927, early in the postwar consolidation phase, it acquired the firm Deutsche Leucht und Signalwerke, a manufacturer of street lighting and railway signal equipment. In 1929 it acquired the Metallindustrie Schönbeck, a manufacturer of anchors, chains and shipboard ancillary equipment, and the following year the Franz Stock Maschinen und Werkzeugfabrik of Berlin was merged into the enterprise.

In 1932 the Thüringische Metallwerke was acquired. This firm operated three factories producing a wide range of metal products for household use and builders’ hardware. This was followed in 1934 with the purchase of the Metallwarenfabrik Reichertshofen and the Metallwarenfabrik Schmalkalden, which strengthened the firm’s share in the expanding market for consumer metal products. In 1937 the Dresdener Bank took over the assets of the Gothaer Metallwarenfabrik, a cash-strapped subcontractor to the aircraft industry and brought into the fold of Deutsche Industrieanlagen.


Subsidiary companies of the firm include:

Berliner Maschinenbau AG, Berlin-Mitte (locomotives and industrial boilers)
Deutsche Leucht und Signalwerke AG, Berlin-Charlottenburg (lighting and safety equipment)
Deutsche Leucht und Signalwerke AG, Wuppertal-Ronsdorf (lighting and safety equipment)
Franz Stock Maschinen und Werkzeugfabrik AG, Berlin-Spandau (machine tools and equipment)
Fritz Werner Werkzeugmaschinen AG, Berlin-Buckow (machine tools and equipment)
Fritz Werner Werkzeugmaschinen AG, Berlin-Marienfelde (machine tools and equipment)
Gothaer Metallwarenfabrik AG, Gotha (aircraft sub-assemblies and components)
Märkisches Walzwerk AG, Potsdam-Staussberg (ferrous and non-ferrous tubing)
Mergenthaler Setzmaschinenfabrik AG, Berlin-Mitte (printing equipment)
Metallindustrie Schönbeck AG, Schönbeck an der Elbe (shipboard ancillary equipment)
Metallwarenfabrik Reichertshofen AG, Reichertshofen (consumer metal products and builders’ hardware)
Metallwarenfabrik Schmalkalden AG, Schmalkalden (consumer metal products and builders’ hardware)
Thüringische Metallwerke AG, Erfurt (consumer metal products and builders’ hardware)
Thüringische Metallwerke AG, Glauchau (consumer metal products and builders’ hardware)
Thüringische Metallwerke AG, Offenbach am Main (consumer metal products and builders’ hardware)

Otto Wolff Eisengroßhandel was founded in Cologne in 1904 by Otto Wolff and Ottmar E. Strauß as a steel trading company. In the years prior to the Great War the firm established itself as a marketer of German iron and steel products abroad, particularly in Eastern and Southeastern Europe. With the outbreak of hostilities in 1914 it became active in circumventing the Allied blockade of the Central Powers, and in doing so amassed considerable liquid assets outside of Germany. These assets allowed the firm to take advantage of the troubled conditions of the German economy in the immediate postwar period and acquire substantial interests in the manufacture of iron and steel – purchasing, inter alia, the Dillinger Hütte, the Neunkirchener Eisenwerk and the Saarbrücker Eisenhüttengesellschaft.

In 1920 it founded the Vereinigte Deutsch-Russische Handelsindustrie to open up trade with the Russian Federation, in which it took a leading position, and continued to expand its activities in metals trading; by 1925 the firm was one of Europe’s leading supplies of scrap materials. The Otto Wolff AG was formally created in 1928 to subsume the many individual Wolff companies under one corporate structure, and marked the beginning of a second period of expansion. In 1929 the shares of the Frank'sche Eisenwerke were acquired, and in the following year the Draht und Metallwarenfabrik of Salzwedel became part of the Wolff concern. Between 1931 and 1935 several additional firms were amalgamated into the enterprise, including the Metallwerk Westfalia. The firm also took advantage of the expansion of the armed forces to establish several subsidiary firms geared to production of munitions, including the Dresdner Maschinenfabrik and the Maschinenbauanstalt Übigau.


Subsidiary companies of the firm include:

Dillinger Hütte AG, Dillinger (rolled steel products)
Draht und Metallwarenfabrik GmbH, Salzwedel (rolled metal products, wire)
Dresdner Maschinenfabrik AG, Dresden (machine tools and munitions components)
Frank'sche Eisenwerke AG, Adolfshütte, Niederscheld (iron and steel castings)
Hüttenwerk, Eisengiesserei und Maschinenfabrik Michelstadt AG, Michelstadt (metal fabrication)
Lippstadter Eisen und Metallwerke AG, Lippstadt (steel castings and forgings)
Magdeburg Maschinenfabrik AG, Magdeburg (machine tools)
Maschinenbauanstalt Übigau AG, Übigau (munitions components)
Metallwerk Westfalia GmbH, Bochum (metal fabrication)
Neunkirchener Eisenwerk AG, Neuenkirchen (iron and steel products)
Otto Wolff Eisengroßhandel GmbH, Berlin (commodities trading)
Rohstoffe-und-waren Einkaufsgesellschaft Gmbh, Duisburg (commodities trading)
Saarbrücker Eisenhüttengesellschaft, Saarbrücken (iron and steel products)
Vereinigte Deutsch-Russische Handelsindustrie AG, Berlin (general trading)


Affiliated companies of the firm include:

In Germany

Otto Fuchs Metallwerke AG, Meinerzhagen (non-ferrous metals fabrication)


Abroad

Hollandsche Industrie en Handelsmaatschappij NV, Amsterdam, the Netherlands (commodities trading)
Unitas Automobil Ipar es Kereskedelmi Reszvenytarsasag, Budapest, Hungary (trading)

The concern was organised in 1935 to bring under one corporate structure the diversified holdings of the Fahr family, industrialists of Stuttgart, at the insistence of Otto Fahr, head of the family at that time.

Among the firms controlled by the Fahr family was the Maschinenfabrik Fahr of Gottmadingen, a manufacturer of tractors and other agricultural machinery. In the 1920s the opportunity had arisen for the Fahr to acquire the shares of the Vereinigten Kugellagerfabriken Norma, a manufacturer of ball bearings and major supplier of components, and, in 1929 Fahr took a controlling interest in the long established Maschinenfabrik Esslingen, a manufacturer of locomotives and other heavy industrial equipment

With the flotation of a new holding company the concern was able to raise sufficient capital to take advantage of the improved economic situation and begin to acquire complementary firms in the south-west industrial region. In 1936 the firm purchased the ironworks of Jennewein und Gapp of Friedrichsthal, and re-equipped the facility for the casting of engine blocks for motor vehicles. The following year it took control of the machine works of Ernst Saupe in Limbach, a diversified machine tool manufacturer supplying the automobile and chemical industries.

In 1938 the concern acquired two coachbuilding firms - Fahrzeugwerk Heitger of Mannheim and the Walter Vetter Karosserie und Fahrzeugbau of Bad Cannstadt, both of which were major suppliers of truck bodies to the Heer. In 1939 it purchased the machine building firm of Werner und Pfleiderer, also in Stuttgart, a leading firm in the construction of extrusion machines for plastics and metals.

In 1940 the concern founded the Eisenwerke Kaiserslautern to undertake vehicle manufacture and assembly for the Heer.


Subsidiaries of the firm include:

Friedrichsthaler Eisenwerk AG, Friedrichsthal (iron and steel castings)
Karosserie und Fahrzeugbau Heitger AG, Mannheim-Neckarau (coachbuilders)
Limbacher Maschinenfabrik AG, Limbach (machine tools)
Maschinenbauanstalt Werner und Pfleiderer AG, Stuttgart (industrial plant equipment)
Maschinenfabrik Esslingen AG, Esslingen (locomotives and railway equipment)
Maschinenfabrik Fahr AG, Gottmadingen (tractors and agricultural machinery)
Vereinigten Kugellagerfabriken Norma AG, Stuttgart (bearings)
Walter Vetter Karosserie und Fahrzeugbau AG, Bad Cannstadt (coachbuilders)

This enterprise emerged in the aftermath of the Great War through the fusion of several small engineering and metalworking companies in the orbit of the banking houses Schliep und Compagnie and Leo Gottwald und Compagnie. With two factories engaged in the manufacturing of pre-fabricated steel structures the firm was well placed answer the demand for structural steel used in bridge and factory construction.

In the later 1920s the firm began to expand through the acquisition of complementary companies in the engineering field, relying on the support of the banking houses of Schliep and Gottwald. In 1927 in purchased the crane manufacturing firm of Maschinen und Kranbau, and followed this with the acquisition in 1929 of the Ernst Halbach firm of Düsseldorf. In 1930 the concern absorbed the failing Hansa Elektromotoren Fabrik of Hamburg, as specialist manufacturer of electric motors for the engineering industry and former supplier. It purchased the shares of the Kölnischen Maschinenbau, a manufacturer of industrial plant equipment, in 1933 as the firm branched out into other areas of engineering and design, and, in 1935 the successful bridge building firm of August Klonne was merged into the firm.

In 1940 the firm acquired the shares of the Eberswalde Hirsch Kupfer und Messingwerke, one of the nation’s largest manufacturers of stamped brass products and entered the defence field through the manufacture of ammunition cartridge cases.


Factories of the firm include:

Vereinigten Flanschenfabriken und Stanzwerke AG, Hattingen
Vereinigten Flanschenfabriken und Stanzwerke AG, Regis-Breitingen


Affiliated companies of the firm include:

Brückenbauanstalt August Klonne AG, Dortmund
Hansa Elektromotoren Fabrik AG, Hamburg
Hirsch Kupfer und Messingwerke AG, Eberswalde
Kölnischen Maschinenbau AG, Bayenthal
Maschinen und Kranbau AG, Garrel
Maschinenindustrie Ernst Halbach, Düsseldorf

This concern was founded in 1934, during a wave of consolidation in the metalworking and engineering industries, to acquire a variety of industrial plants in the Hamburg region. The core of the concern was the Panther Fahrradwerke, a manufacturer of motorcycles and motorised delivery wagons, which in 1923 had relocated to Hamburg-Harburg from its original home in Brunswick. The firm’s second significant acquisition was the Tempo-werke AG, another Harburg-based manufacturer of motor vehicles, which had been formed in 1928 as the firm of Vidal und Sohn. In 1936 the concern branched out into marine engineering through the purchase of Wagner Hochdruck-Dampfturbinen, manufacturers of high-pressure steam turbines and boilers for naval applications. This was followed by its acquisition of the Maschinenfabrik und Mühlenbauanstalt Bauermeister, a manufacturer of machine tools and industrial plant equipment.

In 1941 the concern established in Hamburg-Bergedorf a subsidiary for the manufacture of precision electronic and mechanical measuring equipment for defence purposes.


Subsidiaries of the concern include:

Elektro und Feinmechanische Industrie AG, Hamburg-Bergedorf (precision measuring equipment)
Maschinenfabrik und Mühlenbauanstalt Bauermeister AG, Hamburg-Altona (industrial plant equipment)
Panther Fahrradwerke AG, Hamburg-Harburg (motorcycles, motor vehicle components)
Tempo-werke AG, Hamburg-Harburg (delivery wagons, motorised handing equipment)
Wagner Hochdruck-Dampfturbinen AG, Hamburg-Altona (marine steam engines and boilers)

The mining, finance and investment house of Haniel was founded in 1809 yet its antecedents go back to the trading activities of Jan Willem Noot, who began the importation of colonial goods and the export of manufactures in the year 1756. Under the leadership of his grandson, Franz Haniel, the House of Haniel financed much of the early heavy industry of the Ruhr District, including the foundation of iron foundries, coal mines and, from the 1830s, railways.

The partnership of Jacobi, Haniel and Huyssen, which was the primary vehicle of Haniels investment in heavy industry, would eventually become a part of the Gutehoffnungshütte AG. The Bergrechtliche Gewerkschaft Rheinpreußen, which was founded in 1868, was Haniels principal firm in the field of coal mining, though the House also held a substantial interest in the Gewerkschaft Neumühl.

Franz Haniel built the first German steamship, constructed in 1830 at what would become the Meidericher Schiffswerft, a firm in which the House retains interest. From these humble beginnings grew the Reederei Haniel, one of Germanys largest river-sea shipping firms. The Haniel concern also has substantial interests in ocean shipping under both the German and foreign flags  the Ölhandel und Transportgesellschaft AG of Bremen being but one of its affiliates.

In 1906 the family converted its holdings into a limited liability company, adopting the current corporate style. Through a network of affiliated firms it owns substantial interests in the aforementioned Gutehoffnungshütte AG, the Maschinenfabrik Augsburg-Nürnberg AG, the Allgemeine Ölhandelsgesellschaft AG and many other major industrial firms.

At the close of the Great War the Prussian state owned and operated numerous industrial and mining enterprises – some of long standing, and others constructed after 1914 as part of the national war effort. Following the dismantling of the former Prussian state apparatus the mining assets formerly held by the Prussian treasury were transferred to the Vereinigte Bergwerks-und-Hütten Aktiengesellschaft, headquartered in Berlin; this process was confirmed by an act of the Reichstag of 9 October 1921. According to the articles of association, the purpose of the company was the maintenance of mining works for the exploitation of mineral resources.

When the company was founded it employed nearly 31,000 workers and administrative staff. Its range of activities comprised: bituminous coal (including coke and briquettes); brown coal; potash and rock salt; iron ore; non-ferrous and precious metals (lead, zinc, silver, and gold); lime; and Baltic amber.

Subsidiary operating entities included: Bergwerk Ibbenbüren, Bergwerk Barsinghausen, and Bergwerk Obernkirchen (coal); Kaliwerk Vienenburg and Kaliwerk Bleicherode (potash); Sodawerk Staßfurt (nitrates); Salzbergwerk Schönebeck and Saline Artern (salt); Kalksteinbruch Rüdersdorf (limestone); Grube Rosenhof, Bleihütte Oker, Zinkhütte Harlingerode, Goslar Berg- und Hüttenwerke, and Erzbergwerk Rammelsberg (lead, zinc, argentiferous and cuprous metals mining and refining); and the Staatliche Bernstein-Manufaktur Königsberg (amber processing).