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)
This post has been edited 3 times, last edit by "BruceDuncan" (Jan 31st 2013, 10:16pm)