Flashback – An industrial Location Rich in Tradition

1900
The location of the Schönefelder Kreuz Aerospace Technology Centre and the industrial origin of today’s technology park goes back to the construction of a locomotive works by Berliner Maschinenbau AG (formerly Louis Schwartzkopff).

1907
To bundle forces for innovative add-ons to the product range a joint venture, Maffei-Schwartzkopff-Werke GmbH, was set up with J.A. Maffei, Munich. It was accompanied by the setting-up of further production facilities in Wildau. Along with locomotive construction, turbines, pumps and electric motors were manufactured with commercial success at the location. At the end of the 1920s the decline of the works began, due to false business strategies.

1931
Grundstücks- und Werkstättengesellschaft mbH took over the management of the site.

1935
After the transfer of assets to Allgemeine Elektrizitäts-Gesellschaft Berlin (AEG), the property was put to a new use in the mid-1930s. The workshops were converted and enlarged and new machinery and equipment was set up, and here too armaments production in the run-up to World War II began, with the manufacture of aircraft parts (tail unit, wing and fuselage parts) for Junkers, Messerschmitt and Dornier aircraft.

1945
After World War II, VEB Schwermaschinenbau, a nationalised industry in the former German Democratic Republic, flourished on the site, manufacturing plant and equipment for heavy industry such as rolling mill trains, foundries, bending and wire straightening and cutting machinery. The company also gained a reputation for manufacturing drop-forged parts and crankshafts.

1951
With the manufacture of crankshafts for shipbuilding a tradition began that has continued successfully to this day with Wildauer Schmiedewerke GmbH and Gröditzer Kurbelwelle Wildau GmbH.

Photos
1: Maffei-Schwartzkopff-Werke prior to the takeover by AEG
2: Locomotive manufacture in Hall 15/16
3: A BMAG advertisement for the Deutsche Reichsbahn “Superstar”
4: Crankshaft for marine engine (Kurt Baschin in the picture)
5: Crankshaft manufacture today
With kind permission of the Wildau Engineering Society,
Dipl. Ing. Bernhard Welsch, Hon. Pres.