Interesting version of DWM's company history

[Vlim]

I have shown versions of the book '50 Jahre Deutsche Waffen- und Munitionsfabriken Aktiengesellschaft', published by VdI Verlag in 1939 several times.



I recently obtained a copy that could be traced back to the original owner, an Employee of DWM and MfM in the 1930s.

A handwritten entry on one of the books first pages reads:



A. Schultze - Masch. Schlosser
18.I.37 - 26.VIV.39 Khe. D.W.M.
27.IX.39 - 27.XII.39 L�¼beck M.f.M.

Austritt am 31.XII.39 Khe.

Mr. A. Schultze worked as a machine fitter / machine engineer for DWM's branch in Karlsruhe in Baden, Germany from the 18th of January 1937 until the 26th of September, 1939. He was then transferred to the new factory site of DWM and daughter company MfM (Maschinen fur Massenverpackung GmbH) in L�¼beck, where he worked until the 27th of December, 1939. Since he left the company on the 31st of December, 1939, the chance is pretty high that his new employer would have been the German army.

Although MfM was originally a company that mainly produced machines for packaging equipment, basically packaging machines themselves, they were also heavily involved in the rearmament of the German nation, as were their parent company DWM (which had reverted to it's old name after being known as BKIW for a number of years).

The company site in L�¼beck survived the war without any real problems. The lay-out way such that the individual buildings were scattered across a vast forest area, protecting them against explosions and bombing raids. Furthermore the roof tops were camouflaged using real plants and trees that were placed on top of them. The allied forces had so much problems getting detailed aerial photographs of the complex after the war, that they had large parts of the site deforested.

The complex now houses a number of smaller companies and business parks.

[Steinar]

Thanks for sharing Gerben, interesting information. Looks like the books are quite 'extensive', what type of information do they mostly contain?

[Vlim]

Steinar,

It was a bit of a fashion statement in the 1920s and 30s to publish a company history at the time of a major jubilee, say a 25th, 50th, etc.. birthday of a company. These histories were mainly written by editors working for the VdI (Verein Deutscher Ingenieure). Many current-day companies still publish company histories as well and these books are a very good starting point when one really wants to get to know a company.

In this example, the book, written by Conrad Matschoss, Friedrich Hassler and Adolf Bihl, addresses the general history of hand guns, the history of the Deutsche Metallpatronenfabrik Lorenz, the Deutsche Metallpatronenfabrik, DWM, BKIW and DWM after the 1933 name change, combined with a photographic reference of the 1939 situation, production of catridges, packaging machines, heavy machines, etc...

The book contains a number of pages on the development of the Borchardt and the Parabellum pistol as well as the Parabellum (MG08) machinegun.
Furthermore it describes the company's internal structure and ownership links with FN and Mauser, for example.



It also has a number of sections that need some 'reading between the lines', as the book was written at the height of the Nazi-empire and being of Jewish origin didn't help in those days. So rather than exposing that until 1929 DWM was basically a Jewish owned and run business (part of the Loewe group), the authors chose a format where they wrote that DWM took over Loewe's arms business in 1896, rather than being PART of Loewe which it really was until 1929. Apart from that, the occasional Nazi-glorification lines slip in here and there but they're so obvious that it's relatively easy to filter out that bit.

You also see this 'glofication phase' in post-war DDR books. First you get a couple of pages glorifying the then current administration and then it's business as usual.

I've got a number of company histories at the moment:
-50 Jahre DWM AG, 1939.
-125 Jahre Mauser ('Geschichte der Mauser-Werke'), 1938.
-1869-1929 Ludwig Loewe & Cie, 1929.
-100 Jahre Boehler Edelstahl, 1970.
-FN 100 Years (which is a combination of the older 75th anniversary and 100th anniversary versions).
-75 Jahre Industriewerke Karlsruhe (DWM followup), 1964.
-Vickers, a history, 1962.

[Steinar]

Gerben, guess this is something for the hardcore Mauser collector:
http://www.finn.no/finn/bap/object?f...=null&tot=null

[Vlim]

Nice!

[graf98a]

Vlim,

Very interesting post on MfM Lübeck, might you know more about their product line? Any manufacture codes used? Any relationship to projects conducted by DWM Posen or Mauser Oberndorf?

Stamping technology as it relates to aircraft machineguns was developed in part at DWM Posen with the help of Mauser Oberndorf, there was a piece written in 1945 by Army Ordnance and there is some speculation MfM had been involved in some way?


By the way, reading some of your posts about Quandt, have you ever been able to distinguish his actual ownership interest in DWM? The intelligence summary I have on Quandt done at the end of the war says he acquired "control" over DWM with the help of banking (which he was as tied to as anything, being on numerous boards, including the largest in Germany..) but doesn't really outline how much stock he held or interest he owned..

[Vlim]

Hi,

About the involvement of Quandt. In his memoirs, published by his sons in the 1960s, he writes that he somewhat stumbled into the DWM board following a shareholders meeting in 1929. Due to the bad economical conditions, the DWM management proposed to halve the company assets and several large shareholders protested because, even in the bad economical waters, the company was relatively sound.

Around june of 1928 he only had some 50,000 Reichsmarks worth of shares in BKIW (DWM). The company capital amounted to 30 million RM. Quandt agreed to give his shareholder's vote to a small conglomerate of shareholders who wanted to vote against the capital reduction (from 30 million RM to 15 million). During a shareholders meeting on the 14th of june, 1928, the shareholders successfully voted against the plan and the supervisory board of BKIW resigned. A new board was assembled from the shareholders and Quandt was chosen as chairman of the board.

So he succeeded in getting the chairmanship of the supervisory board of a 30 million RM business while only owning 50,000 RM worth of shares initially. His success was largely based on his cooperation with two bankers, Paul Hamel and Paul Rohde who financed many of his deals during the earlier crisis years. Quandt purchased shares while the share values were plummeting and the Reichsmark was devaluing at an alarming rate. He took one hell of a risk but he gambled correctly.

DWM in Posen was basically a heavy machinery plant that was taken over by DWM after Germany invaded Poland (Posen = Poznan). The plant mainly specialized in producing railroad equipment. They gained control over FN in Belgium (again) in a similar manner and it was dubbed DWM Liege.

MfM has been part of the Quandt Group for years. In 1964 it is still being mentioned as a subsidiary of IWK, in 1969 it disappeared from the lists, it was absorbed by IWK in Karlsruhe (later IWKA and nowadays KUKA). In 2008, the packaging branch was sold and transferred to a new structure called IWK Verpackungstechnik GmbH. The core business of MfM and it's offspring has always been the packaging machine business, so if MfM was involved in wartime production, it mainly would have focused on providing machines for packaging ammunition, parts, etc... Specialty of MfM was (and is) tube filling equipment. In fact, the first contacts between DWM and the Dutch government was for the delivery of tube filling equipment in the Dutch East Indies colonies (opium production ).

The core business of DWM / BKIW / IWK / IWKA / KUKA has long been that of producing machinery for the production of others. DWM made and sold pistol and rifle production tooling, ammunition production tooling, packaging tooling, etc... This was initially done by DWM's parent company, Ludwig Loewe & Cie, but later DWM specialized.

The multitude of mergers, takeovers, reorganizations, sales, wars and subsequent measures during a timespan of more than 100 years makes understanding, following and documenting the corporate structure of these companies a challenge indeed.

The last 'stand' in Parabellum production by DWM / IWK was made in the 1970s. They produced most of the post war Mauser Parabellum toggle train in Karlsruhe.

Known WW2 ordnance codes for MfM in Lübeck-Schlutup were 319 and 'aty'.

DWM in Lübeck-Schlutup used 413, edq and tko.
DWM Posen used eeo.
DWM Lüttich (FN) used ch.

[graf98a]

Thanks, I had read a similar general story before, probably a post you once made.. interesting details.

Searching through some of you other posts regarding Loewe and FN, I see you have some details on how DWM lost its holdings in FN, might you know the circumstances regarding Spandau's return of the MG08 machinery taken during the war, or how or under what circumstance FN stocks were delivered back to Belgian control?

In other words this loss to DWM, was it expensed to the German government or how did the Entente manage to make DWM relinquish the stock?

I would think this would be wrote off in some manner, - there is a great deal of misinformation on the disarmament measures, "reparation" agreements and transferring of equipment after WWI and I am curious if your references outline the particulars of DWM's and Spandau's dealings with Belgium?

Using the search functions, I find almost all my queries are hitting your posts, - some of your posts are quite extraordinary.

[Vlim]

Hi,

Thank God I keep my stories straight

I never looked into the Spandau / MG08 affair. The FN story is quite interesting, as FN's rifle production tooling was also removed from the company during WW1 and moved to a Berlin company. Interestingly enough, that Berlin company was not associated with DWM. DWM protested, argueing that they were owners of FN, thus owners of the FN machinery. Out of frustration they finally bought the Berlin company (effectively buying their machines back), only to find that the machines were given to Belgian as payment for war damages.

The Berlin company was the Kornbusch company and DWM acquired it in august 1916. The company was renamed 'Waffenwerke Oberspree Kornbusch & Co'. They also made machineguns there from 1917 onwards. According to DWM's company history (1939), the loss of the FN machinery and shares was not compensated in any way. Furthermore, attempts were made to destroy the DWM company. They had to use all their talents to prevent their own equipment from being scrapped by converting them to produce all sorts of other things like buttons, cutlery, etc... Some machines were even 'parked' at scrap yards where the scrap yard was paid to store them rather than scrap them. Other DWM tooling was shipped to allied countries as war damages compensation and for this DWM got a state compensation.

I have been gathering Quandt, Loewe, DWM, Mauser and FN related material for quite a while, now. The main challenge is to get as far back to the source as possible. So most of the information is actually based on original company reports, documentation, histories, etc.. Luckily for us, the German industry has always been fond of celebrating it's landmarks with company publications. DWM/IWK published at least 2, in 1939 and in 1964. Loewe did one in 1929, Mauser in 1938. FN (following the German style) every 25 years, etc... But it is a challenge to tie all that info together. I still find basic errors in many publications.

If you will do an article on the Spanish Mausers used during the Spanish-American war let me know. I have a few very nice (and extremely rare) original DWM documents dating from 1904 on those.

About FN obtaining the shares, a bit is written by Francotte in the FN company history:

On the eve of armistice, a decree provided for the sequestration of all property abandoned in Belgium by nationals of hostile countries. This measure also pertained to the 5700 FN shares belonging to DWM (in 1896 DWM owned 5850 FN shares so I wonder what happened to 150 of them), and was applied from the 30th of November 1918 when G. Joassart, general secretary of the company, was legally appointed trustee of the shares. Three weeks later, the 3 German managers resigned. On the 12th of March, 1919 DWM officially surrendered it's shares to the Union Financïere et Industrielles Liegoise (UFI), a conglomerate set up specifically to obtain the DWM shares in FN. The UFI was set up by a number of Belgian banks. The UFI kept 3900 shares and sold the rest to people who had assisted in the whole operation.

FN was also awarded a war damages compensation of 59,081,300 frances in 1922, the compensation probably being paid by the German government.

[graf98a]

Vlim, Thanks for taking the time to answer so thoroughly!

[John Sabato]

Great History Gerben! Thanks for sharing it.

[Vlim]

Thanks guys,

A nice addition came a few weeks ago in the shape of some documents relating to the celebration of the 100th year anniversary of the Ludwig Loewe company in the 1960s. Contrary to what many believe, the Loewe company survived the nazi era and was re-established in 1945 after being forced to merge with AEG during the war.

Around the end of the 1960s a number of struggling German tooling companies were forced to merge, including Loewe. This merger formed a company called DIAG (Deutsche Industrie Anlagen GmbH). DIAG still exists today.

Another booklet to be added to the list is that of the 175th anniversary of Mauser, dating from 1987.

[A.Mifsin]

Vlim, was the Ludwig Loewe company a jew company?
Alf.

[Vlim]

Alf,

Yes, the founding family of the Loewe company was (and is) of Jewish origin. The management of DWM was largely Jewish as well. One of the reasons why the Quandt family did well in the 1930s was that they weren't. Quandt did rely upon the capital of Jewish bankers and financers, though.

An interesting, and largely unresearched, development was that when Hitler came to power in 1933, the management of large corporations were arrested and interned for a couple of months. DWM's (and AEG, Varta, etc...) Günther Quandt spent some months in jail and also baron Paul von Gontard (former DWM, Daimler-Benz, etc..) was arrested in the same time. According to the memoires of Goebbels (who had married Günther Quandt's ex-wife, Magda), the arrests were the result of tax evasion charges.

Personally, I think these arrests only served to show the German captains of industry who were in charge now. The message largely being 'work with us, shut up and make money, or face the consequences'.

The Jewish owners and board members were forced to abandon their jobs and many fled abroad. Those who chose to stay rarely survived.

[A.Mifsin]

Thank You Vlim, as usual a very comprehensive reply.
Alf.

[Vlim]

Last century's arms industry is way too complex to answer any question with one sentence

[graf98a]

Well done Vlim, - don't forget Arthur & Julius Simson though!

Though on retrospect they were darn lucky, escaped to Switzerland in 36, immigrated to the US in 1937 and died peaceful lives in CA and NY along with many family members they also helped escape.

I hear Steyr was managed by a Jewish businessman up until 1938, he survived too, - Steyr of course was largely owned by the Austrian government (essentially- through Creditanstalt Bankverein which was largely government owned.)
Interestingly enough it wasn’t nazis who dismissed Steyr’s Jewish General Director, but rather Eric Heller who since 1931 was a member of the Board of Management for Creditanstalt (he was also President of Steyr-Daimler-Puch).

It was Eric Heller who placed a top Austrian nazi dirtbag, friend of Göring and high ss contacts, Georg Meindl to run the show until Steyr was taken over by the Reichswerke (who strong-armed VIAG, Creditanstahl, and few others out of their shares)

Eventually Steyr, like Simson before it, was given massive loans for expansion (ironically through Creditanstalt). In Steyr’s case the typical nazi leadership was employed- the infamous Wilhelm Voss as the big cheese. (head of the Reichswerke weapons branch, head of almost every occupied territory armament firm- in Czechoslovakia especially..)

Anyway, very complicated 1933-1936, and after the Four Year Plan and creations of organizations like the Reichswerke and Gustloff Stiftung it became even more complicated!

Vlim, your posts are the best I have encountered on any forum on German military firearms. Truly first class!

[Ice]

Vlim is quite a historian. Many thanks for continuing education.

Charlie