Hugo Schneider AG
Encyclopedia
Hugo Schneider AG was a small German metal goods manufacturer founded in 1863. Based in Leipzig
, it grew from a small business
making lamps and other small metal products by hand into a large factory and publicly-traded company that sold its wares in several countries around the world. During the First World War, it began making armaments, supplementing the loss of business caused by the war, a decision that ultimately increased the company's profitability. After the war, sales dropped with the loss of military business and HASAG struggled during the 1920s Weimar era
. As the Nazi Party grew in influence and eventually came to power, growing militarism led to the company's return to small arms production
. The company grew substantially to have numerous factories and thousands of workers and became known during World War II
for its heavy use of zwangsarbeit (forced labor). It was the third largest user of forced laborers, with armaments factories in Germany and Poland. Though HASAG was dismantled after the war, the trademark
remained in use until 1974.
n salesman; his partner, Ernst Häckel, was a plumber
, who had started the business making lamps, tinware
and painted wares in 1854. Over the next few years, the company began making gas lamps, the production of which soon increased with the growing use of gas lighting. Schneider took over his partner's share of the business in 1871 and by 1880, the firm had grown from a simple factory
to an industrial plant, with 200 employees. It soon grew to over 300 employees and began exporting not just to other European countries, but also to South America, Asia and Australia. Schneider died on June 1, 1888 and his son, Johnannes Schneider-Dörfel took over the business.
In 1899, with the involvement of Darmstädter Bank für Handel und Industrie (known as Darmstädter Bank) and other banks, the firm was established as an aktiengesellschaft
, manufacturing metal goods under the name "Hugo Schneider AG (Hasag)". Schneider's sons retained 63 percent of the company, but bankers now sat on the board controlling the company. A venture involving other banks resulted in the opening of a factory in Warsaw
, Poland. In 1902, in addition to lamps, the company began making portable stove
s for heating and cooking, bicycle headlights and brass sheeting and wire. The company grew to 1200 employees and the value of the stock increased several times. By 1913, the company was a major producer of all types of petroleum and gas lamps. The outbreak of World War I briefly interrupted the success of the business, as HASAG lost important foreign markets, but this was soon supplanted by the production of small arms. HASAG's 1914 annual report
included the news that in September, the company had, after making some adjustments to its operation, succeeded in obtaining large orders for military supplies, which allowed the company to return to "normal sales revenues". In fact, the company's net profit tripled over its previous non-military sales. The company made rounds
and other military items in heavy use on the front.
After the war, the company returned to the manufacture of goods it had produced before the war and added production of vacuum flask
s to replace the production of shell
casings. Sales dropped to pre-war levels. The worldwide economic crisis
and the situation in Germany affected HASAG as well, as workers continually found their remuneration to be inadequate. By 1930, HASAG had 1,000 employees and annual sales of 5 million Reichsmarks, but this was a drop from previous levels. In October 1931, the company reported that sales were down nearly 15 percent and the company's value had dropped by nearly 30 percent. The board sought changes in company management and on October 1, 1931, Paul Budin was brought in.
Budin, an SS
-Sturmbannführer
and Nazi Party member, was appointed manager of HASAG in 1932. One of his deputies was Dr. Georg Mumme, an SA
-Sturmführer
. As was common in the Nazi armaments industry, nearly all of the deputies and directors were in the SS, the Gestapo
or the SA, most notably Wilhelm Renner, father of Hannelore Kohl
, who later became the head of the military business and helped develop the Panzerfaust
.
In 1934, with Adolf Hitler
and the Nazi Party in control of the government and a growing militarization in Germany
, HASAG undertook intensive negotiations with the Reichswehr
and again received contracts for ammunition production, having been classified as a military supplier. Production began in autum 1934. Dresdner Bank
and the Allgemeine Deutsche Credit-Anstalt financed the development of the company into an arms manufacturer and the old products became a sideline. In 1935, Budin was promoted to general manager; the main plant in Leipzig was expanded and new factories were built.
The military contracts were very lucrative because they did not have to arrange distribution
to a large number of retailers
, rather they sold in bulk directly to one customer, the Third Reich. By 1939, HASAG had become one of the biggest arms manufacturers in Germany with 3,700 employees and annual sales of 22 million Reichmarks. Under Renner's leadership, HASAG remained one of the largest arms manufacturers in central Germany till the end of World War II
.
and Luftwaffe
, workers became harder to find. An agreement was reached between the arms inspector and Friedrich Wilhelm Krüger
, the SS-Obergruppenführer of the General Government
, allowing Jews to be used as workers.
During the war, HASAG had factories in eight German cities and three Polish ones. Most of the workers were either forced laborers, primarily from eastern Europe, or prisoners from concentration camps. The forced laborers lived under heavy police surveillance in barracks near the factories. In 1942 and 1943, such labor camps were set up near all six of the factories in Poland. Few workers were there voluntarily and most of those were Germans in managerial positions. At the beginning of 1942, HASAG had 13,850 employees. They began bringing in Polish forced laborers
in spring 1944 and in 1945, had eight Außenkommando
s, first from Ravensbrück concentration camp
and then from Buchenwald, setting up a labor subcamp next to every HASAG factory in Germany. At Birkenau
, the mortality rate for an Außenkommando was officially calculated. It was three and a half months. There were 16,581 prisoners in these labor subcamps
, including 10,557 women, both Jews and non-Jews and 4025 Jewish men. The main factory in the Schönefeld
quarter of Leipzig had 5,288 forced laborers, of whom, 5,067 were women.
HASAG was able to use women to replace male workers because of automation and their machinery, also the company produced small and medium-sized arms. The company preferred to employ and exploit the prisoner labor available from numerous Nazi labor camps and maintained by the SS, and became the third largest user of forced laborers in Germany. HASAG employed more women than men because the SS
charged less for women. They worked more quickly than men and were more adaptable; they also had a lower mortality rate.
In 1944, Reichs Minister for Armaments and Munitions Albert Speer
gave HASAG special authority to produce the "Hochlauf (high-powered) Panzerfaust
", making the company the weapon's sole producer in Germany. This enabled HASAG to expand further. At one labor camp, HASAG Werk Schlieben, also called Schlieben-Berga concentration camp,German sources use several different terms for the satellite labor camps, sometimes Außenlager literally, "outside camp", sometimes Außenstelle ("outside site" or "post") and sometimes, KZ, short for Konzentrationslager ("concentration camp"). This is in addition to other names, which refer to them as HASAG factories. 1.5 million Panzerfaust "Gretchen" guns
per month were filled with explosives. The average life expectancy of a prisoner sent to work there was two months. In the early hours of October 12, 1944, an explosion occurred that killed 96 prison laborers. The cause of the explosion was never determined, whether it was sabotage, accident or a bomb.
With the Soviet offensive in 1945, the situation in Poland became more dangerous for HASAG's factories. Operations were moved to Germany, establishing a number of smaller operations in different towns around Leipzig with good rail and road connections to the main factory in Leipzig. Labor camps were set up in Colditz
, Delitzsch
, Flößberg (in Frohburg
), Grimma
, Golzern and Borsdorf
. Exact figures for the number of prison laborers are unknown, however, there were at least 718 prisoners, primarily Hungarian
and Polish Jews at the labor camp in Colditz. The factory in Flößberg had at least 1902 prisoners from Buchenwald
and probably from Groß-Rosen concentration camp, as well. As at Colditz, Flößberg's slave laborers were primarily Hungarian and Polish Jews, but one-quarter to one-fifth were political prisoner
s from various countries in Europe.
In 1945, thousands of prisoners were taken out of HASAG factories in a death march
. In April 1945, with the Allies
nearing the city, Budin blew up the company's main building and office building in Leipzig. He is assumed to have blown up his family and himself along with them. The company's files were never found and are assumed to have been burned.
was found stealing bread. They slept in cold wooden barracks with straw mattresses or just on bare wood during a winter that was exceptionally cold. Another survivor, Stephen Casey (born István Katona), said that there were bodies lying in the mud everywhere around the camp, sometimes lying for days right where they fell.
Conditions were so bad at Flößberg, that the commandant
told the SS to make some improvements, not because of concern for the prisoners' welfare, but because missile production and therefore, the war effort, would be negatively affected. One of Kotkowsky's friends found the conditions so unbearable, he took the opportunity to be returned to Buchenwald with a transport of prisoners too sick to work, betting his chances of survival against the odds.Prisoners labeled "sick" were often exterminated before they had a chance to recover and Buchenwald had a high mortality rate. In this case, the gamble paid off, though and the prisoner survived.
One night, after the factory had been built and gunpowder brought in to begin making weapons, British bombers destroyed the factory in a fifteen-minute bombing raid, after which, it rained, filling bomb craters with muddy water. No barracks were hit, which infuriated the SS, who took it out on the prisoners. A few days later, a transport arrived with Hungarian prisoners, who died soon after from the cold, the starvation and the beatings. Kotkowsky said that "prisoners were always disappearing" and more would simply be brought from other slave labor camps. Within Leipzig and the surrounding towns, more people died at Flößberg than at any other Nazi concentration camp or as a result of Nazi ideology.
In March, the SS decided to give the camp and the prisoners a "spring cleaning".
With Allied forces nearing and more and more German troops seen in retreat, the SS evacuated Flößberg labor camp on April 13, 1945. They were packed into cattle cars without food and taken on a circuitous route through Czechoslovakia
to Mauthausen concentration camp, where they arrived about two weeks later. Many prisoners died along the way. American forces arrived in the village of Flößberg
on April 14, 1945.
as reparation
s. Most of the buildings were demolished.
After 1949, HASAG's civilian patents were used by Volkseigener Betrieb
en, the publicly-owned industrial enterprises in the former German Democratic Republic
(East Germany). The company MEWA (VEB Metallwaren Leipzig) produced a high-powered lantern according to a HASAG design. The VEB Leuchtenbau Leipzig owned the trademark
ed name "HASAG", and extended it in 1963. The brand
was discontinued in 1974.
A new memorial for the 72 Polish and Hungarian Jews who perished at the HASAG Colditz labor camp was unveiled at the Colditz cemetery on March 30, 2007. An earlier memorial to the "Victims of Fascism" was unveiled in 1948 and renovated in 1975, when a red triangle
was added to commemorate the political prisoners who died. In 1995, two plaques were added to include honor the memory of forced laborers and prisoners of war, as well. In unveiling the new memorial, the mayor of Colditz, Manfred Heinz, said that each generation must always remind the next of the past, that such events are never repeated. He also said that the memorial was not to be seen as just a reminder of the forced laborers of the past, rather as a rejection of extremism
, as well.
The Flößberg labor camp was razed after the war. Today, there is a gate marking the spot, though a local group is trying to raise money to erect a more extensive memorial. There is a prisoner cemetery with 38 prisoner graves on the grounds of the former camp, which the state of Saxony
regional administration in Chemnitz
had suggested should be moved to Borna
. The proposal was opposed by Jewish and other groups and the regional administration backed off in November 2010. Now there are plans to fix up the graveyard and improve other parts of the site.
Leipzig
Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...
, it grew from a small business
Small business
A small business is a business that is privately owned and operated, with a small number of employees and relatively low volume of sales. Small businesses are normally privately owned corporations, partnerships, or sole proprietorships...
making lamps and other small metal products by hand into a large factory and publicly-traded company that sold its wares in several countries around the world. During the First World War, it began making armaments, supplementing the loss of business caused by the war, a decision that ultimately increased the company's profitability. After the war, sales dropped with the loss of military business and HASAG struggled during the 1920s Weimar era
Weimar Republic
The Weimar Republic is the name given by historians to the parliamentary republic established in 1919 in Germany to replace the imperial form of government...
. As the Nazi Party grew in influence and eventually came to power, growing militarism led to the company's return to small arms production
Arms industry
The arms industry is a global industry and business which manufactures and sells weapons and military technology and equipment. It comprises government and commercial industry involved in research, development, production, and service of military material, equipment and facilities...
. The company grew substantially to have numerous factories and thousands of workers and became known during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
for its heavy use of zwangsarbeit (forced labor). It was the third largest user of forced laborers, with armaments factories in Germany and Poland. Though HASAG was dismantled after the war, the trademark
Trademark
A trademark, trade mark, or trade-mark is a distinctive sign or indicator used by an individual, business organization, or other legal entity to identify that the products or services to consumers with which the trademark appears originate from a unique source, and to distinguish its products or...
remained in use until 1974.
History
The company was founded in September 1863 as Häckel und Schneider in Paunsdorf, near Leipzig, with 20 employees who made lamps by hand. Hugo Schneider was a 27-year old SilesiaSilesia
Silesia is a historical region of Central Europe located mostly in Poland, with smaller parts also in the Czech Republic, and Germany.Silesia is rich in mineral and natural resources, and includes several important industrial areas. Silesia's largest city and historical capital is Wrocław...
n salesman; his partner, Ernst Häckel, was a plumber
Plumber
A plumber is a tradesperson who specializes in installing and maintaining systems used for potable water, sewage, and drainage in plumbing systems. The term dates from ancient times, and is related to the Latin word for lead, "plumbum." A person engaged in fixing metaphorical "leaks" may also be...
, who had started the business making lamps, tinware
Tinware
Tinware is any item made of prefabricated tinplate. Usually tinware refers to kitchenware made of tinplate, often crafted by tinsmiths. Many cans used for canned food are tinware as well. Something that is tinned after being shaped and fabricated is not considered tinware.-Properties:Tinware is...
and painted wares in 1854. Over the next few years, the company began making gas lamps, the production of which soon increased with the growing use of gas lighting. Schneider took over his partner's share of the business in 1871 and by 1880, the firm had grown from a simple factory
Factory
A factory or manufacturing plant is an industrial building where laborers manufacture goods or supervise machines processing one product into another. Most modern factories have large warehouses or warehouse-like facilities that contain heavy equipment used for assembly line production...
to an industrial plant, with 200 employees. It soon grew to over 300 employees and began exporting not just to other European countries, but also to South America, Asia and Australia. Schneider died on June 1, 1888 and his son, Johnannes Schneider-Dörfel took over the business.
In 1899, with the involvement of Darmstädter Bank für Handel und Industrie (known as Darmstädter Bank) and other banks, the firm was established as an aktiengesellschaft
Aktiengesellschaft
Aktiengesellschaft is a German term that refers to a corporation that is limited by shares, i.e. owned by shareholders, and may be traded on a stock market. The term is used in Germany, Austria and Switzerland...
, manufacturing metal goods under the name "Hugo Schneider AG (Hasag)". Schneider's sons retained 63 percent of the company, but bankers now sat on the board controlling the company. A venture involving other banks resulted in the opening of a factory in Warsaw
Warsaw
Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...
, Poland. In 1902, in addition to lamps, the company began making portable stove
Portable stove
A portable stove is a cooking stove specially designed to be portable and lightweight, as for camping or picnicking, or for use in remote locations where an easily transportable means of cooking or heating is needed...
s for heating and cooking, bicycle headlights and brass sheeting and wire. The company grew to 1200 employees and the value of the stock increased several times. By 1913, the company was a major producer of all types of petroleum and gas lamps. The outbreak of World War I briefly interrupted the success of the business, as HASAG lost important foreign markets, but this was soon supplanted by the production of small arms. HASAG's 1914 annual report
Annual report
An annual report is a comprehensive report on a company's activities throughout the preceding year. Annual reports are intended to give shareholders and other interested people information about the company's activities and financial performance...
included the news that in September, the company had, after making some adjustments to its operation, succeeded in obtaining large orders for military supplies, which allowed the company to return to "normal sales revenues". In fact, the company's net profit tripled over its previous non-military sales. The company made rounds
Cartridge (firearms)
A cartridge, also called a round, packages the bullet, gunpowder and primer into a single metallic case precisely made to fit the firing chamber of a firearm. The primer is a small charge of impact-sensitive chemical that may be located at the center of the case head or at its rim . Electrically...
and other military items in heavy use on the front.
After the war, the company returned to the manufacture of goods it had produced before the war and added production of vacuum flask
Vacuum flask
A vacuum flask is an insulating storage vessel which keeps its contents hotter or cooler than its surroundings. Invented by Sir James Dewar in 1892, the vacuum flask consists of two flasks, placed one within the other and joined at the neck...
s to replace the production of shell
Shell (projectile)
A shell is a payload-carrying projectile, which, as opposed to shot, contains an explosive or other filling, though modern usage sometimes includes large solid projectiles properly termed shot . Solid shot may contain a pyrotechnic compound if a tracer or spotting charge is used...
casings. Sales dropped to pre-war levels. The worldwide economic crisis
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
and the situation in Germany affected HASAG as well, as workers continually found their remuneration to be inadequate. By 1930, HASAG had 1,000 employees and annual sales of 5 million Reichsmarks, but this was a drop from previous levels. In October 1931, the company reported that sales were down nearly 15 percent and the company's value had dropped by nearly 30 percent. The board sought changes in company management and on October 1, 1931, Paul Budin was brought in.
Budin, an SS
Schutzstaffel
The Schutzstaffel |Sig runes]]) was a major paramilitary organization under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. Built upon the Nazi ideology, the SS under Heinrich Himmler's command was responsible for many of the crimes against humanity during World War II...
-Sturmbannführer
Sturmbannführer
Sturmbannführer was a paramilitary rank of the Nazi Party equivalent to major, used both in the Sturmabteilung and the Schutzstaffel...
and Nazi Party member, was appointed manager of HASAG in 1932. One of his deputies was Dr. Georg Mumme, an SA
Sturmabteilung
The Sturmabteilung functioned as a paramilitary organization of the National Socialist German Workers' Party . It played a key role in Adolf Hitler's rise to power in the 1920s and 1930s...
-Sturmführer
Sturmführer
Sturmführer was a paramilitary rank of the Nazi Party which began as a title used by the Sturmabteilung in 1925 and became an actual SA rank in 1928...
. As was common in the Nazi armaments industry, nearly all of the deputies and directors were in the SS, the Gestapo
Gestapo
The Gestapo was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Beginning on 20 April 1934, it was under the administration of the SS leader Heinrich Himmler in his position as Chief of German Police...
or the SA, most notably Wilhelm Renner, father of Hannelore Kohl
Hannelore Kohl
Hannelore Kohl was the wife of former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl. She met him for the first time at a prom in Ludwigshafen, Germany, when she was 15 years old....
, who later became the head of the military business and helped develop the Panzerfaust
Panzerfaust
The Panzerfaust was an inexpensive, recoilless German anti-tank weapon of World War II. It consisted of a small, disposable preloaded launch tube firing a high explosive anti-tank warhead, operated by a single soldier...
.
In 1934, with Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
and the Nazi Party in control of the government and a growing militarization in Germany
German re-armament
The German re-armament was a massive effort led by the NSDAP in the early 1930s in violation of the Treaty of Versailles.During its struggle for power the National Socialist party promised to recover Germany's lost national pride...
, HASAG undertook intensive negotiations with the Reichswehr
Reichswehr
The Reichswehr formed the military organisation of Germany from 1919 until 1935, when it was renamed the Wehrmacht ....
and again received contracts for ammunition production, having been classified as a military supplier. Production began in autum 1934. Dresdner Bank
Dresdner Bank
Dresdner Bank AG was one of Germany's largest banking corporations and was based in Frankfurt. It was acquired by competitor Commerzbank in December 2009.- 19th century :...
and the Allgemeine Deutsche Credit-Anstalt financed the development of the company into an arms manufacturer and the old products became a sideline. In 1935, Budin was promoted to general manager; the main plant in Leipzig was expanded and new factories were built.
The military contracts were very lucrative because they did not have to arrange distribution
Distribution (business)
Product distribution is one of the four elements of the marketing mix. An organization or set of organizations involved in the process of making a product or service available for use or consumption by a consumer or business user.The other three parts of the marketing mix are product, pricing,...
to a large number of retailers
Retailing
Retail consists of the sale of physical goods or merchandise from a fixed location, such as a department store, boutique or kiosk, or by mail, in small or individual lots for direct consumption by the purchaser. Retailing may include subordinated services, such as delivery. Purchasers may be...
, rather they sold in bulk directly to one customer, the Third Reich. By 1939, HASAG had become one of the biggest arms manufacturers in Germany with 3,700 employees and annual sales of 22 million Reichmarks. Under Renner's leadership, HASAG remained one of the largest arms manufacturers in central Germany till the end of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
.
Use of forced labor
Initially, only "elite, especially reliable German workers" were allowed to work in the arms industry, but with the outbreak of World War II in 1939 and many men entering the WehrmachtWehrmacht
The Wehrmacht – from , to defend and , the might/power) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the Heer , the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe .-Origin and use of the term:...
and Luftwaffe
Luftwaffe
Luftwaffe is a generic German term for an air force. It is also the official name for two of the four historic German air forces, the Wehrmacht air arm founded in 1935 and disbanded in 1946; and the current Bundeswehr air arm founded in 1956....
, workers became harder to find. An agreement was reached between the arms inspector and Friedrich Wilhelm Krüger
Friedrich Wilhelm Krüger
Friedrich-Wilhelm Krüger was a Nazi official and high-ranking member of the SA and SS. Between 1939 and 1943 he was SS and Police Leader in the General Government in German-occupied Poland and in that capacity he organized and supervised numerous acts of war crimes.- Early life :Krüger was born...
, the SS-Obergruppenführer of the General Government
General Government
The General Government was an area of Second Republic of Poland under Nazi German rule during World War II; designated as a separate region of the Third Reich between 1939–1945...
, allowing Jews to be used as workers.
During the war, HASAG had factories in eight German cities and three Polish ones. Most of the workers were either forced laborers, primarily from eastern Europe, or prisoners from concentration camps. The forced laborers lived under heavy police surveillance in barracks near the factories. In 1942 and 1943, such labor camps were set up near all six of the factories in Poland. Few workers were there voluntarily and most of those were Germans in managerial positions. At the beginning of 1942, HASAG had 13,850 employees. They began bringing in Polish forced laborers
Unfree labour
Unfree labour includes all forms of slavery as well as all other related institutions .-Payment for unfree labour:If payment occurs, it may be in one or more of the following forms:...
in spring 1944 and in 1945, had eight Außenkommando
Kommando
Kommando is a generic German word meaning unit or command. During World War II it was also the basic unit of organisation of slave labourers in German concentration camps....
s, first from Ravensbrück concentration camp
Ravensbrück concentration camp
Ravensbrück was a notorious women's concentration camp during World War II, located in northern Germany, 90 km north of Berlin at a site near the village of Ravensbrück ....
and then from Buchenwald, setting up a labor subcamp next to every HASAG factory in Germany. At Birkenau
Auschwitz concentration camp
Concentration camp Auschwitz was a network of Nazi concentration and extermination camps built and operated by the Third Reich in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany during World War II...
, the mortality rate for an Außenkommando was officially calculated. It was three and a half months. There were 16,581 prisoners in these labor subcamps
Arbeitslager
Arbeitslager is a German language word which means labor camp.The German government under Nazism used forced labor extensively, starting in the 1930s but most especially during World War II....
, including 10,557 women, both Jews and non-Jews and 4025 Jewish men. The main factory in the Schönefeld
Schönefeld
-Places in Germany:*Schönefeld, a municipality of Brandenburg near Berlin*Leipzig-Schönefeld, a quarter of Leipzig, Saxony*Schönefeld , a village in the town Beelitz, Brandenburg...
quarter of Leipzig had 5,288 forced laborers, of whom, 5,067 were women.
HASAG was able to use women to replace male workers because of automation and their machinery, also the company produced small and medium-sized arms. The company preferred to employ and exploit the prisoner labor available from numerous Nazi labor camps and maintained by the SS, and became the third largest user of forced laborers in Germany. HASAG employed more women than men because the SS
Schutzstaffel
The Schutzstaffel |Sig runes]]) was a major paramilitary organization under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. Built upon the Nazi ideology, the SS under Heinrich Himmler's command was responsible for many of the crimes against humanity during World War II...
charged less for women. They worked more quickly than men and were more adaptable; they also had a lower mortality rate.
In 1944, Reichs Minister for Armaments and Munitions Albert Speer
Albert Speer
Albert Speer, born Berthold Konrad Hermann Albert Speer, was a German architect who was, for a part of World War II, Minister of Armaments and War Production for the Third Reich. Speer was Adolf Hitler's chief architect before assuming ministerial office...
gave HASAG special authority to produce the "Hochlauf (high-powered) Panzerfaust
Panzerfaust
The Panzerfaust was an inexpensive, recoilless German anti-tank weapon of World War II. It consisted of a small, disposable preloaded launch tube firing a high explosive anti-tank warhead, operated by a single soldier...
", making the company the weapon's sole producer in Germany. This enabled HASAG to expand further. At one labor camp, HASAG Werk Schlieben, also called Schlieben-Berga concentration camp,German sources use several different terms for the satellite labor camps, sometimes Außenlager literally, "outside camp", sometimes Außenstelle ("outside site" or "post") and sometimes, KZ, short for Konzentrationslager ("concentration camp"). This is in addition to other names, which refer to them as HASAG factories. 1.5 million Panzerfaust "Gretchen" guns
Recoilless rifle
A recoilless rifle or recoilless gun is a lightweight weapon that fires a heavier projectile than would be practical to fire from a recoiling weapon of comparable size. Technically, only devices that use a rifled barrel are recoilless rifles. Smoothbore variants are recoilless guns...
per month were filled with explosives. The average life expectancy of a prisoner sent to work there was two months. In the early hours of October 12, 1944, an explosion occurred that killed 96 prison laborers. The cause of the explosion was never determined, whether it was sabotage, accident or a bomb.
With the Soviet offensive in 1945, the situation in Poland became more dangerous for HASAG's factories. Operations were moved to Germany, establishing a number of smaller operations in different towns around Leipzig with good rail and road connections to the main factory in Leipzig. Labor camps were set up in Colditz
Colditz
Colditz is a town in the Free State of Saxony, Germany, near Leipzig, located on the banks of the river Mulde. The town has a population of 5,188 ....
, Delitzsch
Delitzsch
Delitzsch is a large district and also an important regional center in Saxony. With over 26,300 inhabitants Delitzsch is the largest city in the northern district of Saxony...
, Flößberg (in Frohburg
Frohburg
Frohburg is a town in the Leipzig district, in the Free State of Saxony, Germany. It is situated 11 km northeast of Altenburg, and 34 km southeast of Leipzig. It includes the village of Flößberg.- History :...
), Grimma
Grimma
Grimma is a town in the Free State of Saxony, Germany on the left bank of the Mulde, southeast of Leipzig. Founded in c. 1170, it is part of the Leipzig district.- Location :...
, Golzern and Borsdorf
Borsdorf
Borsdorf is a municipality in the Leipzig district in Saxony, Germany....
. Exact figures for the number of prison laborers are unknown, however, there were at least 718 prisoners, primarily Hungarian
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
and Polish Jews at the labor camp in Colditz. The factory in Flößberg had at least 1902 prisoners from Buchenwald
Buchenwald concentration camp
Buchenwald concentration camp was a German Nazi concentration camp established on the Ettersberg near Weimar, Germany, in July 1937, one of the first and the largest of the concentration camps on German soil.Camp prisoners from all over Europe and Russia—Jews, non-Jewish Poles and Slovenes,...
and probably from Groß-Rosen concentration camp, as well. As at Colditz, Flößberg's slave laborers were primarily Hungarian and Polish Jews, but one-quarter to one-fifth were political prisoner
Political prisoner
According to the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, a political prisoner is ‘someone who is in prison because they have opposed or criticized the government of their own country’....
s from various countries in Europe.
In 1945, thousands of prisoners were taken out of HASAG factories in a death march
Death march
A death march is a forced march of prisoners of war or other captives or deportees. Those marching must walk over long distances for an extremely long period of time and are not supplied with food or water...
. In April 1945, with the Allies
Allies of World War II
The Allies of World War II were the countries that opposed the Axis powers during the Second World War . Former Axis states contributing to the Allied victory are not considered Allied states...
nearing the city, Budin blew up the company's main building and office building in Leipzig. He is assumed to have blown up his family and himself along with them. The company's files were never found and are assumed to have been burned.
Life at a HASAG factory labor camp
Charles Kotkowsky, a Flößberg labor camp survivor, recalled his arrival there on December 28, 1944. His group was brought in to build an arms factory in the forest. They had to clear the woods and lay railway tracks. The conditions were deplorable. Aside from the gnawing hunger, there were no sanitary facilities or running water for the prisoners, so they could not wash themselves or their clothing and it rained often, making the camp very muddy. Many inmates used their morning "ersatz coffee" to wash themselves; since it tasted so bad, it wasn't worth drinking anyway. Following their breakfast of thin coffee, prisoners were forced to perform 12 hours of physically hard labor under the supervision of capricious guards, who vengefully beat them with sticks and screamed at them. Finally, in the evening, came a bowl of thin soup with a small piece of bread. Kotkowsky called the hunger "incomprehensible" and said food was so sparingly distributed, even a kapoKapo
Kapo can refer to one of the following:* Kapo , a Hawaiian goddess or god* Kapo , a privileged prisoner who served as a barracks supervisor/warder or led work details in a Nazi concentration camp...
was found stealing bread. They slept in cold wooden barracks with straw mattresses or just on bare wood during a winter that was exceptionally cold. Another survivor, Stephen Casey (born István Katona), said that there were bodies lying in the mud everywhere around the camp, sometimes lying for days right where they fell.
Conditions were so bad at Flößberg, that the commandant
Commandant
Commandant is a senior title often given to the officer in charge of a large training establishment or academy. This usage is common in anglophone nations...
told the SS to make some improvements, not because of concern for the prisoners' welfare, but because missile production and therefore, the war effort, would be negatively affected. One of Kotkowsky's friends found the conditions so unbearable, he took the opportunity to be returned to Buchenwald with a transport of prisoners too sick to work, betting his chances of survival against the odds.Prisoners labeled "sick" were often exterminated before they had a chance to recover and Buchenwald had a high mortality rate. In this case, the gamble paid off, though and the prisoner survived.
One night, after the factory had been built and gunpowder brought in to begin making weapons, British bombers destroyed the factory in a fifteen-minute bombing raid, after which, it rained, filling bomb craters with muddy water. No barracks were hit, which infuriated the SS, who took it out on the prisoners. A few days later, a transport arrived with Hungarian prisoners, who died soon after from the cold, the starvation and the beatings. Kotkowsky said that "prisoners were always disappearing" and more would simply be brought from other slave labor camps. Within Leipzig and the surrounding towns, more people died at Flößberg than at any other Nazi concentration camp or as a result of Nazi ideology.
In March, the SS decided to give the camp and the prisoners a "spring cleaning".
With Allied forces nearing and more and more German troops seen in retreat, the SS evacuated Flößberg labor camp on April 13, 1945. They were packed into cattle cars without food and taken on a circuitous route through Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
to Mauthausen concentration camp, where they arrived about two weeks later. Many prisoners died along the way. American forces arrived in the village of Flößberg
Frohburg
Frohburg is a town in the Leipzig district, in the Free State of Saxony, Germany. It is situated 11 km northeast of Altenburg, and 34 km southeast of Leipzig. It includes the village of Flößberg.- History :...
on April 14, 1945.
Postwar years
After the war, the main factory in Leipzig began to produce cooking pots, milk canisters, lamps and other items until 1947, when the machinery and equipment was dismantled and seized by the Soviet occupation forceSoviet Military Administration in Germany
The Soviet Military Administration in Germany was the Soviet military government, headquartered in Berlin-Karlshorst, that directly ruled the Soviet occupation zone of Germany from the German surrender in May 1945 until after the establishment of the German Democratic Republic in October...
as reparation
Reparation
Reparation may refer to:*Reparation, the legal philosophy*Reparations , measures taken by the state to redress gross and systematic violations of human rights law or humanitarian law...
s. Most of the buildings were demolished.
After 1949, HASAG's civilian patents were used by Volkseigener Betrieb
Volkseigener Betrieb
The Volkseigener Betrieb was the legal form of industrial enterprise in East Germany...
en, the publicly-owned industrial enterprises in the former German Democratic Republic
German Democratic Republic
The German Democratic Republic , informally called East Germany by West Germany and other countries, was a socialist state established in 1949 in the Soviet zone of occupied Germany, including East Berlin of the Allied-occupied capital city...
(East Germany). The company MEWA (VEB Metallwaren Leipzig) produced a high-powered lantern according to a HASAG design. The VEB Leuchtenbau Leipzig owned the trademark
Trademark
A trademark, trade mark, or trade-mark is a distinctive sign or indicator used by an individual, business organization, or other legal entity to identify that the products or services to consumers with which the trademark appears originate from a unique source, and to distinguish its products or...
ed name "HASAG", and extended it in 1963. The brand
Brand
The American Marketing Association defines a brand as a "Name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller's good or service as distinct from those of other sellers."...
was discontinued in 1974.
Legacy
The former HASAG Werk Schlieben, also called Schlieben-Berga concentration camp, has an organization devoted to protecting its memory. Tours of the one-time labor camp are given and a number of former prisoners have returned for a visit, even from abroad. There is a memorial plaque at the site and there are plans for a monument.A new memorial for the 72 Polish and Hungarian Jews who perished at the HASAG Colditz labor camp was unveiled at the Colditz cemetery on March 30, 2007. An earlier memorial to the "Victims of Fascism" was unveiled in 1948 and renovated in 1975, when a red triangle
Nazi concentration camp badges
Nazi concentration camp badges, primarily triangles, were part of the system of identification in Nazi camps. They were used in the concentration camps in the Nazi-occupied countries to identify the reason the prisoners had been placed there. The triangles were made of fabric and were sewn on...
was added to commemorate the political prisoners who died. In 1995, two plaques were added to include honor the memory of forced laborers and prisoners of war, as well. In unveiling the new memorial, the mayor of Colditz, Manfred Heinz, said that each generation must always remind the next of the past, that such events are never repeated. He also said that the memorial was not to be seen as just a reminder of the forced laborers of the past, rather as a rejection of extremism
Extremism
Extremism is any ideology or political act far outside the perceived political center of a society; or otherwise claimed to violate common moral standards...
, as well.
The Flößberg labor camp was razed after the war. Today, there is a gate marking the spot, though a local group is trying to raise money to erect a more extensive memorial. There is a prisoner cemetery with 38 prisoner graves on the grounds of the former camp, which the state of Saxony
Saxony
The Free State of Saxony is a landlocked state of Germany, contingent with Brandenburg, Saxony Anhalt, Thuringia, Bavaria, the Czech Republic and Poland. It is the tenth-largest German state in area, with of Germany's sixteen states....
regional administration in Chemnitz
Chemnitz (region)
thumb|right|200px|none|The [[:de:Regierungsbezirk Chemnitz|Regierungsbezirk Chemnitz]] before August 2008Chemnitz is one of the three Direktionsbezirke of the Free State of Saxony, Germany, located in the south-west of the state...
had suggested should be moved to Borna
Borna
Borna is a town in the Free State of Saxony, Germany, capital of the Leipzig district. It is situated approx. 30 km southeast of Leipzig. It has approx. 21,000 inhabitants.-History:Borna as a town is more than 750 years old....
. The proposal was opposed by Jewish and other groups and the regional administration backed off in November 2010. Now there are plans to fix up the graveyard and improve other parts of the site.
Weapons and goods produced
- Lighting and heating equipment, camping stoves
- Electrical, home and cooking appliances
- Insulated (thermalVacuum flaskA vacuum flask is an insulating storage vessel which keeps its contents hotter or cooler than its surroundings. Invented by Sir James Dewar in 1892, the vacuum flask consists of two flasks, placed one within the other and joined at the neck...
) containers - Enamel and tinned ware
- Automotive lightingAutomotive lightingThe lighting system of a motor vehicle consists of lighting and signalling devices mounted or integrated to the front, sides, rear, and in some cases the top of the motor vehicle...
and bicycle accessories, electrical headlights and fog lights - Searchlights, circuit lamps, outdoor lights, stoplights, lanterns, bicycle headlights and tail lights, horns and switches
- Electrical bulbs, gas mantleGas mantleAn incandescent gas mantle, gas mantle, or Welsbach mantle is a device for generating bright white light when heated by a flame. The name refers to its original heat source, existing gas lights, which filled the streets of Europe and North America in the late 19th century, mantle referring to the...
s - Disposable, recoilless weaponRecoilless rifleA recoilless rifle or recoilless gun is a lightweight weapon that fires a heavier projectile than would be practical to fire from a recoiling weapon of comparable size. Technically, only devices that use a rifled barrel are recoilless rifles. Smoothbore variants are recoilless guns...
anti-tank Faustpatrone - PanzerfaustPanzerfaustThe Panzerfaust was an inexpensive, recoilless German anti-tank weapon of World War II. It consisted of a small, disposable preloaded launch tube firing a high explosive anti-tank warhead, operated by a single soldier...
(shaped chargeShaped chargeA shaped charge is an explosive charge shaped to focus the effect of the explosive's energy. Various types are used to cut and form metal, to initiate nuclear weapons, to penetrate armor, and in the oil and gas industry...
), recoilless gun - Fliegerfaust-AFliegerfaustThe Fliegerfaust , also known as the "Luftfaust" , was a prototype unguided German multi-barreled ground-to-air rocket launcher designed to destroy enemy ground attack planes.- Overview :...
, ground-to-air rocket launcherRocket launcherA rocket launcher is any device that launches a rocket-propelled projectile, although the term is often used in reference to mechanisms that are portable and capable of being operated by an individual.... - Cast steel, rolled steel and noble metals products
HASAG factories, 1942-1945
The precise number of people forced to work at HASAG factories is unclear because many records were destroyed in the war. The numbers below represent a tally of those known to have worked or perished at the factories below and represent a minimum.- Leipzig Permoserstraße (main factory)
- Leipzig, northern factory
- TauchaTauchaTaucha is a town in the district of Nordsachsen, in the Free State of Saxony, Germany. It is situated on the river Parthe, 10 km northeast of Leipzig....
(also called Hasag Werk II) - Colditz satellite labor camp (1944 - mid-April 1945). 718 known prisoners slave laborers, primarily Hungarian and Polish Jews
- Delitzsch (1944)
- Flößberg labor camp (November 30, 1944 - April 13, 1945). 1902 (primarily Jewish) slave laborers, 235 known deaths, of which, 195 are known by name
- Grimma (in 1944)
- Borsdorf (in 1944)
- AltenburgAltenburgAltenburg is a town in the German federal state of Thuringia, 45 km south of Leipzig. It is the capital of the Altenburger Land district.-Geography:...
- MeuselwitzMeuselwitzMeuselwitz is a town in the Altenburger Land district, in Thuringia, Germany. It is situated 12 km northwest of Altenburg and 11 km east of Zeitz.-History:...
- LangewiesenLangewiesenLangewiesen is a town in the Ilm-Kreis district, in Thuringia, Germany. It is situated on the river Ilm, 4 km southeast of Ilmenau....
, later DermbachDermbachDermbach is a municipality in the Wartburgkreis district of Thuringia, Germany.... - OberweißbachOberweißbachOberweißbach is a town in the district of Saalfeld-Rudolstadt, in Thuringia, Germany. It is situated in the Thuringian Forest, southwest of Saalfeld. On 1 December 2008, it incorporated the former municipality Lichtenhain/Bergbahn....
/EisenachEisenachEisenach is a city in Thuringia, Germany. It is situated between the northern foothills of the Thuringian Forest and the Hainich National Park. Its population in 2006 was 43,626.-History:... - Berlin-Köpenick
- SchliebenSchliebenSchlieben is a town in the Elbe-Elster district, in southwestern Brandenburg, Germany. It is situated 22 km north of Bad Liebenwerda. Schlieben was the site of a concentration camp during the Holocaust....
/Berga, Schlieben concentration camp, third largest of the 136 Buchenwald labor subcamps with between 2,000 and 5,000 female prisoners from RavensbrückRavensbrück concentration campRavensbrück was a notorious women's concentration camp during World War II, located in northern Germany, 90 km north of Berlin at a site near the village of Ravensbrück ....
, and Buchenwald - Polish factories in Skarżysko-KamiennaSkarzysko-KamiennaSkarżysko-Kamienna is a town in northern Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship in Poland by Kamienna river, to the north of Świętokrzyskie Mountains; one of the voivodship's major towns...
, KielceKielceKielce ) is a city in central Poland with 204,891 inhabitants . It is also the capital city of the Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship since 1999, previously in Kielce Voivodeship...
and Częstochowa ghettoCzęstochowa GhettoThe Częstochowa Ghetto was a Jewish ghetto set up by Nazi Germany in the city of Częstochowa in south-central Poland, for the purpose of persecution and exploitation of local Jews during the German occupation of Poland. The approximate number of people confined to the ghetto at its beginning was...
(1942/1943 to January 1945). 30,000 to 41,800 Jewish forced laborers - Partner/co-operative production in MilanMilanMilan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
and RomeRomeRome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
Further reading
- Leipzig Permoserstraße zur Geschichte eines Industrie- und Wissenschaftsstandorts, UFZ-Umweltforschungszentrum Leipzig-Halle GmbH, 2001 ISBN 3-932900-61-8
- Felicja Karay, Wir lebten zwischen Granaten und Gedichten. Das Frauenlager der Rüstungsfabrik HASAG im Dritten Reich. Translated from the Hebrew by Susanne Plietzsch. Cologne: Böhlau, 2001 ISBN 3412145017
External links
- State archive Bundesland of Saxony
- Leipzig Memorial of Forced Labour official website. (Note: most of the site is not yet translated into English.)
- Gedenkstätte zur Erinnerung an die Zwangsarbeiter und Zwangsarbeiterinnen in der Zeit des Nationalsozialismus in Leipzig
- HASAG-Außenlager des KZ Buchenwald in Colditz und Flößberg
- Geschichte und Erinnerung an den HASAG-Standort Flößberg Flößberg concentration camp memorial website
- HASAG Werk Schlieben Schlieben-Berga concentration camp memorial website