Orenstein & Koppel - Nazi Era and The Second World War

Nazi Era and The Second World War

At the Spandau factory, O&K built cable-operated excavators and bucket-wheel excavators for use in the lignite coal mines of eastern Germany. Under the Aryanisation scheme of Adolf Hitler's Nazi Germany, the Orenstein family's shares in the company were forcibly sold in 1935; Orenstein and Koppel was placed under trust administration, and the Babelsberger works were taken over and renamed in 1941. O&K existed in name only, but more commonly used the abbreviation MBA (Maschienenbau und Bahnbedarf AG).

After heavy bomb attacks on Berlin caused a fire in the company's plant-administration buildings, factory production minister Albert Speer redistributed work and factories around the country to lessen the risk from a single attack. For the remainder of World War II, no more locomotives were built in Berlin. Four hundred and twenty-one locomotives already under construction were shifted to Prague to protect the existing factories. During the war, O&K provided 400 Class 52 locomotives.

Read more about this topic:  Orenstein & Koppel

Famous quotes containing the words nazi, era, world and/or war:

    He’s leaving Germany by special request of the Nazi government. First he sends a dispatch about Danzig and how 10,000 German tourists are pouring into the city every day with butterfly nets in their hands and submachine guns in their knapsacks. They warn him right then. What does he do next? Goes to a reception at von Ribbentropf’s and keeps yelling for gefilte fish!
    Billy Wilder (b. 1906)

    This, my first [bicycle] had an intrinsic beauty. And it opened for me an era of all but flying, which roads emptily crossing the airy, gold-gorsy Common enhanced. Nothing since has equalled that birdlike freedom.
    Elizabeth Bowen (1899–1973)

    You may persevere in obscurity for ten years in your study, but the day you make a name for yourself, the whole world will acclaim you.
    Chinese proverb.

    You say it is the good cause that hallows even war? I say unto you: it is the good war that hallows any cause.
    Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)