HASAG (also known as Hugo Schneider AG, or by its original name in )
was a German metal goods manufacturer founded in 1863. Based in
Leipzig
Leipzig (, ; ; Upper Saxon: ; ) is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Saxony. The city has a population of 628,718 inhabitants as of 2023. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, eighth-largest city in Ge ...
, it grew from a
small business
Small businesses are types of corporations, partnerships, or sole proprietorships which have a small number of employees and/or less annual revenue than a regular-sized business or corporation. Businesses are defined as "small" in terms of being ...
making lamps and other small metal products by hand into a large factory and publicly traded company that sold its wares in several countries. During the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, Hasag became a Nazi arms-manufacturing conglomerate with dozens of factories across
German-occupied Europe
German-occupied Europe, or Nazi-occupied Europe, refers to the sovereign countries of Europe which were wholly or partly military occupation, militarily occupied and civil-occupied, including puppet states, by the (armed forces) and the governmen ...
using slave labour on a massive scale. Tens of thousands of Jews from Poland, and other prisoners, died producing munition for Hasag.
It began making armaments during the
First World War
World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
, a decision that ultimately increased the company's profitability. The loss of military business after the war resulted in dropping sales. HASAG struggled during the 1920s in the
Weimar Republic
The Weimar Republic, officially known as the German Reich, was the German Reich, German state from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a constitutional republic for the first time in history; hence it is also referred to, and unofficially proclai ...
. As the
Nazi Party
The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party ( or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported the ideology of Nazism. Its precursor ...
grew in influence and
eventually came to power in 1933, growing militarism led to the company's return to
small arms production under the new SS leadership. Following the
invasion of Poland
The invasion of Poland, also known as the September Campaign, Polish Campaign, and Polish Defensive War of 1939 (1 September – 6 October 1939), was a joint attack on the Second Polish Republic, Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany, the Slovak R ...
at the onset of World War II the company expanded to accommodate thousands of ''
NS-Zwangsarbeiters'' from concentration camps and ghettos. It was the third largest user of
forced labor
Forced labour, or unfree labour, is any work relation, especially in modern or early modern history, in which people are employed against their will with the threat of destitution, detention, or violence, including death or other forms of ...
in Europe, with armaments factories in Germany and Poland. Though HASAG was dismantled after the war, the
trademark
A trademark (also written trade mark or trade-mark) is a form of intellectual property that consists of a word, phrase, symbol, design, or a combination that identifies a Good (economics and accounting), product or Service (economics), service f ...
remained in use until 1974.
History

The company was founded in September 1863 as Häckel und Schneider in Paunsdorf, near Leipzig,
[Nazi history in Leipzig](_blank)
conne-island.de Retrieved March 22, 2010 with 20 employees who made lamps by hand.
[Holger Worm]
Chronology and overview of Hasag products
(PDF) Wachauer-Petromax (January 19, 2007). Retrieved March 23, 2011 Hugo Schneider was a 27-year-old
Silesia
Silesia (see names #Etymology, below) is a historical region of Central Europe that lies mostly within Poland, with small parts in the Czech Silesia, Czech Republic and Germany. Its area is approximately , and the population is estimated at 8, ...
n salesman; his partner, Ernst Häckel, was a
plumber
A plumber is a tradesperson who specializes in installing and maintaining systems used for potable (drinking) water, hot-water production, sewage and drainage in plumbing systems. , who had started the business making lamps,
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 i ...
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
A factory, manufacturing plant or production plant is an industrial facility, often a complex consisting of several buildings filled with machinery, where workers manufacture items or operate machines which process each item into another. Th ...
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 1 June 1888, and his son, Johnannes Schneider-Dörfel took over the business.
In 1899, with the involvement of the
Darmstädter Bank and other banks, the firm was established as an ''
aktiengesellschaft
(; abbreviated AG ) is a German language, German word for a corporation limited by Share (finance), share ownership (i.e., one which is owned by its shareholders) whose shares may be traded on a stock market. The term is used in Germany, Austria ...
'', 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, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...
, Poland.
In 1902, in addition to lamps, the company began making
portable stove
A portable stove is a cooking stove specially designed to be portable and lightweight, used in camping (recreation), camping, picnicking, backpacking (wilderness), backpacking, or other use in remote locations where an easily transportable means ...
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
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 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
A vacuum flask (also known as a Dewar flask, Dewar bottle or thermos) is an insulating storage vessel that slows the speed at which its contents change in temperature. It greatly lengthens the time over which its contents remain hotter or coo ...
s to replace the production of
shell
Shell may refer to:
Architecture and design
* Shell (structure), a thin structure
** Concrete shell, a thin shell of concrete, usually with no interior columns or exterior buttresses
Science Biology
* Seashell, a hard outer layer of a marine ani ...
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
Reichsmark
The (; sign: ℛ︁ℳ︁; abbreviation: RM) was the currency of Germany from 1924 until the fall of Nazi Germany in 1945, and in the American, British and French occupied zones of Germany, until 20 June 1948. The Reichsmark was then replace ...
s, 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
__NOTOC__
''Sturmbannführer'' (; ) was a Nazi Party paramilitary rank equivalent to Major (rank), major that was used in several Nazi organizations, such as the Sturmabteilung, SA, Schutzstaffel, SS, and the National Socialist Flyers Corps, NSFK ...
and Nazi Party member, was appointed manager of HASAG in 1932.
["HASAG: Hugo Schneider Aktiengesellschaft Metalwarenfabrik"](_blank)
Holocaust Research Project. Retrieved March 22, 2011 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
The (, ), Syllabic abbreviation, abbreviated Gestapo (), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe.
The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of F ...
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
The (, or , plural: ) was a development family of single-shot man-portable anti-tank systems developed by Nazi Germany during World War II. The weapons were the first single-use light anti-tank weapons based on a pre-loaded disposable laun ...
.
In 1934, with
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...
and the Nazi Party
in control of the government and a
growing militarization in Germany, HASAG undertook intensive negotiations with the ''
Reichswehr
''Reichswehr'' (; ) was the official name of the German armed forces during the Weimar Republic and the first two years of Nazi Germany. After Germany was defeated in World War I, the Imperial German Army () was dissolved in order to be reshaped ...
'' and again received contracts for ammunition production,
having been classified as a military supplier. Production began in autumn 1934.
Dresdner Bank
Dresdner Bank AG () was a German bank, founded in 1872 in Dresden, then headquartered in Berlin from 1884 to 1945 and in Frankfurt from 1963 onwards after a postwar hiatus. Long Germany's second-largest bank behind Deutsche Bank, it was eventually ...
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 may refer to:
Mathematics
*Distribution (mathematics), generalized functions used to formulate solutions of partial differential equations
*Probability distribution, the probability of a particular value or value range of a varia ...
to a large number of
retailers
Retail is the sale of goods and services to consumers, in contrast to wholesaling, which is the sale to business or institutional customers. A retailer purchases goods in large quantities from manufacturers, directly or through a wholesaler ...
, rather they sold in bulk directly to one customer, the
Third Reich
Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a totalitarian dictat ...
. By 1939, HASAG had become one of the biggest arms manufacturers in Germany,
["Von der Petroleumlampe zur Panzerfaust – Das vergessene Konzentrationslager Schlieben/Berga"](_blank)
Schlieben-Berga concentration camp memorial website. Retrieved March 25, 2011 with 3,700 employees and annual sales of 22 million Reichsmark.
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 or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
.
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
Wehrmacht
The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the German Army (1935–1945), ''Heer'' (army), the ''Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmac ...
and
Luftwaffe
The Luftwaffe () was the aerial warfare, aerial-warfare branch of the before and during World War II. German Empire, Germany's military air arms during World War I, the of the Imperial German Army, Imperial Army and the of the Imperial Ge ...
, workers became harder to find. An agreement was reached between the arms inspector and
Friedrich-Wilhelm Krüger, the ''SS-Obergruppenführer'' of the
General Government
The General Government (, ; ; ), formally the General Governorate for the Occupied Polish Region (), was a German zone of occupation established after the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany, Slovak Republic (1939–1945), Slovakia and the Soviet ...
, 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 ''Außen
kommandos'', first from
Ravensbrück concentration camp
Ravensbrück () was a Nazi concentration camp exclusively for women from 1939 to 1945, located in northern Germany, north of Berlin at a site near the village of Ravensbrück (part of Fürstenberg/Havel). The camp memorial's estimated figure of 1 ...
and then from Buchenwald, setting up a labor subcamp next to every HASAG factory in Germany.
At
Birkenau
Auschwitz, or Oświęcim, was a complex of over 40 Nazi concentration camps, concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany, occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) d ...
, the mortality rate for an ''Außenkommando'' was officially calculated. It was three and a half months.
[Bernhard Frankfurter (ed.), translated and annotated by Susan E. Cernyak-Spatz]
''The meeting: an Auschwitz survivor confronts an SS physician''
Google Books. English translation (2000) Syracuse University Press, p. 183 There were 16,581 prisoners in these
labor subcamps, including 10,557 women, both Jews and non-Jews and 4,025 Jewish men. The main factory in the
Schönefeld
Schönefeld (, meaning ''beautiful field'') is a suburban municipality in the Dahme-Spreewald district, Brandenburg, Germany. It borders the southeastern districts of Berlin. The municipal area encompasses the old Berlin Schönefeld Airport (SXF) ...
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.
[Edward Victor]
"Altenburg: Philatelic Materials"
Edward Victor. Retrieved March 18, 2011 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
Berthold Konrad Hermann Albert Speer (; ; 19 March 1905 – 1 September 1981) was a German architect who served as Reich Ministry of Armaments and War Production, Minister of Armaments and War Production in Nazi Germany during most of W ...
gave HASAG special authority under the title "Hochlauf (run-up, production boost)
Panzerfaust
The (, or , plural: ) was a development family of single-shot man-portable anti-tank systems developed by Nazi Germany during World War II. The weapons were the first single-use light anti-tank weapons based on a pre-loaded disposable laun ...
",
["KZ-Außenstelle Schlieben Das vergessene Lager"](_blank)
''Potsdamer Neueste Nachrichten'' (April 20, 2009). Retrieved March 25, 2011 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
A gun is a device that propels a projectile using pressure or explosive force. The projectiles are typically solid, but can also be pressurized liquid (e.g. in water guns or cannons), or gas (e.g. light-gas gun). Solid projectiles may be ...
per month were filled with explosives.
["Führung im ehemaligen Hasag- und KZ-Gelände in Berga"](_blank)
''Lausitzer Rundschau'' online (October 3, 2009). Retrieved March 25, 2011 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,
["HASAG-Außenlager des KZ Buchenwald in Colditz und Flößberg"](_blank)
Club Courage, e.V. (March 20, 2007) Retrieved March 28, 2011 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 () is a small town in the district of Leipzig (district), Leipzig, in Saxony, Germany. It is best known for Colditz Castle, the site of the Oflag IV-C prisoner-of-war camp, POW camp for officers in World War II.
Geography
Colditz is situa ...
,
Delitzsch
Delitzsch (; Slavic: ''delč'' or ''delcz'' for hill) is a town in Saxony in Germany, 20 km north of Leipzig and 30 km east of Halle (Saale). With 24,850 inhabitants at the end of 2015, it is the largest town in the district of Nordsach ...
, Flößberg (in
Frohburg),
Grimma
Grimma (; , ) is a town in Saxony, Central Germany, on the left bank of the Mulde, southeast of Leipzig. Founded in 1170, it is part of the Leipzig district.
Location
The town is in northern Saxony, southeast of Leipzig and south of Wurz ...
,
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 1,902 prisoners from
Buchenwald
Buchenwald (; 'beech forest') was a German Nazi concentration camp established on Ettersberg hill near Weimar, Germany, in July 1937. It was one of the first and the largest of the concentration camps within the Altreich (Old Reich) territori ...
and probably from
Gross-Rosen concentration camp
Gross-Rosen was a network of Nazi concentration camps built and operated by Nazi Germany during World War II. The main camp was located in the German village of Gross-Rosen, now the modern-day Rogoźnica in Lower Silesian Voivodeship, Poland, di ...
, as well. As at Colditz, Flößberg's slave laborers were primarily Hungarian and Polish Jews, but one-quarter to one-fifth were
political prisoner
A political prisoner is someone imprisoned for their political activity. The political offense is not always the official reason for the prisoner's detention.
There is no internationally recognized legal definition of the concept, although ...
s from various countries in Europe.
In 1945, thousands of prisoners were taken out of HASAG factories in a
death march
A death march is a forced march of prisoners of war, other captives, or deportees in which individuals are left to die along the way. It is distinct from simple prisoner transport via foot march. Article 19 of the Geneva Convention requires tha ...
. In April 1945, with the
Allies
An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not an explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are calle ...
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 28 December 1944. His group was brought in to build an arms factory in the forest. They had to clear the woods and lay railway tracks.
[Charles Kotkowsky]
"Flossberg"
Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies
The Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies (MIGS) was a research institute based at Concordia University (Quebec), Concordia University in Montreal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It was founded in 1986 and promotes human rights aware ...
. ''Remnants: Memoirs of A Survivor''. Concordia University
Concordia University () is a Public university, public English-language research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1974 following the merger of Loyola College (Montreal), Loyola College and Sir George Williams Universit ...
Chair in Canadian Jewish Studies (2000). Retrieved March 28, 2011 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
[History of Flößberg concentration camp](_blank)
Initiative Flößberg gedenkt. Retrieved March 28, 2011 and it rained often, making the camp very muddy. Many inmates used their morning
ersatz
An ersatz good () is a substitute good, especially one that is considered inferior to the good it replaces. It has particular connotations of wartime usage.
Etymology
''Ersatz'' is a German word meaning ''substitute'' or ''replacement''. Altho ...
coffee to wash themselves; since it tasted so bad, it was not worth drinking.
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
kapo 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.
[Stephen P. Casey]
"My Story, 1944–45: Hungary to Buchenwald, Mauthausen and Back"
Holocaust Survivors and Remembrance Project (March 2005). Retrieved March 2011 Another survivor, Stephen Casey (born István Katona), said there were bodies lying in the mud everywhere around the camp, sometimes for days where they fell.

Conditions were so bad at Flößberg, that the
commandant
Commandant ( or ; ) is a title often given to the officer in charge of a military (or other uniformed service) training establishment or academy. This usage is common in English-speaking nations. In some countries it may be a military or police ...
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
From 1933 to 1945, Nazi Germany operated more than a thousand concentration camps (), including subcamp (SS), subcamps on its own territory and in parts of German-occupied Europe.
The first camps were established in March 1933 immediately af ...
or as a result of Nazi ideology.
[Thomas Lang]
"Jüdische Gemeinden gegen Umbettung von Toten des KZ-Außenlagers Flößberg"
''Leipziger Volkszeitung'' online. (July 19, 2010). Retrieved March 29, 2011
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 ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...
to
Mauthausen concentration camp
Mauthausen was a German Nazi concentration camp on a hill above the market town of Mauthausen, Upper Austria, Mauthausen (roughly east of Linz), Upper Austria. It was the main camp of a group with List of subcamps of Mauthausen, nearly 100 f ...
, 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.
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 force as
war reparation
War reparations are compensation payments made after a war by one side to the other. They are intended to cover damage or injury inflicted during a war. War reparations can take the form of hard currency, precious metals, natural resources, in ...
s. Most of the buildings were demolished.
After 1949, HASAG's civilian patents were used by
Volkseigener Betrieb
The Publicly Owned Enterprise (; abbreviated VEB) was the main legal form of industrial enterprise in East Germany. These state-owned enterprise were all publicly owned and were formed after mass nationalisation between 1945 and the early 1960s, ...
en, the publicly owned industrial enterprises in the former
German Democratic Republic
East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from Foundation of East Germany, its formation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on ...
(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
A trademark (also written trade mark or trade-mark) is a form of intellectual property that consists of a word, phrase, symbol, design, or a combination that identifies a Good (economics and accounting), product or Service (economics), service f ...
ed name "HASAG", and extended it in 1963. The
brand
A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's goods or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create and ...
was discontinued in 1974.
Legacy
The former HASAG Werk Schlieben, also called
Schlieben-Berga concentration camp
A concentration camp is a prison or other facility used for the internment of political prisoners or politically targeted demographics, such as members of national or ethnic minority groups, on the grounds of national security, or for exploitati ...
, 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
The history of the Jews in Hungary dates back to at least the Kingdom of Hungary, with some records even predating the Hungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basin in 895 CE by over 600 years. Written sources prove that Jewish communities lived ...
who perished at the HASAG Colditz labor camp was unveiled at the Colditz cemetery on 30 March 2007.
["Gedenkstätte Colditz"](_blank)
Club Courage, e.V., republished from ''Leipziger Volkszeitung - Muldentaler Kreiszeitung'' (March 31, 2007). Retrieved March 28, 2011 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
A prisoner of war (POW) is a person held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610.
Belligerents hold prisoners of war for a ...
, 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 is "the quality or state of being extreme" or "the advocacy of extreme measures or views". The term is primarily used in a political or religious sense to refer to an ideology that is considered (by the speaker or by some implied sha ...
, 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, officially the Free State of Saxony, is a landlocked state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia, and Bavaria, as well as the countries of Poland and the Czech Republic. Its capital is Dresden, and ...
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.
Goods produced
* Lighting and heating equipment, camping stoves
* Electrical, home and cooking appliances
* Insulated (
thermal
A thermal column (or thermal) is a rising mass of buoyant air, a convective current in the atmosphere, that transfers heat energy vertically. Thermals are created by the uneven heating of Earth's surface from solar radiation, and are an example ...
) containers
* Enamel and tinned ware
*
Automotive lighting
Automotive lighting is functional exterior lighting in vehicles. A motor vehicle has lighting and signaling devices mounted to or integrated into its front, rear, sides, and, in some cases, top. Various devices have the dual function of illumin ...
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 mantle
A Coleman white gas lantern mantle glowing at full brightness
An 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 in gas li ...
s
* Cast steel, rolled steel and
noble metals
A noble metal is ordinarily regarded as a metallic element that is generally resistant to corrosion and is usually found in nature in its raw form. Gold, platinum, and the other platinum group metals (ruthenium, rhodium, palladium, osmium, i ...
products
Selected weaponry
* Disposable,
recoilless weapon anti-tank
Faustpatrone
The (, or , plural: ) was a development family of single-shot man-portable anti-tank systems developed by Nazi Germany during World War II. The weapons were the first single-use light Anti-tank warfare, anti-tank weapons based on a pre-loade ...
*
Panzerfaust
The (, or , plural: ) was a development family of single-shot man-portable anti-tank systems developed by Nazi Germany during World War II. The weapons were the first single-use light anti-tank weapons based on a pre-loaded disposable laun ...
(
shaped charge
A shaped charge, commonly also hollow charge if shaped with a cavity, is an explosive charge shaped to focus the effect of the explosive's energy. Different types of shaped charges are used for various purposes such as cutting and forming metal, ...
), recoilless gun
*
Fliegerfaust-A,
ground-to-air rocket launcher
A rocket launcher is a weapon that launches an unguided, rocket-propelled projectile.
History
The earliest rocket launchers documented in imperial China consisted of arrows modified by the attachment of a rocket motor to the shaft a few i ...
*
Flare Pistol LP 42
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
*
Taucha (also called Hasag Werk II)
*
Colditz
Colditz () is a small town in the district of Leipzig (district), Leipzig, in Saxony, Germany. It is best known for Colditz Castle, the site of the Oflag IV-C prisoner-of-war camp, POW camp for officers in World War II.
Geography
Colditz is situa ...
satellite
labor camp
A labor camp (or labour camp, see British and American spelling differences, spelling differences) or work camp is a detention facility where inmates are unfree labour, forced to engage in penal labor as a form of punishment. Labor camps have ...
(1944 – mid-April 1945). 718 known prisoners slave laborers, primarily Hungarian and Polish Jews
* Delitzsch (1944)
* Flößberg labor camp, subcamp of
Buchenwald concentration camp
Buchenwald (; 'beech forest') was a German Nazi concentration camp established on Ettersberg hill near Weimar, Nazi Germany, Germany, in July 1937. It was one of the first and the largest of the concentration camps within the Altreich (pre-1938 ...
(30 November 1944 – 13 April 1945). 1,902 (primarily Jewish) slave laborers, 235 known deaths, of which, 195 are known by name
* Grimma (in 1944)
* Borsdorf (in 1944)
*
Altenburg
Altenburg () is a city in Thuringia, Germany, located south of Leipzig, west of Dresden and east of Erfurt. It is the capital of the Altenburger Land district and part of a polycentric old-industrial textile and metal production region betw ...
*
Meuselwitz
Meuselwitz () 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
During World War II, a subcamp of the Buchenwald concentration camp operated ...
*
Langewiesen, later
Dermbach
Dermbach is a municipality in the Wartburgkreis district of Thuringia, Germany
Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps ...
*
Oberweißbach/
Eisenach
Eisenach () is a Town#Germany, town in Thuringia, Germany with 42,000 inhabitants, west of Erfurt, southeast of Kassel and northeast of Frankfurt. It is the main urban centre of western Thuringia, and bordering northeastern Hesse, Hessian re ...
*
Berlin-Köpenick
*
Schlieben
Schlieben (, ) is a town in the Elbe-Elster district, in southwestern Brandenburg, Germany. It is situated north of Bad Liebenwerda. Schlieben was the site of a Berga concentration camp, concentration camp during The Holocaust.
History
From 1815 ...
/Berga, Schlieben concentration camp, third largest of the 136 Buchenwald labor subcamps
with between 2,000 and 5,000 female prisoners from
Ravensbrück, and Buchenwald
[Walter Strand, ''Das KZ-Aussenlager Schlieben''. Verlag Bücherkammer (2005)]
* German factories in
Skarżysko-Kamienna
Skarżysko-Kamienna () is a city in northern Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship in south-central Poland by Kamienna (river), Kamienna river, to the north of Świętokrzyskie Mountains; one of the voivodship's major cities. Prior to 1928, it bore the name ...
with 35,000 dead,
Kielce
Kielce (; ) is a city in south-central Poland and the capital of the Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship. In 2021, it had 192,468 inhabitants. The city is in the middle of the Świętokrzyskie Mountains (Holy Cross Mountains), on the banks of the Silnic ...
and
Częstochowa
Częstochowa ( , ) is a city in southern Poland on the Warta with 214,342 inhabitants, making it the thirteenth-largest city in Poland. It is situated in the Silesian Voivodeship. However, Częstochowa is historically part of Lesser Poland, not Si ...
(1942/1943 to January 1945) using up to 41,800 Jewish forced laborers.
* Partner/co-operative production in
Milan
Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...
and
Rome
Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...
Prominent prisoners
*
Louise Aslanian, French-Armenian writer, poet, French Resistance fighter
*
Alena Hájková, Czech Communist resistance fighter and historian
See also
*
Industrial plans for Germany
Footnotes
References
External links
State archive Bundesland of Saxony
Leipzig Memorial of Forced Labourofficial website. (Note: most of the site is not yet translated into English.)
*
ttps://www.hasag.pl/ Częstochowa - former textile factory Pelzery, important HASAG production facilities
HASAG-Außenlager des KZ Buchenwald in Colditz und Flößberg
Geschichte und Erinnerung an den HASAG-Standort FlößbergFlößberg concentration camp memorial website
HASAG Werk Schlieben Schlieben-Berga concentration camp memorial website
Vergessener Rüstungsgigant – Die Leipziger HASAG , MDR DOK Documentary about memorial aspects of the HASAG industrial estate, forced labor, and Helmut Kohl's wife
*
HASAG ammunition production listThe list of WW2 German Waffenamt codes, numbers and manufacturers
Further reading
* ''Leipzig Permoserstraße zur Geschichte eines Industrie- und Wissenschaftsstandorts'', UFZ-Umweltforschungszentrum Leipzig-Halle GmbH, 2001
* 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
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hasag
Nazi forced labour
Companies of Nazi Germany
Nazi concentration camps in Germany
Defunct companies of Germany
Defunct manufacturing companies of Germany
Firearm manufacturers of Germany
Manufacturing companies based in Leipzig
Companies involved in the Holocaust
1863 establishments in the German Confederation
German companies established in 1863