by Horst Zoeller, 1996 - 2020, 67th Edition, 22 Nov 2020

Junkers Zweigwerk Magdeburg

 

Already in 1913 Hugo Junkers founded the Junkers Motorenbau GmbH in Magdeburg. This company was intended for the production of static diesel engines. In 1914 the production started with an oil engine for Russia, but with the breakout of WWI the production was ceased again and in 1915 the company was dissolved.

In 1923 Junkers' interest in aircraft engine developements resulted in the foundation of a new Junkers Motorenbau GmbH at Dessau, which developed and produced the famous Junkers L-Series engines. In 1935 it became obvious, that the Dessau facilities were too small for the large scale production of
Jumo 210 engines. Therefore a new facility was established at Magdeburg Neue Neustadt, Mittagstrasse and Rothenseer Strasse in May 1935. It was the previous facility of Magdeburger Werkzeug Maschinen-Fabrik MWF. This facility was responsible for the serial production of Jumo 210 and later Jumo 211, Jumo 213 and the Jumo 004 production. The Jumo 222 was prepared, but did not went into production due to technical delays. Also workshops for valve productions, air blades and mechanical shops were established at Magdeburg. Large parts of the Magdeburg facility were initialized during 1935. Even developement teams were transfered from Dessau to Magdeburg in 1936, when the Magdeburg Jet Engine was designed and tested. But in 1939 these developement teams left Junkers and the complete jet engine developement was transfered from Magdeburg to Dessau. Since then the Magdeburg facility was a sole serial production facility.

Already between 1933 and 1935 a complete city part of Magdeburg was erected for the Junkers employees. This socalled "Junkerssiedlung" was located near the Junkers Motorenwerke in the Northwest of Magdeburg.

Later during WWII parts of the Magdeburg production were transfered to Lengenfeld (3120 employees in Oct. 1944), Ebersbach (2060 employees in Oct. 1944), Wernigerode (2070 employees in Oct. 1944) Tangermuende (854 employees in Oct. 1944), Krohnstein, Ellefeld and Bergen.

On 16th January 1945 one of the heaviest bomber attacks were flown on Magdeburg. At highnoon the USAF appeared over the Northwest side of Magdeburg and dropped it bombs on to the Junkerswerke, which were heavily damaged. During the night the RAF returned for a massive bombing of the city of Magdeburg.

 

Literature:

introduced Jan 2004, transfered Dec 2017
http://hugojunkers.bplaced.net/
contents last updated 1 Feb 2004