Railway Repair Factory M.
Construction on this abandoned industrial monument began in 1893, and operation started in late 1895. The repair factory was built as a relief for the main repair factory a little further north. At the beginning, about 100 workers were employed. Only four years after opening, the factory was expanded for the first time and the number of workers rose to over 400. In 1910, a workshop for railway switches was added, and the staff grew to over 800 in 1912. Shortly before World War I, the factory had about 1.000 workers that serviced freight cars, cars for special goods and coaches. During World War I, the factory also equiopped cars for military transports.
In the 1920s, the factory changed its organization to mainly conduct repairs of freight cars.
In 1935, the Deutsche Reichsbahn began constructing a central forge and a central turning plant which were finished in 1938. After the beginning of World War II, many forced laborers were used in the factory.
For the operation of the welding shops, a high-pressure acetylene plant was built, ehich produced 40 cubic meters of acetylene every hour. Then gas was distributed via a ring line throughout the factory.
In 1944, the factory operated a track network of 55 tracks with a length of 35 kilometers
Towards the end of World War II, the factory fell victim to massive bombings. More that 80% of the buildings were completely destroyed., but reconstruction began immediately. The American troops occupied the area on April 12, 1945 and allowed the operations to continue on May 10. Over the following years, most parts of the factory were rebuilt, and in 1950, the factory management reported 50.000 serviced freight cars since the end of the war, the number rose to 100.000 in 1954.
After the German reunifaction, the staff was continually reduced from around 1.300 in 1992 to 630 in 1994, and at the end, there were a mere 150 workers employed in the factory.
The railway repair factory was closed in 1998.
