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, 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. During the Second World War, Hasag became a Nazi arms-manufacturing conglomerate with dozens of factories across German-occupied Europe 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, 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. As the Nazi Party 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 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 in Europe, with armaments factories in Germany and Poland. Though HASAG was dismantled after the war, the trademark 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 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 Silesian 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 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, 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 stoves 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 flasks 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."HASAG: Hugo Schneider Aktiengesellschaft Metalwarenfabrik" 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 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 autumn 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,"Von der Petroleumlampe zur Panzerfaust – Das vergessene Konzentrationslager Schlieben/Berga" 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.
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 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 Außenkommandos, 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.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 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 gave HASAG special authority under the title "Hochlauf (run-up, production boost) Panzerfaust","KZ-Außenstelle Schlieben Das vergessene Lager" 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 per month were filled with explosives."Führung im ehemaligen Hasag- und KZ-Gelände in Berga" 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" 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, 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 1,902 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 prisoners 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.
Life at a HASAG factory labor camp