Zachem Chemical Plant in Bydgoszcz or Zachem was a firm established in 1948 in Bydgoszcz, Poland, and liquidated in 2014. Zachem was operating in the domain of chemical synthesis. Several of its activities survived in local enterprises in and around Bydgoszcz.
History Prelude The company was located on the premises of the former Bromberg Dynamit Nobel AG Factory (1939–1945), built by the Third Reich, which manufactured explosives and handloading ammunition for the needs of the Wehrmacht. The plant consisted of several hundred buildings, including large blast-proof concrete bunkers.
A specific housing estate had been built in 1940–1944, for the German management staff of the AG Factory, who had to quickly reach the plant in case of breakdown. Located today between Hutnicza and Nowotoruńska streets, it is still called "Osiedle Awaryjne" (Emergency estate). Nearby, 100 brick-and-wooden barracks for forced laborers and POW were built. After WWII, 57 buildings of the ensemble housed some 2,000 people, working at the Zachem plant.
In 1945, following the decisions of the Red Army's "Commission of War Trophies", Soviet troops transported all technical equipment to the Soviet Union: about 1,800 loaded railway wagons were used. The looting left behind only empty buildings, hundreds of kilometers of internal roads and production lines, branch lines, underground and overhead networks. In the summer of 1945, after the withdrawal of the Red Army, units of the Internal Security Corps, subordinated to Moscow, guarded the factory.
In July 1945, the plant moved under the responsibility of the Central Board of the Polish Chemical industry and later was taken over by the Central Board of the Arms industry based in Warsaw. Eugeniusz Smoliński was nominated in April 1945 as "temporary General Director" of the facility.
As a legacy of the DAG Fabrik Bromberg plant, Zachem possessed 475 buildings operating several production lines for nitroglycerin ("NGL-Betrieb"), nitrocellulose ("NC-Betrieb"), gunpowder ("POL-Betrieb"), high explosives ("TRI/DI -B Betrieb"), handloading ammunition ("FÜLSTELLE") and sulfuric acid ("LURGI-Betrieb"). In addition, Zachem inherited, among others, of concrete or granite cobblestone roads, of railway tracks with four reloading stations, three power plants with a total capacity of 50 MW, an industrial water collector from the Vistula River and 25 deep drinking water wells.
Various attempts to convert the German production lines between 1956 and 1980 were performed, with only partial success: the plant producing explosives was reused, but not those manufacturing nitroglycerin or gunpowder. Some of the old buildings were crushed with explosives in the 1970s, to make room for a new department of plastics production: the rubble was moved into the swampy bed of the mouth of the Brda river to the Vistula.
Early years On the eastern part of the premises, the Central Board set up a state-owned powder plant, in today's Łęgnowo district. In 1951, it was renamed Chemical Plant nr.9 (). The western part, initially called Wytwórnia Chemiczna nr.11, did not operate any production; in 1956 it was incorporated into the "Wytwórnia Chemiczna nr. 9". According to the Polish central authorities intents, the factory ensemble was destined to be entirely liquidated.
In mid-1947, this decision was suspended. The 465 employee team started the production of explosives for mining, which was one of the main effort of the national economy. Furthermore, Eugeniusz Smoliński was arrested in August 1947 and accused of sabotage because of a delay in the explosive production. In 1949, he was sentenced to death and executed.
In 1948, the authorities decided to resume the production of explosive, amid the tensions raised from the Cold War. The qualified workers were to be found among employees of a pre-war gunpowder factory in Pionki and people working in the former DAG Fabrik Bromberg. On 4 December 1948, the production of TNT for mining and weaponry commenced, emblematically symbolising the birth of the Bydgoszcz chemical plant.
The construction of housing estates for employees of "Zakłady Chemiczne" started in the late 1940s. Hence in December 1948, housing were made available in at Glinki street: these were former barracks for Polish workers of the DAG factory in 1939–1945. In addition, some engineers lived in five renovated villas located at Szpitalna street, which were occupied during the war by German cadres.
As part of the Six-Year Plan (1950–1956), it was decided to build a large housing estate for workers with schools, clinics, a community center and a library, in the Socialist realism style. The scheme included an extension of the housing estate in Łęgnowo, dating back to 1940, as well as the construction of a housing ensemble on Kapuściska district, close to the gate nr.2 of the chemical plant. At the same time, the "Osiedle Awaryjne" was also modernized up to the modern standards (including a library, a nursery, a canteen, a milk bar and an outdoor swimming pool).
The plant used part of the ex-Nazi infrastructure, conducting secret production of TNT and hexogen (from 1950) for the armies of the Warsaw Pact. At the time, 80 tons of explosives were produced daily. In 1951, a second line for the TNT production was launched, followed two years later by the first products exported to socialist countries and China. These exportations, in time, accounted for a quarter of the sales.
In 1950, a dedicated incineration yard was set up, in the Żółwin area, replacing open-sky burning performed on a square at Dąbrowa Street. The place, a north-sloping dune overgrown with grass, was located in an abandoned village at the intersection with the former road running between Bydgoszcz and Toruń. The incineration site was located several hundred meters east of the edge of the plants and was accessed by a concrete road (preserved to this day) built for the needs of D.A.G. Fabrik Bromberg.
Hasty, experimental and makeshift solutions in the field of production technology led to a number of failures. Hence on 19 November 1952, a powerful explosion occurred on the TNT production line, killing 15 workers, injuring 84 and destroying 132 buildings. It left an diameter crater on the site and the effects of the explosion were felt away. At the time, the accident was identified as sabotage and cadres were sentenced to one to three years of jail. It's only in 1999 that a plaque commemorating the victims of the 1952 tragedy was placed at the plant's gates.
In 1968, another, less dramatic, incident happened.
Peak of activity The détente following Joseph Stalin's death in 1953, challenged the existence of the factory. To maintain its activity, it was decided to expand the production panel with chemical intermediates such as dye and plastics, developed in the departments created in 1956: "Dyes"; "Plastics synthesis"; "Organic intermediates"; "Experimental and special department" (i.e. production of explosives).
Subsequent to these reorganisations, new production lines were launched in Bydgoszcz, manufacturing, among others, aniline, nitrobenzene, toluidine, hydrazine, colorants, polyvinite or phenol. Local brine from mines in Inowrocław was used for production. In 1967, Zachem had been employing more than 5,000 people and its annual output amounted PLN 1.7 billion.
The production capacity of "Zachem" in Bydgoszcz largely exceeded the national needs, hence, in the 1960s, it was only operating at 75% of its power. Abroad, semi-finished products could hardly compete with foreign products due to their low quality.
At the height of its activity, the plant occupied an area of , criss-crossed with of roads, of railway sidings and of high-voltage power grids. In 1976, the site had a workforce of 7278 people and a further 6000 worked in subcontracted companies. The premises also comprised, inter alia, a specific bus transport system, a school, a canteen, a clinic, a community center, a sports club, a stadium, a hall, a cinema, a newspaper, a printing house, workers' hotels, a fire brigade, a pig house and even its own railway station ("Bydgoszcz Żółwin"). Furthermore, factory blocks were added in the neighbouring "Osiedle Awaryjne". The two gates of the plant (at Wojska Polskiego and Hutnicza streets) were connected in 1953 with a tram line. The company's had a dedicated House of Culture, located next to the boat racing track on the Brda River. The facility had a common room, a library and a reading room and was equipped with musical instruments for an entire orchestra. Two fully equipped gymnasiums were built next to the House of Culture.
The firm possessed a vacation center by the Baltic Sea in Sopot and a sanatorium in Ciechocinek. Furthermore, between 1974 and 1984, a stadium and a sports hall were erected in the nearby district of Wyżyny, for the exclusive benefit of the company's sports club, the Chemik Bydgoszcz.
The vast wooded area of the factory was strictly secured with a double barbed wire fence and protected by a 100-people strong unit of the Industrial Guard () equipped with carbines and submachine guns. The "Straż Przemysłowa" controlled the entrances, patrolled the compound and escorted the "S" transports (special materials). Despite security measures and thorough employee scannings, incidents were not rare: in 1969, a personnel tried to steal 1.5 kg of TNT from the plant.
In the early 1970s, pursuant to the purchase by the Polish Communist authorities of a license to manufacture the Polski Fiat 126p, Zachem was given the British technology for the production of polyurethane foams. In the years 1976 to 1981, a synthetic resins production line of ECH was set up, based on a modified foreign license. In the second half of the 1970s, efforts were made to develop an entire domestic production, replacing foreign raw materials with local substitutes. In 1976, the plant was incorporated into the Union of the Organic Industry "Organika", changing its name to Zakłady Chemiczne "Organika-Zachem" ("Chemical Plant Organika-Zachem"). The limited financial resources of the company at the end of the 1970s prevented any investment in the domain of the protection of the environment.
In the 1970s, 90% of Zachem's export was channeled to Western countries (Switzerland, Italy, Great Britain, West Germany, Netherlands, Spain, France, United States, Japan). Sales mainly covered chemical intermediate products such as aniline, ECH, polyvinyl chloride and synthetic dyes. In 1987, the company was ranked second in the Bydgoszcz Voivodeship in terms of export transactions with 28 million Dollars.
In the turn of the 1980s, the installations were largely outdated and worn out, threatening to contaminate the environment. Roads, sewerage, water supply, power and communication networks dating from WWII were still operated without any repairs. Despite this situation, in 1983, the production of rigid polyurethane foam boards was launched, followed a year later by the manufacturing of dyed metal complex plates. The making of polyvinyl chloride was also increased. As for the "Osiedle Awaryjne", some of its public buildings were converted into flats and the swimming pool was closed. In 1976, a valve failure on a chlorine tanker occurred, but the news of it have not been announced to the inhabitants of Bydgoszcz before nine years.
In 1981, the "Solidarność" union supported the erection of a monument on the factory premises, so as to remember the employees who died in connection with accidents at work in Zachem. Despite the harsh resistance of the communist authorities, the cross was finally built close to the gate at Wojska Polskiego street.
The plant became one of the biggest polluters in the Bydgoszcz Voivodeship. Stacks of industrial waste (sludge, tar, combustion dust, gypsum) were stored: 90,000 m3 of sewage was released into the Vistula, subjected to only partial mechanical treatment;