LEW Hennigsdorf
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Hennigsdorf Hennigsdorf () is a town in the district of Oberhavel, in Brandenburg, Germany. It is situated north-west of Berlin, just across the city border, which is formed mainly by the Havel river. History The municipality shared its borders with the form ...
, Germany, was founded in 1910 by
AEG Allgemeine Elektricitäts-Gesellschaft AG (AEG; ) was a German producer of electrical equipment founded in Berlin as the ''Deutsche Edison-Gesellschaft für angewandte Elektricität'' in 1883 by Emil Rathenau. During the Second World War, AEG ...
. Locomotive production began in 1913, and in the 1930s absorbed the work of the August Borsig locomotive factory, being renamed the Borsig Lokomotiv Werke GmbH until 1944. After the Second World War the factory was nationalised in the
German Democratic Republic German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...
and produced electric locomotives for home use and for export, mainly to
Communist Bloc The Eastern Bloc, also known as the Communist Bloc and the Soviet Bloc, was the group of socialist states of Central and Eastern Europe, East Asia, Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin America under the influence of the Soviet Union that existed du ...
countries under the name Lokomotivbau-Elektrotechnische Werke (LEW). After
German reunification German reunification (german: link=no, Deutsche Wiedervereinigung) was the process of re-establishing Germany as a united and fully sovereign state, which took place between 2 May 1989 and 15 March 1991. The day of 3 October 1990 when the Ge ...
in 1990, the plant returned to AEG ownership, becoming AEG Schienenfahrzeuge GmbH, and then passed through mergers of its parent companies to Adtranz (1996),
Bombardier Transportation Bombardier Transportation was a Canadian-German rolling stock and rail transport manufacturer, headquartered in Berlin, Germany. It was one of the world's largest companies in the rail vehicle and equipment manufacturing and servicing industry ...
(2001) and then
Alstom Alstom SA is a French multinational rolling stock manufacturer operating worldwide in rail transport markets, active in the fields of passenger transportation, signalling, and locomotives, with products including the AGV, TGV, Eurostar, Avelia ...
(2021). Under Adtranz's ownership production of locomotives ended, and the site now manufactures
diesel Diesel may refer to: * Diesel engine, an internal combustion engine where ignition is caused by compression * Diesel fuel, a liquid fuel used in diesel engines * Diesel locomotive, a railway locomotive in which the prime mover is a diesel engin ...
and
electric multiple unit An electric multiple unit or EMU is a multiple-unit train consisting of self-propelled carriages using electricity as the motive power. An EMU requires no separate locomotive, as electric traction motors are incorporated within one or a numbe ...
s.


History

In 1910 the AEG company acquired a of land in Hennigsdorf near
Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
for the creation of a ceramics factory which began production in 1911. In 1913 AEG's locomotive works was relocated from Brunnenstrasse in Berlin to Hennigsdorf and began manufacturing electric vehicles. Between 1914 and 1918 the plant underwent a considerable change in production - being converted to the production of
steam locomotive A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, oil or, rarely, wood) to heat water in the locomot ...
s. In 1920/1 a joint venture ''Rosenthal-Isolatoren GmbH'' (Rosenthal Insulators) with Rosenthal & Co. AG as well as a steel plant were founded in Hennigsdorf. In 1921 the manufacturer of steam power plants for industry began, and in 1927 the first operational steam engine powered by powdered coal was built. In 1931 AEG merged with
Borsig AG Borsig is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * (1867–1897), German entrepreneur * August Borsig (1804–1854), German businessman * Conrad von Borsig (1873–1945), German mechanical engineer * Ernst Borsig Ernst August Pa ...
which had been bankrupted by the effects of the
Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
. The locomotive company's production was moved from Borsig's factory in
Tegel Tegel () is a locality (''Ortsteil'') in the Berlin borough of Reinickendorf on the shore of Lake Tegel. The Tegel locality, the second largest in area (after Köpenick) of the 96 Berlin districts, also includes the neighbourhood of ''Saatwinkel'' ...
to the Hennigsdorf plant, in 1935 AEG acquired all of Borsig's shares and became sole owner. Production of locomotives as Hennigsdorf continue under the name ''Borsig Lokomotiv Werke GmbH'' as a subsidiary of the AEG group up till 1944. After then end of the
Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
80% of the factory had been destroyed, and came under the control of the
USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...
being in the eastern part of Germany. In 1947 the factory was nationalised, becoming the "''VEM Vereinigung Volkseigener Betriebe des Elektro-Maschinenbaus-Lokomotivbau Elektrotechnische Werke Hennigsdorf (Osthavelland)''", and in 1948 production of electric locomotives began. In 1951 the plant was renamed ''VEB Lokomotivbau-Elektrotechnische Werke "Hans Beimler"''Named after Hans Beimler, German anti-nazi, and member of the ReichstagVEB ''
Volkseigener Betrieb The Publicly Owned Enterprise (german: Volkseigener Betrieb; abbreviated VEB) was the main legal form of industrial enterprise in East Germany. They were all publicly owned and were formed after Nationalisation#Germany, mass nationalisation between ...
'' (people-owned enterprise)
shortened to LEW. In 1955 production of a wide range of rail vehicles including trams, diesel locomotives, underground and rack locomotives, and mineral wagons was underway, with 60% of the production for export. In 1960 the factory began to undertake the production of ultra-pure metals by
electron beam furnace An electron-beam furnace (EB furnace) is a type of vacuum furnace employing high-energy electron beam in vacuum as the means for delivery of heat to the material being melted. It is one of the electron-beam technologies. Electron-beam furnaces a ...
. In the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s the factory produced new classes of electric locomotive for the
Deutsche Reichsbahn The ''Deutsche Reichsbahn'', also known as the German National Railway, the German State Railway, German Reich Railway, and the German Imperial Railway, was the German national railway system created after the end of World War I from the regiona ...
including the
DR Class 250 The Deutsche Reichsbahn (East Germany) Class 250 (known since 1992 as Deutsche Bahn AG Class 155) is a German electric locomotive used on freight trains. It is nicknamed the "Electric Container" or "Powercontainer" due to its distinctive carbody ...
(1974), the
DR Class 243 The DR Class 243 is a universal electric locomotive of the Deutsche Reichsbahn which is used for general rail service. Deutsche Bahn lists the locomotive as Class 143. The locomotives of class 143/243 still belong to the most successful class o ...
(1982). From the mid-1980s, LEW began to cooperate with AEG, in which
Daimler-Benz The Mercedes-Benz Group Aktiengesellschaft, AG (previously named Daimler-Benz, DaimlerChrysler and Daimler) is a German Multinational corporation, multinational automotive corporation headquartered in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It ...
took majority control around the same time, in exports to third countries, peaking in the 601 Series (today Class 520) intercity
diesel multiple unit A diesel multiple unit or DMU is a multiple-unit train powered by on-board diesel engines. A DMU requires no separate locomotive, as the engines are incorporated into one or more of the carriages. Diesel-powered single-unit railcars are also ...
s for Greece's OSE in 1989. In 1989 the two companies signed a memorandum of cooperation. In 1990, at the time of the
German reunification German reunification (german: link=no, Deutsche Wiedervereinigung) was the process of re-establishing Germany as a united and fully sovereign state, which took place between 2 May 1989 and 15 March 1991. The day of 3 October 1990 when the Ge ...
, LEW was transformed from a combine into a non-public company as LEW Hennigsdorf GmbH, and talks about a takeover by AEG started the same year. In November 1991, AEG agreed with the
Treuhand The ("Trust agency"), colloquially referred to as , was an agency established by the government of the German Democratic Republic to reprivatise/privatise East German enterprises, Volkseigene Betriebe (VEBs), prior to German reunification. Cre ...
to purchase the rail core business parts of LEW and invest in the Hennigsdorf production facilities for altogether 600 million DM. From 1 January 1992, the works became a separate subsidiary under the ''AEG Bahnsysteme'' (AEG Rail Systems) business area of AEG Daimler Benz under the name ''AEG Schienenfahrzeuge GmbH''. In 1992, ''AEG Bahnsysteme'' was reorganised into four business sub-areas, one for North America and the ''Fernverkehr'' (Long-Distance Traffic), ''Nahverkehr'' (Local Traffic) and ''Bahngesamtsysteme'' (Complete Rail Systems) areas for Europe, and concentrated and headquartered the Long-Distance Traffic business area at Hennigsdorf. In January 1996, ''AEG Schienenfahrzeuge GmbH'' was integrated into the newly formed ABB Daimler Benz Transportation ( Adtranz), a joint venture of
ABB ABB Ltd. is a Swedish- Swiss multinational corporation headquartered in Zürich, Switzerland. The company was formed in 1988 when Sweden's Allmänna Svenska Elektriska Aktiebolaget (ASEA) and Switzerland's Brown, Boveri & Cie merged to crea ...
and Daimler-Benz formed by merging ''AEG Bahnsysteme'' and its subsidiaries with ABB Transportation. As Adtranz reorganised production among its factories, locomotive production ended at Hennigsdorf and was transferred to the former
ABB Henschel Henschel & Son (german: Henschel und Sohn) was a German company, located in Kassel, best known during the 20th century as a maker of transportation equipment, including locomotives, trucks, buses and trolleybuses, and armoured fighting vehicle ...
works in
Kassel Kassel (; in Germany, spelled Cassel until 1926) is a city on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Kassel and the district of the same name and had 201,048 inhabitants in December 2020 ...
in 1998. With the acquisition of Adtranz by Bombardier Inc. in May 2001, the Hennigsdorf works became part of
Bombardier Transportation Bombardier Transportation was a Canadian-German rolling stock and rail transport manufacturer, headquartered in Berlin, Germany. It was one of the world's largest companies in the rail vehicle and equipment manufacturing and servicing industry ...
. As part of Bombardier Transportation (and continuing with Alstom since 2021), the plant manufactures passenger rail vehicles including the RegioSwinger and Itino DMUs, the DBAG Class 422,
DBAG Class 424 The Class 424 is a class of electric multiple units in use on the Hanover S-Bahn network. Description They are similar to Deutsche Bahn's Class 425 and Class 423 trainsets, but feature a comparatively low floor height of to allow step-fre ...
and
NS Sprinter Lighttrain The Sprinter Lighttrain or SLT is an Electric Multiple Unit (EMU) train type operated by the Nederlandse Spoorwegen in the Netherlands. They were built from 2007 to 2012 by Bombardier (2400) and Siemens (2600). It is the successor of the Spri ...
EMUs and the
Bombardier Talent The Talent is a multiple unit railcar manufactured by Bombardier that was developed by Waggonfabrik Talbot in Aachen shortly before the company was acquired by Bombardier in 1995. The name ''Talent'' is an acronym in German for ''TALbot LEicht ...
,
ICE 3 ICE 3, or Intercity-Express 3, is a family of high-speed electric multiple unit trains operated by Deutsche Bahn. It includes classes 403, 406, 407 and 408, which are known as ICE 3, ICE 3M, New ICE 3 and ICE 3neo respectively. Three multisystem ...
and MOVIA trains.


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External links

;Production lists * * * ;other * {{Authority control Bombardier Transportation AEG Vehicle manufacturing companies established in 1910 1910 establishments in Germany Companies of East Germany