Waggonfabrik Fuchs ('Fuchs Coach Factory') was a German coach and wagon builders based in

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: ''Heidlberg'') is a city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914 ...

in the state of

Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg (; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million inhabitants across a ...

in southwestern

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. They built

railway wagons A railroad car, railcar ( American and Canadian English), railway wagon, railway carriage, railway truck, railwagon, railcarriage or railtruck (British English and UIC), also called a train car, train wagon, train carriage or train truck, is ...

and tramways from 1862 to 1957.

History

The firm was founded in 1844 by Johann Schäfer in Heidelberg and was sold after his death in 1861 to Heinrich Fuchs, who formed the Waggonfabrik Heinrich Fuchs in 1862. Fuchs moved the factory from the district of Weststadt in Heidelberg to the neighbouring district of

Rohrbach Rohrbach or Röhrbach may refer to: Places Municipalities in Switzerland *Rohrbach, Switzerland, in the canton of Bern Municipalities in Germany *Rohrbach, Bavaria, in the district of Pfaffenhofen, Bavaria *Rohrbach, Birkenfeld, in the district o ...

(completed in 1902). In addition to railway wagons, in its early days the firm also built bridges and other facilities for the railways. Major customers for its wagons and coaches in the early years were the Baden State Railways. From about 1901 the production of tramways began. Customers included the ''Elektrische Straßenbahn Heidelberg–Wiesloch'', ''Heidelberger Straßen- und Bergbahn AG'' (''HSB''), ''Oberrheinische Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft'' (''OEG''), ''Rhein-Haardtbahn'' (''RHB''). Even U-Bahn trains were supplied for the

Berlin U-Bahn The Berlin U-Bahn (; short for , "underground railway") is a rapid transit system in Berlin, the capital and largest city of Germany, and a major part of the city's public transport system. Together with the S-Bahn, a network of suburban train li ...

and the glass train (''Gläserne Zug''). Fuchs survived the two world, but only with heavy losses. Production had to be stopped or almost all its employees had to be made redundant on several occasions. Attempts were made to diversify to other products such as tractors or diggers, but with little success. The company was taken over in 1930 by the ''Vereinigung Westdeutscher Waggonfabriken'' (''Westwaggon'') and the majority of shares sold in 1940 to the ''

Dillinger Hütte Dillinger Hütte is a steel producer in Dillingen, in the German Federal State of Saarland, and has a history stretching back more than three hundred years. The plant was founded in 1685, and was Germany's first Aktiengesellschaft, or joint ...

'' that, due to its location in the

Saargebiet The Territory of the Saar Basin (german: Saarbeckengebiet, ; french: Territoire du bassin de la Sarre) was a region of Germany occupied and governed by the United Kingdom and France from 1920 to 1935 under a League of Nations mandate. It had its ...

, sold its share of Fuchs in 1957 to the

International Harvester Company The International Harvester Company (often abbreviated by IHC, IH, or simply International ( colloq.)) was an American manufacturer of agricultural and construction equipment, automobiles, commercial trucks, lawn and garden products, household e ...

, who switched its production to

combine harvesters The modern combine harvester, or simply combine, is a versatile machine designed to efficiently harvest a variety of grain crops. The name derives from its combining four separate harvesting operations—Reaper, reaping, threshing, gathering, an ...

Today

In memory of Heinrich Fuchs, a street in the Heidelberg district of Rohrbach is named Heinrich-Fuchs-Straße. Today the site of the former Waggonfabrik Fuchs factory is a modern housing estate ''Quartier am Turm'' ('tower district') and one of the largest property developments in the city. The architecture of the new district preserved the historical identity of the coach and wagon factory by making use of the existing characteristic structures.

References

Sources

*Bernhard König: ''Schienenfahrzeugbau in Heidelberg'', auf der Website der Eisenbahnfreunde Heidelberg e.V.. http://www.ef-heidelberg.de *Bernhard König: ''Die Waggonfabrik Heinrich Fuchs in Heidelberg'', in: BDEF-Jahrbuch 1990, Lübbecke 1990 *Lessing: ''Triebwagen-Design aus Heidelberg – Die H. Fuchs Waggonfabrik AG'', in: Blum (Hrsg.): 'Pioniere aus Technik und Wirtschaft in Heidelberg', Aachen 2000. *Bauträger E&K Immobilien: ''Von der Waggonfabrik zu neuem Lebensraum'', auf der Website des Bauträgers zum neuen Quartier am Turm. http://www.ek-immobilien.de

External links

* {{PM20, FID=co/042846, TEXT=Documents and clippings about, NAME= Rolling stock manufacturers of Germany Transport in Baden-Württemberg Manufacturing companies established in 1844 German companies established in 1844