LugerForum Discussion Forums - View Single Post - Interesting version of DWM's company history

Vlim · 08-23-2009, 09:57 PM

Hi,

About the involvement of Quandt. In his memoirs, published by his sons in the 1960s, he writes that he somewhat stumbled into the DWM board following a shareholders meeting in 1929. Due to the bad economical conditions, the DWM management proposed to halve the company assets and several large shareholders protested because, even in the bad economical waters, the company was relatively sound.

Around june of 1928 he only had some 50,000 Reichsmarks worth of shares in BKIW (DWM). The company capital amounted to 30 million RM. Quandt agreed to give his shareholder's vote to a small conglomerate of shareholders who wanted to vote against the capital reduction (from 30 million RM to 15 million). During a shareholders meeting on the 14th of june, 1928, the shareholders successfully voted against the plan and the supervisory board of BKIW resigned. A new board was assembled from the shareholders and Quandt was chosen as chairman of the board.

So he succeeded in getting the chairmanship of the supervisory board of a 30 million RM business while only owning 50,000 RM worth of shares initially. His success was largely based on his cooperation with two bankers, Paul Hamel and Paul Rohde who financed many of his deals during the earlier crisis years. Quandt purchased shares while the share values were plummeting and the Reichsmark was devaluing at an alarming rate. He took one hell of a risk but he gambled correctly.

DWM in Posen was basically a heavy machinery plant that was taken over by DWM after Germany invaded Poland (Posen = Poznan). The plant mainly specialized in producing railroad equipment. They gained control over FN in Belgium (again) in a similar manner and it was dubbed DWM Liege.

MfM has been part of the Quandt Group for years. In 1964 it is still being mentioned as a subsidiary of IWK, in 1969 it disappeared from the lists, it was absorbed by IWK in Karlsruhe (later IWKA and nowadays KUKA). In 2008, the packaging branch was sold and transferred to a new structure called IWK Verpackungstechnik GmbH. The core business of MfM and it's offspring has always been the packaging machine business, so if MfM was involved in wartime production, it mainly would have focused on providing machines for packaging ammunition, parts, etc... Specialty of MfM was (and is) tube filling equipment. In fact, the first contacts between DWM and the Dutch government was for the delivery of tube filling equipment in the Dutch East Indies colonies (opium production

).

The core business of DWM / BKIW / IWK / IWKA / KUKA has long been that of producing machinery for the production of others. DWM made and sold pistol and rifle production tooling, ammunition production tooling, packaging tooling, etc... This was initially done by DWM's parent company, Ludwig Loewe & Cie, but later DWM specialized.

The multitude of mergers, takeovers, reorganizations, sales, wars and subsequent measures during a timespan of more than 100 years makes understanding, following and documenting the corporate structure of these companies a challenge indeed.

The last 'stand' in Parabellum production by DWM / IWK was made in the 1970s. They produced most of the post war Mauser Parabellum toggle train in Karlsruhe.

Known WW2 ordnance codes for MfM in Lübeck-Schlutup were 319 and 'aty'.

DWM in Lübeck-Schlutup used 413, edq and tko.
DWM Posen used eeo.
DWM Lüttich (FN) used ch.

08-23-2009, 09:57 PM	#7
Vlim Moderator Lifetime LugerForum Patron Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Europe Posts: 5,053 Thanks: 1,036 Thanked 3,991 Times in 1,205 Posts	Hi, About the involvement of Quandt. In his memoirs, published by his sons in the 1960s, he writes that he somewhat stumbled into the DWM board following a shareholders meeting in 1929. Due to the bad economical conditions, the DWM management proposed to halve the company assets and several large shareholders protested because, even in the bad economical waters, the company was relatively sound. Around june of 1928 he only had some 50,000 Reichsmarks worth of shares in BKIW (DWM). The company capital amounted to 30 million RM. Quandt agreed to give his shareholder's vote to a small conglomerate of shareholders who wanted to vote against the capital reduction (from 30 million RM to 15 million). During a shareholders meeting on the 14th of june, 1928, the shareholders successfully voted against the plan and the supervisory board of BKIW resigned. A new board was assembled from the shareholders and Quandt was chosen as chairman of the board. So he succeeded in getting the chairmanship of the supervisory board of a 30 million RM business while only owning 50,000 RM worth of shares initially. His success was largely based on his cooperation with two bankers, Paul Hamel and Paul Rohde who financed many of his deals during the earlier crisis years. Quandt purchased shares while the share values were plummeting and the Reichsmark was devaluing at an alarming rate. He took one hell of a risk but he gambled correctly. DWM in Posen was basically a heavy machinery plant that was taken over by DWM after Germany invaded Poland (Posen = Poznan). The plant mainly specialized in producing railroad equipment. They gained control over FN in Belgium (again) in a similar manner and it was dubbed DWM Liege. MfM has been part of the Quandt Group for years. In 1964 it is still being mentioned as a subsidiary of IWK, in 1969 it disappeared from the lists, it was absorbed by IWK in Karlsruhe (later IWKA and nowadays KUKA). In 2008, the packaging branch was sold and transferred to a new structure called IWK Verpackungstechnik GmbH. The core business of MfM and it's offspring has always been the packaging machine business, so if MfM was involved in wartime production, it mainly would have focused on providing machines for packaging ammunition, parts, etc... Specialty of MfM was (and is) tube filling equipment. In fact, the first contacts between DWM and the Dutch government was for the delivery of tube filling equipment in the Dutch East Indies colonies (opium production ). The core business of DWM / BKIW / IWK / IWKA / KUKA has long been that of producing machinery for the production of others. DWM made and sold pistol and rifle production tooling, ammunition production tooling, packaging tooling, etc... This was initially done by DWM's parent company, Ludwig Loewe & Cie, but later DWM specialized. The multitude of mergers, takeovers, reorganizations, sales, wars and subsequent measures during a timespan of more than 100 years makes understanding, following and documenting the corporate structure of these companies a challenge indeed. The last 'stand' in Parabellum production by DWM / IWK was made in the 1970s. They produced most of the post war Mauser Parabellum toggle train in Karlsruhe. Known WW2 ordnance codes for MfM in Lübeck-Schlutup were 319 and 'aty'. DWM in Lübeck-Schlutup used 413, edq and tko. DWM Posen used eeo. DWM Lüttich (FN) used ch.