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

Vlim · 08-23-2009, 10:45 PM

Hi,

Thank God I keep my stories straight

I never looked into the Spandau / MG08 affair. The FN story is quite interesting, as FN's rifle production tooling was also removed from the company during WW1 and moved to a Berlin company. Interestingly enough, that Berlin company was not associated with DWM. DWM protested, argueing that they were owners of FN, thus owners of the FN machinery. Out of frustration they finally bought the Berlin company (effectively buying their machines back), only to find that the machines were given to Belgian as payment for war damages.

The Berlin company was the Kornbusch company and DWM acquired it in august 1916. The company was renamed 'Waffenwerke Oberspree Kornbusch & Co'. They also made machineguns there from 1917 onwards. According to DWM's company history (1939), the loss of the FN machinery and shares was not compensated in any way. Furthermore, attempts were made to destroy the DWM company. They had to use all their talents to prevent their own equipment from being scrapped by converting them to produce all sorts of other things like buttons, cutlery, etc... Some machines were even 'parked' at scrap yards where the scrap yard was paid to store them rather than scrap them. Other DWM tooling was shipped to allied countries as war damages compensation and for this DWM got a state compensation.

I have been gathering Quandt, Loewe, DWM, Mauser and FN related material for quite a while, now. The main challenge is to get as far back to the source as possible. So most of the information is actually based on original company reports, documentation, histories, etc.. Luckily for us, the German industry has always been fond of celebrating it's landmarks with company publications. DWM/IWK published at least 2, in 1939 and in 1964. Loewe did one in 1929, Mauser in 1938. FN (following the German style) every 25 years, etc... But it is a challenge to tie all that info together. I still find basic errors in many publications.

If you will do an article on the Spanish Mausers used during the Spanish-American war let me know. I have a few very nice (and extremely rare) original DWM documents dating from 1904 on those.

About FN obtaining the shares, a bit is written by Francotte in the FN company history:

On the eve of armistice, a decree provided for the sequestration of all property abandoned in Belgium by nationals of hostile countries. This measure also pertained to the 5700 FN shares belonging to DWM (in 1896 DWM owned 5850 FN shares so I wonder what happened to 150 of them), and was applied from the 30th of November 1918 when G. Joassart, general secretary of the company, was legally appointed trustee of the shares. Three weeks later, the 3 German managers resigned. On the 12th of March, 1919 DWM officially surrendered it's shares to the Union Financïere et Industrielles Liegoise (UFI), a conglomerate set up specifically to obtain the DWM shares in FN. The UFI was set up by a number of Belgian banks. The UFI kept 3900 shares and sold the rest to people who had assisted in the whole operation.

FN was also awarded a war damages compensation of 59,081,300 frances in 1922, the compensation probably being paid by the German government.

08-23-2009, 10:45 PM	#9
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, Thank God I keep my stories straight I never looked into the Spandau / MG08 affair. The FN story is quite interesting, as FN's rifle production tooling was also removed from the company during WW1 and moved to a Berlin company. Interestingly enough, that Berlin company was not associated with DWM. DWM protested, argueing that they were owners of FN, thus owners of the FN machinery. Out of frustration they finally bought the Berlin company (effectively buying their machines back), only to find that the machines were given to Belgian as payment for war damages. The Berlin company was the Kornbusch company and DWM acquired it in august 1916. The company was renamed 'Waffenwerke Oberspree Kornbusch & Co'. They also made machineguns there from 1917 onwards. According to DWM's company history (1939), the loss of the FN machinery and shares was not compensated in any way. Furthermore, attempts were made to destroy the DWM company. They had to use all their talents to prevent their own equipment from being scrapped by converting them to produce all sorts of other things like buttons, cutlery, etc... Some machines were even 'parked' at scrap yards where the scrap yard was paid to store them rather than scrap them. Other DWM tooling was shipped to allied countries as war damages compensation and for this DWM got a state compensation. I have been gathering Quandt, Loewe, DWM, Mauser and FN related material for quite a while, now. The main challenge is to get as far back to the source as possible. So most of the information is actually based on original company reports, documentation, histories, etc.. Luckily for us, the German industry has always been fond of celebrating it's landmarks with company publications. DWM/IWK published at least 2, in 1939 and in 1964. Loewe did one in 1929, Mauser in 1938. FN (following the German style) every 25 years, etc... But it is a challenge to tie all that info together. I still find basic errors in many publications. If you will do an article on the Spanish Mausers used during the Spanish-American war let me know. I have a few very nice (and extremely rare) original DWM documents dating from 1904 on those. About FN obtaining the shares, a bit is written by Francotte in the FN company history: On the eve of armistice, a decree provided for the sequestration of all property abandoned in Belgium by nationals of hostile countries. This measure also pertained to the 5700 FN shares belonging to DWM (in 1896 DWM owned 5850 FN shares so I wonder what happened to 150 of them), and was applied from the 30th of November 1918 when G. Joassart, general secretary of the company, was legally appointed trustee of the shares. Three weeks later, the 3 German managers resigned. On the 12th of March, 1919 DWM officially surrendered it's shares to the Union Financïere et Industrielles Liegoise (UFI), a conglomerate set up specifically to obtain the DWM shares in FN. The UFI was set up by a number of Belgian banks. The UFI kept 3900 shares and sold the rest to people who had assisted in the whole operation. FN was also awarded a war damages compensation of 59,081,300 frances in 1922, the compensation probably being paid by the German government.