From state-owned enterprise to sucessful medium-sized company

Abstract

The origins of Bad Düben Profilwalzmaschinen GmbH in Bad Düben (Saxony) go back to the invention of the thread rolling technology in 1937. In that same year, the two inventors Wemhöner and Plagemann founded Apparatebau Plagemann KG with headquarters in Berlin. The thread rolling technology represented a considerable technological progress for the production of all types of screw threads. Traditionally, threads had been manufactured by cutting. The new technology developed by Plagemann and Wemhöner, in contrast, produced screw threads by turning – with the help of rollers. This procedure reduced the amount of waste material, and thus increased productivity significantly. These advantages enabled Apparatebau Plagemann KG to market its first thread rolling machines quite successfully. In 1943, the company relocated its production sites to the Saxon town of Bad Düben where – different from Berlin – the manufacturing could continue rather undisturbed by the effects of World War II. The end of the war, however, meant an insection in the development of the company. As Apparatebau Plagemann KG had supplied machines to the aircraft manufacturer Junckers in Dessau during World War II, Plagemann was accused of having supported German warfare and therefore expropriated in 1949.2 In 1953, the company was renamed VEB Werkzeugmaschinenfabrik Bad Düben and later integrated into the collective combine Kombinat Umformtechnik Herbert Warnke, Erfurt.