Berliner Maschinenbau-Actien-Gesellschaft Vormals L. Schwartzkopff, Berlin

Place: Berlin

Born: 1851

Death: 1945

Biography:

Berliner Maschinenbau L. Schwartzkopf was a German manufacturer of locomotives and machinery. The company was founded by Louis Victor Robert Schwartzkopff on October 3, 1852, as Eisengießerei und Maschinen-Fabrik von L. Schwartzkopff in Berlin. After a fire in 1860 and the expansion of the factory, they started to manufacture turntables, water systems, and turnouts for several railway companies. The first locomotive built by the firm was delivered on February 1, 1867, to the Lower Silesian-Mark Railway (Niederschlesisch-Märkische Eisenbahn or NME). On July 1, 1870, the firm was turned into a share company and renamed the Berliner Maschinenbau-Actien-Gesellschaft vormals L. Schwartzkopff, Berlin. In 1897, a second factory was opened in Wildau. From 1899, the company also manufactured Linotype machines for the Mergenthaler factory in Berlin. On July 4, 1907, they started a joint venture with the Munich firm of Maffei. For that purpose, the Maffei-Schwartzkopff-Werke GmbH was opened next to the existing factory in Wildau. It was here that the construction of electric locomotives and their equipment began in 1910. In 1924, diesel locomotives followed. In 1932, the Maffei-Schwartzkopff-Werke went bankrupt. In 1945, following the destruction of the factory halls during the Second World War and the dismantling.