Sächsische Maschinenfabrik

Poster for the engineering works (1861)

View of the production hall (1868)

In 1837 August Götze and Richard Hartmann founded the firm of Götze & Hartmann, that produced a very wide range of machines. Hartmann, who had acquired experience in numerous businesses, very quickly grasped the significance of many technical innovations. As early as 1839 the business developed the technical concept of a carded yarn speed frame that was developed into a marketable product and sold successfully. But the most important business was for some time the repair and design of individual technical solutions (equivalent to the present-day concept of special purpose machines). In 1842 about 200 employees were engaged in the business. In the years to 1845 the company underwent numerous expansions and relocations within the Chemnitz area.

From 1848 steam locomotives were built by the firm now dominated by Hartmann, but this branch of the business did not take off until a decade later. To begin with their major customer, the Royal Saxon State Railways, had to be convinced of the quality of their products through the delivery of very small batches of engines.

From 1855 the Sächsische Maschinenfabrik also produced turbines and mill equipment, so that by 1857 the work force had grown to about 1,500 employees. In the mid-1860s, steam locomotive production reached a very high level; to wit in 1868 a new production hall was built in which up to 36 locomotives could be simultaneously mounted.

Transportation of a new locomotive to Chemnitz Central Station

In 1870 the business became the Sächsische Maschinenfabrik AG. Richard Hartmann took over the chairmanship of the governing board, a post he held until his death in 1878. The sons of Richard Hartmann were given important roles within the business.

In 1878 the 1000th locomotive left the production line of the Sächsischen Maschinenfabrik, numerous business expansions followed during this period, in order to meet the steadily growing demand from around the world. IN 1896 the construction of a new headquarters in Chemnitz was begun, in the same year a subsidiary was founded in Luhansk (also known as Lugansk) by one of Richard Hartmann's sons, Gustav Hartmann, that exists today as the Lokomotivfabrik Luhansk.

In 1898, in the course of restructuring, the business was renamed to the Sächsische Maschinenfabrik vormals Richard Hartmann Aktiengesellschaft.

At the beginning of the 20th century the business had also built up a strong armaments branch and produced, amongst other things, guns, artillery equipment and munitions. At that time various other companies were integrated into the business.

In the 1920s the business continued to acquire numerous companies, including the 'King Friedrich-August Steelworks' in Freital-Potschappel, formerly an important supplier for the business, and finally the textile machine firm of Walter Löbel AG in Dresden. But the effects of the changing economic situation left the business increasingly in difficulties during the 1920s. Even the founding of the Deutsche Reichsbahn in 1920 and the wide distribution of locomotive construction quotas to different manufacturers led to a big reduction in the purchase of locomotives. Between 1920 and 1924 only 64 locomotives were built for the DRG, abroad the political aftermath of the First World War was also clearly taking effect.

In 1926 the machine tool business was wound up and several smaller firms took over the parts of the production. In 1928/29 the last major order was carried out for the DRG. But only 13 engines of the newly developed DRG Class 99.73-76 standard locomotives were delivered for the Saxon narrow gauge railways. The remaining portion of the planned order of 32 machines was picked up by the Berliner Maschinenbau (BMAG, formerly Schwartzkopff). After these 750 mm (2 ft 5 ¹⁄₂ in) gauge engines, only six more locomotives were produced in the locomotive works at Chemnitz. After that the firm, which was already in economic difficulties, became a victim of the worldwide economic crisis.

Share of the Sächsiche Maschinenfabrik vorm. Rich. Hartmann AG, issued 1. March 1929

In 1928 the 'King Friedrich-August Works' in Potschappel was sold off again; the very disparate textile machinery division was restructured, and steam roller and locomotive construction ceased in 1929. The 'Sächsische Maschinenfabrik, vorm. Richard Hartmann AG' was liquidated in 1930, and the remaining economical core of the textile machinery division was incorporated into the newly formed Sächsische Textilmaschinenfabrik vorm. Richard Hartmann AG. As in the early days of the Hartmann enterprise, this company concentrated exclusively on spinning machines and weaver's looms. In 1933 it was amalgamated with several other companies into the Textil-Maschinen-Compagnie Chemnitz. The remaining area of business of the former Hartmann company was now purely spinning machines.

In the Second World War the bulk of the factory buildings, sites and equipment was destroyed and, after most of the remaining sites had been given to the Soviet Union as war reparations, there was only about a tenth of the facility left for starting it up again as the VEB Spinnereimaschinenbau in 1946. Until the reunification of Germany the firm was the leading manufacturer of textile machines for the production of spun cotton in the Eastern Bloc. In 1990 this firm became a Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung (the German form of a limited liability company), the Chemnitzer Spinnereimaschinenbau GmbH, and was taken over by the trustee company. At the end of 1994 it was sold to the holding company, Neue Länder. Its main market in Eastern Europe was breaking up and overwhelming competition led to its amalgamation with two other Saxon textile machinery companies to form the CSM-Sächsische Spinnereimaschinen GmbH Chemnitz, but despite producing technically, high-quality products the firm ceased production in 1998 and subsequent folded, whereupon the last manufacturing elements of the firm's long tradition finally disappeared.

• Textile machinery
• Machine tools