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20/12/2017 19:00:46
Falke factory background - and why it was short-lived (plus pics of the factory)
For this we are indebted to Volker, whose detective work has uncovered the following [in 2012]:
<b>Hi there,
after many months I have managed to get in contact with the son of Albert Föhrenbach.
He is a very friendly man at the age of 62 now. I have talked to him on the phone for almost an hour and will try to post as much information as I could gather. (actually Albert Föhrenbach has had 2 sons but one has died already in 2000 at the age of 69)
But there is one thing I have to point out. Don´t try to find out who or where he is! He does not want to be called or even visited by millions of gun collectors. I think that is understandable for everyone + it took me months to find out how to get in contact. If you have questions, post them here.
Albert Föhrenbach was born in 1907 in the south of Germany in Mahlberg, district "Baden" as one of seven children. Later he worked as a sheet metal worker in the Arado Flugzeugwerke GmbH** in Friedrichshafen where he might have gotten his sense for quality.
His supervisor there recognized Albert Föhrenbach's´ talent to organize things and gave him the possibility to get his engineer degree supported by the Arado Flugzeugwerke GmbH.
With this organizing talent and the engineer degree at the beginning of war he was sent out to different sister plants to change their production to warfare relevant goods.
One of those plants was a sugar refinery in Bennigsen which somehow belonged to several companies in relation to the Arado Flugzeugwerke GmbH
During war he stayed there and took care of the production of warfare goods until the end of world war II.
After the end of war the area there was in control of British Allies. Albert Föhrenbach had good relationship with the officer from the British army which was in charge of making decisions for production goods after war. Later that turned out to a friendship between both families until the 1980s.
Albert Föhrenbach was never in the Nazi party although he was supported by the regime with additional food, cigarettes and so on for his high production outcome during war.
Shortly after war the allies declared that he was not a Nazi and so the production in the sugar refinery started again in 1946. In production was household stuff like metal cases, soup dippers, shovels, different brushes,.....
Due to his good relationship with the British allies he was allowed to start production of air rifles already in 1947. Probably also in that year he bought out the former sugar refinery from the several owners that existed until then.
Also in 1947 he displayed his products at the "Hannover Messe" the first time. [NOTE: this information has since been proved inaccurate. See the post on Falke and the Hannover Messe here and the post on 'more Falke factory history'.]
From 1946/1947 on it was named the "Albert Föhrenbach GmbH"
1948 Albert Föhrenbach has settled in Bennigsen and has built a house somewhere near Bennigsen.
The "Albert Föhrenbach GmbH" had from the 1950s on about 300 employees. It probably was the biggest or at least one of the biggest companies in Bennigsen as there were only 3800-4000 inhabitants in those days.
The order books were full in the following years.
In 1957 Albert Föhrenbach had a heart attack which was, according to his son, caused by too much work and not wanting to give his body a chance to rest.
He survived the heart attack but he wasn't able to work anymore. His sons were still too young to do something and so production started struggling because the organiser was missing.
In 1958 the Albert Föhrenbach GmbH had to declare bankruptcy and got dissolved until 1960-1961.
The production finally had stopped in 1959.
Albert Föhrenbach died in 1966 because of his heart disease, his wife died in 2005.
His son was not able to tell me much about the production order or other things but he told me 2 interesting things:
1:
The produced number of rifles is probably several thousands if you count all models. That would fit to the e.g. several hundreds of Modell 80 and several hundreds of Modell 90 we know of.
2:
He said he is pretty sure there was a Falke Modell 100. I was excited to hear that. What a find that must be if someone is lucky.
Maybe I will ask him about that next time I call him.
So far. I don´t say everything I have found out is 100% right, but still better than what we knew until now I think.
@ Garvin, you can wake up now wink.gif
Gruß
Volker
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Contemporary photo of a Falke factory outing, followed by screen captures from Google maps and pics of the Bennigsen sugar factory today:
**Arado Flugzeugwerke
Arado Flugzeugwerke was a German aircraft manufacturer, originally established as the Warnemünde factory of the Flugzeugbau Friedrichshafen firm, which produced land-based military aircraft and seaplanes during the First and Second World Wars.
With its parent company, it ceased operations following the First World War, when restrictions on German aviation were created by the Treaty of Versailles. In 1921, the factory was purchased by Heinrich Lübbe, who is said to have assisted Anthony Fokker in the creation of the pioneering Stangensteuerung synchronization gear system during 1914-15, and re-commenced aircraft construction for export. Walter Rethel, previously of Kondor and Fokker, was appointed head designer.[1] In 1925, the company joined the Arado Handelsgesellschaft ("Arado trading firm") that was founded by the industrialist Hugo Stinnes Jr.[2] for covering up illegal trade with military equipment. When the Nazi government came to power in Germany in 1933, Lübbe took control of the company. Just prior to that, Walter Blume, formerly of Albatros, replaced Rethel.
Arado achieved early prominence as a supplier to the Luftwaffe with the Arado Ar 66, which became one of the standard Luftwaffe trainers right into World War II. The firm also produced some of the Luftwaffe's first fighter aircraft, the Ar 65 and Ar 68. In 1936, the RLM (Reichsluftfahrtministerium – "Reich Aviation Ministry") insisted that, as a show of loyalty, Lübbe should join the Nazi party. When he refused, he was arrested and forced to sell the company to the state. It was renamed to the more specific (and accurate) Arado Flugzeugwerke GmbH, and was placed under the direction of Erich Serno, and Felix Wagenführ, himself a former IdFlieg officer in World War I.
When Germany invaded Poland, instigating World War II, two more Arado products rose to prominence, the Ar 96, which became the Luftwaffe's most used trainer, and the Ar 196 a reconnaissance seaplane that became standard equipment on all larger German warships. Unfortunately for Arado, most of their other designs were passed over in favour of stronger products from their competitors, such as Germany's only heavy bomber fielded during the war, the Heinkel He 177, for which Arado was the primary subcontractor. Perhaps Arado's most celebrated aircraft of the war was the Ar 234, the first jet-powered bomber. Too late to have any real effect on the outcome of the conflict, it was nevertheless a sign of things to come.
Until their liberation in April 1945 by the Soviet army, 1,012 slave laborers from Freiberg, a sub-camp of the Flossenbürg concentration camp, worked at the Arado factory, beginning with the first trainload of 249 prisoners arriving in August 1944. The prisoners were mostly Polish Jewish women and girls sent to Freiberg from Auschwitz.
Arado also licence-built various versions of, and components for the Focke-Wulf Fw 190.
In 1945, the company was liquidated and broken up.
