July 2003
 

Rheinmetall's historical collection at Unterlüß

Study objects bear witness to the past

A good two years ago the responsibility for Rheinmetall W&M GmbH's company collection of historical objects which had been in the hands of Anton Fabry for many years was passed on to Fritz H. Contag. Mr Contag who is responsible for "Events and Visitors" is now also in charge of the defence systems exhibition. Parts of this exhibition have been re-arranged in recent months – reason enough to reflect on the past, present and future of this informative display of objects.

The exhibition entitled "Rheinmetall in times of change" has been on show in the foyer of the Rheinmetall group headquarters in Düsseldorf-Derendorf since September 2001. Two of the military objects presented there are particularly noteworthy: a cartridge with the M88 jacketed projectile and the MG42/59 machine gun. Both of these objects are on loan from the historical collection at Unterlüß and symbolize two important stations in the history of Rheinmetall DeTec AG.

The cartridge dates back to the year 1889 and was at that time the first order to have been accepted by the company's founding father Heinrich Ehrhardt even before the company actually existed. Although Rheinmetall did not thrive on the M88 projectile – this happened a few years later with the invention of the first barrel recoil system for a field gun – the company would never have been founded without this order. The M42 machine gun was not only a mass product in World War II: the modernized version 42/59 tailored to the needs of Nato after the war was, in fact, the first product which allowed Rheinmetall in 1955 to start military production again.
 

The MG42/59 – a mass product for the Wehrmacht until 1945 – was at the beginning of Rheinmetall's production for the German Army and the Nato.

In many years of persistent work this and a lot of other products from the past of the Rheinmetall DeTec AG were gathered to form the company's historical collection. The former name of this – Study Collection of Military Objects – indicates, by the way, that it was not planned and devised as a museum, but as a collection of study objects. The first attempt to establish such a collection at the former Rheinmetall GmbH in Düsseldorf-Derendorf dates back as far as the year 1958. Franz-Josef Strauß, former Minister of Defence, had suggested to start a collection of weapons from World War II and the Allies in order to provide engineers and technicians with the know-how required to build up a new German defence industry.

At first, the Minister's request was rejected on grounds of costs; in the following years, however, it was just doubly fulfilled: Strauß' ideas materialized in a collection of the German Army which was first located in Meppen and later in Koblenz at the Bundesamt für Wehrtechnik und Beschaffung, where it still exists today and is open to the public.

Rheinmetall also had an interest in training young technicians for their own production. In a letter the former Rheinmetall director Prof. Carl Waninger wrote in February 1960: "I go begging from house to house to get interesting objects for study which, among other things, will then be of special importance to our apprentices. But even to our design engineers this study collection will be of importance." Waninger's efforts paid off and from the sixties of the twentieth century, civil exhibits were procured to support the apprentice training division. The apprentices used these to get practical experience with alloys and processes. Additionally, handguns and machine guns from Nato partners as well as German weapons from World War II were collected in order to develop upgraded weapons from these systems and equipments. All this served as the basis for the collection of historical study objects which was to be found in the Rheinmetall development department.
 

Employment in Russia: The mortar 'Karl', a heavy weapon for besiege, of which only seven were built between 1939 and 1941; the mortar in the collection is only a model.

After a period of own successful development activities the interest in this collection ebbed off perceptibly until in 1970, the management board decided to build up a historical collection in building No. 40 of the Derendorf plant 1 – which nowadays accommodates the historical archives of the Rheinmetall group – for which responsibility was placed on the advertising and public relations department.

Starting with an exhibition in the cellar of the former company headquarters, the advertising department headed by Anton Fabry began to prepare a systematic historical collection which no longer had anything in common with the original target of collecting study objects for future engineers. The exhibits were described and documented and – assisted by the military study collection of the BWB in Koblenz and in cooperation with other German and European museums (e.g. Bayerisches Armeemuseum, Freiburger Militärarchiv, Heeresgeschichtliches Museum, Imperial War Museum) – the former Rheinmetall product lines could be complemented over the years.

As early as in 1988, one year before Rheinmetall's centenary, such a lot of material had been gathered that the collection could be moved to a separate building in a former production hall in plant IV. About the opening of the exhibition the group's newspaper 'Das Profil' reported in issue 2/1988: "Three centuries of development in weapon technology are reflected in the exhibition of military study objects of the Rheinmetall GmbH opened recently. More than a hundred exhibits ranging from the original diary of the company's founder Heinrich Ehrhardt and rare guns, cameras and calculating machines to a complete heavy gun with recoiling barrel from 1901 give a multifacetted picture of Rheinmetall's past." The exhibition did, however, not stay in the Heinrich Ehrhardt house in plant IV for long: along with the production it was transferred from Düsseldorf to Unterlüß in 1992 where it is now managed by the Rheinmetall W&M GmbH.
 

In need of restoration: The nearly eight-ton anti-aircraft gun 8.8, type 41 with a turntable substructure which stands in front of the two halls accommodating the historical collection was a prestige object of Rheinmetall-Borsig AG.

A parallel, although initially independent development, was the creation of the historical archives of Rheinmetall GmbH from about 1978 onwards. Former PR manager Fabry's interest in the company's history ultimately led to the creation of these archives – Fabry had rescued a large number of old documents from the production plants at Derendorf for future generations. These documents which were originally to be discarded turned out to became particularly interesting when the company prepared for celebrating its centenary in 1989.

In the Heinrich Ehrhardt house, home of the collection, historical papers from the one-hundred-year history of Rheinmetall were systematically registered from 1986 onwards. Fabry even managed to discover technical files of Rheinmetall-Borsig AG which had been taken to England or America by the Allies after 1945 and to bring them to Düsseldorf. At that time, many documents from individual departments of the company and even from private persons were also handed over to the archives. For instance, the heirs to a former engineer of Leichtmetall-Preßwerk Hohenzollern in Düsseldorf-Grafenberg, Fritz Kühna gave the historical documents they had discovered to Rheinmetall.
 

Not a series product: the gun that shoots around the corner is one of the curiosities of the Rheinmetall collection.

From about 1987 onwards, (former) Rheinmetall Berlin AG likewise considered the possibility of creating historical archives for the entire group. For Rheinmetall's centenary, however, the newly created central archives did not yet play a decisive role; the company's chronicle of 1989 was almost exclusively based on the documents in the archives of Rheinmetall GmbH.

The central archives of the Rheinmetall group which have been existing in its present form since 1992 in their present form and the archives of the military study collection that (unlike the exhibition) was transferred to Ratingen and not to Unterlüß in 1992 existed alongside each other without any organizational ties for many years. This changed last year: the two archives were united under the umbrella of the Rheinmetall central division Communication.
 

The (hi)story behind the exhibits

 
"Guess what story lies behind the spotlight of this anti-aircraft gun", says Fritz H. Contag and points to a monstrosity of a spotlight that doesn't look as bad as one might expect considering its use in World War II. "We once got an inquiry from the Düsseldorf theatre", the retired German Army officer who was colonel in the General Staff Corps continues. "A big spotlight would be required for a performance, if we did not have anything like this. We agreed, but only on the condition that they repair it at their expense. That's what they did, and after the spotlight had done its job, it returned to us, a new and brilliant source of light."

Much like the spotlight, many of the exhibits belonging to the company collection have their own stories to tell, often directly related to how they got there. "Many of the objects in this collection we received on a trade-in basis", Contag says. "Over the years, we have established excellent contacts with many military museums and collections in Germany and abroad – with the Imperial War Museum, the Heeresgeschichtliches Museum in Vienna, the Bayerisches Armeemuseum in Ingolstadt and also the Wehrtechnische Studiensammlung in Koblenz, of course. For example, we received a unique collection of pictures featuring Rheinmetall products from the years 1900 to 1918 from the Smithsonian Museum in Washington DC in exchange for an MG3 cutaway model, which has complemented the Washington collection of hand-held firearms. The five photo albums had been in our possession until 1918, were then confiscated by the Allies along with other material and finally ended up in the Smithonian Museum after a real odyssey."

And what about the model of a steam plough? "This story is especially funny", Contag says and smiles amusedly. "It is a true model of a Rheinmetall locomobile which was owned by a group of fairground entertainers. It was used to drive little children around at fun fairs. It was driven by steam, backed by an oxygen bottle. The collection of typewriters is also quite astonishing. With the exception of only one model, we have the entire series of typewriters manufactured in Sömmerda." And you can still write on them? "But of course you can!"

Rheinmetall's historical collection at Unterlüß is not open to the public.