Dreilinden Maschinenbau GmbH (1935–1945)

Secret armaments industry

Without Bosch alternators, starters and injection pumps, hardly any aircraft of the German Air Force could fly in World War II. The engine parts that are important for the war effort are produced in a well-camouflaged factory with the deceptive name Dreilinden-Maschinenbau GmbH. Secret production on the outskirts of the city began as early as 1935. At the end of the war, forced laborers made up more than half of the 5,000 employees. The company increased its turnover 47-fold in ten years. The facility here is just one of twelve such shadow factories around the then capital of the Reich, Berlin. After 1945, the Soviet occupiers blew up the production halls. The GDR's Central Biological Institute moved into the preserved entrance building in 1952. After reunification, the Federal Biological Institute for Agriculture and Forestry took over the premises - today's Julius Kühn Institute. Since 2003, a plaque has commemorated forced labor at Dreilinden-Maschinenbau GmbH.