Sächsische Maschinenfabrik
Sächsische Maschinenfabrik began in 1837 as a modest workshop in Chemnitz and grew into one of the most consequential engineering enterprises in 19th-century Saxony. By the time the thousandth locomotive rolled off its production line in 1878, the firm had outgrown its regional roots and was supplying railways, textile mills, and later armaments factories across the globe. The man at the center of this story was Richard Hartmann, a former craftsman who transformed a small general-purpose machine shop into an industrial giant. What drove that transformation? How did a company that built spinning frames in its early years come to manufacture artillery equipment before the First World War? And what brought it down? Those are the questions this documentary will answer.
August Götze and Richard Hartmann founded the firm of Götze and Hartmann in 1837, producing a wide range of machines from the start. Hartmann had already worked in numerous businesses before the partnership, and that breadth of experience gave him a sharp eye for new technology. By 1839 the firm had developed a carded yarn speed frame and sold it successfully as a commercial product. For several years the most important work was not volume production but bespoke engineering: designing individual technical solutions for clients, the kind of work now called special-purpose machines. By 1842 the workforce stood at around 200 employees. Between 1845 and the early 1850s the company expanded repeatedly and relocated several times within the Chemnitz area, each move reflecting the pressure of a business that kept outgrowing its premises. Steam locomotive production began in 1848, though that branch of the business remained slow until a decade later, when the Royal Saxon State Railways had been sufficiently persuaded of the factory's quality through deliveries of small batches of engines.
In the mid-1860s, steam locomotive production at the Chemnitz factory reached a high enough volume that in 1868 a dedicated new production hall was constructed, large enough to mount up to 36 locomotives simultaneously. The scale of what followed is striking: between 1848 and 1929 the company built 4,699 locomotives in total. The Royal Saxon State Railways was the dominant customer, but engines left Chemnitz for buyers worldwide, including railways in Norway, the Dutch East Indies, and Denmark. Among the oldest survivors is works number 164, built in 1861 as a 2-4-0 type, now held at the Dresden Transport Museum. Another, works number 1112 from 1881, ended up in the Asturias Railway Museum in Spain. Narrow-gauge railways were a specialty: the company delivered its first engine for the Saxon narrow-gauge lines in 1881, and over subsequent decades locomotives of several classes were built for those lightly laid mountain routes. When the 1,000th locomotive left the production line in 1878, it was a milestone that also coincided with the death of Richard Hartmann himself, who had held the chairmanship of the governing board since 1870.
Construction of a new headquarters in Chemnitz began in 1896, reflecting the company's ambition to cement its position as a major industrial concern. That same year, one of Richard Hartmann's sons, Gustav Hartmann, founded a subsidiary in Luhansk, which continues to exist as the Lokomotivfabrik Luhansk. In 1898 the firm was formally renamed the Sächsische Maschinenfabrik vormals Richard Hartmann Aktiengesellschaft, folding the founder's name into the corporate identity. Textile and spinning machinery ran alongside locomotive production throughout this period. Over many decades these machines from Chemnitz and the company's subsidiaries set benchmarks for German engineering practice. At the start of the 20th century the armaments branch also grew substantially, producing guns, artillery equipment, and munitions, and other companies were absorbed into the business. Acquisitions continued into the 1920s, including the King Friedrich-August Steelworks in Freital-Potschappel and the textile machine firm of Walter Löbel AG in Dresden.
The founding of the Deutsche Reichsbahn in 1920 brought structural change that hurt the Chemnitz factory directly. Locomotive construction quotas were distributed across multiple manufacturers, sharply reducing the volume the Sächsische Maschinenfabrik could expect. Between 1920 and 1924 only 64 locomotives were built for the Deutsche Reichsbahn, a fraction of the output the company had once sustained. Overseas, the political aftermath of the First World War closed or disrupted many export markets. The machine tool division was wound up in 1926. The last substantial order was executed in 1928-29: only 13 engines of the newly developed DRG Class 99.73-76 narrow-gauge standard locomotives were delivered for the Saxon lines, against a planned order of 32; the remaining 19 were picked up by the Berliner Maschinenbau, also known as BMAG or formerly Schwartzkopff. After those narrow-gauge engines, just six more locomotives were built at Chemnitz before production stopped entirely. Steam roller and locomotive construction both ceased in 1929, and the main company was liquidated in 1930.
The liquidation of the Sächsische Maschinenfabrik in 1930 did not erase every trace of the enterprise. The textile machinery side was restructured and incorporated into the newly formed Sächsische Textilmaschinenfabrik vormals Richard Hartmann AG, which returned to the original focus on spinning machines and weaving looms. In 1933 that company merged with several others to become the Textil-Maschinen-Compagnie Chemnitz. The Second World War destroyed most of the factory buildings, sites, and equipment. Whatever remained was largely handed to the Soviet Union as war reparations, leaving roughly a tenth of the original facility. From that remnant the VEB Spinnereimaschinenbau was established in 1946 and became the leading manufacturer of cotton-spinning machinery for the Eastern Bloc until German reunification. In 1990 the enterprise became the Chemnitzer Spinnereimaschinenbau GmbH, was sold to the holding company Neue Länder by the end of 1994, and eventually merged with two other Saxon textile machinery firms to form the CSM-Sächsische Spinnereimaschinen GmbH Chemnitz. Production ceased in 1998, closing out a manufacturing lineage that had run for 161 years from the original 1837 founding.
A portion of the former Leipziger Straße in Chemnitz was renamed Hartmannstraße in the founder's memory. The former villa of the company director is used today for exhibitions, and a trade training centre in Chemnitz carries the name Richard-Hartmann-Schule. Since 1990 the recognition of Hartmann's legacy has grown steadily, linking his name to a broader Saxon engineering tradition shared by the metal and electric industries and by the operators of locomotives that still run. The firm's contribution to narrow-gauge railways is perhaps the most tangible surviving thread. More than 125 years after the first narrow-gauge engine was delivered in 1881, the Saxon Narrow Gauge Society, known as the Verein zur Förderung sächsischer Schmalspurbahnen, ordered the construction of a copy of the Saxon Class I K, ensuring that at least one design from the Chemnitz factory will continue to run on those mountain lines.
Common questions
When was Sächsische Maschinenfabrik founded and by whom?
Sächsische Maschinenfabrik was founded in 1837 by August Götze and Richard Hartmann in Chemnitz as the firm Götze and Hartmann. Hartmann became the dominant figure and gave his name to the company in its 1898 renaming.
How many locomotives did Sächsische Maschinenfabrik build in total?
Sächsische Maschinenfabrik built 4,699 locomotives between 1848 and 1929. The majority were delivered to the Royal Saxon State Railways, but customers included railways across Europe and beyond.
What caused the decline of Sächsische Maschinenfabrik?
The founding of the Deutsche Reichsbahn in 1920 spread locomotive construction orders across multiple manufacturers, sharply cutting the company's volume. Between 1920 and 1924 only 64 locomotives were built for the Deutsche Reichsbahn, and the political aftermath of the First World War closed many export markets. The worldwide economic crisis of the late 1920s was the final blow, leading to liquidation in 1930.
When was Sächsische Maschinenfabrik liquidated?
The Sächsische Maschinenfabrik vormals Richard Hartmann AG was liquidated in 1930. The surviving textile machinery operations continued under successor companies until production finally ceased in 1998.
What connection does Sächsische Maschinenfabrik have to the Lokomotivfabrik Luhansk?
In 1896 Gustav Hartmann, a son of founder Richard Hartmann, established a subsidiary of Sächsische Maschinenfabrik in Luhansk. That subsidiary exists today as the Lokomotivfabrik Luhansk.
Where are preserved Sächsische Maschinenfabrik locomotives kept today?
Preserved locomotives built by Sächsische Maschinenfabrik are held at museums including the Dresden Transport Museum, the Saxon Railway Museum in Chemnitz, the Chemnitz Industrial Museum, the Ambarawa Railway Museum in Indonesia, the National Technical Museum in Prague, and the German Steam Locomotive Museum in Neuenmarkt, among others.