wardaggers.com - Solingen

SOLINGEN - THE PEOPLE - THE PLACES & THE COMPANIES

" Which would your men rather be, tired or dead " Erwin Rommel - Date Unknown

SOLINGEN

The city of Solingen (population 165,000), situated on the river Wupper 30 km northeast of Cologne, was founded in 1374 and has grown famous as a blade manufacturing centre; becoming Sheffield's main competitor in the cutlery industry. The history of German sword making can be traced back to 1250. Solingen became established as a metalworking centre, not only because of the presence of iron ore and a plentiful supply of timber for charcoal and water to drive the grindstones but because the nearby town of Cologne was Germany's richest trading centre. Solingen was making fine quality sword blades in the fourteenth century and was contracted to sell all its swords and edged weapons to Cologne where handles were attached and the finished weapons sold. The grinders and temperers' guild was formed in 1401 and the sword smiths' guild in 1472. The cutlers' guild, with 82 cutlers, was mentioned for the first time in 1571 and the scissor smiths formed their guild in 1794. Hand forging was a skilled and time consuming process but fast striking mechanical hammers, driven by water wheels, were used in the 16th century to speed up the process of hand forging by around fivefold. Factories housing mechanical hammers were built on the rivers in and around Solingen to roughly forge sword blades before they were finished by hand forging. Although fear of unemployment caused the sword forging guild to argue that hand forged steel was better. Sheffield was still hand forging steel at this time but was using water to drive grinding wheels. Solingen's first water-powered pocket-knife factory was built in the Weinsberger valley in 1801 for Peter Daniel Peres, a merchant who had started a cutlery business in 1792, aged 16. He exploited a gap in the market and made "fine pen knives" using the superior crucible steel from Sheffield. (It would be another
half century before Krupps started to produce significant quantities of crucible steel).
Peres was not a member of any guild and was the first employer to use unskilled workers, having received special permission from Duke Maximilian. Peres was also known as the man who introduced "black polish" to Solingen. This was a polishing mixture made from iron oxide powder and alcohol, which had been first developed in 1760 by the Englishman Robert Hinchliffe. Peres eventually succeeded, after eight years of trying, in making the polish which was used to give blades the high gloss which was so popular on English blades.

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Germany was for a time blockaded by Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte of France, restricting Solingen's exports. Sheffield was not slow to take advantage of this. Napoleon, who briefly ruled Solingen until his abdication in 1815 after the battle of Waterloo, abolished the trade guilds' monopolies. Solingen's sword and cutlery industry grew rapidly but Solingen had lost a lot of its export markets to Sheffield. The industry continued to expand and in 1841 it was reported that Solingen was managing to undercut Sheffield on price but Sheffield knives were more elegant. In 1896, the value of German cutlery exported to countries outside Europe was one third that of English exports. However, rapid industrialisation did bring problems. Grinders relied on the rivers and streams in and around Solingen to power their grindstones. These were subject to freezing in winter and drying up in summer - halting all blade production. The answer lay in steam power which was introduced from the 1850's. Solingen manufacturers supplied thousands of swords and bayonets to the German army during the Franco - German war of 1870 - 1871 and firms such as Weyersberg, Kirschbaum & Co. (WKC) and Carl Eickhorn are still supplying swords and bayonets. Mechanised Forging In 1850, J A Henckels was one of the first companies to bring together all the manufacturing processes under one roof and to employ mechanised forging machines. Henckels introduced the first steam hammer in 1861. The mechanised drop forge which uses shaped dies in both the hammer and the anvil was at the centre of industrial development at this time. Drop forging allowed complicated shapes to be produced and revolutionised the cutlery industry. Following Henckels' lead, drop forging spread throughout Solingen. Mechanised Sharpening The first steam-driven grind stones were built in the 1850s but the strongly unionised grinders and sharpeners with their high wage levels were more resistant to change than the forgers. However this gave the employers a greater incentive to mechanise these processes. In 1879, the razor manufacturer C.F. Ern changed its company over to steam power. All production stages were carried out in the factory, except for grinding which was still sub-contracted out. Ern tried to limit the power of the relatively independent grinders in the following years. The sharpening process was split into strict divisions, each individual step being performed by skilled workers. The company eventually succeeded, despite violent labour disputes over many years, in breaking the power of the union and proceeded to install powered grinding machines. However the skills of the hand grinder were still required to cope with the uneven properties of the forged material. In 1926 the grinders' trade union gave up its resistance to the march of technical progress. Although even when improved grinding machines and better quality steel was used, some grinding and polishing operations were still carried out by hand by skilled home workers. Solingen fared better than Sheffield when the American protective tariffs were introduced in 1891 since its cutlery was more competitively priced. By 1900, Solingen's cutlery exports exceeded those of Britain and France combined. The First World War however saw a reduction in Germany's export markets which was not regained in the following years and Solingen's exports were only 20% of their pre-war level. Following a brief revival during the Second World War, particularly in the manufacture of daggers and bayonets, the cutlery industry along with Solingen itself was virtually destroyed by bombing. Although healthy today, the size of the industry is greatly reduced, employing about 5,500 people, compared with 15,000 in 1900.

THE PEOPLE

THE WAR YEARS

Solingen was extensively bombed during the latter stages of the war and Lancaster bombers undertook two major campaigns on Nov 4th & 5th in an effort to hinder German metal and weapons production. The missions largely destroyed the older part of the town, over 1100 people died during the two days, with 5000 hurt and 2075 left homeless. The 2 km city centre was virtually destroyed by fire and little evidence remains today of the historical heart of the town.

4th November 1944

176 Lancaster bombers ( 1232 crew ) from No3 Group were dispatched from bases all over England to conduct a high level bombing raid on Solingen, the raid however was not successful and the bombing was largely scattered. 4 Lancaster bombers were lost, 28 crew.

5th November 1944

173 Lancasters (1204 crew ) of No3 Group carried out a G-H raid on Solingen, results of the raid were not observed due to cloud cover, but German reports show that this was an outstanding success. Most of the bombing fell accurately into the medium sized town of Solingen. 1,300 houses and 18 industrial buildings were destroyed and a further 1,600 more buildings severely damaged.
1 Lancaster was lost and 1 Wellington flew an RCM sortie and returned safely.

( TAKEN FROM RAF BOMBER COMMAND DIARIES Nov 1944 )

No3 Group - The War Years

Scheduled to control the RAF medium/heavy bomber squadrons, No. 3 Group HQ came into being at Andover on May 1, 1936 and soon gathered 14 squadrons spread far and wide with a collection of types, chiefly Heyfords and Virginias. However, a planned reorganisation and formation of two more bomber groups saw No. 3 Group HQ moved to Mildenhall Suffolk in January 1937 and selected to operate the new Wellington medium bomber, the first of which arrived in autumn 1938. A year later it commenced operations with an all-Wellington force of over 100 in eight squadrons at five East Anglia airfields.
In March 1941 the group headquarters was moved to the mansion in Exning, near Newmarket, where it remained for the rest of the war. By the end of 1941 its strength had increased to more than 200 bombers and 14 squadrons, three of which were equipped with the Stirling four-engine heavy. Plans to make No.3 an all Stirling squadron were discontinued when the limitations of this type became clear and by early 1943 the last of the Wellington squadrons commenced conversion to Lancasters. Seven Stirling squadrons were gradually converted to the Lancaster during the following months, the group's last operation with the type being in September 1944. By May 1945 No. 3 Group had 330 Lancasters in 11 squadrons on nine airfields.

THE PEOPLE

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