Messerschmitt Factory Information - Epoche II


dmeephd

dmeephd

Modelleisenbahner1955
I have been looking all over for some 1940s era photographs of the Messerschmitt factories in Augsburg or Regensburg. I'd even settle for a history book of Messerschmitt that had some illustrations. I've googled, checked out Amazon.com and Amazon.de (Germany), and the Wikipedia. Found one book by Schmoll. Otherwise, Nada. (About a gazillion books on the aircraft themselves, it was and is a popular modeling subject!)

I model WWII Luftwaffe aircraft (1/72nd scale) and European Model Railways (HO scale). I have all of these wagon sets - from Liliput, Marklin, and Trix - of transported and disassembled Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighters (plus the new 2009 Marklin releases on order) and have nowhere for these train consists to originate. I could simply freelance a building, but I would like to be somewhat realistic and have a structure (or series of structures) that would be reminiscent of the original.

Unfortunately, Google Earth is useless as these buildings are long gone. Even the EADS website - the successor company to Messerschmitt - only covers their history from 1999.

Do any of our European members know of a website or have some photos of these factories?

David Martin, Ph.D.
 
Excellent online resource, thanks. Although it doesn't help me on the pre-war factories, it has given me some ideas to fall back on in case I cannot find any other references.

It's strange, because nearly every other major German company has voluminous photographic galleries of their history. For some, like Krupp, Thyssen, Borsig, Siemens, Junkers; there are even massive coffee table books full of pictures. I have at least one from each of the above, and the Borsig volume is even in full color!

There's got to be something for the most heralded aircraft company in Germany!
 
David, the story I've read is that Messerschmitt destroyed most of their records, including photgraphs, during the final days of the war, because they were about to fall into Russian hands. Willy Brandt and some of the other German aircraft and rocket scientists did save some of the photos detailing the jet and V1/V2 production plants and bought them to the US. They remained classified until a few years ago, and some of the photos and information at my link came from the declassified documents. There's supposedly a library in Germany that has an archive of Messerschmitt plants before the bombing but I haven't been able to find the name of this library anywhere. Quite the mystery.
 
UP2CSX said:
David, the story I've read is that Messerschmitt destroyed most of their records, including photgraphs, during the final days of the war, because they were about to fall into Russian hands. Willy Brandt and some of the other German aircraft and rocket scientists did save some of the photos detailing the jet and V1/V2 production plants and bought them to the US. They remained classified until a few years ago, and some of the photos and information at my link came from the declassified documents. There's supposedly a library in Germany that has an archive of Messerschmitt plants before the bombing but I haven't been able to find the name of this library anywhere. Quite the mystery.
Click to expand...

Ouch! Well Jim, if that's true, it certainly would explain the lack of reference material and photographs. Especially when compared to the other major German industries of that period. For example, I am modeling a U-Boat dock side scene in Hamburg, and my stack of reference books regarding the docks, pens, bunkers, and factories is nearly a foot high! (That doesn't count the reference material on the boats themselves; like the Messerschmitt planes, the amount of material available is voluminous!)
 
You might want to try joining some of the militaria forums. Many members are German and you never know what lurks in private hands. And many militaria collectors are fanatical researchers.

A few sites:

Gentleman`s Military Interest Club
Wehrmacht Awards

Just make sure to post your questions in the appropriate forums.

You may also want to seek out model airplane forums as these guys put a lot of research into their models to include aces, sorties, battles and manufacturers. I used to model 1/16th Tamiya tanks and you would not believe the research that some of these guys put into their models.
 
cncproadwarrior said:
You might want to try joining some of the militaria forums. Many members are German and you never know what lurks in private hands. And many militaria collectors are fanatical researchers.

A few sites:

Gentleman`s Military Interest Club
Wehrmacht Awards

Just make sure to post your questions in the appropriate forums.

You may also want to seek out model airplane forums as these guys put a lot of research into their models to include aces, sorties, battles and manufacturers. I used to model 1/16th Tamiya tanks and you would not believe the research that some of these guys put into their models.
Click to expand...

Thanks Bernie. I have posted this query on some other Military and WWII History forums, but not those two. Thanks for the links.

I did manage to acquire one book from Germany, and several pictures using Googles Picture Search engine (the German version). So I'm getting there.
 
I'll have to take a look at a book I was given when I left Augsburg in 1995 - it's titled "Flugstadt Augsburg" and is about flying and the city of Augsburg. It's in German and I haven't looked at it in ages, but it had a lot of photos in it.
 
UP2CSX said:
Willy Brandt and some of the other German aircraft and rocket scientists did save some of the photos detailing the jet and V1/V2 production plants and bought them to the US.
Click to expand...

I think you´re confusing the names. The rocket designer was Wernher von Braun.

Willy Brandt was opposed to anything nazi, at the time a social democrat who fled to Norway, and returned later, eventually becoming chancellor in the early 1970s.
 
Whoops, quite true. I have no idea why Willy Brandt popped into my head when I knew it was von Braun. I wonder if David managed to make any progress on his project?
 
Maybe a search in German would be more appropriate, or contacting the Schweinfurt or Augsburg authorities.

Furthermore, many efforts were moved underground back then, a quick google search has for instance revealed this site: click me. No idea how useful it may be, as WW2 military stuff is not of interest to me though.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.



Back
Top