doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion German & Austrian Sporting Guns @ doublegunshop.com The plant of Sauer & Sohn, Suhl in 1998 and 2007

Gentlemen,

as it might be interesting for you, I like to show some impressions from the Sauer plant in Suhl and how it developed in the last years. First of all, a map of the Sauer plant will help to get an overview. The basis of the map are two maps we found in the Suhl Archive � I combined the two maps to have a map of the buildings in 1936. The colors do indicate the development: dark red/brown: buildings already vanished in 1998; red: buildings still present in 1998, but demolished after our trip; yellow: severe amendments; green: still present today.




My first trip to Suhl and the Sauer plant was in 1998 together with Jim Cate. In 1998 demolition work already was in progress. More than half of the buildings of the Sauer plant already had been demolished, the other buildings still were standing, but most of these buildings were waiting to be demolished.

During our time there (it was a lousy cold and rainy summer) no workers were present and we saw only very few persons there. We were free to do there whatever we wanted to. So, we walked in every building, took photos and picked up some souvenirs. One of the buildings was burned out, but one room in this building was filled up with hundreds of personnel cards of workers of the firm Sauer/Fortuna/VEB Ernst Th�lmann. Most of these cards were ruined by fire or water, but some were good enough to be rescued from being trashed (what happened with the rest soon after our visit).



While most buildings are made of bricks, a building in the centre (with four floors) is made of concrete. This is the "Karabinerhaus" (Carbine house) build in 1936 ("N.B." in the shown map). In this house the K98k was assembled. We were also free to visit this house.

Some photos from our 1998 trip:



Photo 1: A view from the 4th floor of the carbine house. The white half-timbered houses in the background (still existing today) are the oldest buildings of the plant. There, the management and the administration were located. The buildings left to these (with the two turrets) are the buildings of the typewriter production and do still exist � buildings #55 and #58. The buildings (partially painted white) on the left and in front of the typewriter buildings do not exist anymore. The bridge in the background (border of the Sauer plant) with the train on it is called �Viadukt� and always was a motive for postcards.



Shown here is a postcards of the WWI period with said bridge from the other side. The Sauer plant (at least the half-timbered houses) are visible, including Sauer�s legend.






Photo 2: Not a brilliant photo of building 8a, I've to admit. It's one of the buildings which do not exist anymore. The die-casted house number "8a" was the main reason for taking the photo. The �8a� sign still does exist � the building vanished.




Photo 3: A view from the (not longer existing) canteen or building #53 on the carbine house. The red bricked house on the right is building #48, in which the Sauer pistols were produced. The rubbish dump on the left contains the remainders of some buildings already demolished in 1998, i. a. the shooting range and the lab.




Photo 4: A view from the carbine house on building #48 (pistol production).




Photo 5: Inside building #48.



Photo 6: a view on the generator houses (#11, 44) and on the pistol house #48 on the right.

Back in Suhl with Jim Cate nine years later in 2007. Many things changed and happened on the Sauer plant. A lot of buildings vanished. But the house still standing changed their appearance in a positive way. In the old administration house(s) are located some smaller companies, as well as in buildings #55 and #58 (typewriter Production). Next to the old administration, an Opel dealer had build a new shop. But the most significant development made the carbine house and the pistol house (#48). It�s hard to recognize the old carbine house � appearance is totally different. There, a very stylish Audi/VW dealer is located who is presenting on every floor a certain brand of the VW group. The owner Wilfried Ehrhardt doesn�t just have a nice car saloon, but also a small but nice exhibition of the Sauer company. In the first floor some well restored old machines of the Sauer factory are presented and in the stairway a fine exhibition of the Sauer history is presented. It�s really worth a look.

Building #48 underwent an interesting metamorphose: the roof, the front wall and the rear wall were deleted; only the old die-casted posts are standing. In this �house� new cars are presented. Appearance is classy.


Some photos:



Photo 1: view from the fourth floor of the carbine on the front shop of the Opel dealer. You�ll note some missing buildings which were present in 1998.




Photo 2: The carbine house today.




Photo 3: "Building� #48 as taken from the carbine house. Left to it the old generator house.




Photo 4: The �inner� of �building� #48 today. Parking lot for new cars.




Photo 5: A view on the typewriter production buildings. Were the meadow is, were standing some buildings (i. a. #8, #8a) in 1998.



Best regards

Martin

Hi Martin,

These are very interesting pictures with history. Have you considered writing an article for the German Gun Collectors Association?

Regards,
Doug

Hi Doug,

no, I didn�t consider writing an article fort he GGCA � simply, because I�m no member of it. Also, my observations could be interesting for some very few collectors, but I doubt it would be worth an article in the magazine of the GGCA. Just thought, some German gun nuts, especially the Sauer nuts here who didn�t had an opportunity to travel to this place yet would like to have some photo impressions st least.

BTW: it�s always disappointing to see, how the �Mecca� looks like in reality. I remember well my travel to Herstal and Liege in 1994, as well as my first travel to Suhl in 1990��. I expected something different, to say the least. Something like the land of milk and honey or a place or pilgrimage (like Lourdes in France), where all broken top lever springs will be healed by an high priest of Saint Sauer/Saint FN� but in real, it�s a dusty industrial city, like Detroit/USA or Wolfsburg/Germany (the VW city - what really is ugly and boring!)

Best regards

Martin

Mr. Krause:

I'm sure there is more of a quite Sauer following than you realize. And when one considers all the other country gunsmiths & firearms merchants in the Austro-Hungarian region as well as Suhl, it is a pretty substantial lot of sporting weapons. Many here in the U.S. of A. are waiting with baited breath, with some like myself await any fallen leaf of info from the Sauer research tree.

Great that you were able to preserve a portion of the events following the Great Patriotic War/WWII.

Kind Regards,

Raimey
rse

Hi Raimey/ Mr. Ellenbr,



I like your wording, really, I do!

OK, here are some more fallen leafs from our 2007 trip:



The (former) Haenel factory, located in the centre of Suhl.





The Sauer Villa. �Franzens Feste� (Franz� fortress), build for Franz Sauer. There, the two Sauer brothers Rolf and Hans were living. Said Villa (a very nice one) was offered on ebay/Germany for sale two months ago. I don�t know, who�s the current owner, but he must be lucky�..



The famous (notorious) Suhl Archive, were all the Sauer files are stored/piled up. Looks like a jail? In fact, it is (was) a jail. In the thirties it was the Gestapo�s jail, after the war it was the jail of the Stasi (GDR�s Gestapo). You can�t just walk in � you have to ask for permission to enter it (and normally, you will be allowed to leave - but who knows exactly). In a room, what was the former interrogation room (now without a single-mirrored glass plane, but with a normal glass plane to the next room) you will receive the Sauer files for examination under strict supervision of a person sitting in the next room watching you carefully . It�s quiet surreal�..

Best regards

Martin

Mr. Krause:
I'm pleased as punch you like the verbiage but I hope the point is conveyed that interest in the nuts and bolts of German gunmaking appears to be at an all time high due in part to technologies like the internet making the world a bit smaller and any new info is accepted with open arms. Most interesting images from Suhl and one would need an aggressive & non-invasive scanning scheme to archive the data. I don't suppose that the caretakers will ever be motivated to do it would they?


Kind Regards,

Raimey S. Ellenburg
rse

Hi Martin

Do you happen to have a picture of the Funk factory which is now the Wolf Factory on Schwarzwasserweg 13?

Cheers,
Doug

Hi Doug,

soryy, but no, I don't have a photo of the Wolf factory.

Regards

Martin

Mr. Krause: Thank you for the photos! Do you know how many gunmakers are currently operating in Suhl? Is there enough going on to cause one to make said pilgrimage? Steve