Tabiczky Zoltánné: A Magyar Vagon- és Gépgyár története 1. 1896-1945 (Győr, 1972)

Negyedik fejezet. A háborút megelőző időszak és a második világháború évei. 1930-1945

The history of the Hungarian Wagon and Machine Factory (1896-1945)

After the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 the rate of railway building accelerated in Hungary. The rise of the demand in rolling stock exceeded even that of the extension of the railway net. The manufacture of wagons gathered momentum and while about 1880 it was only the Ganz factory that built railway wagons in the country, in 1898 already five wagon factories were at work. One of these latter was the Hungarian Wagon and Machine Factory Co. Ltd. in Győr, founded in 1896. The new factory was established in order to manufacture wagons, machines, boilers, power stations and equipment. The date of the founders’ meeting was the 28th December of 1896. The majority of the shares was held by Meesrs. Emil Lederer and Richard Lederer, Austrian capitalists who owned the Distillery of Győr. For factory premises the City of Győr allotted at a cheap price an area measuring 15 yokes and 720 square fathoms in the neigbourhood of the distillery, moreover the new factory took on lease first and purchased later courtayrd and buildings from the distillery. The registration of the firm Hungarian Wagon and Machine Factory took place at the Court of Registration of Győr on the 22nd February of 1897 under No. 938/1897. The share capital fixed at the time of the foundation in 500 000 forints (1 000 000 crowns) was raised in 1899 to 2 000 000 crowns, in 1900 to 4 000 000 crowns. The manufacture started in the summer of 1897. The first order was issued for 30 passenger-cars with 2 axles, 15 tons each and fulfilled as early as in September 1897. The number of the workers of the factory was about 200 at the start. By September 1898 already 1200 workers worked in the factory. The products of that time were of simple design and not labourintensive. 1200 workers finished 8—10 wagons a day. So it is easy to understand that by 1898 the thousandth railway-carriage left the Wagon Factory.

The workers were chosen partly from among the craftsmen of the neighbourhood but Győr could rely to a great extent to skilled labour coming from other regions. According to the wagon-building technology of that time, the two most important trades were that of the joiner and ironsmith Joiners and ironsmiths were organized workers. It is not by chance that the strengthening of the activity of the Social Democrat Party and the development of

trade unionist life coincide with the foundation of the Wagon Factory. The joiners of the Wagon Factory went already in the year following the foundation of the factory on strike for higher pay and better working conditions. In the course of later years the workmen have struck not only for the remedy of ecenomic grievances but also for political purposes.

The economic crisis evolving toward the end of the 19th century caused the orders of the State for railway-cars to diminish. New products were therefore introduced in the Wagon Factory to employ the plants. In 1898 the production of electric accumulators was launched. The production of narrow gauge railway carriages, bridges, ironworks and cranes (1902), rail-cars and motor-cars (1903), points and permanent ways (1905), cableways is also introduced. Several novel technological solutions are used with the new manufactures. So is a Stoltz steam engine built in the railcars on basis of a patent, the first four-wheel-driven mechanical vehicle is finished as a technical novelty in 1904 in the automobile department, furthermore the manufacture of mail vans starts on basis of the design of János Csonka in 1905. A more accomplished variety of the „Spitz” car, manufactured already some time ago in Austria, is constructed the same year for the Viennese Arnold Spitz and wins in its category in the motor tour of Semmering in 1905. About 1910 the production of war material whose beginnings go back as far as to 1900, plays already a substantial role. The short-fall of rolling stock orders during the first years of the 20eth century is retrieved by exports. The Wagon Factory supplies not only to near-by countries — Servia, Rumania, Bulgaria, Italy — but to the London Underground Railways, the Antwerp Tramways, furthermore its products find the way to Egypt, South Africa, Argentina, Chili and India. For the customer with the highest claims, the International Sleeping Car Company, the Factory in Győr finished sleeping cars and dining cars with luxurious furniture.

In 1907 the Wiener Bankverein took over the majority of shares of the enterprise from the Lederer family, after 1911 the Czjzek family, also Austrian, had share in the Wagon Factory. In 1913 — in order to promote motor-car manufacture, an agreement is reached with the Prague company Böhmisch-Mährische Maschi-174