The Washington herald., 1920-11-30
Germany's Vast War Plant Turns
Out Multitude of Peace Products
Under Supervision of New Republic

tion production for the German
army. Today, under the ownership
Of the republic with plants here.
in Kiel. Munich, Friedrichsort. Rue.
stringen. Kassel, Lippstadt, Erfurt.
wolfgang bel Hanau. Siegbure, Am
berg. Ingolstadt, Dachau, and Reich
ertshofen, II 10 striving to achieve
big peace time production with
an eye to both internal and export
needs.
The main plant is here In Spandau.
the city which Napoleon once oc-
cupied; the location of a famous
tower where millions in gold were
stored for general staff purposes.
Looking out over the works one
sees a veritable forest Of chimneys
Here one sees great heaps Of scrap-
ped artillery; there huge farm wag-
ons which France demands under
the Versailles treaty.
Out on the horizon loom the Chin
neys Of the great Borsig locomotive
works; in another direction one sees
the Zeppelin sheds at Staaken: and
beyond the town of Nauen, site of
the main German wireless station,
Here Germany Is undertaking the
almost superhuman task of trans
forming a more than 100 per cent
war industry into a going peace
time concern.
The work has been slow, because
the men who conceived and deyel-
oped Spandau bent all their energies
to creation Of such things as AZ
centimeter shells, cannons, powder
and rifles.
Today what Is left of these war
goods Is being melted over into
huge steel ingots for conversion
into peace products. Great heaps
of broken artillery are scattered
through the place; a. centimeter
shells are here and there; machine
guns worth 10000, gold marks each
when built are buried under masses
of junk. Seething ovens melt all
this tremendous mass down. Old
steelmasters supervise this smelt-
ing. Big rolling presses mold the
ingots over, and a saw hacks them
to pieces like logs of wood. All it's
products, under the supervision Of
entente commissioners, have been
rendered worthless FOR war pur-
poses. New machines are taking
the places of those that ground Qua
unending supplies for East and
West fronts.
Today a new set of products is
coming forth. In the car and loco
motive repairing works, twelve to
fifteen engines and number of
wagons can be accommodated daily.
To date. 1900 locomotives have been
remodelled. Later. the works plans
to go into building of new engines
The German Republic is hoping to
get into the export business on a
wide scale.
In its conversion of the great
Spandau war plant 1t has kept an
eye out to export possibilities.
Quantity production" is a prime es-
sential, its engineers hold.
Some of its products now are only
temporary-using up material on
hand and giving employment to per-
sons who otherwise might be work.
less. The war taught the German
to use "electron," light metal COM
pound in many respects similar to
aluminium. From this metal the
Deutche Werke are now manufac-
turing artificial hands. An Ameri-
can process, to which they have the
rights for Germany has developed
artificial arms so that as one cripple
remarked, they work better than
real arms" The speaker was one of
the factory demonstrators. Both his
arms were gone except for stumps
near the shoulder. He could eat with
the artificial arms, smoke a cigarette,
pick a paper from the floor, write
and so on. These new arms are
made where formerly cartridge man
ufacture bIossomed
Water and gas faucets can he
be turned out en- masse; the works
has developed. for export trade, a
new type OF radiator from sheet iron
lighter than the ordinary type. A
special machine for MASKING and
straining potatoes, fruit and the
like; dough mixers: biscuit cutters:
farm implements, like moving ma
chine knives: frying pms; electric
teakettles; milk separators; cultiva-
tors. One section of the factory
presses out car bumpers. another
makes furniture.
In the woodworking section. spe-
cial attention is paid to office and
home furniture. Springs for artil-
lery are being converted into
springs for beds and cribs. Another
branch of the factory has put in new
machines for making shotguns for
hunting. this being permitted by the
entente.