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Carl Beermann
The first American sewing machines came to Europe in the 1950s and were imitated immediately. Carl Beermann and F. Boecke in Berlin and Christian Mansfeld in Leipzig, were among the first German manufacturers to diversify their activities relatively soon in other production areas.
In 1855 Clemens Müller was the first German manufacturer based in Dresden. He was followed by another 100 companies.
The American companies, therefore, had significant problems on the German market with the exception of the Singer of George Neidlinger in Hamburg.
A main buyers of Beermann's sewing machines was the Bielefeld linen factory. Carl Baer and Heinrich Koch, knowledgable of the Berlin Nähmaschinenfabrik Carl Beermann, where both had worked as mechanic. The company Beermann sewing machines was after the construction of Wheeler & Wilson.
Mechanical engineering company Carl Beermann
In 1849, Carl Beermann founded a mechanical engineering company at Dresdener Strasse 26, Berlin. Initially, sewing machines were manufactured here. When, during the "Gründerzeit" period, the demand for agricultural equipment increase sharply, Beermann recognized the signs of the times and eventually switched to other production.
From 1856, plows of all kinds, rollers, clod breakers, seeders, Göpel machines (a mechanical device for generating a driving force), beet cutters and choppers, were manufactured on the newly acquired property in Köpenicker Strasse at the Schlesisches Tor.
English and American models serve as a model, some of which are reproduced, some of which are even improved. It is the first time that agricultural machinery is manufactured industrially in Germany. In this way, the Beermann factory quickly becomes a national size of the industry. In the 1870s, 500-600 workers were employed.
Carl Beermann's sons Hermann and Georg moved the company's headquarters to Eichenstrasse 4 (now Puschkinallee) in Treptow in 1872. This is where the “factory for agricultural machinery and wagon construction, iron foundry, steam hammer and boiler forge”, the so-called “Beermannwerk”, is built. It is equipped with the latest machinery and designed for over 1.000 workers. The department for wagon construction is added later and produces agricultural locomotives. Customers are supplied throughout Germany and in Eastern Europe to Russia. One expands: a branch is opened in Bromberg, as well as in Leipziger Strasse in Berlin. In 1913 the company employed 1.100 workers. It did not survive the First World War.
In 1924, Allgemeine Berliner Omnibus AG (ABOAG) bought the company premises and set up a repair shop and a department for bus construction in the workshops.
From 1904(?) Beermannstrasse at Treptower Park, after it was renamed Mächtigstrasse at the behest of the National Socialists between 1938-47, reminded one of the Jewish entrepreneurial family, but in particular of the commercial councilor Hermann Beermann, who made great contributions to Treptow from 1876.
Text: Florian Thomas