Industriewerke Ludwigsfelde
| Traded as | Daimler-Benz (1936–45), IWL (1955–65), IFA (1966–90), Mercedes-Benz (1991–present) |
|---|---|
| Industry | engine and vehicle manufacture |
| Founded | 1936 |
| Headquarters | Ludwigsfelde, Germany |
| Products | aircraft engines (1936–45; 1958–61), various industrial products (1951–), motor scooters (1954–65), Multicar vehicles (1958–), trucks (1966–90), vans (1990–present) |
| Parent | Daimler-Benz (1936–45; 1994–98), IFA (1955–90), Treuhandanstalt (1990–94), Daimler AG (1998–present) |
Industriewerke Ludwigsfelde is an automotive factory in Ludwigsfelde in Brandenburg, just south of Berlin in Germany. The factory is part of Daimler-Benz AG and since 1991 it has made Mercedes-Benz vans.
Daimler-Benz established the Ludwigsfelde factory in 1936 to make DB 600 aero engines for new Luftwaffe bomber and fighter aircraft. In the course of German re-armament and the Second World War the factory went on to make Daimler-Benz DB 601, DB 603 and DB 605 engines for various Luftwaffe aircraft.
During the Second World War the factory used at least 10,000 prisoners of war, forced labourers and concentration camp prisoners to work in the factory. From 1943 to 1944 it used the forced labour of about 1,100 women prisoners from the Ravensbrück concentration camp north of Berlin. Ludwigsfelde is at least 60 miles (97 km) from Ravensbrück, so the forced labourers were housed near the factory in a subsidiary concentration camp called the Deutschlandhalle.
Early in 1945 the US Army Air Forces bombed the factory. Then, after the surrender of Germany, what remained of the works was dismantled and taken to the Soviet Union as part of the Allies' programme to take reparations from Germany and reduce German industrial capacity.
Brandenburg was part of the Sowjetische Besatzungszone (SBZ or Soviet occupation zone) from 1945 and the Deutsche Demokratische Republik (DDR or German Democratic Republic) from 1949. The Volkseigener Betrieb Industriewerke Ludwigsfelde was founded on 1 March 1952. Initially it made marine diesel engines,machine tools and machine elements. Assembly of Multicar M21 Diesel-Ameise ("diesel ant") vehicles was transferred to Ludwigsfelde from the Schmiedewerk Roßwein ("Roßwein Forge Works") in Saxony. In 1953 IWL became involved in the development of motor scooters, which entered production in 1954.
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