The Swedish Dynamit Nobel AG opened a dynamite and gunpowder factory
in the woods near St. Egyden, Saubersdorf in Austria in 1890. In this factory grenades were
filled up with highly explosive powder which were to be used in
Military crisis.
The factory was built by 400, mainly Italian, labourers for the sum
of 2 Million Friedenskronen. Between 80 and 100 people found a
job in the factory at the beginning of the first world war in 1914.
During the war the demand for grenades was high and the labourers
had to work in 12 hour shifts. Needless to say that security standards
dropped and caused some lethal explosions. Five people died in an
explosion in 1915, 9 in May 1917 and another 6 two months later.
Nobel closed the factory after the first world war as there was not so much demand for explosives and gunpowder any longer. The factory was sold in the 1930s.
From 1938 onwards the Wehrmacht built large munition depots on the site.
New bunkers and barracks were build around the area and reportedly used for making and storing munition.
Enemy munition was taken apart and the parts and powder were used to make
new munition.
When the allied troups increased the number of bombings on Wiener Neustadt, one of the main areas for factories building military equipment, the Saubersdorf site was extended to the north. Many underground storage and manufactoring buildings were built all connected to a small-gauge railroad. Via these railroads and the Schneebergbahn, Saubersdorf was connected with Wöllersdorf and the Wiener Neustadt military airport. The entire area was turned into a military off limits zone.
At the beginning of 1944 within this zone an high security area was created in which A4 (V2) missiles were stored.
In 1945 the factory and depots were cleaned out, the buildings blown up and the site deserted just before the area became under control of the Russian army.
What's left of the site are the main office building, two
smaller one-story buildings and two bunkers. The main building
was three stories high and still shows wall- and ceiling decorations
in the style of the early 1900s. Some old rails are hiding under the grass and
shrubs and when you look closely you can still make out the roads and loading
zones where the trucks used to park, load and unload their explosive cargo.
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