Luftwaffe subcontractors in Poland - Holzbau Ag

[Wybe Buising]

I am very interested in the manufacturer of hangars and barrack named Holzbau AG (abbr. Hobag), this firm which was situated in Berlin before the war. Holzbau AG supplied the Luftwaffe throughout the war with all kind of aircraft hangars, barracks and living quarters. With the surrender of Poland the HQ of this firm became located in Breslau (today Wroclaw) and they operated several sawing units and woodshops around Poland, there was forced labor occurring l understand. Holzbau AG manufactured wooden segments of these hangars and after shipment to an airfield – this could by throughout occupied Europe - the segments were build together by locals (an Ikea like system l guess).

My information on this firm is very limited and l wonder if there are any researchers around who know more about this subject and what Holzbau AG exactly built and for how long. What kind of hangars did this firm supply to the Luftwaffe, was there any standardization, are there more type of hangars, how was this firm organized, is there anything left of what they supplied etc etc..

I appreciate any comments on this subject.

Regards,

Wybe Buising
wbuising@zonnet.nl
Historical research airfield Hilversum (NL)

[ju55dk]

There were different firms who supplied Flugzeughallen to Luftwaffe. Ao. Appel Holzbau Berlin, Delta and Junkers!

Otto Appel Holzbau, in Berlin supplied most af the Hallen build in Denmark 1940-45. They were standard in size. Supplied to an airfield and assembled by local firms.

Junker

[Franek Grabowski]

I recall seeing in a very old Fly Past an article on attempt to save a wooden hangar at Beauvais - unfotunatelly it collapsed before could be rescued. Perhaps someone of our French friends has some photos of it?
Concerning Holzbau - do you have an address in Wroclaw for it? I doubt if anything survived but I can do a shot of the buildings for you if they still exist. Some details on activity of the firm may be in British intel reports. They were almost exclusively based on Polish intel reports. I have scans of the latter but as they are not OCRed I cannot search them easilly.

[Wybe Buising]

Thanks to you all for your kind reactions. They only other info l have is that the address was Sandstrasse 10 in Wroclaw and that the leading directors name was Gitschel (at least 60 years of age). Apparently the whole production unit was under command of the Luftwaffe who settled in Cracow. There were at least two places where the produced hangars/barracks etc: ND = Werk Neumarkt/Dunajec and ZI = Zakopane I. Unfortunetaly this is all l have.

Regards,

Wybe

[Franek Grabowski]

Wybe
Sandstrasse is currently ulica Piaskowa and is just in the centre of the old city. Possibly the building survived but I think it was a bureau only and I do not think any paperwork could survive there. Other locations are too unprecise. Sorry.

[Wybe Buising]

Thanks Franek, for you help. I appreciate this very much. Could you give some directions where l would find archives/persons in Poland on this subject who could help me further. I did google and found several archives but major part of them were written in Polish which l cannot read and some (a very small minority) in German or English, which l can read.

Regards,

Wybe