Junkers Flugzeug und Motorenwerke A.G. factory

Building for aero-engine test-benches and maintenance

A manufacturing site requisitioned in the Second World War

The factory where Émile Mathis made his cars, was requisitioned in 1939 and turned over to Junkers, the Dessau-based aircraft manufacturer. All that remains now is a few functionalist test-benches, with an obvious Bauhaus influence.

Mathis set up his car factory along the route de Colmar in 2011 and this marked the beginning of the manufacturing industry in the Plaine des Bouchers.

The factory covered a surface area of 4 hectares and Mathis became the third-largest French car manufacturer in the period between the 2 wars. The factory was requisitioned by Junkers Flugzeug und Motorenwerke A.G. from 1939 to 1945.

Aero-engine maintenance and test-benches

The Junkers factory was tasked with making parts for engines, and for reconditioning engines for the company’s fighters and bombers.

Plans were drawn up for 2 test-benches to be installed, but only one, the Werk M was actually completed. The factory’s distinctive design, with its 4 quadrangular towers, open at the top, mirrored the internal layout, with the workshops and the air-exhaust facilities required for the engine tests. The inside walls were covered in bricks acting as an acoustic barrier.

A building inspired by the Bauhaus school

The building’s streamlined functionalism and modularity, along with the use of brick as the sole building material, are reminiscent of the Bauhaus school, which was founded in Weimar before moving to Dessau, where the Junkers HQ was located, in 1926. The factory was hit by bombs in 1944, but the test bench came out unscathed and was later listed as a historical monument. It is now the head office of a civil engineering company.