DKW Auto-Union Project: 1953 CIA Report on automobile production at the VEB Eisenachwerk

Saturday 27 October 2018

1953 CIA Report on automobile production at the VEB Eisenachwerk

From the moment Germany was divided into different occupation zones, western intelligence began intriguing against the Soviet sponsored socialist administrations. East Germany was the front-line in the new cold war. Agents were infiltrated into East Germany to obtain intelligence about the country's painfully slow recovery and exploit its many weaknesses. Reproduced here is a late 1953 CIA report to the State Department, US Army, Airforce and Navy on the state of the East Germany's struggling auto industry. Much of the intelligence reported here was from early 1953 and was barely a secret. Reports in the East German motoring press, such as Der Deutsch Strassenverkehr, were reporting openly on these problems. However, some of the commentary obviously came from someone within the VEB Eisenachwerk, referenced as 50X1-HUM (i.e., a human source). The report - as innocuous as it is - was designated secret and was only declassified in 2010. All reference to the "asset" has been redacted, as has the introduction to the report, which likely provided some strategic explanation for the report that may possibly be seen as embarrassing for the US government today, some 70 years after the fact! Were they planning sabotage? Was the factory on a target list in the event of hostilities.

The original report was an extremely poor quality photocopy so I have transposed the text directly rather than post the text in the original format. I have added the photos just for illustration. The original report is text only.

"Central Intelligence Agency Information Report
Classification: Secret
Report number: [Redacted] CD NO 50X1-HUM
Country: East Germany
Date Distributed 15 October 1953
Subject: VEB-IFA Automobil-Fabrik EMW Eisenach
Number of pages: illegible
Place Acquired: [Redacted]
Date of Info: [Redacted]
This is unevaluated Information

Introductory paragraph has been redacted

1. The IFA F-9 type sedan went into production at the VEB Ifa Automobil-Fabrik (EMW) in Eisenach during early January 1953. While plans called for a daily production of 40 cars, only 125 cars had left the plant prior to the 27 February 1953. Of these, the Volkspolizei received 25, either as a sedan or jeep type with folding top [see photo below - ed]. The engines for this type of cars were shipped to Eisenach from the Ifa-Werke in Chemnitz. Prior to March 1953, production was hampered by a lack of sheet. 1/

2. The production of a jeep-type car with a four-wheel drive for the Volkspolizei, of which 160 had been completed by late 1952, had not yet been resumed prior to March 1953. The car was allegedly equipped with an EMW 340 engine. The frames for the cars were shipped by truck to Halle on the Saale River where bodies were added by an unidentified plant. The cars were then hauled back to Eisenach and completed there. In early February, preparations were made to execute all assembling operations in Eisenach. For this purpose, a four-story assembling shed was scheduled to be completed by March 1953. 2/

3. Cars of the EMW-340 type, which included sedans, ambulances and delivery vans with wooden bodies, were produced at rate of 10 to 20 per day. In late February 1953, a Belgian order for chassis and engines for cars of this type was under execution. The production of this type began with No 25000. No42850 was completed on 27 February 1953. [Redaction] unlike other export deliveries, vehicles scheduled to be shipped to the USSR had to be packed in large boxes. It was rumoured that EMW was planning shortly to start producing a new EMW type 342 sedan. 3/

4. Prior to late February 1953, the daily production of 350 cubic centimeters EMW motorcycles was estimated to be about 35 to 45 motorcycles.

5. Prior to late February 1953, the production was generally hampered by lack of sheets with the result that production was sometimes halted for one or two days. Soldering tin was also very scarce; substitutes in form of powder or solid bars proved unsuccessful. Other bottlenecks caused by lack of materials occurred in the varnishing shop which occasionally had to stop working for two to four days per week.

6. [Redacted] in January 1953 EMW had a labor force of about 7,300 workers including about 2,400 women. The number of apprentices which generally amount to about 1,200 during 1952 was increased to about 2,000 in late 1952.

7. The production of runway plates which was stopped in July 1952 had not restarted prior to late February 1953.

8. In early 1953, the VEB Ifa Automobil-Fabrik (EMW) in Eisenach reported to DHZ Gummi/Asbest in East Berlin a demand for 13,100 tires of 5.00-16 type; 7,800 tires of 3.50-19 type; and 4,400 tires of 4.50-16 R-75 type for sidecar motorcycles with driven sidecar, for the third quarter of 1953; and 13,900 tires of 5.00-16 type; 3,200 tires of 3.50-19 type; and 8,800 tires of 4.50-16 R-75 type for the fourth quarter of 1953.

9. [Redacted] in compliance with a government directive the EMW-340 type sedan no longer to be produced in 1953, as it proved unsatisfactory for export purposes. It was to be replaced by the Ifa F-9 type whose production was to be considerably increased in 1954, especially for export.

Footnotes:
1/ [Redacted] Comment: [Redacted] from early January to 14 March 1953, a total of 220 Ifa F-9 type sedans had been completed and [redacted] the average production was five cards per day during this period. [Redacted] in early March 1953, different kinds of sheet were delivered by the USSR and that, therefore, the deficiency of sheet was made good. The sheet which was used for the construction of bodies is said to have Russian inscriptions and to be of a better quality than the German-made sheet used so far.

2/ [Redacted] Comment: The Halle works mentioned probably are the Ifa-Karosseriewerk Halle VEB.

3/ [Redacted] Comment: [Redacted] the EMW-342 type sedan is a vehicle under development which is scheduled to be manufactured as a five-seater like the type-340 car, but with considerable improvements, a new type body and a newly-designed engine.

Secret

Distribution: State / Navy / Army / Air"