Škoda Works

1859–1899: establishment

In 1859, Count Ernst von Waldstein-Wartenberg established an engineering works in Plzeň as a branch of his ironworks at Sedlec near Starý Plzenec. The factory began operating in September 1860. It manufactured and repaired industrial machinery, supplying equipment for breweries, sugar factories, mills and mines, as well as steam engines and boilers. In 1861, Plzeň’s Bürgerliches Brauhaus ordered two steam engines and two coolers from the works.

Emil Škoda joined the factory as chief engineer in 1866 and bought it from Waldstein on 12 June 1869. He expanded its production facilities and developed its export business. In 1876, the company opened a representative office in Kyiv, led by sugar industry specialist Hugo Jelínek, to support its supplies of machinery to breweries and sugar factories in the Russian Empire.

Between 1884 and 1886, Škoda built a steelworks producing cast steel, which attracted orders from foreign naval authorities. The company subsequently expanded into armaments, completing its first naval gun in 1889 and opening a separate armaments department in 1890.

Expansion placed increasing demands on the company’s finances. In December 1899, the business was converted into a joint-stock company with the participation of Creditanstalt and the Bohemian Escomptebank. Emil Škoda retained a majority shareholding and became its president and general director.

1900–1918: expansion and World War I

Karl Škoda inherited his father’s majority stake in the company in 1900. He became general director in 1909, taking over from Georg Günther, who had held the post since 1904. During Günther’s time as general director, the Austro-Hungarian army placed substantial orders with Škoda.

Civilian production continued, with steam turbines added in 1904 under a licence from the French engineer Auguste Rateau. Škoda opened a research institute in 1907 and began manufacturing turbines to its own designs in 1911. The institute’s chemical, metallographic and mechanical laboratories worked on engineering tasks in steelmaking and arms manufacture.

Škoda also supplied penstocks for the Canadian Niagara Power Company’s hydroelectric plant at Niagara Falls.

By the outbreak of World War I, Škoda was the largest arms manufacturer in Austria-Hungary, supplying guns and ammunition to both the army and navy. It made the guns and turrets for the navy’s Tegetthoff-class battleships, each of which carried twelve 30.5 cm guns. Škoda also produced mountain guns and siege artillery.

In 1913, Škoda took part in founding Magyar Ágyúgyár, the Hungarian gun company with a factory at Győr. The Hungarian state was the majority shareholder and production started in 1916.

The company enlarged its workshops to meet military orders. The workforce grew to more than 30,000 during 1917. Women entered jobs previously held largely by men. The works operated under military supervision, with restrictions on workers’ freedom to leave their employment.

1918–1938: restructuring and diversification

František Hanuš became general director in 1918. Škoda needed money to adapt its factories for civilian production, but had debts to its banks and unpaid claims against the former Austro-Hungarian state.

With the backing of the Czechoslovak government, Schneider et Cie acquired a controlling interest in Škoda in 1919. The French company’s investment helped finance the change to peacetime production. Škoda moved its headquarters from Vienna to Prague and, in 1921, merged with Spojené strojírny. The merger brought back the engineering operations transferred in 1914 and added factories in Prague-Smíchov and Hradec Králové.

Locomotive production began with a steam engine delivered on 11 June 1920. In 1922, Škoda hired twelve specialists from Switzerland to help develop electric locomotives. Two years later, the company set up an electric-railway department at its Doudlevce factory. The first electric locomotive was completed in May 1927 for service between Prague’s railway stations.

Karel Loevenstein became a new general director in 1923, the year Škoda registered its winged-arrow trademark. Two years later, the company acquired Laurin & Klement in Mladá Boleslav. In 1930, the automobile business became a separate subsidiary, Akciová společnost pro automobilový průmysl (ASAP).

Sales fell during the Great Depression, and Škoda cut its workforce. Financial assistance in 1932 helped it through the crisis. Orders from the Czechoslovak army and foreign customers supported a recovery from 1934.

In 1933, Škoda secured an Iranian government order to equip six sugar factories. Further orders covered the construction of factory buildings. Škoda arranged transport, installed the machinery and helped put the factories into operation. It established Société Iranienne Skoda in Tehran that December to handle its Iranian business.

After the Munich Agreement, Schneider sold its shares in Škoda to Czechoslovak interests in December 1938. The French directors resigned in January 1939, and the Artillery Convention ended that month.

1939–1945: German control and World War II

After the German occupation started in March 1939, Škoda was placed under military administration. A German delegation arranged the takeover of its management on 20 March. Reichswerke Hermann Göring took control of Škoda through share purchases and voting agreements. From 1942, Waffen-Union Škoda-Brünn managed the German shareholdings in Škoda and the Brno arms works. Wilhelm Voss headed the holding company. Before the war, Škoda produced LT vz. 35 light tanks for the Czechoslovak Army. After the occupation, the German army took over these tanks and used them under the designation Panzer 35(t).

Guns and ammunition remained the main products of the Plzeň works, which manufactured weapons to both Škoda and German designs for the German armed forces. The special-vehicle department repaired tanks and made half-track chassis before returning to the manufacture of complete armoured vehicles in August 1944. It delivered 766 Hetzer tank destroyers before the end of the war.

The factories expanded to meet military orders and employment rose from about 40,000 in 1939 to more than 55,000 in 1942. The company also used forced labour and opened labour “re-education” camps. Prisoners escaped from these camps during the air raid of 25 April 1945.

Škoda’s physics research department continued working after the Czech universities closed in 1939. It moved from university premises to a company building in Prague-Smíchov and then to Příbram. Václav Dolejšek continued working with its researchers after the universities closed in 1939. He also joined the resistance. The Gestapo arrested him in October 1944. He died at the Small Fortress in Terezín on 3 January 1945.

On 25 April 1945, American bombers attacked the Plzeň works, which were still producing arms. The BBC had warned workers to leave the factory before the raid. About 70 per cent of the factory was destroyed or seriously damaged in the raid. American troops liberated Plzeň on 6 May, and the first postwar locomotives left the works that autumn.

Mountain guns produced by Škoda

• Škoda 75 mm Model 15
• Škoda 75 mm Model 1928
• Škoda 75 mm Model 1936
• Škoda 75 mm Model 1939
• Škoda 100 mm Model 1916
• Škoda 100 mm Model 16/19
• Škoda 105 mm Model 1939
• Škoda 150 mm Model 1918

Other weapons produced by Škoda

• Škoda M1909 machine gun
• 3,7cm KPÚV vz. 34 – anti-tank gun
• 3,7cm KPÚV vz. 37 – anti-tank gun
• 3,7cm ÚV vz. 38 (A7) – used on LT vz. 38 light tank
• Škoda 47mm SFK L/33 H
• Škoda 47mm SFK L/44 S
• 4.7 cm KPÚV vz. 38
• Škoda 7 cm K10
• Škoda 7.5 cm d/29 Model 1911
• Škoda 76.5 mm L/50
• Škoda 10 cm K10
• Škoda 10 cm vz. 38 howitzer
• 85 mm vz. 52
• Škoda 10 cm vz. 53
• Škoda 14 cm/56
• Škoda 15 cm K10
• Škoda 149 mm K-series
  • Škoda 149 mm K1 / Model 1933
  • Škoda 149 mm K4 / Model 1937
• Škoda 19 cm vz. 1904
• 21 cm Kanone 39
• 210 mm gun M1939 (Br-17)
• 24 cm Haubitze 39
• Škoda 24 cm L/40 K97
• Škoda 305 mm Model 1911
• Škoda 30.5 cm /45 K10
• 305 mm howitzer M1939 (Br-18)
• 35 cm Marinekanone L/45 M. 16
• 42 cm Haubitze M. 14/16

1945–1989: Nationalisation and state ownership

The Czechoslovak state nationalised Škoda in October 1945, and a national enterprise was established the following year. The Mladá Boleslav car works became AZNP (Automobilové závody, národní podnik), later Škoda Auto. Further reorganisations of state-owned industry created independent national enterprises from the Hradec Králové works, which made equipment for the food and chemical industries, and the Brno electrical works. The armaments works in Dubnica and the Komárno shipyard also became independent.

Truck production was transferred to Avia, then began moving to factories in northern Bohemia in 1951 as Avia resumed aircraft manufacture. These factories formed the national enterprise LIAZ in January 1953.

The Plzeň enterprise was renamed Závody Vladimíra Iljiče Lenina (Vladimir Ilyich Lenin Works) on 21 December 1951. A cogwheel with a five-pointed star replaced the winged-arrow trademark. The company brought back the winged arrow after overseas customers failed to recognise the new trademark. The name was changed back to Škoda in 1965.

Škoda workers joined protests against the currency reform on 1 June 1953. They marched into central Plzeň, where the protests turned into demonstrations against communist rule. After security forces put down the uprising, some workers were sent to prison. Others lost their jobs or were evicted from their homes.

Locomotives, heavy machinery and trolleybuses made up much of Škoda’s production. Majority of its production went to the Soviet Union and other Eastern Bloc countries. It built the first E 499.0 electric locomotive in 1953 and went on to supply electric locomotives to railways in Czechoslovakia and abroad.

Škoda moved trolleybus production to Ostrov in 1960 and began building the 9Tr there in 1961. The Soviet Union bought most of these vehicles. Other orders included 20 for Bergen in Norway, delivered in 1972. Series production of the next model, the 14Tr, began in 1982.

Škoda also built equipment for electricity generation. Production of 110 MW steam turbines began in 1959. Škoda built its first 200 MW turboset in 1966 and began making 500 MW steam turbines in 1978. Its work in nuclear engineering dated back to 1956, when it set up a group dedicated to the field. In 1964, Škoda began manufacturing equipment for the A1 nuclear power station at Jaslovské Bohunice. Production of components for VVER reactors began in 1974, and a new reactor manufacturing hall opened in 1979. The company supplied Czechoslovak nuclear power stations and all four reactor units at Paks in Hungary.

During the Prague Spring in 1968, employees elected a workers' council to take part in managing the enterprise. Škoda became a centre of the workers’ council movement and hosted a national meeting in January 1969. The workers’ councils lost support within the Communist Party as the reforms were reversed following the Warsaw Pact invasion of August 1968.

In November 1989, Škoda workers joined the Velvet Revolution. They set up a strike committee on 21 November and took part in the general strike on 27 November, joining demonstrators in central Plzeň.

1989–2011: after fall of communism

This section needs more citations. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Škoda Works" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (January 2022) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

After the Communist Party lost power in late 1989, the company was privatized into the hands of management. Mismanagement and asset stripping led to a collapse. The company was restructured and some factories closed. Except for some smaller companies named Škoda and Škoda Auto, after the chaotic 1990s period, the Czech Škoda companies were again regrouped within the holding company Škoda Holding a.s. in 2000. In 2010, the holding company changed its name to Škoda Investment, a.s..

Following the change in the political climate in 1989, Škoda started along a path of privatisation and used the time to come up with an optimal production programme, make new business contacts and look for markets other than those that had so far been its priority markets, communist countries.

In 1991, a foreign partner for the passenger car works Škoda Auto a.s. was sought by the Czech government. Volkswagen was chosen, and the German firm initially took a 30% stake, rising to 100% ownership by 1999. Škoda Auto is now a completely-independent entity from other companies bearing the Škoda name.

In 1992, the company was privatised by the so-called Czech method. It began expanding its production activities, acquiring the Tatra and LIAZ vehicle works and constructing a plant to produce aluminum soft drink cans. The expansion put the company's financial stability in jeopardy. In 1999, it concluded an agreement with creditor banks, and the restructuring of the entire capital structure of the Škoda group was undertaken. The result was the legal and financial stability at the company. Currently, a sectoral restructuring of production companies in the group is under way. In April 2000, Škoda Holding a.s. took over the helm, controlling nineteen primary subsidiaries and most product lines.

In 2003, the Czech government sold its 49% stake to the Appian Group for 350 million CZK; (in 2020, equivalent to 14.78 million USD) later that year the Appian Group acquired the rest of its stake in a liquidation of the previous owner. The Appian Group is a holding company incorporated in the Netherlands and controlled through a screen of shell companies. The real owner or owners are unknown, despite investigations by the Czech police. In September 2010, a group of four current or former Škoda or Appian managers announced that it would acquire Škoda from Appian for an undisclosed price. The Czech media speculated that the acquisition was only a formality, as the managers probably owned the parent company Appian.

Škoda was then focused solely on the transport sector. Other divisions have been sold, a large part of them to the Russian company OMZ (the price was not published, estimated at 1 billion CZK). Some smaller transport companies were acquired, such as part of the Hungarian company Ganz, VÚKV (owner of the Velim railway test circuit) and some transport-related assets of the former ČKD, now called Škoda Vagonka. In 2009, Škoda holding announced that the South Korean conglomerate Doosan would acquire its power section for 11,5 billion CZK (US$656 million). Finally, in March 2011, Škoda sold its Škoda Transportation subsidiary to Cyprus-based company Škoda Industry (Europe) Ltd, later renamed CEIL (Central Europe Industries) Ltd.

As of 2012, Škoda Investment still owns the Škoda brand and some real estate but does not perform any industrial activity. Between 2007 and 2012, the company paid dividends to Appian, a sum of 32 billion CZK (1.18 billion euro or US$1.6 billion).