Production Now @museum.de

Finally, take a look at the inner workings of a VW Passat. All the marked parts in the engine and gearbox are made using the sintering process, in other words: powder metallurgy! Without such precise and complex parts, series production of modern cars would be impossible.

Today, Schunk Sintermetalltechnik Thale makes parts for engines and transmissions, specifically a wide range of toothed pulleys and sprockets for camshaft control. In the extra showcase on the right, for example, we have the engine block of a 4-cylinder unit on display: the bearing caps, (meaning the darker, bridge-shaped parts), were made at the Thale plant.

Even before the fall of the Berlin wall, complex moulded parts were being produced at the Thale iron and steelworks and supplied to Zwickau and Eisenach for VW engines being manufactured there under licence.

In 1990, the year of German unification, management of the iron and steel works was passed to the Treuhand Trust. The plant was first privatised in 1992. More than six thousand employees lost their jobs almost over night. They received relatively low severance pay – or none at all. In the Powder Metallurgy Division alone, the number of employees dropped from 650 to 120.

In 1997, in the course of the second privatisation, the Schunk company took over Thale’s two remaining production units and invested heavily. Today, the company employs 450 people on the Thale site. Most of the production is destined for the car industry. As you make your way outside, be sure to look out for the model of a camshaft drive.

And that brings us to the end of our tour. We hope you’ve enjoyed finding out about the long and eventful industrial history of the town of Thale. Don't forget to visit Steam Engine Number 7, which can be viewed as part of a guided tour. Our staff will be happy to provide information.

For now, it’s goodbye from us – and we hope to see you again soon – here at the Thale Hüttenmuseum.