The factory was founded on 3 October 1852 as
Eisengießerei und Maschinen-Fabrik von L. Schwartzkopff in
Berlin by
Louis Victor Robert Schwartzkopff. After a fire in 1860 and the expansion of the factory, they started to manufacture
turntables, water systems and
turnouts for several railway companies. The first locomotive built by the firm was delivered on 1 February 1867 to the
Lower Silesian-Mark Railway (
Niederschlesisch-Märkische Eisenbahn or NME). On 1 July 1870 the firm was turned into a share company and renamed the
Berliner Maschinenbau-Actien-Gesellschaft vormals L. Schwartzkopff, Berlin. In 1897 a second factory was opened in
Wildau. From 1899 the company also manufactured
Linotype machines for the
Mergenthaler factory in Berlin. On 4 July 1907 they started a joint venture with the Munich firm of
Maffei. For that purpose the
Maffei-Schwartzkopff-Werke GmbH was opened next to the existing factory in Wildau. It was here that the construction of
electric locomotives and their equipment began in 1910. In 1924
diesel locomotives followed. In 1932 the Maffei-Schwartzkopff-Werke went bankrupt. In 1945, following the destruction of the factory halls during the
Second World War and the
dismantling of other parts of the factory in Berlin and
Wildau, the construction of locomotives by the Berliner Maschinenbau finally ended. On 20 September 1945 the production of cast iron components,
linotype machines and glass-blowing machines started up in the remaining parts of the factory. In 1961 the tractor firm of
Moorburger Treckerwerke was bought and its production changed. In 1966 the Berliner Maschinenbau was merged into the
DIAG, the
Deutsche(n) Industrieanlagen Gesellschaft mbH. == Locomotive programme ==