Lecture "The SS Armaments Factory Getewent" (registration required at museum@zittau.de)

On Tuesday, September 29, at 5 p.m., Ivan Rous from the North Bohemian Museum Liberec will speak about the company "Getewent". This society for technical and economic development in Reichenau near Gablonz an der Neiße developed into one of the most important centers for research in the field of microwave and radar technology in the second half of the Second World War.

It was founded by the NSDAP within the framework of the Four Year Plan with the support of the "house notary of the SS", Dr. Wilhelm Schneider. Beyond that, however, it fulfilled other, hitherto little-known functions: It served as a center for Swiss collaborators who were preparing a coup d'état in Switzerland, as a recruitment center for Swiss nationals with the goal of bringing them into the SS and SA, and even as an instrument for financial transfers between Switzerland and Germany. What appears today like a remote factory in a small town was a strategic hub during the Second World War that linked state-of-the-art technologies, Nazi forced labor, conspiratorial activities, and cross-border financial flows.