Machine Hall with steam engine
Steam Engine Demonstration | 2025
last Sunday of the month (except July + December) and the following Tuesday
11 am, 1 pm & 3 pm, free admission, duration approx. 30 minutes
powers the operation of the steam engine
The Machine Hall
The Machine Hall was built in the late 19th century to house the steam engine for the local foundries. Machine halls also served as a symbol of prestige for the companies, expressing their pride and self-confidence.
When the Chemnitz Museum of Industry took over the building fabric of the foundries, constructed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, in 1996 to establish a museum of Saxon industrial history, the historic Machine Hall also became part of the museum. At that time, the Machine Hall was in a dilapidated state, and the steam engine was missing. Traces of two wall openings indicated the external bearings of a steam engine as well as the departure point of the transmissions. It is assumed that this was where a steam engine built by the Sächsische Maschinenfabrik, formerly Rich. Hartmann, along with a generator, exciter, and switchgear from Pöge-Elektrizitäts-Aktiengesellschaft, Chemnitz, had once been located. This information is derived from the purchase contract of 1942, when Auto Union AG acquired the building [State Archive Chemnitz, Auto Union, File 3139].
Between 2000 and 2002, the Plauen-based company Hermann Müller restored the machine room with tiles, marbling, stencil painting, a coffered wooden ceiling, and two murals. These bear the hallmark of Chemnitz artist Martha Schrag [1870–1957] and depict scenes from the working world of the foundry.
The Machine Hall was completed with the addition of a steam engine dating from 1896, manufactured by the Germania Machine Factory, formerly J. S. Schwalbe & Sohn.
The Steam Engine
The steam engine, which has been part of the Machine Hall since the museum’s opening in 2003, is a horizontal single-cylinder back-pressure steam engine built by the Germania Machine Factory, formerly J. S. Schwalbe & Sohn, Chemnitz. It features an early Sulzer valve gear and a vertical centrifugal governor. In Börnichen on the Zschopau, the engine was last used to drive four saw frames and, in addition, to generate electricity via two generators. In 1996, the company Kistenfabrik und Dampfsägewerk L. Hunger donated this steam engine to the Chemnitz Museum of Industry.
The engine’s year of construction, 1896, corresponds well with the construction of the Machine Hall. The proportions of the steam engine and the machine room also fit together perfectly.
Technical Specifications of the Steam Engine
Dimensions: 8.28 × 3.00 × 2.61 m
Flywheel diameter: 4.08 m
Piston diameter: 455 mm
Double-acting stroke: 900 mm
Weight: 14 tons
In museum operation: 7.5 bar steam inlet pressure, 65 revolutions per minute, approx. 200 hp
The Restoration
In order to once again demonstrate the heavily damaged machine—already listed as a historic monument during the GDR era—under live steam, defective and missing functional parts had to be replaced in the museum workshop. During disassembly, the flange cover, which had become fused with the cylinder through rust and decades of oil residue, broke apart. The cover, along with sliding plates and railing posts, was newly cast. Numerous companies contributed expert advice and in-kind support to the demanding three-year restoration.
During installation, a crane lifted the two flywheel halves through enlarged window openings in the shell construction phase. The machine now rests on a foundation cast especially for it, secured with 1.5-meter-long bolts. The commissioning was made possible through the dedication of retired steam engine specialist Günter Wolfgruber, who, as an apprentice, had learned from Chemnitz “Hartmann fitters.”
Fresh steam supplied by a modern, natural-gas-fired boiler system now brings the Germania engine to life. Four specially made sisal ropes, each 23 meters long, drive a generator.
