Country: Czechoslovakia
Date: 8 September 1950
Subject: Koprivnice Plant of the Tatra National Enterprise
Pages: 3
No of Encls: Nil
Place Acquired: [redacted]
Supplement to report: 25X1A
[Introduction redacted]
l. Tatra National Enterprise controls the Koprivnice (Neeseldorf) P50/O46) factory (Formerly the Ringhoffer-Tatra-Plant), as well as plants in Butovice (O51/L78), Praha-Smichov, Kolin (O51/M38) and Ceska Lipa (O51/F75). The factory employs 6,500 production workers and 700 office workers. Personnel at the Koprivnice plant include:
a. General Manager: Ing. Hojecky, a Communist, 40 years old.
b. Manager of the Automobile Department: Ing. Skarka, not organised politically. His deputy is Ing. Kargele.
c. Chief Engineer of the Automobile Dept: Ing. Jan Drozd, the most able technician in the plant.
d. Commercial Manager: Ing. Karel Chalupa, a former Social Democrat.
e. Chief of Personnel: Dockal, a Communist, cadre man of the plant.
f. Chief of the Sales Dept.: Jan Hykel, a Communist.
g. Chief of the Car-bodies Department: Jan Heske.
h. Chief of the Foundry: Ing. Cervinka.
i. Chief of the Railroad Car Department: Chief Engineer Bezdeko since the end of 1949 he has been made manager of the Butovice plant ot Tatra.
j. Chief of the Repair Shop: Staff Capt. B. Bucek, a member of the Czech Army of the West.
k. Chief of the Central Sales Office in Praha: Ing. Brecka
1. Chief's of the Development Section: Ing. Dr. Mimra and Ing. Vyska
2. lt is reported that there is an agent of the MVD at the Koprivnice plant, a Russian, Ivanov, who is the leader of the Lenin School located in the Afrika Restaurant in Koprivnice. Plant employees in the lower categories (A. 1-4, M 1-4, and T 1-4) attend a two weeks course at this school.
3. Production at the Koprivnice plant includes the following types:
a. 57b "Hadimrska" About 100 or these combat cars were produced in 1947 for the Ministry of National Defense. The same model was made during the war for the Wehrmacht. By the end of 1947, 3,000 cars of this Model were produced, and it is reported that production of the model has been dropped by the plant.
b. 87. A prototype of this eight-cylinder limousine was completed during 1949. Orders for 250 cars of this model have been received from abroad; Austria is supplying Tatra with some of the steel necessary for the filling of these orders.
c. Tatraplan. Eight to eleven Tatraplan cars are produced at the plant per day. About 75 percent of these are exported to Austria, Belgium and Switzerland; only a few are sent to USSR.
d. 115. This model is produced by strengthening the underbody and enlarging the cab of model 114 truck. It is being produced at the rate of two to three per day for domestic use.
e. 111. This truck is powered by a V Diesel engine. A large car is also produced in the same model, primarily for export to the USSR by railroad via Cierna pod Copu.
f. The prototype of a new type of combat car is scheduled to be completed by the development section in Praha-Smichov by the end of January 1950. It is to be powered by a new type 50 hp engine, and will have six wheels. The rear axle will be of the design long used by Tatra.
g. The railroad car department is completing an order for tank cars for export to France. It is also making repairs on German freight cars. Production of railroad locomotives powered by model 11 Diesel engines was begun in 1943. This model has proved to be efficient and very satisfactory.
4. The factory of the Koprivnice plant is very efficient and modern. Among other items it produces transmission gears for the Zetor tractor and gears for electric motors for the Moravian Electric Works at Vsetin (P50/043) and Frenstat (P50/055). There is also a considerable screw production at the foundry.
5. Electricity for the Koprivnice plant is produced partly by the plants own power works and partly by the Moravian-Silesian Power works in Moravska Ostrava (P50/059). The factory produces its own steam for the turbines and for heating, and coal gas for use in the smith and hardening furnaces.
6. There is a shortage of ball-bearings, imported primarily from Switzerland, Italy and Austria, as well as of cast iron and other metals.
7. There is a factory workers' militia of two companies under the command or Frantisek Keisler, the gatekeeper and a convinced Communist. His deputy is Lichnovsky. The militia is armed but has practically no training. The fire brigade is well trained and well equipped. lt is under the command of Jan Sykora. The chairman of the workers' council is Kasparek, a Communist.
8. The general manager of the Butovice plant of Tatra is Bezdek. The factory manager is J.Benis; his deputy is F.Vermirovsky. This plant produces railroad cars and undercarriages as well as spiral borers. The airplane production department has been discontinued. The main production difficulty of this plant is in obtaining Poldi steel.
