Raxwerke or Rax-Werke was a facility of the Wiener Neustädter Lokomotivfabrik at Wiener Neustadt in Lower Austria. During World War II, the company also produced lamps for Panzer tanks and anti-aircraft guns. [1] Two Raxwerke plants employed several thousand forced laborers from the Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp [2] [3] (on 20 June 1943 Mauthausen delivered ~500 prisoners to the Rax-Werke). [4]: 189
Part of the Eastern Works (V-2 facilities in the Vienna-Freidrichshafen area), [5] the 30 meter-high Serbs hall at the Raxwerke was selected for V-2 manufacturing. [6]
A few V-2 center sections had been assembled by the Raxwerke when, on 2 November 1943, the US Fifteenth Air Force targeted the nearby Wiener Neustädter Flugzeugwerke (WNF) plant in Operation Crossbow and hit the Raxwerke. [7] Rax test equipment was subsequently moved to the site of the Redl-Zipf brewery in central Austria ( code name Schlier) where V-2 test stands were built. [4][ specify]
Werner Dahm was sent from Peenemünde Army Research Center in Germany to the Raxwerke for the construction of an engine test stand for the Wasserfall anti-aircraft missile (construction was never completed). [8]
47°49′47″N 16°15′11″E / 47.82972°N 16.25306°E