Plzeň, the Škoda Works

The company was founded in 1859 by Count Waldstein (Valdštejn) as a branch of his foundry and engineering works in Plzeň. However, its famous history started only seven years later with the advent of engineer Emil Škoda. He was soon to buy the whole company, expanded it and turned it into one of the most successful engineering plants in the country. The Škoda factories produced a wide range of engineering products (equipment for mines, steam engines, boilers, steel bridge constructions, equipment for railways). Arms were one of the important products as well. After 1918, the portfolio of the company was extended to include the manufacture of transport means - locomotives, automobiles, aircraft and boats. During the Second World War, the Škoda Works became part of the German armaments-production sector, and therefore represented a strategic target of Allied air raids. The bombing which took place at the end of April 1945 destroyed 70% of the factory premises. In 1945, the joint-stock company Škoda Works were nationalized and some of its parts were separated (for e.g. the automobile factory in Mladá Boleslav or the aircraft factory in Prague). In the socialist era, the works focused mainly on the production of equipment for the heavy industry and the energy sector to be exported to the countries of the Eastern bloc. After 1989, the Škoda Works were privatized.