"Companies with a worldwide reputation have their headquarters here," says the website of the city of Oberndorf am Neckar.

The end of the Cold War is described as a "structural crisis" that the city "quickly overcame thanks to the well-founded specialist knowledge of the residents in defense and security technology, mechanics and precision engineering".

Ulrich Friese

Editor in Business.

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Susanne Preuss

Business correspondent in Hamburg.

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Gustave parts

Business correspondent in Stuttgart.

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At least since the war in Ukraine and the turning point in German armaments policy, this "structural crisis" is over anyway.

In Oberndorf, however, people were already proud of the weapons production even before the turn of the century.

Because the armaments industry in the town, which has 14,000 inhabitants, has a history of more than 200 years.

In 1811 the Royal Württemberg Rifle Factory moved into a former Augustinian monastery.

A good 60 years later, the Mauser brothers, who had previously worked in the rifle factory, founded the Mauser works, took over the rifle factory shortly thereafter and turned it into a "company with a global reputation".

Former Mauser employees founded the gun manufacturer Heckler & Koch in 1949, which is still based in Oberndorf today.

Arsenal of weapons in the country

Baden-Württemberg is said to have a strong armaments industry.

Economically, however, the sector is hardly significant.

The Department of Commerce estimates the number of employees in the security and defense industry at 14,200.

There are works by Mercedes that are three times larger.

The State Statistical Office counts almost 4,000 employees at almost 40 manufacturers of "weapons and ammunition", who turn over 756 million euros a year.

However, the fact that the industry as a whole is larger is shown by the fact that the approved exports alone exceed sales: in 2019, licenses for armaments exports worth 2.1 billion euros were issued in Baden-Württemberg.

Although Heckler & Koch is internationally known, with almost 1,000 employees and a turnover of 300 million euros, it is not a heavyweight in the region.

The Bosch Group alone, with 400,000 employees, turns over around 80 billion euros a year.

Since only a few German armaments manufacturers are listed on the stock exchange, there is little current data on the industry.

This sometimes leads to opponents of the arms industry being well informed about many facts.

Even the Economics Ministry refers to a survey by the Militarization Information Center.

In 2017, the armaments atlas of the Tübingen-based association listed a good 120 locations of companies that are active in armaments.

The Ministry of Economics names three regional clusters: the Lake Constance area and the regions of Stuttgart and Ulm.

On Lake Constance there are automotive suppliers who generate a small part of their sales with military customers.

More prominent representatives are the engine manufacturer MTU Friedrichshafen, which belongs to the British Rolls-Royce Group, and ZF Friedrichshafen.

With almost 160,000 employees, the transmission expert ZF is one of the world's largest automotive suppliers and belongs to a foundation of the city of Friedrichshafen.

The armaments manufacturers Hensoldt, Rheinmetall and Airbus Defense also have locations here.

They manufacture radars and sensors for fighter jets, electronics for air surveillance and satellites.