ww2 VW marked barrack stoves

[finster]

I recently overheard a tv presenter talking about his latest show - nick knowles amazing railway adventures; he mentioned visiting a nazi camp in norway (which held russians who worked on railway construction) and the fact that the remains of the barrack stoves had the VW logo on them. I watched the programme but this fact wasn't shown or mentioned.
googling reveals photos of stoves in scandinavia marked OvT - presumably organisation todt - and with the VW logo. does anyone know more about them?

this similar stove is at auschwitz II

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"we're here on Earth to fart around" kurt vonnegut

nothing lasts, nothing is finished, and nothing is perfect...

[raygreenwood]

In several of the books that describe VW history...like "Small Wonder"......it is noted that VW during the war was NOT primarily producing VW cars.

Outside of a few made for official and military use.... and making Kubel, command cars and Schwimmers.....VW made lots of other items. Stoves were mentioned..as well as repair of damaged aircraft and production of v-1 rocket parts.

Here is a page showing month by month and year by year milestones at VW including production statistics during the war.

At the end of 1941 as you scroll is a note stating VW started manufacturing "OT" stoves for the soldiers at the Russian front and shows picture of the stoves being manufactured.

https://www.volkswagenag.com/en/group/history/chronicle/1937_1945.html#

Ray

[finster]

thanks, I knew they were involved in making other things at wolfsburg and that I had seen reference to stoves being made - but couldn't remember the source.
surprised they put the logo on them, hopefully it wasn't on the teller mines too!
the extra pic is good:-

_________________
"we're here on Earth to fart around" kurt vonnegut

nothing lasts, nothing is finished, and nothing is perfect...

[mukluk]

The problem I see with the picture below being of WWII manufacture is the VW logo still had a cogwheel design around the outer ring during that time. The pictured logo more resembles the post-WWII era.

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1960 Ragtop w/Semaphores "Inga"

[FarmerBill]

[busdaddy]

[raygreenwood]

I would doubt that it's post war. Possibly though.

Not every VW logo was made with the cog wheel detail. During the war....especially late war....labor, time and skills were short and many things were abbreviated.

Especially think about the work required of producing a detailed cog wheel mold for a rough casting or stamping die....for something this mundane and cheap. Just not worth it.

I cannot tell from the rusty photo which part of the heater that is. But....it does look like the "fat" logo....third in line of official logos listed as 1945 to 1960.

That being said....war in Europe ended In May of 1945. Who knows exactly what date in 1945 the logo changed? They way details like that change they did not just wake up on January first and say let's change the logo. They were probably talking about it and testing it out in late 1944.

There is mention of the VW heaters in this white paper about excavation of a German army camp in the Lap lands of Finland as well.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15740773.2017.1389496

There is very little on line info about these heaters. There is probably a lot more if we could find out an actual name or number of these heaters to search with. Ray

[finster]

the logo is below the main door and above the ash hatch

raygreenwood quote - think about the work required of producing a detailed cog wheel mold for a rough casting or stamping die....for something this mundane and cheap.
that's why I'm surprised they have logos on. these stoves are at the sites of ww2 labour camps in finland and norway - so not post war
_________________
"we're here on Earth to fart around" kurt vonnegut

nothing lasts, nothing is finished, and nothing is perfect...

[raygreenwood]

I would love to see one of these things and also wonder how well they worked...how efficient they were. It looks like a very interesting design.

Just over the past few years I have been looking/interested in the portable camp stoves, stoves for heating cabins and stoves for heating canal boats etc.....from a lot of videos on YouTube. There are a lot of very efficient designs ...which also have to meet emissions of all things....or they cannot be produced and sold. Crazy!

There is a lot to....design wise.... making a small wood or coal stove that radiates maximum heat and burns cleanly.

I have never seen one of that shape but the corrugated sides make a lot of sense for creating surface area to radiate heat.

The wedge shape also makes some theoretical sense as cold air near the floor under the fire box that gets warmed slightly would rise up the sides getting heated all the way up as it rises....as compared to having vertical sides or slanted the other way so the air was no longer in contact with the sides to be further heated as it rises.

The pictures of the rusted ones appear to be "corrugated"....while the pictures in the factory show welds at the top of each rib and look almost like they are built like a VW oil cooler....a series of plates maybe?

The ends look to be cast iron. Ray

[FarmerBill]

[coastieinakilt]

VW stamped firewood heater in the children’s barrack at Auschwitz-Birkenau. Photos taken by Bob Eiess, April 6, 2022.

[finster]

came across some more photos of these ovens/stoves

found in finland

_________________
"we're here on Earth to fart around" kurt vonnegut

nothing lasts, nothing is finished, and nothing is perfect...

[nickD2012]

I ran across this thread researching the VW marked stove I noticed in one of the surviving brick barracks at Asuchwitz II - Birkenau in May 2025 and thought I'd add my photo.

I see why the VW Superbowl ad began in 1949.

[zerotofifty]

during war, many companies made many war items not normally made by them in peace time

Singer sewing machine, IBM, General Motors and many many others made M1 Carbine rifles for example.
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