Hungarian General Machine Factory

During its existence, the Hungarian General Engineering Works (MÁG) has grown to become perhaps the best-known car manufacturer in Hungary. In the early days, it was perhaps Vilmos Heisler who persuaded his partner to try his hand at producing a new type of transport vehicle, the automobile, which was almost unknown in Hungary.

On 15 September 1884, Dániel Podvinecz and Vilmos Heisler opened their business under the name of "Mechanical Engineering and Mechanical Agents" at Váczi körút 16, 3rd floor, 70, in the V. district of Budapest. Born in the countryside, they noticed the shortage of machinery and spare parts in agriculture, especially in small farms. At first they dealt with grinders and threshing machine parts, but soon they were dealing with larger machines. They supplied drive belts, gears, small axles, machined parts, etc. to the millers who came to them. In the 1890s, the Hungarian government extended its industrial development benefits to small industries, cottage industries and cooperatives. Thus, on 15 May 1892, they redeemed their 'factory' industrial certificates, iron steel maker No 12079 and machine repairer No 12080, and moved their company to Botond Street 7, 6th district. In addition to trading, selling new parts they had made themselves proved to be an increasingly better business. On 13 August 1895, at their request to install the parts or the equipment they had manufactured in the mills themselves, the Trade and Exchange Court, as a Company Court, registered the company under the name of Budapest Mill Construction and Machine Works. New industrial developments by the government led to an increase in demand for internal combustion engines, which attracted the attention of Podvinecz and Heisler. However, their Botond Street plant proved too small and they looked for a larger one where they could expand their factory. This is how they came to be on the then outer Váci út, where they took over a 3,810 square metre site, which was divided into two equal parts and registered in their name on 26 October 1900. On 14 February 1901, the VI. district magistrate's office certified that the "Podvinecz and Heisler factory owners were engaged in the manufacture of mill construction goods and machinery in their factory at 141 Váczi Street" and from 21 March their company was known as Budapest Mill Construction and Machine Works, Podvinecz and Heisler. They had a very wide range of products, which easily got them through the economically critical times, but they could not switch to mass production, everything was produced individually by hand.

In 1904, the company bought the entire equipment of the Leesfeld car factory near Baden and moved it to its Budapest plant, and soon afterwards the salvaged stock of the burnt down German Cudell car factory near Leesdorfer was also moved to the Váci út plant.

In the spring of 1905, at the 2nd Budapest International Motor Show, he presented his Phönix, a 4-seater car with a reclining engine, electric ignition and friction switch, and this Phönix, based on the Curdell licence, won the gold medal at the Bucharest International Fair. These first Podvinecz-Heisler automobiles retained the Phönix model name used by Cudell. The smallest of the first models was a two-cylinder model with 10 hp, while the larger four-cylinder engine was available in several versions (16/20 hp, 20/24 hp and 35/40 hp). Despite the success of the exhibition, the Phönix was not a great success with the public, as at the end of 1907 there were only 8 of them on Hungarian roads.

In 1906, when the Cudell parts ran out, the stocks of the Alba car factory in Trieste, which had been established in 1906 but had been liquidated in 1908 and belonged to the then Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, were bought up. The smaller 24 (18-24) horsepower model was sold as a passenger car, while the larger 45 (35-40) horsepower model with the Aster engine was sold as a bus and truck, also under the name of Phönix.

Dániel Podvinecz died in 1908, and after his death Vilmos Heisler ran the company alone for a time, then from 1911 with Géza Jalsoviczky, retired director of the Budapest State Higher Industrial School

MAgomobil 1911 advertisement

Magomobil Phoenix advertisement in 1911

Aircraft industry

World War I brought new business for the company, as it produced airplane engines under Austro-Daimler license, as well as complete airplanes. The MÁG produced cars until 1915, when the company decided to build aircraft engines and aircraft to support the war efforts of the country. It established a big new aircraft factory at Mátyásföld.

Factory sites

Budapest, Váci way

The milling industry started manufacturing parts and equipment in 1892 at 7 Botond Street in District VI (from 1938 in District XIII). Soon, however, this site proved to be too small and they looked for a larger one where they could expand their factory. So, at the turn of the century, they moved to the then outer Váci út. Here, at 141 Váci út, they took over a 3,810 square metre site, divided into two equal parts, where they continued to manufacture millinery goods and machinery, adding petrol engines, and then in 1904 expanded their range to include automotive products. In 1910, a private locomotive with a 20-horsepower petrol engine of their own manufacture towed goods from the yard. The machine shop housed about 100 machine tools, large cylinder lathes, various lathes, grinding machines, milling machines and drilling machines, with an assembly section and experimental station at the rear of the machine shop. Immediately adjacent to the machine shop was a factory-built "compound condensation steam engine" which powered the entire plant. The separate carpenter's shop housed woodworking, milling machines, scrapers, planers, brushers, rollers, flat screens and crane cleaning machines. Also built in completely separate workshops and organisations were automobiles and high-speed 4-cylinder 60 hp petrol engines, which the factory supplied to a machinery factory in the lowlands to power soil cultivation machinery. There was also a warehouse, upholsterer, polisher and painter and a blacksmith's shop in the one-and-a-half-acre factory, which was already cramped at the time.

In 1917, the company moved its engine, automobile and aircraft manufacturing plants to Mátyásföld, and to continue its old plants producing steam engines and mill equipment on the outer Váci út, it formed a limited partnership, of which Sándor Heisler became a shareholder and the Hungarian General Engineering Works Ltd. became an outside shareholder.

Cinkota, Mátyásföld

In 1914, the Ministry of War commissioned the factory to produce aircraft engines, and by the end of 1916 it was the second most-employed industrial enterprise in the Monarchy, with Skoda Group joining the joint-stock company in 1915. Thus, in January 1916, the company purchased the Beniczky plot 142000 square between the so-called forest belt and the Crossroads road on the outskirts of Cinkota. Earlier that year the aircraft and the following year a much larger automobile factory was built. The whole investment cost 5 million Austro-Hungarian crowns (1.6 million crowns for the buildings and 2.4 million crowns for the machinery). The company applied for and received a 15-year tax exemption from the municipality of Cinkota. THE M. Á. G.'s capital increase also included the Schwerin-based Fokker aircraft company, which transferred its proven patents and models in exchange for shares of corresponding value.