Saxony's automobile engine is humming. But Germany's largest carmakers are not the only reason for this steady and reliable sound. Component suppliers from throughout the world have found a new home and have built plants in Saxony. A good example is the Italian group Magnetto, which supplies bodywork parts from Treuen in southwest Saxony. And the head of production is French too.

Bodyshells on conveyor belts at BMW in Leipzig

In early 2003, Patrick Siegrist received an offer to set up the works in Treuen. He accepted. «Adjusting wasn't easy at first,» said the 54-year-old, who used to work for Magnetto in France. Germany was a strange country for him with an unknown language and his family and friends were far away. After six months, Siegrist was asked if he would like to stay on permanently. He opted not to leave «beautiful Vogtland» - as he calls his new home. And now he has settled in. «I'm doing really well now here.» Magnetto now employs some 200 workers in the region.

The success story is not without parallel. Altogether some 64,000 people in Saxony work for the more than 450 companies in the automobile and supply industry in the former East German state. Earnings totalled over 7 billion euros last year - one-fifth of the entire economic turnover in Saxony.

Thomas Jurk, Saxony's economics minister, calls the automobile branch the «power house of our industrial sector». «It is made possible thanks to the strong innovation of our companies, paired with the flexibility of the workers.» Minister President Georg Milbrandt sees the automobile industry as a «model for the Aufbau Ost» - an effort to help reconstruct the former East German states.

Innovation has not exactly been lacking in Saxony over the past 100 years. In 1902, the legendary engineer August Horch arrived and started building cars. In 1904, production began at the Horch plants in Zwickau - representing the birth of Saxony's automobile industry. Saxony also played a key part in car manufacturing during the era of East Germanys Communist regime. The famous Trabant car was manufactured in Zwickau. And although it was mocked as «rolling cardboard box» because of its flimsy construction, the car still enjoys cult status. The last Trabi - as it's called in Germany - rolled off the production lines in 1991.

After Germany's reunification, Volkswagen was the first West German car manufacturer to arrive in the former East where it began producing automobiles and engines. After the Millenium Porsche and BMW arrived with their plants. Volkswagen's see-through factory in the Saxon capital of Dresden has turned into a tourist hot spot. Visitors can take a look behind the scenes at how the VW Phaeton limousine is assembled.

And the state of Saxony is doing all it can to make sure this success story continues to unfold. The economics ministry, for example, brought automobile suppliers together in 1999. And the enterprise association Sachsen Metal has insisted that the state continue to improve the facilities and conditions in order for Saxony to maintain a place in the international marketplace in the future. «This includes securing the young specialists and ensuring investment in research and development,» said association president Andreas Huhn.

© dpa - German Press Agency

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