Economy | Allresist GmbH: High technology from Strausberg

The shell is in place, the roof is on top of the new hall: sealed at Allresist GmbH. Photo: nd/Andreas Fritsche At the Biotop, corner of Lehmkuhlenring in Strausberg, Brandenburg, a kind of topping-out wreath floats on a lifting platform on Tuesday afternoon. The shell of a new hall on the Allresist GmbH company premises is now finished and the construction work should be completed in three months. This is what Axel Finck, branch manager of the construction company Goldbeck, promises.

The future hall will be connected to the existing building from 1999 by a passage. The two-story hall is intended as a warehouse and will also accommodate offices for sales. If this is relocated from the existing building to the hall, there will be space for expanding production. Business is booming for the family business that started in October 1992 in a small space with a handful of employees. 200 self-developed products are sold to more than 500 customers worldwide. The GmbH specializes in special light-sensitive paint for microchips, such as those found in cell phones, watches and cars. Allresist supplies medium-sized companies in the semiconductor industry.

The exact composition of products like the brand new Medusa 84 SiH is a trade secret. Medusa 84 SiH does not contain any dangerous poison and has been nominated for the German Sustainability Award, says company founder Matthias Schirmer. Now 72 years old, he and his 67-year-old wife Brigitte want to retire from professional life at the end of the year. The founding couple hands over the business, which now has 25 employees, to their daughter Ulrike. She can count on support from her brother and husband and hopes that her small children will join in later.

Brigitte and Matthias Schirmer saved know-how from the state-owned photochemical works in Berlin-Köpenick and made something of it, praises Goldbeck manager Finck, who is fascinated by the technology. The Schirmers explain that sales will increase from 4.3 million euros to more than five million this year, reports Brigitte Schirmer. The family business is not concerned with maximizing profits. Surpluses flow into investments and decent wages. Donations are also made to social and environmental projects. For example, Solidarity Service International and Doctors Without Borders receive money, says Brigitte Schirmer. She and her husband were concerned with preserving the humanistic ideal of the GDR and adding a level of performance that the GDR economy unfortunately often lacked.

»We are creating space for further growth.«

The new hall costs 2.1 million euros. 45 percent of the sum is covered by funding from the Investment Bank of the State of Brandenburg. Apart from that, Allresist GmbH wants to invest another 800,000 euros in the renovation of its existing building. The poetry festival for the new hall will be celebrated on Tuesday afternoon. In contrast to a topping-out ceremony, where only the shell is in place, at the sealing ceremony the roof is already covered. “We are creating space for further growth,” says Ulrike Schirmer.

One of the guests at the poetry festival is Knut Steinkopf, left-wing candidate for the Strausberg mayoral election on September 20th. Steinkopf says the city is fortunate to have a growing green chemical company like Allresist that protects the environment and offers well-paying jobs with innovation and high technology. Economic growth is otherwise difficult to achieve, as the Bundeswehr unfortunately occupies a lot of space in Strausberg, which is therefore not available for business. The city also lacks water for private households and businesses. The Left therefore wants the construction of rainwater storage tanks to be financially supported.

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