Andre Citroen planned the factory for 4 months, Izera has not been built for eight years

Andre Citroën established a large ammunition factory in less than half a year. He started from scratch, bought land, built buildings, hired people and launched production in four months, and achieved full production capacity one month later. In comparison, Electromobility Poland, which was founded in 2016 with our tax money, did not even build a factory hall.

Andre Citroën was an incredibly talented organizer. The year is 1914 and the First World War begins. Andre’s brother Bernard died in the trenches in October 1914. Andre Citroën is also fighting at the front, but he sees that the Germans are hitting the French lines in greater numbers than the French. He comes up with an idea how to change it. He asks the family to arrange a meeting with General Baquet, Secretary of State for the Minister of War, to propose the construction of a missile factory. The head does not believe that it can be done quickly, but gives the green light and approves the money.

Andre Citroen served in the art corps

Andre Citroen takes action. He works 20 hours a day and within four months he manages to buy land in Javel (the 15th arrondissement of Paris), build a large factory, buy machinery and design all the processes needed there. In the fourth month, it employs 3,500 people, trains them and prepares them for work. 75% of the workers are women, because men are fighting at the front. In June 1915, missile production began. France will then have a great power which will allow it, together with its allies, to win the war. The factory produces a total of 23 million bullets. Where does this high efficiency come from?

Andre Citroën always admired his mother, who was from Warsaw. She was a woman with a sensitive heart (she helped, among others, fire victims from Siedlce after a big fire in the city) who was able to cope with difficulties. After Andre’s father died, his mother took over his business and ran the business and took care of the house. The perfect home organization was the Citroën model that he used in his activities. So that women can work in good conditions, he established a nursery, a kindergarten, a sick room, changing and shower rooms, and introduced bonuses for breastfeeding and giving birth in the ammunition factory. Meals were delivered to production lines with light electric trolleys – thanks to which lunch was hot!

The Citroen factory was so famous that it received many foreign visitors who wanted to learn about its company, which was considered industrially and socially exemplary. After signing the armistice, André Citroën transformed the factory to produce mass-produced, affordable cars for everyone…you already know the whole story.

Eight years ago, we, as a society, spent several hundred million zlotys on the Electromobility Poland project. However, the Polish electric car will never be built – the whole project is now reduced to the idea of a Chinese car assembly plant. There was no modern Citroën.