On August 4, 1943 a satellite camp of Mauthausen concentration camp was built in the city. The prisoners there built parts, sub-assemblies and BMW 003 turbojet engines for the He 162 Spatz (sparrow) jet fighter in a hastily converted underground factory during late autumn and spring 1945. The 162, created for the Emergency Fighter Program and the winner of the Volksjäger ("People's Fighter") aviation design competition, was an extremely lightweight, cheap and fast plane that could be discarded if it suffered any damage. Hinterbrühl was just part of a vast crash production program where dozens of factories of varying sizes would make parts for the jet, then send them to sites like Hinterbrühl for final assembly and transshipment to flight test centers — or even directly to airbases, such was the desperate last-minute nature of the enterprise.
