Numerous sugar factories processing sugar beet were established in the Braunschweig area from 1858 onwards. In 1858 the refinery at Frankfurter Strasse 2 became one of them. Hermann Buchler held some of the shares in the company. Each day 2,000 hundredweights of raw sugar were processed. In September 1900 the factory burned down. It was immediately reconstructed as a redbrick building by the architects Rasche & Kratzsch. Production started again in 1902 and the factory's capacity was increased. The company almost went bankrupt during the economic crisis in 1927. The end finally came in 1939; the machinery was removed and sold. In the Second World War the Luther-Werke used the halls to produce goods for the military and as accommodation for Russian prisoners of war sentenced to hard labour. Only slightly damaged in the War, the building was again used as a warehouse afterwards. On 24th September 1986 it became a listed building, as the Metall-Verpackungs-Gesellschaft had planned to tear it down. In 1996 the business man Stephan Körber bought the industrial listed building to turn it into a creative mixing pot for the media, art and design, "ARTmax".