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In 1897 Hubert Zettelmeyer established an agency for the sale and repair of steam rollers and other equipment manufactured by the English firm of Clayton and Shuttleworth; in 1905, faced with difficulties in obtaining spare parts for the English-manufactured equipment sold by the firm, Zettelmeyer undertook to design and manufacture construction and agricultural machinery of his own design. Between 1905 and 1909 a factory was erected in the town of Konz and a design department created; by 1910 more than one hundred workers were employed in the manufacture of steam rollers, traction engines and threshing machines. Equipment of Zettelmeyer design was used extensively by the Imperial Army during the Great War.

Following the return of peace the firm redoubled its development efforts and in 1930 it began production of its first diesel-engined tractor; by 1936 these accounted for more than three-quarters of the firm’s production output, finding use principally on construction projects. The firm presently employs more than eight hundred workers with an annual output of more than five hundred tractors in addition to other equipment

The brothers Franz and Anton Hamm founded their machine factory in 1878 at Tirschenreuth in Bavaria. The firm at first manufactured a wide variety of agricultural machinery which was sold throughout the region. Among the equipment produced were steam-powered road rollers and in 1911 the firm introduced the world’s first diesel-powered road roller. Following the Great War and the growth of the national road network, the firm concentrated on the manufacture of road-rolling equipment exclusively. In 1932 Alois Hamm, son of the founder Anton Hamm, designed and patented the tandem roller with all-wheel drive and all-wheel steering, which revolutionizes the compactor construction industry up to the present day. The firm’s patented design has been widely licensed across Europe and beyond.

This firm is one of the oldest crane manufacturing companies in Germany, having been established in Zweibrücken by the engineer Carl Peschke. In addition to designing the firm’s line of cranes, Peschke patented the cardanic movement for use in cement mixers, allowing the contents to continue mixing while emptying. In the 1920s control of the firm passed to the son of the founder, Karl Peschke, who in 1927 registered the trademark “PEKAZETT” for the company’s products.

The firm has built machinery for many of Germany’s largest construction firms and has supplied much of the equipment used in construction of the National Motorways System.

Founded in 1907 in the city of Hameln, this firm is one of Germany’s leading manufacturers of construction and paving equipment, and has been responsible for creating many of the specialised machines used to construct the nation’s motorway system. Initially the firm manufactured steam-powered traction engines, mechanical shovels and road rollers. Following the Great War it began the introduction of large power equipment, substituting the internal combustion engine for the steam engines previously used. It current products include asphalt pavers, rollers, earthmovers, tracked and wheeled pavers and mobile concrete-laying machines.

Formed in 1929 through the union of three of the region’s machinery plants, this enterprise has grown to be one of the largest manufacturers of construction and industrial machines in eastern Germany.

The history of the concern dates back to 1854 when Anton Bernhardi established in Eilenburg a factory for the construction of machines to produce sand-lime bricks to his patented design. This material was seen as a high-quality, low-cost building material necessary for constructing decent housing for workers. His firm, Maschinenbauanstalt Dr. Bernhardi und Sohn, prospered through the latter portions of the Nineteenth Century, producing artificial stone presses for limestone, sand and cement products as well as mortar mixing machines, polishing and shredders and briquette-making machines for the brown coal industry.

In 1877 Alexander Monski established a factory for the manufacture of patent blowers, pumps and hot-air turbines for the steel industry as Eisengießerei und Maschinenfabrik A. Monski, which remained a prosperous if middling firm among the suppliers of Germany’s burgeoning steel industry. The third component was the machine factory of Carl Lucke, founded in 1879 to manufacture presses for metal stamping.

Under the leadership of the Commerzbank these factories united in 1929 in response to the growing demand in Germany and abroad for construction machines and industrial process equipment. With additional capital inflow the enterprise was able to undertake the manufacture of pumps for the emerging petroleum industry, high speed brick-forming presses for the construction industry and concrete casting machines that would play a vital role in construction of the National Motorways System.

In 1935 the enterprise concentrated its production at a new complex located in Eilenburg-Ost, bringing together what had been the activities of three separate companies. The new facilities included a headquarters building, several machine construction shops, a vocational school for training apprentices, a social centre with medical facilities for workers, and a workers’ canteen, all served by its own rail siding. The firm employs more than two thousand workers, and much of its production is for export.

This firm was founded in 1938 to acquire the assets of the family firm Hans Koch und Sohn. Hans Koch, of Pinneberg, invented his first motorised hoe in 1924, and found a ready market for it in agricultural communities in eastern Germany. Koch went on to invent a number of small self-propelled industrial vehicles including lift trucks, electric tow tractors, compact municipal sweepers and compact tractors; the latter, marketed under the brand name ‘Hakotrac’, is perhaps the firm’s most familiar product. It presently employs more than one thousand workers in its factories in Pinneberg and Waltershausen.

This firm, a manufacturer of road construction and maintenance equipment, is based in the city of Ludwigshafen am Rhein. It was founded in 1836 by Joseph Vögele, a blacksmith, to manufacture equipment for Germany’s nascent railway system. The company grew along with the rail network and delivered turnouts, traverse tables and turntables for railway marshalling yards. From 1925 the firm began to shift into the manufacture of products for road construction. It developed the first machines for laying down concrete pavement, and subsequently produced a line of asphalt spreading machines, reducing the manpower required to lay pavement and speed construction projects. It employs more than eight hundred workers in its Ludwigshafen factory and has exported its machines to many nations around the globe.

The antecedents of this firm lie in the town of St. Ingbert in the Saarland, with the foundation in 1846 of the ironworks of Voß, Lamarche und Compagnie. Over the next fifty years the ironworks underwent several changes of ownership, but continued to manufacture machines of various types, including pumps, transmissions, handling equipment, boilers and steam engines. In 1899 it became known as the Rheinpfälzische Eisenindustrie GmbH St. Ingbert, a producer of all manner of ironwork and equipment. In 1908 the firm was bought by a syndicate led by the engineer Otto Kaiser, who that same year had patented a new design for mixing cement, the so-called Freifallmischer or free-fall mixer. The boom in concrete construction in the years prior to the Great War assured the firm continued growth, which managed to survive the vicissitudes of the Great War and continue into the great construction boom of the 1930s. The firm expanded its activities in 1912 by introducing the construction of tower cranes, constructing a second factory at Lahnstein to accommodate the work. The firm is a major supplier of cranes and specialised concrete-forming equipment to the construction industry.

The company was established in 1884 in Cannstatt as a repair shop for tannery and steam engines by Caroline and Gottfried Kaelble. Five years later the firm moved to Backnang and there began to manufacture stationary steam engines as well as traction engines. In 1905 the firm introduced its first self-propelled rock crusher and in 1908 a self-propelled road roller. During the Great War the firm constructed tractors for hauling heavy artillery.

With the return of peace the firm sought continued expansion of its activities in the field of heavy commercial vehicles. The firm introduced its first diesel-engined road tractor in 1925, and in 1933 introduced its Z6 heavy tractor into service with the Reichsbahn, hauling the latters Straßenroller heavy transport carriages. Other tractor designs were used by commercial haulage firms to tow road trains, and smaller wheeled tractors were developed for use towing aircraft. In 1939 the firm began production of its first bulldozer, which was followed with the production of specialist large tipping lorries for use in construction or open-cast mining.

The firm is active in the field of research, manufacturing, distribution and construction of high-temperature-resistant special ceramics and other fire resistant materials. In 1849 entrepreneur Ferdinand Didier discovered deposits of quartz gravel and quartz sand and established a factory for the manufacture of firebrick and other refractory materials, the Stettiner Chamottefabrik Ferdinand Didier, in partnership with Wilhelm Kornhardt. Didier died in 1865, and the Stettin factory continued under the direction of Kornhardt until his death in 1871. At that time the firm was converted into a joint stock company under the directorship of Stettin entrepreneur Alfred Zander.

Under Zanders leadership the company expanded its production, establishing branch factories in Niederlahnstein (1889) and Bodenbach (1890), and acquiring the Thonwerk Biebrich in 1897 and the Chamottefabriken Kulmiz in Saarau (1899). The company had established its own research and development department in 1888. By 1925, when the headquarters of the firm was shifted to Berlin, it operated twenty-five factories across the country together with the pits and quarries for the raw materials necessary for production.

It is the largest manufacturer of firebrick in the country.