WesWorld

Repository for data pertaining to the subject. Principally covers manufacturers of industrial plant equipment and heavy machine tools.

The core business of the Dürkopp Adler firm is the manufacture of industrial sewing machines, including machines for such applications as shoemaking, upholstery, and garment manufacturing. It came into being in 1928 through the amalgamation of the two leading firms in that industry - Dürkoppwerke AG and Kochs Adler Nähmaschinenwerke AG, both of Bielefeld in the Ruhr region. In 1932 the firm introduced its first overhead conveyer machines for the clothing industry, equipment that would significantly increase the productivity throughout the garment industry.

In the latter 1930s, under the leadership of Georg Barthel, the firm diversified its activities through the acquisition of a number of firms in related industries. In 1933 it acquired the Paderborn automotive equipment manufacturer Benteler AG and transferred to this subsidiary Dürkopp’s product line of bearings and Cardan shafts. The acquisition of the Kölner Werkzeugmaschinenfabrik, a manufacturer of industrial fabrication and materials handling equipment, followed in 1935. In 1938 it acquired the Westfälische Metallindustrie of Lippstadt, a second manufacturer of automotive components, principally lighting and automotive ignition systems.


Subsidiaries of the firm include:

Benteler AG, Paderborn (automotive components)
Kölner Werkzeugmaschinenfabrik AG, Köln-Mülheim (machine building)
Westfälische Metallindustrie AG, Lippstadt (automotive components)

This firm is a major manufacturer of machine tools and industrial drilling and milling machines; founded in 1852 it is one of the oldest machine tool firms on the Continent. The founder of the firm, David Gustav Diehl, opened a workshop in the Saxon city of Chemnitz, undertaking the construction of equipment for the expanding textile industry of Saxony and Silesia. In 1872 the firm was transformed into a limited liability company and in 1875 the firm shifted its production into the manufacture of machine tools.

During the early 1930s it began to expand its production base through the acquisition of complementary firms in the machine tool industry. In 1932 it acquired the Karl Wetzel machine tool factory in Gera, another manufacturer of drilling machines, primarily for the automotive industry. Two years later it purchased the Deutsche Maschinen und Werkzeugfabrik of Glauchau; and in 1938 the Vollmer machine works at Biberach. These acquisitions greatly strengthened the firm’s position in the competitive export market. In 1939 a holding company was established to bring all the firm’s subsidiaries under a single corporate structure.


Subsidiary companies of the firm include:

Deutsche Maschinen und Werkzeugfabrik AG, Glauchau (machine tools and industrial plant equipment)
Karl Wetzel Maschinenfabrik AG, Gera (machine tools)
Union Werkzeugmaschinen AG, Chemnitz (machine tools)
Vollmer Werke Maschinenfabrik AG, Biberach an der Riß (machine tools)

Headquartered in the city of Düsseldorf this concern was formed in 1915 by the amalgamation of three firms specialising in the manufacture of machinery for steel mills and coke ovens – the Carl Eberhard Weise Schmeidbetrieb, the iron works of Eduard Schloemann and the machine tool and iron plant of the Gebruder Meer. Through judicious management of its assets the firm was able to survive the economic disruption that followed in the wake of the Great War and was well placed to fulfill orders for equipment to rebuild Germany’s steel plants as well as export orders from a growing market in eastern and central Europe.

In 1927 the firm acquired the rolling mill equipment plant of Maschinenfabrik Klein in Dahlbruch, widening its line of steel mill equipment. With the acquisition of the Dahlbruch works, the concern was able to outfit a complete steel mill, including blast furnaces, converters, hearths, fabricating mills, coke ovens and the materials handing equipment necessary to link all these together.

The machine tool manufacturing firm of Hans Thoma was amalgamated into the concern in 1936, adding to the firm’s product line metal cutting and forming equipment to further outfit steel manufacturing facilities. The firm played a significant role in the recent sale to Brazil of a complete steel making facility for the Companhia Siderúrgica Nacional at Volta Redonda.


Facilities of the firm include:

Siegener Maschinenbau AG, Stammwerke, Siegen (steel mill equipment)
Siegener Maschinenbau AG, Schloemann-werke, Altenkirchen (steel mill equipment)
Siegener Maschinenbau AG, Abteilung Walzwerke, Dahlbruch (rolling mill equipment)


Subsidiaries of the firm include:

Maschinenfabrik Herkules Hans Thoma AG, Siegen (industrial plant equipment)

Heinrich Adolf Waldrich founded his workshop at Siegen in 1840 and began production of pumps, fans for furnaces and pulleys, supplying these to the expanding German iron industry. In 1857 the firm built its first steam engine and, in the same year, its first rotary grinding machine. The firm came to specialise in grinding, turning, texturing and milling machinery. Following the death in 1879 of the founder, the works carried on under the direction of his son, also Heinrich Adolf, but in 1897 the firm was incorporated as Waldrich-Siegen Werkzeugmaschinen AG, the increased capitalisation allowing the firm to relocate to a larger factory in Burbach.

In the aftermath of the Great War the firm was able to quickly reorganise and overcome the financial turmoil of the period. Drawing on reserves from abroad it was able to acquire, in 1923, the Maschinenfabrik Herkules, a firm that had purchased the old Waldrich works in Siegen and was a specialist in roll lathes. Further acquisitions followed in the 1930s, including the well known firms of Greger und Compagnie and Oswald Niedecker, both of Frankfurt. These acquisitions gave the concern a strong position in the manufacture of general purpose machine tools, for which there were great demand with the expansion of the German automotive and aviation industries. In 1932 the firm opened an expansion factory at Coburg in Saxony to support industrial development in the eastern portion of the country.

The firm has gained a world-wide reputation for the manufacture of specialist and general purpose machine tools, and maintains representative offices abroad in most of the major industrial nations, including Liege, London, New York and Paris.


Subsidiaries of the firm include:

Maschinenfabrik Herkules AG, Siegen (machines and machine tools)
Metall und Werkzeugmaschinenfabrik Greger AG, Frankfurt (machine tools)
Metallwaren und Werkzeugfabrik Niedecker AG, Frankfurt (machine tools)
Waldrich-Siegen Werkzeugmaschinen AG, Burbach (machines and machine tools)
Werkzeugmaschinenfabrik Waldrich-Coburg AG, Coburg (machines and machine tools)

The Andritz firm originates in the middle Nineteenth Century when Josef Körösi established a foundry and machine plant in Graz, Austria. In 1900, the company went public, which led to a takeover by Vienna-based Creditanstalt. By then, the firm had begun engineering and manufacturing equipment for the forestry industry, which led increasingly to the development of products for the pulp and paper industry. Among its earliest products were equipment and systems for pulp pumping. The company then went on to develop machinery for paper manufacturing as well as wire presses for removing the water from pulp stock. In 1922, in the aftermath of the Great War, the Körösi factory was merged with the Enzesfeld-Caro Metallwerke by the Creditanstalt, and the current corporate style adopted. The combined firm expanded its product line beyond pulp and paper-making machinery to become a general machine builder.

After 1933 the firm began a series of acquisitions in response to the expansion of the domestic market for machinery and production equipment. In 1935 it purchased the firm Phoenix Maschinentechnik, of Chemnitz, a specialist in the manufacture of high-speed knitting equipment for the textile industry. There followed in 1937 the acquisition of the Naxos-Union firm of Frankfurt, one of Germany’s largest manufacturers of abrasive and grinding machines. In 1939 the firm entered the manufacture of consumer products by acquiring Kraftfahrzeuge Trunkenpolz Mattighofen, a manufacturer of bicycles and motorcycles.


Subsidiaries of the firm include:

Enzesfeld-Caro Metallwerke AG, Graz (machinery and machine building)
Kraftfahrzeuge Trunkenpolz Mattighofen AG, Mattighofen (vehicle manufacture and components)
Maschinen-und-metallwerke Andritz AG, Graz (industrial plant equipment)
Phoenix Machinentechnik AG, Chemnitz (textile machinery)
Schleifmittel- und Schleifmaschinenfabrik Naxos Union AG, Frankfurt (grinding and polishing equipment)

In 1888 Otto Böttger opened his workshop in the Dresden’s Döhlen district to manufacture engines and pumps for the expanding steel industry. Five years later the firm moved to larger facilities in Dresden-Löbtau. In 1921 the Böttger firm merged with the general machine-building factory of Hermann Haelbig of Meißen, which added presses, grinding machines, milling machines, saws, tapping machines as well as counting and balancing machines to the firm’s product line. Six years later the assets of the troubled machine works of Richard Raupach, Görlitz, were acquired; this firm specialised in the manufacture of machines for the ceramics and packaging industries. In 1932 the factory of Wilhelm Schindler in Meißen, a manufacturer of turbines, ceramics and papermaking equipment, was acquired.


Operating facilities include:

Sächsische Motoren und Maschinenfabrik AG, Elbewerke, Meißen (general machine building)
Sächsische Motoren und Maschinenfabrik AG, Schlindlerwerke, Meißen (ceramic and papermaking equipment)
Sächsische Motoren und Maschinenfabrik AG, Werke Görlitz, Görlitz (packaging equipment)
Sächsische Motoren und Maschinenfabrik AG, Werke Löbtau, Dresden- Löbtau (turbines and pumps)

In 1888 engineer Otto Bergsträßer founded a factory for the production of cigarette-making equipment, which was known as the Universelle Werke. During the Great War the entrepreneur Josef Müller purchased this factory and used it as the base from which he acquired other manufacturing works in the city of Dresden, including factories producing tobacco-processing equipment, refrigerators, vending machines, motorcycle and automobile components and printing machines. On such a diverse product base the firm was able to weather the financial turmoil of the postwar period and emerge as a general machine builder

By the latter part of the 1920s the stabilisation of the economy permitted the firm to embark on a new round of acquisitions. In 1928 it purchased the Bischofswerda works of Buschbeck und Hebenstreit – manufacturers of bronze, iron and steel castings and forgings. There followed in 1932 the acquisition of the Großenhainer Webstuhl- und Maschinenfabrik of Meißen, one of Saxony’s larger manufacturers of textile weaving and processing equipment. The firm expanded further into production of machine tools through the purchase of the machine works of the Gebrüder Grosse at Lohmen; a firm whose roots went back to 1871. The Thuringian firm of Heinrich Wissner was acquired through merger late in 1940.


Subsidiaries of the firm include:

Universelle-Werke AG, Armaturenwerk, Bischofswerda (castings, forgings and machined metal parts)
Universelle-Werke AG, Mühlenbauwerke, Lohmen (milling and grinding machines)
Universelle-Werke AG, Textima Webstuhlbau, Meißen (textile weaving and processing equipment)
Universelle-Werke AG, Wissnerwerke, Brotterode (metal fabricating and machine-building)

This firm was organised in 1922 through the amalgamation of three Dresden factories engaged in production of textile machinery – that of Ernst Bernstein, of Max Loesch and the firm of Siedel und Naumann. This defensive arrangement was prompted by the disturbed economic conditions of the period, and it was successful in warding off threats of financial insolvency and foreign competition. The firm was able to participate in the postwar economic revival and branched out into other areas of industrial plant equipment – food processing, packaging and metal-forming among others.

In the 1920s it expanded its share capital and acquired, through exchange of shares, the Vesta-Nähmaschinen-Werke of Altenburg and the Nähmaschinenwerk Wittenberge, two of Germany’s largest manufacturers of sewing machines for home, commercial and industrial use. In 1934 it founded a subsidiary at Odertal in Silesia for the manufacture of munitions components under subcontract.


Subsidiaries of the concern include:

Maschinenfabrik und Eisengießerei Seidel und Naumann AG, Dresden (industrial plant equipment)
Metallwerke Odertal AG, Odertal (munitions components)
Nähmaschinenwerk Altenburg AG, Altenburg (sewing machines and components)
Nähmaschinenwerk Wittenberge AG, Wittenberg (sewing machines and components)
Spezialmaschinenfabrik Ernst Bernstein AG, Dresden (industrial plant equipment)
Spezialmaschinenfabrik Max Loesch AG, Dresden (industrial plant equipment)

This firm was established in 1881, in Chemnitz, to manufacture food processing machinery of patented design; it was reorganised as a joint stock company in 1904. The firm manufactures metal cutting and forming machines for the production of metal containers for canning.

This firm was established in 1876 at Meuselwitz to undertake the manufacture of lathes and mining machinery. Subsequently the product line of the firm was expanded to include steam engines, briquetting presses, and grinding machines. A shop for the production of grey cast iron was erected in 1939, to support the present product line that includes turret lathes, gear grinding machines and slotting machines.

This firm is a mechanical engineering enterprise specialising in the manufacture of precision skiving machines, rotary arbors, grinding and milling equipment and measuring instruments. The firm was founded in 1903 by Albert Hirth, father of the aviation pioneers Hellmuth and Wolf Hirth. The firm introduced its first mechanical skiving machines in 1903, and quickly found a niche market in the German leather-working industry, and in 1906 introduced the well-known Hirth Mini-Meter. Production of rotary arbors followed the same year.

In 1907 the firm opened a subsidiary in the United States, the Fortuna Machine Company of Brooklyn, New York. This branch factory imported machined parts from the German parent company and assembled machines for sale on the American market. Due to the inability to obtain components from Germany during the Great War, this subsidiary was liquidated in 1915. However, the firm re-entered the export market in the 1920s, establishing general sales agencies in several nations. Product innovations included Europe’s first hydraulic cylindrical grinding machine, introduced in 1925 and, in 1928, a new line of grinding and milling machines was introduced.

In 1873 the locksmith Jakob Dieffenbacher of Eppingen established a factory for the construction of cash registers and safes, serving banks and other businesses in northern Baden. By the early 1900s the firm had diversified into the manufacture of hydraulic presses for the food industry – wine presses, oil presses and the like – and in 1910 began the manufacture of high speed presses for the manufacture of plywood and other engineered wood products for the construction and furniture industries.

Under the leadership of Friedrich and Wilhelm Dieffenbacher, sons of the founder, the firm overcame the disruptions caused by the Great War and entered a period of increasing prosperity. In the 1920s the firm introduced its first presses for the forming of bakelite and other plastic composites, and in the 1930s high speed metal-forming presses for the expanding aviation and automobile industries. In 1933 the firm acquired the Werkzeug und Maschinenbau Stuttmann of Frankfurt to broaden its base for manufacturing industrial processing equipment and in 1940 it purchased the Mechanische Treibriemenweberei und Leder-Treibriemenfabrik, a Berlin-based manufacturer of conveyor and materials-handling equipment.

The firm operates two factories at Eppingen and a third factory at Bruchsal.


Subsidiaries of the firm include:

Mechanische Treibriemenweberei und Leder-Treibriemenfabrik AG, Berlin (conveyors and drive belts)
Werkzeug und Maschinenbau Stuttmann AG, Frankfurt (industrial plant equipment)

This firm was founded in 1938 by the engineer and machine designer Friedrich Weiler, for the production of lathes and milling machines. As part of the Government’s programme of support to industry, the Technischen Universität München provided assistance to the firm, who in turn employed a number of the school’s graduates. In 1942 the firm began production of rotary milling machines, which offer great promise in reducing the cost of manufacturing metal parts through the use of numerical controls. The firm’s facility in Ansbach presently employs more than two hundred workers, manufacturing lathes, milling machines and rotary drilling machines.

In 1894 a young Hermann Heller established his workshop in the town of Nürtingen, and began the manufacture of watch components and gears. He was joined in the enterprise by his brother Ernst, and in 1900 the firm was incorporated as Gebrüder Heller Maschinenfabrik. The brothers quickly moved from making gears and components to manufacturing the machines that would make such items, pursuing their proprietary machine designs. The demands of the Great War for aircraft engines, motor vehicles and gun components on a massive scale earned the firm large profits, which enabled it to survive the lean period immediately following the end of hostilities. With the return of peace the firm turned to the automotive industry, developing specialised machines for the production of crankshafts and camshafts, as well as more general milling machines, gear hobbing machines and machine centers.

The firm presently employs more than two thousand staff, inclusive of its sales agencies in the principal cities of Germany. Much of its production is sold abroad to the expanding markets of South America and

This firm was founded in March 1938 to carry on the activities of the former machine tools company of Sondermann und Stier, which had entered liquidation in 1937. The firm manufactures high speed precision lathes, precision high speed drilling machines, grinding machines and centerless cylindrical grinding machines for the automotive and aero-engine industry. Half the share capital is owned by the Junkers aircraft firm. The factory at Chemnitz employs more than six hundred workers.

The origins of this firm lie with the workshop of Eulenberg und Wintersbach, established in 1869 in the town of Schlebusch-Manfort bei Köln. It original business was the manufacture of steam engines but the success prompted the partners to expand their business to the manufacture of steam-powered machine tools. The specialty of the firm became the production of hydraulic and mechanical presses for hot forging, particularly horizontal forging machines; other products included drop forging hammers, rolling mill equipment, forming presses and progressive forging machines. In the wake of the Great War the firm entered into a strategic partnership with the firms of Schloemann and Hanenclever of Düsseldorf, Wagner of Dortmund and Banning of Leverkusen to form the present enterprise, which was formed in 1926.

The firm operates factories in Schlebusch, Düsseldorf, Dortmund and Leverkusen, employing some two thousand five hundred workers altogether. It is a major supplier of metal forming and fabricating equipment to the German and international steel industry.

This firm was founded in Dresden in 1919 to manufacture hydraulic surface grinding machines and other items of industrial machinery. The firm’s present production includes horizontal and vertical grinding machines, bending presses, lathes and milling machines.

In 1866 the entrepreneur Ernst Schiess established in Düsseldorf-Lörick a workshop for the repair of steam engines and machine tools; by 1873 the firm was manufacturing machine tools of its own designs, principally milling machines of various sorts. In the 1880s the firm came to specialise in large portal planing machines. The firm was converted to a joint-stock company in 1906. By the outbreak of the Great War the firm employed more than one thousand workers and was one of Germany’s largest manufacturers of industrial plant equipment.

In 1925 it acquired the Dortmund firm of Defrieswerken AG which expanded both its capacity and its product line. The expansion of the German shipbuilding industry in the latter portion of the 1920s and 1930s provided the firm with great opportunity as its products were in great demand.

The firm presently operates four factories in the Ruhr region manufacturing industrial plant equipment, machine tools and ancillary equipment for high-speed and precision production of metal components. The work force is in excess of two thousand.

The origin of this firm dates from the creation, in 1898, of the Deutsche Niles Werke AG as a licensee of the Niles Tool Works Company of Hamilton, Ohio, an American machine tools manufacturer. With the backing of a syndicate of German banks a 33,000 square metre factory was constructed in Ober-Schöneweide, together with its own foundry. The works quickly became one of the nation’s premier manufacturers of precision machine tools. The agreement with the American firm expired in 1915 and the works were reorganised under the current corporate style.

The firm manufactures a wide variety of precision machine tools including carousel lathes, milling machines, planing and slotting machines and horizontal boring machines, and it later produced compressed air tools. In 1926 the firm’s chief engineer, Paul Uhlich developed a new process of gear grinding, and machines to cut gears far more easily; by 1934 these gear cutting machines were the primary output of the firm. A second works was established in 1936 in Berlin-Weißensee.