This concern is one of the largest manufacturers of machines, equipment and special vehicles for the mining industry, particularly the coal mining industry, in Europe. It was founded in 1855 as Schäde & Co., Eisengießerei und Maschinenbaugeschäft, in the town of Zeitz, in Saxony-Anhalt. Under the direction of the founded, engineer Hermann Schäde, the firm prospered as the coal mining and processing industry of Germany developed. It was converted to a limited liability company in January 1871 under the current corporate style.
In the last quarter of the Nineteenth Century the concern throve and became the primary supplier of coal mills, dryers and briquette presses across much of Europe. In 1899 it established a branch in Köln-Ehrenfeld to better serve the great coal mining industry of the Ruhr. In 1936 it acquired the struggling Welser Maschinenfabrik und Eisengießerei Ludwig Hinterschweiger, of Wels, in Upper Austria, as a third centre of production.
The concern is capable of producing all the equipment required to outfit a coal processing facility, including size reduction equipment (crushers and mills), sieves (rolling and vibrating screens), conveyors, dryers (tube and plate), granulating systems and briquetting press, together with the structural steel and accessories required to complete the facility. In addition to supporting the coal industry, the concern’s product line includes equipment for processing other minerals and raw materials such as potash.