FAG puffer fishers
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| legal form | Corporation |
| founding | 1883 |
| resolution | 2001 |
| Reason for dissolution | Hostile takeover by INA-Schaeffler |
| Seat | Schweinfurt |
| Number of employees | 40,000 (around 1990) |
| Branch | roller bearing |
FAG Kugelfischer ( F ischer’s A utomatic G ussstahlkugelfabrik or F ischers A ktien- G esellschaft) was the fourth largest rolling bearing manufacturer in the world and a DAX company headquartered in Schweinfurt . From 1897: First automatic cast steel ball factory ; from 1941: Kugelfischer Georg Schäfer & Co ; 1979: FAG ball Fischer Georg Schäfer & Co . In addition, minor name deviations as a result of changing corporate forms that sometimes exist in parallel. Short form since 1979: FAG Kugelfischer . Local nickname: Kufi .
Kugelfischer was represented with factories and sales companies in all continents and in the post-war decades, with 30,000 employees at the time, was one of the hundred largest corporations in Germany. Since the 1990s, FAG has specialized in the development and construction of large bearings, including a. with the warehouse for the London Eye .
In 2001, the traditional company FAG Kugelfischer was taken over by the previously unknown INA-Schaeffler from Herzogenaurach , which was the third hostile takeover in German post-war history , and in 2006 it was merged with it to form Schaeffler KG. Since then, the FAG brand has been a brand of the Schaeffler Group alongside INA and LuK . The plant in Schweinfurt is your largest production site, the headquarters of the Industry division and, together with Herzogenaurach, the seat of Schaeffler Technologies AG & Co. KG .
history
Kugelfischer has a very diverse, difficult to understand and recently eventful company history behind it, with numerous changes to the company structures and the company name.
Fischer era (1872–1909)
On October 16, 1872 founded Friedrich Fischer in Schweinfurt's Old Town , in his parents' house in Upper Street 8 the company Friedrich Fischer (1872-1891). A repair shop for sewing machines with affiliated trade, also with bicycles. In 1875 he set up a mechanical workshop.
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In 1883 Fischer designed a ball grinding machine with which he succeeded in producing high-precision steel balls in large numbers for the first time. This idea is considered to be the historic start of the rolling bearing industry. The device, which was further developed by Fischer and his later competitor Wilhelm Höpflinger in 1888, was registered for a patent in 1890. This laid the final cornerstone for the rolling bearing industry, which flourished in the years that followed. The boom began in 1890, when the bicycle industry experienced its first boom. Höpflinger founded his own company Fries & Höpflinger with Engelbert Fries in Schweinfurt in 1890 , which also sold steel balls worldwide. In the patent dispute in the same year, Fischer was given the right to further develop the ball grinding machine and Höpflinger was granted license-free joint use. A competition that continues to this day emerged, which finally resulted in the No. 1 and No. 2 of the world's largest rolling bearing manufacturers. In the same year 1890, Fischer moved from Obere Strasse to a newly acquired property at Markt 24, where twelve ball mills were already in operation. In 1892 Fischer leased the municipal spinning mill on the Main .
The number of employees in the unnamed automatic ball factory Friedrich Fischer (1891-1897) rose to over 600. The capital required for further development was raised by converting it to the stock company Erste Automatic Gußstahlkugel-Fabrik AG (1897-1909). In 1897, the company moved from the old town to today's spacious company premises near the main train station , which, like the area around the train station, did not belong to the city of Schweinfurt between 1802 and 1919, but to the municipality of Oberndorf , which was independent at the time .
Due to the great success of the two companies from Fischer and Fries & Höpflinger, numerous other competing companies emerged in a very short time. The resulting overproduction led to the collapse of the market. The number of employees at Fischer fell to just 40 in 1898. In the midst of the crisis, Fischer died at the age of 50. The company stagnated for many years.
FAG brand (since 1905)
On July 29, 1905, the FAG trademark (abbreviation: see introduction to the article) is registered at the Patent and Trademark Office in Berlin . Since 1939 the FAG brand was used by the rival company in Wolverhampton (see: The Shepherd Era) and had to be bought back.
Shepherd era (1909–1992)
Beginnings
In 1885 Georg Schäfer (I) founded a building and art locksmith's shop in the old commercial district of Schweinfurt's old town, in Judengasse. From 1888 onwards, he expanded his operations there several times, with additional business areas, and finally in 1904 with the manufacture of ball bearings. 1906 move to the spinning mill, 14 years after Friedrich Fischer had previously used this space. In the same year, his branches of the company become Georg Schäfer & Cie. merged. The small industrial museum is located here today (see: Schweinfurt industrial history # industrial museums ).
Takeover of the Fischers company
In 1909 Georg Schäfer (I) took over the company from Friedrich Fischer at the main train station and merged it with his own ball bearing plant to form the first automatic cast steel ball factory & Cie (1910–1941). The stock corporation was converted into a general partnership .
In 1925 Georg Schäfer (II) inherited a third of the company from his father of the same name, in which he had been active since 1919. At the age of 29 he took over the commercial management, the technical management was in the hands of his brother-in-law and co-owner Hermann Barthel.
Georg Schäfer (II) is the only company in the industry that does not participate in the merger in the German rolling bearing industry that was completed in 1929 under pressure from the Swedish SKF . Schäfer uses the free space created by the merger for his own advancement, favored by the war armor. During the global economic crisis , the number of employees rose by almost half to almost 3,000; in 1939, 9,000 people were employed.
Second World War
Rolling bearing manufacturers are part of the key industry , as ball bearings are the most important component in mechanical engineering. Without it, no tank drives and no aircraft flies. Therefore Schweinfurt was the only primary target of the Allies in Bavaria . After the first air raid on the Schweinfurt large-scale industry in 1943, the decentralization order for puffer fishermen followed, with the relocation of parts of the business to over 20 locations, among others. a. to Ebern , Elfershausen and Eltmann . The main plant in Schweinfurt was 83% destroyed by numerous attacks. Nevertheless, production could be maintained until the end of the war, with almost 12,000 employees at the end. With the exception of the factory in Eltmann, the outsourced operations had escaped the bombing.
In 1946 the main plant was dismantled and in 1947 the military government issued the rebuilding order. For the currency reform of 1948, the personally liable partners Georg Schäfer (II) and Otto Schäfer, who were dismissed after the war, resume management.
Post-war decades
The reconstruction of Kugelfischer's main plant in Schweinfurt begins with unprecedented dynamism and was completed in 1955. The damaged, modern brick buildings from the 1930s in the Bauhaus style have been restored. The new main administration building (see picture at the beginning of the article), also a clinker brick building typical of the Schweinfurt industrial area, was built in the early 1950s.
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FAG Kugelfischer high-rise office building
at the main train station, built around 1970 |
Awarding of the FAG Prize 1988
with Georg Schäfer (III) (center) |
In the 1960s, like the other two major Schweinfurt companies SKF and Fichtel & Sachs , Kugelfischer experienced an unprecedented boom. As the only company of the big three , Kugelfischer does not employ guest workers and has a predominantly local workforce, which in many families went over several generations. That is why “the Kufi” was considered a typical large Schweinfurt company, in contrast to “the Swedes” and “Sachs”.
Kugelfischer was the only one of the big three who didn't dare to jump over the Main . A huge area was acquired south of the Main, in the new Hafen-Ost district , but at the beginning of the 1970s it was not possible to decide to build a plant south. The decisive factor was the great effort required to completely set up a new energy supply. The property was sold back to the city of Schweinfurt.
1978 the open trading company is converted into a limited partnership (KG). In 1979, the trademarks FAG is integrated into the company name: FAG ball Fischer Georg Schäfer & Co . Also in 1979 the Kugelfischer injection systems division was sold to Bosch . In 1985, 88 years after Fischer, the company went public again . The majority of the shares remain in the possession of the Schäfer family. In 1991 Rotasymin in Pößneck was acquired by the Treuhandanstalt . The plant closes shortly afterwards.
Rise to global corporation
The company wanted to be represented with its own productions in the most important foreign sales markets, also in order to consolidate the international standard. In 1937 the first overseas plant was established in Wolverhampton, which was expropriated in 1939. In 1951, Kugelfischer opened the first foreign sales company at the former Wolverhampton location. In the following 30 years, another 18 company-owned sales companies are set up on all continents. The first foreign plant after the Second World War was founded in 1953 in Stratford (Ontario) , Canada (FAG Bearings Ltd) as an automotive supplier for nearby Detroit . In 1983 the company had plants in Austria , Switzerland , Italy , Spain , Portugal , USA , Canada , Brazil and India .
Order management (1993-2001)
On July 1, 1990, the Deutsche Kugellagerfabriken (DKF) in Chemnitz were acquired. This led the entire group into a crisis that threatened its existence and, at the end of 1992, to the brink of ruin. The renovation was carried out under the direction of the contract manager Kajo Neukirchen . The number of employees in the group has been reduced from 40,000 to 15,000. The Schäfer family left the management at the turn of the year 1992/93.
Schaeffler era (since 2001)
In 2001 the DAX company FAG Kugelfischer Georg Schäfer AG was taken over by INA-Holding Schaeffler KG. In 2006 the companies FAG Kugelfischer AG & Co. oHG and INA-Schaeffler KG are merged into Schaeffler KG. The Schaeffler Group is only represented in the MDAX . However, INA and FAG together become the second largest rolling bearing group in the world, after FAG Kugelfischer's eternal rival, the market leader SKF , whose largest plant is only a few hundred meters away from FAG in Schweinfurt.
The headquarters of the Industry division of Schaeffler KG is in Schweinfurt, its largest production location and center of mechatronics , with the Industry 4.0 process . A digital learning factory is currently being established here.
As a result of the merger of INA-Schaeffler with FAG Kugelfischer, the Schaeffler Group is now one of the 1000 largest public companies in the world with 91,000 employees (2018) and 14.0 billion euros in sales (2017). In the Forbes Global 2000 of the world's largest listed companies, the Schaeffler Group ranks 848 (as of fiscal year 2017). The company had a market value of approximately 10.7 billion US dollars in mid-2018.
Large warehouse in new dimensions
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London Eye, with the hub bearing from FAG Kugelfischer
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Great Beijing Wheel-Lager (duplicate) by FAG, as a memorial in Schweinfurt
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London Eye
Even before the only relevant global competitor SKF, FAG Kugelfischer specialized in large bearings. FAG Kugelfischer developed and built the huge spherical roller bearing at the hub of the London Eye, which opened for the millennium celebrations in 2000 .
Peking Wheel
After the takeover by the Schaeffler Group, FAG in Schweinfurt was commissioned to develop the hub bearing for the largest, 208 m high Ferris wheel in the world, in Chaoyang Park in Beijing . Construction work on the Ferris wheel began in 2006. The planned completion date for the Great Peking Wheel in 2008, for the Olympic Games , was not met. In 2010 the work was stopped because the responsible Chinese company filed for bankruptcy.
A duplicate of the two Beijing warehouses, each weighing 10 tons and with an outer diameter of 3.20 m, was set up at the theater of the city of Schweinfurt . The inside diameter of the bearing is exactly the same as the outside diameter of the London Eye bearing.
Patron Georg Schäfer (II)
Georg Schäfer (II) was a company leader with social commitment and high popularity (Papa Schäfer) . Employment at FAG Kugelfischer had "civil servant status" , similar to that at Siemens . The company had its own holiday homes and children's homes for employees and their families. The Christmas celebrations are legendary, when every child of all employee families received a gift.
Schäfer also brought together an important collection of paintings, which u. a. contains the world's largest collection by Carl Spitzweg . It is exhibited in the Georg Schäfer Museum named after him , which was opened in Schweinfurt in 2000 and whose exhibits are comparable to the Neue Pinakothek in Munich.
See also
literature
- Leonardo Calossi: Comments on internment in Germany 1943–45 - forced laborer with Kugelfischer . Verlag Rudolf & Enke, Ebertshausen 2003, ISBN 3-931909-08-5
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Peter Hofmann: schweinfurtfuehrer.de/FAG/Industriegeschichte/Periode Arbeitsmanagement. Retrieved October 23, 2018 .
- ↑ a b c d e Peter Hofmann: Schweinfurtfuehrer.de/Die era Friedrich Fischer and investors. Retrieved October 22, 2018 .
- ^ Schaeffler in Germany. Retrieved October 23, 2018 .
- ↑ Friedrich Fischer's ball milling machine was patented 125 years ago. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on March 17, 2017 ; accessed on March 16, 2017 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ A b Peter Hofmann: Schweinfurtfuehrer.de/The "FAG" brand. Retrieved October 22, 2018 .
- ↑ a b c d e f g h Peter Hofmann: Schweinfurtfuehrer.de/Die Era Haus Schäfer. Retrieved October 22, 2018 .
- ↑ With the takeover of FAG Kugelfischer in 2001, Schaeffler became the second largest rolling bearing manufacturer in the world, in: Wirtschaft in Mainfranken: With an ingenious idea for a global corporation , August 2016, p. 78.
- ↑ Schweinfurter Tagblatt, May 8, 2018
- ↑ Schaeffler Group: Group management report. Retrieved October 23, 2018 .
- ^ The World's Largest Public Companies . In: Forbes . ( forbes.com [accessed July 17, 2018]).
- ^ Spiegel-Online: Breakdown at the London Eye. Retrieved October 21, 2018 .
- ↑ In and around Schweinfurt.de: The floating large warehouse , September 6, 2012
