Feldmühle (company)

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Feldmühle AG

logo
legal form Corporation
founding 1885
resolution 1991
Reason for dissolution Takeover of the paper division of Feldmühle Nobel AG by Stora Enso
Seat Dusseldorf , Germany
Branch Paper maker

The North German paper factory in Uetersen around 1907, later Feldmühle paper factory in Uetersen

The field mill was a German company . In terms of value added, it was at times among the ten largest companies in Germany.

Former factory premises in Oberlahnstein

history

Founding and development until 1985

The company was founded in August 1885 by Leo Gottstein (1850–1922) on the site of a monastery mill built by Cistercian monks in the 13th century as the Silesian sulfite cellulose factory Feldmühle in Liebau am Bober . In 1891 a branch was built in Cosel on the Oder , in 1895 paper mills were built in Liebau and Cosel. In 1906 the company was a co-founder of the Pommersche Zellstoff-Aktiengesellschaft near Stettin, took it over in 1910 and renamed itself Feldmühle, Papier- und Zellstoffwerke Aktiengesellschaft . Further paper mills were built (in Odermünde , Dierfeldgarn GmbH , Oberlangenbielau ) or bought up (the Pomeranian paper mill in Hohenkrug ).

In September 1913, the company merged with the Reisholz AG paper mill (Düsseldorf-Reisholz, with branches also in Flensburg , Uetersen and Arnsberg ) to become the largest German paper manufacturer at the time (14 plants, including in Arnsberg, Bielefeld , Flensburg, Heidenau (Saxony) and Königsberg (Prussia) , Stettin , Uetersen and Oberlahnstein ). In 1930 the Koholyt AG founded by Hugo Stinnes was bought, in 1933 the Berolina paper factory Pinower & Co. (later Berolina Zellglas- Ververarbeitungwerk GmbH ), in 1934 the majority in the Dresden chromo and art print paper factory Krause & Baumann AG in Heidenau. In 1937, 272,000 tons of paper were produced.

Due to the division of Germany after the end of the war, the field mill lost all wood pulp production facilities and over half of the paper and cardboard production capacities . Production was resumed in the remaining plants in Arnsberg, Flensburg, Hillegossen , Lülsdorf , Oberlahnstein, Reisholz, Uetersen and Wesseling . In 1945 the company headquarters was relocated to Hillegossen near Bielefeld. In 1948, the Folien- und Fasstofververarbeitung GmbH replaced the lost Berolina cell glass processing. In 1951, Südplastik, Gummi- und Kunststoff -verarbeitung GmbH was founded in Plochingen am Neckar together with Emil A. Klinger . The year 1952 saw another move to Düsseldorf . In 1957, 279,000 tons of paper and cardboard were produced again, and in 1959 Kabel AG in Hagen- Kabel was bought.

In 1960 Feldmühle acquired the majority of shares in Dynamit Nobel AG . In 1962, the company became a subsidiary of the Flick Group ( Friedrich Flick was released in 1950 after three years in prison and quickly rebuilt his holding company into the largest German family company) and merged with the corporation for paper and pulp interests to form Feldmühle AG (ab 1977 called Feldmühle Vermögensverwaltung AG ).

The growth continued unabated: in 1963 Feldmühle acquired 40% of the Rothersay Paper Corporation in Saint John (Canada) and shortly afterwards installed the world's largest newspaper printing press there . In 1965 a 25% stake in Papeteries de Belgique SA was acquired, and in the following year 25% in the Canadian International Pulp Co. Ltd. , 1968 100% of the Baienfurt paper factory , 1970 the majority of the Dutch NV Papierfabriek Gennep . Further investments, takeovers and modernizations of own plants followed.

Sale 1985 and following years

On December 31, 1985, Friedrich Karl Flick sold the entire Flick Group for around five billion DM and thus also the Feldmühle AG, which belongs to the Group, to Deutsche Bank , which restructured the company and partially sold it again or put it on the stock exchange. In 1986, the industrial core of the Flick empire - the companies Feldmühle, Buderus and Dynamit Nobel - became "Feldmühle Nobel AG". In the same year, after approval by Deutsche Bank, it announced the payment of DM 5 million in compensation for forced laborers of "Dynamit Nobel AG" in the Second World War within the framework of conditions worked out in the 1960s .

When the DAX was founded on December 30, 1987, "Feldmühle Nobel AG" was already one of the companies listed in the DAX 30 and was one of the standard stocks on the stock exchange.

In 1988 the grandchildren of Friedrich Flick ( Friedrich Christian Flick and his brother Gert-Rudolf Flick ) failed in their attempt to repurchase "Feldmühle Nobel AG". The brothers had acquired a 38.5% stake, explicitly with the intention of replacing the top management. As a defense, the company introduced a voting right restriction to 5% with the help of Deutsche Bank, which only owned 8% of the shares but represented 47% of the depository voting rights, which brought down this takeover attempt. Some time later, the energy company VEBA bought a majority of the shares, but was also unable to take over the management due to the voting rights restriction.

Also in 1988, the " Gesellschaft zur Verwertungschemischer Produkte mbH ", which had previously only been run as a participation, and "Dynamit Nobel" signed a control and profit transfer agreement. The subsidiary was finally merged in 1990 with another subsidiary, “Dynamit Nobel Explosivstoff- und Systemtechnik GmbH”.

In 1990 the Scandinavian group “Stora Kopparbergs Bergslags Aktiebolag” (now renamed Stora Enso ) acquired the company for four billion DM, one of the largest financial transactions carried out in Europe up to that point. Stora had operated paper mills in Sweden with Feldmühle for over 20 years. After being taken over by Stora, Feldmühle Nobel left the DAX on September 3, 1990 in favor of Metallgesellschaft .

“Feldmühle Nobel AG” later became “Stora Feldmühle AG”, then “ Stora Enso Deutschland GmbH”.

Liquidation in 1991

In June 1991, the company was sold for over 700 million US dollars (1.45 billion D-Marks) to "Metallgesellschaft AG" (today GEA ), which dismantled it again. The chemical and technical parts of the company "Dynamit Nobel AG" and "Buderus" remained with Metallgesellschaft, while the forestry sector (the former "Feldmühle AG") went to "Stora Enso" (formally as "FPB Holding" based in Düsseldorf, Feldmühleplatz 1).

Hartwig Geginat

Hartwig Geginat (born November 13, 1932) was from 1979 to 1993 chairman of the board of "Feldmühle AG" and "Feldmühle Vermögensverwaltung AG", board member of "Feldmühle Nobel AG" and from 1991 to 1994 member of the supervisory board of "Stora Feldmühle AG" and the "Feldmühle Nobel AG".

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Feldmühle Nobel is dismantled. In: Der Spiegel 25/1991. June 8, 2019, accessed June 8, 2019 .