Karl Georg can look back on almost 100 years of company history. With a great deal of pioneering spirit and a large portion of courage, Karl Georg founded a workshop for the repair of agricultural equipment and the production of tyred farm wagons in 1925.
His inventive talent and ingenuity soon made it possible to start manufacturing buffers for railway wagons. The site also had its own free-form forge and later an electric steelworks. In 1966, a further production branch was added with the manufacture of crane wheels, for which a new plant was built at the current site shortly afterwards.
Another milestone was the patenting of the Karl Georg wheel block, the forerunner of the versatile and universally applicable ATLAS wheel block system.
Today, Karl Georg is the European market leader for crane wheels and continues to be a strong partner for sophisticated crane and industrial components. Our focus is on the further development of our core expertise. We are moving away from being a steel producer towards becoming an expert and solution provider. This is what we stand for with the expertise we have acquired over decades, from simple travelling wheels to our innovative ATLAS wheel block system and complete trolleys.
From a workshop in a barn to the leading brand for crane components.
From the penny department to core competence.
From the Westerwald to the world.
The story of Karl Georg.
Karl Georg founds the company at the Neitersen site. At the beginning, the company produces buffers, lorry trailers and rubber-tyred farm wagons for agriculture and has its own forge and steelworks.
Production of buffers for railway carriages begins.
After the company was destroyed by a bombing raid on 21 February 1945, new premises were required, which Karl Georg built between the B 256 and the railway line. Both the border between Neitersen and Neiterschen and the official border between Weyerbusch and Flammersfeld went right through the centre of the company.
The only steelworks in the Westerwald to date went into operation in Neitersen in 1965.
The so-called ‘crane wheel production’ begins. The first crane wheels are manufactured at the Neitersen site. In the same year, production begins at the Ingelbach site. Continuous investment in new machines enables the production of the first geared crane wheels from 1975.
The grandson of company founder Karl Georg, Michael Schnaufer, ‘takes the wheel’ and succeeds company founder Karl Georg in the steelworks, foundry and crane wheel construction divisions.
Following the inventive spirit of the company founder, Karl Georg develops the first demountable wheel block. This can be used universally, especially in mechanical engineering and conveyor technology.
In September 1998, Karl Georg Stahlherstellungs- und Verarbeitungs GmbH moves from Neitersen to the new administration building in Ingelbach-Bahnhof.
Karl Georg Stahlherstellungs- und Verarbeitungs GmbH changes its name: the new company name Karl Georg GmbH emphasises the company's development. At the same time, Karl Georg GmbH is also given a new look and modernises its brand image as well as its production processes.