| Schaeffler AG | |
| Type: | Aktiengesellschaft |
| Industry: | Automotive, Aerospace, Industrial |
| Founders: | Wilhelm Schaeffler Georg Schaeffler |
| Location City: | Herzogenaurach |
| Location Country: | Germany |
| Area Served: | Worldwide |
| Key People: | Klaus Rosenfeld, (CEO) |
| Num Employees: | 120,000 (2023) |
| Subsid: |
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Schaeffler Technologies AG & Co. KG, also known as the Schaeffler Group (Schaeffler-Gruppe in German), is a German manufacturer of rolling element bearings[1] for automotive, aerospace and industrial uses.[2] It was founded in 1946 by brothers Dr. Wilhelm and Dr.-Ing. E. h. Georg Schaeffler.[3]
As of 2021, the firm was majority owned by Maria-Elizabeth Schaeffler-Thumann and her son Georg F. W. Schaeffler through a series of holding companies. These holding companies, controlled by the Schaeffler family, also own controlling interests in Continental AG and Vitesco Technologies.[4]
Schaeffler Group owns the brands INA, FAG, and LuK. In Germany, these main brands are marketed by Schaeffler Technologies AG & Co. KG and LuK GmbH & Co. oHG.
Schaeffler has an Indian subsidiary, Schaeffler India, which is publicly listed on the National Stock Exchange of India and the Bombay Stock Exchange.[5]
In 1883, Friedrich Fischer of Schweinfurt designed a machine to allow steel balls to be ground to an absolutely round state for the first time – and in large volumes.[6] [7] On 29 July 1905, the FAG brand was registered with the patent office in Berlin. The registered trademark FAG is an acronym for "Fischer's Automatische Gussstahlkugelfabrik," or "Fischer's Automatic Steel Ball Factory."[8]
In 1939, Certified Public Accountant Wilhelm Schaeffler, an employee of the Dresdner Bank, "acquired" Davistan AG, a Jewish founded textiles company 30 percent below value; the owner, Ernst Frank, had bankrupted in April 1933, because of the boycott and fled Germany.[9] [10] The company was located in Katscher in Oberschlesien. In 1941, Wilhelm Schaeffler joined the NSDAP. In 1942, Wilhelm Schaeffler changed the Jewish-sounding name of the company to Wilhelm Schaeffler AG and his brother Georg Schaeffler bought 25 Prozent of the company by the end of 1942.[9] During World War II, weapons inspectors were urgently looking for further production sites in Upper Silesia, which was hardly accessible to Allied bomber units and by June 1943 the Willi Scheffler AG was on a planning list and threatened to close. Some civilian production companies managed to avoid their shutdown by turning to weapons production or ensuring high productivity and lowest possible consumption of raw materials and finished parts.[11] In the summer of 1943, Wilhelm Schaeffler founded a limited partnership for the production of armaments and textiles (dropping devices for the air force, fire bombs, needle bearings for tanks, Wehrmacht vests, mattresses and coats).[9]
The company exploited thousands of slave labourers from France, Russia and Poland in its plants in German-occupied Poland, which the company admitted only in 2008. Around this time Dr. Jacek Lachendro, a historian at the Auschwitz museum stated that after the war 1.95LT rolls of fabric made from inmates' hair had been found at Schaeffler factories in Kiertz (formerly Katscher), and had been used in upholstery in its automotive products. Lachendro stated that analysis of the fabric produced traces of Zyklon B gas.[12] The historian Gregor Schöllgen who investigated the history of the company on behalf of the Schaeffler family claimed in 2009 that there was no evidence for a connection to Auschwitz".[13] for which he was strongly criticized in 2011 by his colleagues Tim Schanetzky,[14] Cornelia Rauh[15] and Toni Pierenkemper.[16]
In 1945, with the Soviet army advancing the company was moved to the Upper Franconian Schwarzenhammer. 300 "Schaeffler people"[17] as well as machines, raw materials and semi-finished goods arrived in 40 railway wagons. After the end of the war Schwarzenhammer was part of the American occupation zone. In August 1945, the "factory of agricultural machinery" was founded there. After Wilhelm Schaeffler returned from Polish imprisonment in mid-September 1952, this company together with Schaeffler KG was liquidated.[9]
In the spring of 1946, brothers Wilhelm and Georg Schaeffler and two partners founded Industrie-GmbH in Herzogenaurach. The company was initially only allowed to repair agricultural equipment and produce goods from wood, but soon also became a supplier for tool making.[18]
In 1949, the needle roller cage, developed by Georg Schaeffler, made the needle roller bearing a reliable component for industrial applications which propelled INA (Industrie Nadellager) to success.[19]
In 1951, the Saar Nadellager oHG was founded in Homburg as the first INA branch in Germany at that time, however, the Saarland was not yet part of the Federal Republic of Germany, but was under French administration (1947 to 1956). In 1956, the first foreign branch plant was founded in Hagenau. In 1957 production started in Llanelli UK,[20] In 1958 a factory was opened at São Paulo Brazil. In 1963 the first INA foreign subsidiary was founded in the United States.[21]
In 1965, INA acquired the company August Häussermann in Bühl and renamed it LuK Lamellen und Kupplungsbau GmbH.
In 1979 INA entered into Hydrel AG, Switzerland,[21] and 1984 into Helmut Elges GmbH, Steinhagen.[22]
In 1989 the carpet business was sold.[23]
In 1991 and 1992 the company expanded Eastward: plants were opened in Skalica, Slovakia, and Ansan, Korea and in 1995 the INA Bearings China Co. Ltd. was founded in Taicang, China.[22] Under the direction of Jürgen Geißinger (November 1998 to October 2013) the company followed an "aggressive acquisition strategy".[24] In 1999, INA took over LuK GmbH.[22] In 2001 the group bought the Schweinfurt competitor FAG Kugelfischer in a hostile takeover.[25]
In 2024, Schaeffler announced that 4,700 jobs will be eliminated, 2,800 alone in Germany, one plant in Austria and one in the UK will be closed, while bearing production in Berndorf, Austria, would cease. The production of couplings in Sheffield, England would be discontinued.[31]