Man See History

Man See History

This logo is on the front of all MAN trucks and buses. The lion comes from   company that MAN acquired in 1971. It resembles the coat of arms of the city of, 

Foundation

St. Antony

MAN traces its origins back to 1758, when the “St. Antony” ironworks commenced operation in, as the first heavy-industry enterprise in the. In 1808, the three ironworks “St. Antony”, “Gute Hoffnung” (English: “Good Hope”), and “Neue Essen” (English: “New Forges”) merged, to form the Hüttengewerkschaft und Handlung Jacobi (English: “Jacobi Iron And Steel Works Union And Trading Company”), Oberhausen, which was later renamed Gute Hoffnungshütte (GHH).

In 1840, the German engineer Ludwig Sander founded in the first predeceasing enterprise of MAN in Southern Germany: the “Sander’sche Maschinenfabrik.” It firstly became the “C. Reichenbach’sche Maschinenfabrik”, which was named after the pioneer of printing machines Carl August Reichenbach, and later on the “Maschinenfabrik Augsburg”.

In 1898, the companies Maschinenbau-AG (founded 1841) and Maschinenfabrik Augsburg AG(founded 1840) merged to form Vereinigte Maschinenfabrik Augsburg und Maschinenbaugesellschaft Nürnberg A.G., Augsburg (“United Machine Works Augsburg and Nuremberg Ltd.”). In 1908, the company was renamedMaschinenfabrik Augsburg Nürnberg AG, or in short, M·A·N.

While the focus initially remained on ore mining and iron production in the, mechanical engineering became the dominating branch of business in Augsburg and Nuremberg. Under the direction of Heinrich von Buz,Maschinenfabrik Augsburg grew from a medium-sized business of 400 employees into a major enterprise with a workforce of 12,000 by the year 1913.

Locomotion, propulsion and steel building were the big topics of this phase. The early predecessors of MAN were responsible for numerous technological innovations. The success of the early MAN entrepreneurs and engineers was based on a great openness towards new technologies. They constructed the Wuppertal monorail and the first spectacular steel bridges like the Großhesseloher Brücke in 1857 and the between 1893 and 1897.

Suspension railway in Wuppertal, Germany

The invention of the rotary printing press allowed the copious printing of books and newspapers and since 1893, puzzled for four years with future MAN engineers in a laboratory in until his first was completed and fully functional.

Rudolf Diesel’s first engine.

During 1921, the majority of M.A.N. was taken over by the Gutehoffnungshütte Actienverein für Bergbau und Hüttenbetrieb, Sterkrade (GHH), (founded 1873).Through well-directed equities and acquisitions of processing industries, e.g., Deutsche Werft (1918), Ferrostaal (1921), Deggendorfer Werft und Eisenbau (1924), MAN advanced to a nationwide operating enterprise, with a workforce of 52,000 by 1921.

Crisis and World War II

At the same time the GHH’s economic situation worsened. The causes for this were, among others, theafter, the occupation of the and the world economic crisis. In only two years the number of the MAN employees sank from 14,000 in the year 1929/30 to 7,400 in 1931/32. While the civil business was largely collapsing, the military business increased with the armament under the national socialist regime. GHH/MAN enterprises supplied diesel engines for submarines,, cylinders for projectiles and artillery of every description. MAN also produced gun parts, includingrifle bolts. Theircode was WaA53, and ordnance code was “coc”.

The MAN works in were often the target of massive bombing attacks during, because 40 percent of allPanzers built in Germany were produced there.

Postwar period

MAN truck 11-136

After the end of the allies split up the GHH group. A vertical integration in which mining, iron and steel production are consolidated was not allowed any more. The “Gutehoffnungshütte”, together with the MAN firms of Southern Germany, therefore concentrated on engineering, plant construction, commercial vehicles and printing machines. This process has been supported by strategic acquisitions and dispositions; one the most important was the take-over of the truck and bus division of the commercial vehicles manufacturer (1971), the disposition of the shares of the shipyard Deutsche Werft (1966/67) and the acquisition of the printing machine producer Faber&Schleicher as well as its fusion to MAN Roland Druckmaschinen AG (1979).

In 1982/83 the “Gutehoffnungshütte” plunged into a deep corporate crisis. The enterprise suffered from the late effects of the second oil crises and a bad economic situation. This was particularly displayed by the dramatic downturn of the commercial vehicles sales figures. Besides external factors, the chief course of these problems was the obsolete company structure with extensive cross-subsidisation between the divisions. At this time the former director of GHH presented a reclamation concept that envisioned a complete consolidation of the subsidiary with the holding company. This concept encountered great resistance with GHH’s major shareholders Allianz AG and Commerzbank. The media speculated about a “Bavarian conspiracy” against the Management in,

In 1986, with Klaus Götte, the group got a new company structure and became a contractual group with economically independent division at several locations. This was also attended by the transferring of the MAN headquarters from Oberhausen to Munich and by the new company name MAN AG.

Rudolf Rupprecht repelled a takeover attempt in 2003. Furthermore, the disposition of the 50-percent share of the SMS Group and the strengthening of the turbomachinery division through the takeover of Sulzer Turbo induced MAN’s focusing process.

In 2006, MAN entered into an agreement with Indian company to establish a 50:50 joint venture for the production of trucks and buses in for the domestic and export markets.The joint-venture established a truck manufacturing plant in and launched its first truck for the Indian market in 2007. At the end of 2011, MAN bought out the stake of its Indian partner, and its operations in India became a wholly owned subsidiary of MAN in early 2012.

In September 2006, MAN produced an offer for the take-over of the Swedish competitor. The European Commission approved the takeover on December, 14. Nevertheless, MAN voluntarily withdrew the offer on January 23, 2007, after Scania’s major shareholdersand the influential Wallenberg family had declined the offer. On December 24, 2008, MAN published to possess further stock options of Scania and to therefore maintain more than 20 percent of the voting rights.

In 2008, the MAN group celebrated its 250 years anniversary with numerous events, like exhibitions in several museums, a vintage car tour with the motto “MAN on the road again” and a great anniversary gala. At the beginning of December 2008 MAN took over the company VW Truck and Bus Brazil and changed the firm’s name to MAN Latin America. Therewith, MAN now is market leader in with a market share of 30 percent.

Since May 2009, the group is incorporated as European corporation MAN SE.In July 2009 MAN published to merge the two divisions MAN Turbo and MAN Diesel into one business area called Power Engineering. In addition the group contracted a strategic partnership with the Chinese truck manufacturer. In the course of this focusing process many smaller subsidiaries and division have been sold.

In 2009, investigators of the Munich uncovered a corruption affair, in which MAN had been bribing business partners and governments in over 20 countries during the years 2001 to 2007, in order to get large orders for buses and trucks. MAN CEO Håkan Samuelsson and further Board Members had to resign. The board of directors appointed Dr.-Ing. Georg Pachta-Reyhofen, the former CEO of MAN Diesel, as successor. On December 17, 2009 Pachta-Reyhofen was assigned as speaker of the board and CEO of MAN SE by the board of directors.

Takeover by Volkswagen

Headquarter of MAN SE in Munich

In July 2011, acquired a 55.9% voting stake and 53.7% of the share capital in MAN SE. Pending regulatory approval, Volkswagen planned to merge MAN and to create Europe’s largest truckmaker. The combined trucks group is planned to save about 400 million euros per year, mainly by bundling procurement.Regulatory approval was granted, and the takeover completed, in November 2011.

In April 2012 MAN SE announced that Volkswagen had increased its interest to a 73.0% voting stake and 71.08% of the share capital.

On 6 June 2012 announced that it had increased its share of voting rights in MAN SE to 75.03%, paving the way for a domination agreement to be put in place.