100 Years of August Rüggeberg August of Years 100

The Company Newsletter of August Rüggeberg GmbH & Co. Marienheide Vol. 17, No. 31 September 1997 H 1897 1898 1899 1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909 1910 1911 1 1 918 1919 1920 912 1913 1914 1915 1914 912 1913 1916 1917 100 YEARS OF AUGUST RÜGGEBERG 1926 1927 1928 1936 1937 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1989 1990 1 977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 977 1978 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 2 The small hammer forge is eventually In search of skilled labour and more Before 1897 taken over by the son, Johan Frie- favourable transport conditions, drich, who contracts local farmers to August Rüggeberg and his sons, Of poets, cut files at home from blanks supplied Robert, Emil and Alfred, decide to by the company. Also dating from this move the company to Marienheide, file cutters and period is the company’s logo, a horse some 40 kilometres away. “rough ridges” jumping through the hoop. The new location is noted for its skilled Files were known many centuries before our era. The Greek poet Aesop, writing in the 6th century B.C., already composed a fable about “the serpent and the file”. In Roman history, too, files are frequently mentioned, particularly as instruments for working wood and marble, precious stones and iron. In a letter by Theodoric the Great, dating back to the fifth century A.D., he expresses his thanks for a shipment of swords “so evenly sharp that you’d think they were not finished with the The first company photo of 1897. file but cast from a glowing furnace.” From Leonardo da Vinci, the great painter, sculptor and inventor, we have Johan Friedrich Rüggeberg produces the a sketch of a filemaking machine first files at Voerde (approx. 1500) equipped with several pointed knife-shaped hammers. Business at Rüggeberg commenced Thalers, stubers and pfennigs were on a modest scale, yet with encour- the currency of the day. In the subse- aging success. In the small town of quent currency reform, one thaler is Rüggeberg (denoting “rough mountain exchanged for 3 marks. The price of a ridge”) in the Ennepetal-Altenvörde medium file, 300 mm in length, would area, Johan Caspar Rüggeberg began thus have amounted to about 65 to produce the first files and rasps pfennigs. towards the end of the 18th century. 1897 - 1907 Towards Marienheide The industrialization changes the country’s social and economic fabric. The German economy is booming. Many file cutters from the Ennepetal valley have left for the blossoming industrial cities in the Ruhr basin. August Rüggeberg gives the company his name Ancestral home: the Westphalian town of Rüggeberg According to oral tradition, his shop in- itially performed only the actual tool forging operations. Steel was melted in a puddling furnace, shaped into rods under water-powered stretching hammers, then forged into blanks which were annealed in a furnace fired with beechwood logs. The decarburized layer was filed off before the finished blank was transferred to the cutting shop for the teeth cutting process. Alfred, Emil and Robert Rüggeberg move the company to Marienheide 3 1917 - 1927 Manpower and material get scarce A series of bad harvests result in the “winter of famine” of 1917. By resort- ing to turnips as the main food source, the country barely escapes mass starvation. All food is strictly rationed. Siberian temperatures, falling as low as -180 in the Rhineland, cripple the economy. Coal supplies are disrupted as the rivers are frozen solid. The A skilled workforce assembled Packing room staff on the first approx. 1900 loading dock news from Russia breeds civic unrest throughout the German empire. Peace proposals from various govern- manpower, organized mainly in the ments indicate a growing war weari- form of an extensive cottage industry. 1907 - 1917 ness in Europe. Nevertheless, two more Rolling mills supplying the necessary years must pass before Germany signs steel rods are situated virtually next Mobility and growth mark the Versailles peace treaty imposed by door. the course of progress the allied powers. The first factory building, although still At Rüggeberg, the management’s prime a simple brick structure, reflects the In 1907, a long-distance automobile concern is to keep up production. company’s progress from a manufac- race captures the world’s attention. The Women take the place of conscripted turing workshop to a modest industrial route extends from Peking to Paris. production workers on the assembly enterprise. The product range, ori- After a two months’ ordeal over bad lines.Although only the file factory is ginally consisting mainly of rough files roads, rutted dirt tracks and precipitous operating, sourcing sufficient raw ma- for use by blacksmith’s shops, is ex- mountain passes, F. Scipione Borghese terials has become a serious problem. tended to a line of machinist’s files in his four-cylinder Itala car is the first to Through a determined effort, the and single-cut files employed mainly pass the finish line. shortage can eventually be overcome. for sharpening saws. Sales - already Four years later, in 1911, Rüggeberg’s involving travel to Holland, Belgium acquisition of its first company car and Denmark - are originally handled causes a commotion of almost identical by the three brothers themselves, be- proportions in and around Marienheide. fore a number of travelling salesmen Business progress is also reflected the and field representatives are hired. company’s building and modernizing activities. Addition of the first loading In 1903, a patent is obtained for a dock serving the company’s packing “half-round file with spiral paths ar- room makes shipping operations more ranged in serpentine lines on a round efficient as growing volumes of PFERD back” brand files are sent out to the customer. A highly skilled file cutter can produce up to four files an hour, depending on the type and size of the cut Producing files is still a laborious manual process. Bold entrepreneurs de- pend on the support of strong crafts- men, such as blacksmiths and grinders. These supply the blanks which are subsequently finished by file cutters using a hammer and chisel. To achieve teeth of even depth, the The company’s chauffeur, hammer must always fall on the chisel Karl Bellingrath, poses proudly with new ADLER car from the same height. 4 Drive problems are solved by means of 1927 - 1937 an ingenious solution, the so-called flexible shaft machine. This new A new management technology represents a milestone that will lead to the replacement and human- generation ization of hard and labour-consuming In May 1927, Charles A. Lindbergh manual work. completes his non-stop flight across Determined to serve the needs of the the Atlantic. Adolf Hitler holds his first emerging precision machining market, speech in Berlin. The crisis of the Rüggeberg launches the production of Weimar Republic and its political mounted grinding points at about the parties is coming to a head. Election same time. In a brochure produced for results reflect the disaffection of large the 1936 Leipzig spring fair, a product parts of the population. The Great range about to evolve into a compre- Depression and the moderate parties’ hensive modular system of surface ma- inability to provide solutions pave the chining tools is already impressively way for political extremism, giving rise presented. to the most painful chapter in German history. In 1942 Rüggeberg is granted the first patent for its rotary milling cutter In 1928, Alfred Rüggeberg is appointed Hans Rüggeberg follows in his fathers The first trade fair brochures have a Head of Distribution by his father footsteps in 1933 by taking over the powerful appeal, even in the early years management of Company Operations A far-sighted strategy earns Rüggeberg’s breakthrough In these days of economic and social turmoil, Rüggeberg nevertheless suc- ceeds in pioneering a revolutionary breakthrough in metalworking technology. The linear motion of the traditional file is converted into rotary action. The new concept forms the basis for the development of the handheld rotary milling cutter, a tool outperforming the cut file due to its optimized tooth geometry and angle of twist. With far-sightedness, the company’s owners had identified the trend towards an increasing use of power tools that would put an end to the dominance of manual files. Increased building activities emphasize the company’s growing status 5 manufacturer of mounted grinding 1937 - 1947 points. PFERD - a worldwide presence on trade fairs Manpower shortage At the end of the war, the Konitz site is lost. At Marienheide, the US authori- and exhibitions amidst the ravages of ties allow a re-start of production A desire to keep up the dialogue World War II activities. The permit is later suspended with customers, retailers and indus- for a brief period when British forces try specialists has always charac- The airship “Hindenburg” is destroyed take control of the region. terized Rüggeberg’s approach. Our by fire while landing at Lakehurst (New tradition of exhibiting products on York). Although its cause is never fully trade fairs goes back to the start of established, the accident marks the Vintage filemaking the century. end of the once-promising airship ser- machine made The theme of the company’s pre- vice on the North Atlantic route. sence on the 1936 Leipzig spring In the German empire, a system of ri- user-friendly fair is the “Exemplary Use of Rotary gid controls and coordination of public Tools in Machining Materials of Inter- opinion has been imposed. All political In the early ‘40s, a number of filemak- est”.

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