Johann Georg Boehringer who had previously been a factory supervisor at the Baumann wool spinning mill, founded his own repair shop for spinning and weaving machines on Karlstraße in Göppingen around 1844. In 1855, his brother brought back the expertise from America needed to build the first 3-horsepower steam engine. After the company founder’s death in 1859, his three sons moved the factory to a larger building on Lorcher Straße.The company's name became Gebrüder Boehringer (Boehringer Brothers)
In 1862, the company’s own iron foundry began operations there. Boehringer focused on the manufacture of transmissions and machine tools; in 1896, the first electrically powered lathe was produced, and starting in 1905, the company specialized in lathes, particularly turret lathes and planing machines for wood and metalworking.
In the 1920s, Erwin Sturm developed the hydrostatic compact transmission which was manufactured by Boehringer as the Boehringer-Sturm oil transmission. This division was spun off into the subsidiary Hydrokraft GmbH in 1987.
In 1928, the company founded the manufacturing and sales association “Vereinigte Drehbankfabriken” (VDF) together with three other manufacturers, among them Heidenreich & Harbeck.
In the immediate postwar period, the company primarily manufactured purely civilian products such as hosiery knitting machines, can sealing machines, and cooking stoves. Rolf Boehringer acquired the Unimog from Erhard & Söhne which they built from 1949 to 1951. In 1972, the company entered into a partnership with Oerlikon-Bührle AG in Zurich that acquired a majority stake in 1973. In 1981, the company was renamed Oerlikon-Boehringer GmbH.
Starting in 1987, Boehringer, like the Ex-Cell-O Group in Eislingen, became part of IWKA Aktiengesellschaft and operated under the name Boehringer Werkzeugmaschinen GmbH. The company was acquired by the U.S.-based Maxcor Inc. in 2006 and was eventually integrated into the MAG-IAS Group. In 2013, the Taiwanese Fair Friend Group (FFG) acquired MAG’s Industrial Equipment division. As a result, parts of the Boehringer product portfolio (VDF Boehringer) were transferred to the Fair Friend Group. In 2015, FFG acquired the MAG Group completely. In 2016, Businesspark Göppingen GmbH acquired the approximately 48,000-square-meter business park. Many of the buildings on the site are now occupied by various tenants.
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