Eggers-Kehrhahn GmbH, or simply known as EK, was a manufacturer of elevators and escalators from Hamburg, Germany. It was the result of a merger between two Hamburg based companies in the 1950s; Stahlbau Eggers who worked in steel construction, and Kehrhahn who was an elevator and escalator manufacturer. The company was one of the elements that led to the formation of Thyssen Aufzüge GmbH in the 1970s, the predecessor of thyssenkrupp Elevator (now TK Elevator).
History[]
The origin of the company started out in 1865 when Heinrich Conrad Ernst Eggers, a locksmith, founded a small company in the old town of Hamburg. At that time, the company concentrated its business in supplying iron bases for sewing machines, safes and also locksmith related things before it switched to steel construction. By this time the company was known as Stahlbau Eggers.
Meanwhile, elevator manufacturer Kehrhahn was founded by Frederich Kehrhahn in 1899 a representative of Carl Flohr in Hamburg. In 1912, Kehrhahn bought Wimmel & Landgraf, a company which specialized in repairing Waygood & Co. paternosters imported from England. Wimmel & Landgraf had been bought by Hamburg-Ottensen based Maschinenfabrik Alfred Guttman in 1903 before Kehrhahn took over the company from Guttman.
In 1952, Stahlbau Eggers joined steel maker Rheinstahl AG and in 1955 it acquired Kehrhahn, thus became Eggers-Kehrhahn. By 1957, the company became Rheinstahl Eggers-Kehrhahn GmbH. They also manufactured escalators and possibly paternosters alongside elevators.
In 1973, Rheinstahl was sold to Thyssen due to financial difficulties that it had since the late 1960s. Since Eggers-Kehrhahn was part of Rheinstahl, the company was automatically absorbed to Thyssen. Rheinstahl's elevator division became Thyssen Aufzuge GmbH.
Notable installations[]
- This section requires expansion.
- Eppendorfer Baum, Hamburg, Germany (1912, made by Kehrhahn?, modernized by Schmitt + Sohn in 2005)
Trivia[]
- American elevator manufacturer Montgomery Elevator Company initially entered the escalator industry in the late 1950s by forming an agreement with Eggers-Kehrhahn, who wanted to market its escalator products to the United States, Canada and Mexico.
Gallery[]
Notes and references[]
External links[]
- Thyssen (German)
- Von 1865 bis heute - Hamburger Abenblatt (German)