Carl Flohr was a German manufacturing firm. Founded by Carl Flohr (1850-1927, full name: Wilhelm Hermann Carl Flohr) in 1879, the firm produced passenger elevators, escalators, freight elevators and paternosters, as well as cranes. It was one of the leading German elevator manufacturers during the first half of the 20th century. The firm was acquired by Otis in the early 1950s and used Flohr-Otis name until the 1980s. It is the predecessor of Otis' current German subsidiary Otis GmbH & Co. OHG.
History[]
Carl Flohr founded his manufacturing company Maschinenfabrik Carl Flohr in the district of Oranienburger in Berlin, Germany in 1879. In 1888, he expanded his business by acquiring Berlin-based Siegelschen Maschinenfabrik. Flohr installed a hydraulic elevator for the Berlin City Palace (German: Berliner Schloss or Stadtschloss) in 1898. Carl Flohr died in 1927 at age of 77 years old.
In 1951, the firm was acquired by Otis Elevator Company and became "Flohr-Otis". It is not known exactly when the name changed to exclude "Flohr" and became simply OTIS, but the name was still used up until the late 1980s.
Notable installations[]
Flohr[]
Germany[]
- Andreasstraße 27, Hamburg
- Isestraße 55, Hamburg (1908)
- Görnestraße 10, Hamburg
- Eppendorfer Landstraße 12, Hamburg
Sweden[]
- Sibyllegatan 18, Stockholm (modernized by Hiss Craft)
- Wallingatan 37, Stockholm
- Norra Skeppsbron 7, Gävle
Flohr-Otis[]
Germany[]
- Loehrsweg 1, Hamburg
- Böttgetstraße 151, Hamburg
- Jungfrauenthal 2, Hamburg
- Karstadt department store, Mainz (1963?)
- Heinrich-Böll-Gymnasium, Troisdorf (1967)
- St. Martinus Hospital, Düsseldorf (1953)
- Abendgymnasium, Köln (1969)
- Heinz-Nixdorf-Berufskolleg, Essen (1969, modernized)
- Marienhospital, Siegen (1953)
- Felten & Guilleaume, Köln (1952, elevators and paternoster)
- St. Joseph Hospital, Oberhausen
- Viktoriastraße 5A, Bochum (1987)
- Wilhelmstraße 70, Siegburg, Bonn (1965)
- Johanniter hospital, Rheinhausen (1963)
- Maritim Hotel, Travemünde Strand, Lübeck (1972)
- Maritim Hotel Lübeck-Travemünde, Lübeck (1972, System 260 elevator)
- Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof, Kiel (1973, modernized by ThyssenKrupp in 2016)
- Leonardo Hotel, Karlsruhe (originally Schindler from 1964, modernized by Flohr-Otis in 1984)
Other countries[]
Gärdet Metro Station, Stockholm, Sweden(1967, replaced into SMW elevators in 2011)- American University of Beirut - Biology and Agriculture Building, Beirut, Lebanon (1950s)
Broadway Restaurant - Hay Wah Building (Block A), Wan Chai, Hong Kong(1980-2010, modernized by Otis)[1]- Fu Lam Restaurant - Mei Foo Sun Chuen, Mei Foo, Hong Kong (1981-2010, modernized by OTIS)
Trivia[]
- Possibly in the 1970s, Flohr-Otis also made a very rare elevator model called "System 260" which was most likely only sold in Germany. This elevator uses fixtures that were based on the Otis LM fixtures used in the Otis Bitsa elevators in Europe.
- British manufacturing company J&E Hall first made escalators under patents by Carl Flohr.
Videos[]
1909 Carl Flohr Elevator (mod.) @ Hamburg-Eppendorf, Germany (HD)
1909 Flohr elevator in Hamburg, Germany (video by: European Lifts by OLML)
FLOHR-OTIS System 260 Aufzug "Über den Wolken"
1972 Flohr Otis System 260 elevator in Lübeck, Germany (video by: Verschiedene Zug-Aufzugsvideos)