It all began in 1870: The brothers Albert and Emil Böhler, who came from Germany, distributed their steel from Kapfenberg, Austria, with their trading company Gebrüder BÖHLER & CO, established in Vienna. In 1894 they acquired the steel mill, modernized and expanded the production. At that time, the excellent quality of the steel was the basis of success, such as today. It was the foundation of a company that only a few years later became a synonym for the best tool steel.
Development of the revolutionary BÖHLER high speed steel „BÖHLER RAPID“
The groundbreaking ceremony for the BÖHLER steel mill in Düsseldorf was in March 1914. The property is and was located in an economical hotspot. Today, a lot of commerce and innovative industries, research facilities and important associations are gathered here.
Already in 1915, the first sector of the mill was able to start the production, and in 1919 the workforce already had more than 2,500 employees.
BÖHLER was the first steel mill in Europe who set up a business management department in Düsseldorf in 1929. This department made precise research for plant operating, work- and work-flow studies. The results were used to determine performance wages.
In 1933 an extensive expansion of the factory began and later the partial transition to armament production. In the last years of war, parts of the production were relocated to Austria due to allied bombings.
n March 1945 the mill in Düsseldorf was military occupied by the Americans. Already on April 25th, around 300 workmen resumed their work.
An orderly operation of the steel production started in 1947 after the company was removed from the disassembly list.
To maintain competitiveness large investments were made between 1960 and 1970. In the 1980s the company had about 3,700 employees.
In 1991, the merger of the Austrian BÖHLER Group and the Swedish UDDEHOLM Group marked the start of a radical renewal process for the Düsseldorf location.
An agreement was made that there were enough production capacities for the new group in the more effective locations in Austria and Sweden.
As a consequence, the steel mill and the forge in Düsseldorf were closed in 1992/93.
BÖHLER in Düsseldorf expanded the sales activities and developed a new strategic orientation of the German company.
