Krauss-Maffei

historical KraussMaffei company building with inscription
Krauss-Maffei Wegmann logo

KraussMaffei Technologies GmbH is a manufacturer for injection molding machines, machines for plastics extrusion technology and reaction process machinery, what means polyurethane foaming.

Krauss-Maffei Wegmann GmbH & Co. KG is a defence company based in Munich, Germany. The company produces various types of equipment as well as railroad locomotives, tanks, self-propelled artillery and other armoured vehicles.

Overview

Krauss-Maffei was formed in 1931 from a merger of the two Munich firms of Maffei (founded 1838) and Krauss & Co. (founded 1860). Both belonged to the leading German makers of locomotives of various types. Maffei also built other steam-operated vehicles and, later, manufactured vehicles with combustion engines, including locomotives, trolleybuses and buses until the 1950s.

In the 1960s, Krauss-Maffei built several examples of the ML 4000 C′C′ diesel-hydraulic locomotive for demonstration and testing on American railroads. Southern Pacific Railroad and Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad participated in the tests, but both found the locomotives unsuitable for service in the rugged Rocky Mountains through which the two railroads ran. 1963 the company started production of the Leopard tank, 1973 production of Leopard 2. In the seventies they were involved in the development of the Transrapid magnetic levitation train. In 1999 the company merged with Mannesmann DEMAG.

Relationship with Wegmann

The production of armoured vehicles was merged with the company Wegmann to Krauss-Maffei Wegmann. Siemens had a 49% stake, Wegmann & Co. Unternehmens-Holding KG in Kassel bought this stake in December 2010 to become the sole shareholder of KMW.[1] The family holding is owned by about 26 silent partners. The partners are members of the families Bode, von Braunbehrens, von Maydell and Sethe and are all descendants of the firm's founders or the later owners of Wegmann & Co.[2][3] In 2011, a planned deal to sell hundreds of tanks to Saudi Arabia during the time of the Arab Spring caused widespread criticism. The NGO Zentrum für politische Schönheit (Center for political beauty) posted a reward of 25,000 Euro for bringing the owner family of Krauss-Maffei Wegmann to jail.[3] One of the owners, Burkhart von Braunbehrens, publicly opposed the deal and wrote an open letter to the German President Joachim Gauck. According to a leading interview question by a taz journalist, he was then asked to step down from his advisory roles with the company; he did not confirm this in the interview.[4]

Products

Examples include:

Images

References

  1. ↑ "Defence professionals". 2010-12-18. Retrieved 2010-12-18.
  2. ↑ "Der Panzer-Clan von Krauss-Maffei", Capital (in German), 22 Jun 2010.
  3. 1 2 "Rüstungsfirma Kraus-Maffei Wegmann – Stur wie ein Panzer", Süddeutsche Zeitung (in German), 21 Jun 2012.
  4. ↑ "Rüstungseigentümer zum Panzerdeal – Der Protest hat noch Chancen", Taz (in German), 18 Jun 2012
  5. ↑ "Donar 155-mm Self-Propelled Howitzer". Retrieved 14 August 2011.
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