Saaler AG

1886 - 1931

Opening the mechanical workshop

Young Saaler opened a mechanical workshop alongside the forge in 1866, the same year Friederike and Karl Saaler returned. Clocks and gear wheels were manufactured here, alongside machines for locksmiths and mechanics.

A machine factory is born

After the death of his father-in-law, Georg Friedrich Zimmermann, in 1881, Karl Saaler combined the two production sites and developed them into one machine factory. The previous product portfolio was extended to include machines for the textile industry, leather fabrication and milling. A foundry for red brass and gray cast iron was added to the site in 1884 to cover the site's as well as customers' requirements. Manufacturing of turbines, water wheels, steam engines, bridge structures and special machines for the production of steel shavings and steel wool was also incorporated in the following years.

The foundry

Machines for steel wool manufacturing

Workforce, circa 1898

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Saaler AG

In 1903, the company was restructured into the family corporation "Saaler AG". Karl Saaler left the company and was only operative as Chairman of the Supervisory Board. A pipe rolling mill with galvanizing shop was added to the company one year later. Ernst Saaler, one of Karl Saaler's eight children, joined the company in 1905. Ernst took over the management after the death of Karl Saaler on 23 September 1913.

Ernst Saaler (photo: from the "Teninger Amtsblatt" (Official Gazette of Teningen), dated 28 February 1941)

Gas scrubber production

Workforce, circa 1903

Saaler promotional ad

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Founding of the Aluminum GmbH

Saaler AG contacted the Swiss engineer Gautschi in 1910. Gautschi had developed a procedure for manufacturing aluminum foils. In order to develop a further source of income, Saaler AG and the company Wolf Netter Ludwigshafen founded the company Aluminium GmbH. Emil Tscheulin, who had joined Saaler AG as an apprentice in 1899, took over the management of the aluminum plant and brought the first aluminum foil to market in 1911. He founded his own plant in 1913 together with his brother-in-law Wilhelm Ingold, the Aluminium-Folien-Fabrik GmbH. Tschuelin, who was a "Wehrwirtschaftsführer" (roughly translated: war industry leader) employed forced laborers in this company during World War 2. (Photo: Amcor Flexibles Teningen Tscheulin-Rothal GmbH)

From the golden age to bankruptcy

The period from 1900 to World War 1 was considered the golden age for Saaler AG with up to 180 employees. From 1913, Eduard Theisen had his disintegrator gas scrubbers, used for cleaning furnace fumes, constructed in the Saaler AG machine factory. He had previously moved their production from Baden-Baden to Emmendingen. As the stock markets crashed on 24 October 1929 at the New York stock exchange, the whole world's economy was plunged into crisis. Saaler AG was forced to file for bankruptcy in 1931.