West Germany
In West Germany, the enterprise resumed operation after World War II in 1949 under the name Orenstein & Koppel AG, with headquarters in Berlin. In 1950, it incorporated under that name after merging with the Lübecker Crane Company. After the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961, the head office moved to Dortmund.
By the mid-1970s, the enterprise had grown steadily. In 1972, O&K had five working plants: West Berlin, Dortmund, Hagen, Hattingen/Ruhr, and Lübeck; it maintained a central spare-parts service in Bochum. That year, the company had 8,530 employees. The company had 24 business and sales offices in West Germany, and agencies on all five populated continents.
The West German company emphasised the manufacture of railroad cars and construction equipment, particularly excavators. In 1961, O&K manufactured Europe's first series of fully hydraulic excavators. They manufactured over 55,000 hydraulic excavators; more than 700 of those were rated at over 100 tons' service weight. O&K also manufactured the world's largest hydraulic excavator, at 900 tons' service weight with a shovel capacity of over 52 cubic metres (68 cu yd) and an engine output of 2,984 kilowatts (4,055 HP).
The company also diversified into escalator manufacturing.
Read more about this topic: Orenstein & Koppel
Famous quotes containing the words west and/or germany:
“All good biography, as all good fiction, comes down to the study of original sin, of our inherent disposition to choose death when we ought to choose life.”
—Rebecca West (1892–1983)
“It took six weeks of debate in the Senate to get the Arms Embargo Law repealed—and we face other delays during the present session because most of the Members of the Congress are thinking in terms of next Autumn’s election. However, that is one of the prices that we who live in democracies have to pay. It is, however, worth paying, if all of us can avoid the type of government under which the unfortunate population of Germany and Russia must exist.”
—Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945)