“Only those familiar with the past have a future!” This statement by the great scholar and statesmen Wilhelm von Humboldt also applies to KHS which this year is celebrating a proud anniversary. In October 1868 Carl Kappert opened a bureau for the sale of technical equipment in the beer city of Dortmund – specifically to cater for the requirements of breweries and malthouses. The first person he employed was his son-in-law Louis Holstein, thus laying the foundations of Holstein & Kappert, the oldest of the companies which merged in 1993 to form KHS.
In 2018 this establishment will celebrate its 150th anniversary. For KHS this is a welcome opportunity to look back on 150 years of technology – on a past which began during the rapid industrialization of Germany and which reflects all of the high and low points in the economic development of the metalworking industry. Besides Holstein & Kappert a number of other traditional names, such as Seitz, Enzinger and Noll, and various entrepreneurial individuals from the more recent past, among them Maria and Karl Kisters, remind us of the pioneering spirit and ingenuity of the companies which have become part of KHS. Despite the occasional setback, their history – and that of many other companies great and small – is paved with technical innovations and international successes which have continued to this very day. The Dortmund systems supplier now has a veritable wealth of experience at its disposal, the depth of which can quite safely be termed unique in its branch of industry.
The next issue of ‘KHS competence’, published this coming October as an anniversary edition, will take you on a journey through one and a half centuries of industrial and corporate history, packed with stories and anecdotes, interesting facts and figures, witness accounts and numerous pictures from the KHS archives and those of its employees.
In full keeping with Humboldt’s maxim, to commemorate its very special birthday KHS would like to not only look back but also forward: the magazine will thus also proffer an insight into how various future trends, such as digitization, will change the business model and outline which arrangements KHS is making in order to ensure its successful future. You can therefore already look forward to plenty of exciting articles in the next edition of ‘KHS competence’.
