From full cloth factory to system supplier
1899 – Present
The AUNDE story begins in 1899 with two men who recognized an opportunity for commercial success in the Lower Rhine textile industry. With twelve looms in a rented production building at what was then Alsstraße 149, Victor Achter and Conrad Ebels founded the company "Achter & Ebels", or AUNDE for short, as the textile manufacturer called itself in its shortened telegram address at the beginning of the 20th century. Both names shaped the company's history and are now combined in the official company name "AUNDE Achter & Ebels GmbH".
In addition to the name, the characters of the founders continue to shape the company to this day. Victor Achter was a technical pioneer. He ensured that the machines were state-of-the-art and that technical innovations were integrated into the work process. This meant that AUNDE was flexible and could produce fabrics from different materials to meet changing fashion trends. Conrad Ebels came from a family of landowners and provided the financial basis for the company's founding. At the beginning of the 20th century, he was enthusiastic about the automobiles that were just emerging and probably laid the foundation for AUNDE's connection to the automobile industry that continues to this day.
The second half of the 20th century brought great challenges, but AUNDE used these as opportunities for innovation and growth.
Conrad's daughter Elisabeth, called Liesel, and her husband Carl Bolten modernized the family business at the end of the 1950s and equipped it with fully automatic looms. Added to this was Rolf Königs’s entrepreneurial courage. Since the 1970s, as managing director, he has made a significant contribution to AUNDE's reorientation by leading the Mönchengladbach-based textile manufacturer into the profitable markets of the automotive industry more decisively and successfully than before.
With determination, economic sense and innovation readiness to act, AUNDE developed from its as a mechanical weaving mill to become a globally active system supplier to the automotive industry. In this brochure we show you the historical AUNDE milestones and how the company successfully adapted to the challenges of a constantly changing world.
Company history is more than just a chronicle and a string of data and facts. It is the living testimony of a corporate culture that has grown over decades and confirmation of the long-term successful cooperation between management and employees.
Textile production with long Tradition on the Lower Rhine
1794 – 1900
The flax yarn obtained in the region around what is now Mönchengladbach was sought after and had been traditionally hand-woven into linen fabric since the Middle Ages. Alongside agriculture, this developed into a mainstay of the local economy. Weaving was done at home and the products were sold through the publishing system. A publisher supplied the weavers with raw materials and took over the distribution of the finished goods. Related businesses such as dyeing and tailoring soon moved into the area.
The French occupation of the left bank of the Rhine from 1794 laid the foundation for the continued success of the regional textile industry. A newly introduced freedom of trade and industry fundamentally changed the economic situation. Under Napoleon's protective tariff policy, the region also benefited enormously from belonging to the French economic area. Within a very short time, the area developed
Gladbach became one of the most industrially rich regions in the French Empire. Bergisch manufacturers also relocated their cotton production to the area.
The Continental Blockade imposed by Napoleon on England in 1806 meant that on the one hand England's advanced textile industry was no longer a competitive trade partner, and on the other hand it made it impossible to import English cotton yarn. This threatened the Gladbach textile industry, which had not had its own mechanical spinning machines until then. As a result, cotton spinning mills were immediately set up and founded in the Gladbach Rheydt textile district.
After Napoleon's defeat in 1815, the left Lower Rhine became Prussian. The economy initially went downhill. With the incorporation into Prussia, the linen industry of the Westphalian and Silesian Exposed to competition. After the Continental Blockade was lifted, the Rhenish textile industry was once again in fierce competition with England and Belgium. England's technological advantage - the use of mechanical spinning machines, looms and steam engines - meant considerable competitive disadvantages for them.
The abolition of the inner-German customs borders and the founding of the German Customs Union in 1834 increasingly led to the formation of a comprehensive Prussian-German internal market. By the end of the 1840s, linen production was increasingly displaced by cotton production. Due to its fiber properties, cotton was more suitable for industrial production. As a result, cotton products became better and cheaper.
During the industrialization phase, between 1840 and 1850, steam and spinning machines came from England to the Lower Rhine. The railway, as a new means of transport, also played a major role in industrialization in Gladbach.
In 1852, Gladbach factories began producing semi-woolen goods by the meter. Wool processing became increasingly important and the city developed into a cloth center. In 1853, the "Gladbacher Aktiengesellschaft für Spinnerei und Weberei" was founded. As a result of the American Civil War, imports of raw cotton stopped, so the market collapsed in the 1860s.
The Franco-Prussian War of 1870/71 also led to an economic downturn. However, by 1880, Gladbach's industry had recovered. After the factory system had been implemented, a second technical revolution took place with the emergence of the clothing industry by the turn of the century. Rhenish yarns and fabrics were also so popular abroad that people soon started talking about the “Rhineland Manchester”. At the beginning of the 20th century, the Gladbach-Rheydt area had become the leading region of the textile industry.
In the 19th century, the region around Gladbach experienced profound change. New technologies such as semi- or fully automatic spinning machines replaced traditional hand spinning wheels and looms. Factories with their chimneys dominated the cityscape. Due to its flourishing textile sector, the city was given the name "Rheinisch Manchester".
Two decades of growth at Achter & Ebels
1899–1913
On 3 March 1899, Victor Achter and Conrad Ebels had their company, which was to trade under the name "Achter & Ebels" and soon achieve considerable success, registered as a general partnership in the company register. In the shareholder agreement dated April 1, 1899, they defined the company's purpose: "Mechanical weaving of men's fabrics, along with the associated preparatory work, such as twisting and winding, etc." Conrad Ebels paid 30,000 marks into the company as capital, Victor Achter 20,000 marks.
But who were these aspiring young entrepreneurs? Victor Achter was born on September 11, 1874 in Rheydt as the son of factory owner Victor Achter and his wife Catharina Josephine, née Kallen. His father was a partner in the textile company Wienandts & Achter and from 1874 Achter & Feuerhake and on the board of the Gladbach Industrial and Chamber of Commerce. From 1883 to 1889 Victor Achter attended high school, which he left without graduating. He was keen to gain practical training at an early age. He wanted to follow in his father's footsteps and become a "capable cloth manufacturer". After attending the textile college in Mülheim an der Ruhr, he gained experience in several German cities.
He gained practical experience in cloth production before founding his own company together with Conrad Ebels at the age of 24.
Joseph Conrad Ebels, who later called himself just Conrad, was born on January 9, 1872 in Windberg near Gladbach. His father, Adam Ebels, was a landowner and long-time first deputy and community leader of the community of Gladbach-Land. Nothing is known about Conrad Ebels' education and his life up to 1899.
Achter & Ebels started operations with twelve looms in rented premises on Alsstraße in Gladbach. Initially, the company concentrated on focused on mechanical weaving of men’s fabrics. Achter & Ebels considered the international distribution of their products. In March 1900, Theodor Seehausen from Copenhagen was appointed as the representative for Sweden and Denmark.
Their weaving mill was a buckskin and worsted yarn weaving mill. The term "buckskin" was known to everyone in Gladbach since the 1880s at the latest. Buckskin is actually a pure wool, heavily felted worsted yarn fabric. However, Gladbach buckskins were mixed fabrics, which were mostly made of synthetic or woolen fabrics.
They were made from shredded wool and cotton. They could be produced inexpensively and found numerous buyers. Gladbach worsted fabrics were also mixed fabrics in which wool threads were twisted with cotton threads or the warp yarn was made half or entirely of cotton-
wool and only the weft was made of worsted yarn. The young company developed quickly and successfully, so that in 1908 the company moved to what is now Waldnieler Strasse, the current company headquarters. There, the new "factory establishment" with several workshops was built and the spinning, finishing, fulling and laundry were integrated into the company. There were now already 87 looms, and by the outbreak of the First World War, 150 looms were already being used for production. Achter & Ebels had developed into a full cloth factory; in addition to fabrics for men's and women's clothing, textiles for cabs were also manufactured.
According to legend, the 125-year company history of Achter & Ebels began with a morning pint in a restaurant, where the young merchants Victor Achter and Conrad Ebels decided to found their own textile company in Gladbach at the beginning of 1899.
Textile industry after the Turn of the century
1900 – 1918
As in other industrial cities in Germany, this growth in population was also accompanied by great social misery in Gladbach and Rheydt. The city administrations were faced with considerable challenges. There was a lack of living space and adequate urban infrastructure. Water and sewer connections, hygiene and health measures, schools, road and tram construction, as well as gas and electricity supplies had to be created or expanded in some cases.
The cotton industry predominating in Gladbach and Rheydt was predominantly medium sized. Unlike in the Ruhr area, there were neither really large-scale companies nor significant Workers' colonies. In 1902 there were 213 factories in Gladbach with a total of over 16,000 employees, including 82 weaving mills, 9 spinning mills and 8 factories that had both spinning and weaving mills. The first decade of the new century was called the "zenith of the economic existence” of the Lower Rhine textile industry designated.
The low wages that traditionally prevailed in the textile industry and the rapidly changing economic cycles led to precarious living conditions for working-class families. While the social democratic free trade unions led a shadowy existence for a long time in Gladbach and Rheydt, shortly before 1900, textile workers and later metal workers organized themselves on a significant scale into Christian trade unions, the foundation of which was supported by the Catholic People's Association in Gladbach.
By 1913, the textile industry in the Chamber district had grown to 650 companies with a total of around 55,000 employees. The textile and clothing industry represented the largest share of the overall economy, with 71 percent of employees. The cotton industry - the largest branch of the textile industry with over 20,000 employees - spun 20 percent of the cotton imported into Germany. The velvet and silk industry employed around 10,000 people, while the formerly leading linen industry had shrunk to fewer than 1,000 workers. In the chamber district, however, buckskin was already being produced on over 3,000 looms. This sector was to assume a leading position in Gladbach's textile industry in the decades to come.
After mobilization was announced on August 1, 1914, there was great patriotic enthusiasm in Gladbach and Rheydt. In Gladbach alone, around 4,000 volunteers signed up for military service in the first few days.
The outbreak of the First World War had a significant impact on the local economy. The metal and mechanical engineering industries were working at full capacity with armaments production, while wool processing companies were operating at a lower level. Many even had to be shut down in the autumn of 1914 because they were not equipped to produce military cloth. Achter & Ebels, however, had switched production and supplied military cloth, blankets, tent tarpaulins and bread bags for the German army. The textile factory also supported the German Empire by purchasing war bonds.
By the summer of 1916, working hours in cloth production had to be reduced to five days a week. However, the demand from the army administration for blankets increased considerably in August 1916, so that the Düsseldorf district president again approved a working time of 58 hours on six working days for 29 Gladbach companies.
The capacity reserves of the closed factories could now be used for this purpose. When follow-up orders for crew blankets finally failed to materialize, employment levels fell again in the autumn of 1917. From then on, both the population and factories suffered from the inadequate coal supply until the end of the war.
During the 19th century, Gladbach and Rheydt developed explosively into industrial towns due to immigration and a surplus of births. Between 1885 and 1915 the number of inhabitants in Gladbach rose from 44,000 to around 70,000; in Rheydt from around 22,000 to 46,000.
Successful in times of crisis
1918 – 1933
The First World War was over! Gladbach was under Belgian occupation from December 1918 to 1926. The occupying forces' strict restrictions and control measures paralyzed economic life. A shortage of raw materials presented textile companies with great difficulties. As a mixed fabric producer, Achter & Ebels was perhaps able to adapt to these difficulties more easily than others. By 1919 at the latest, the company had the following production areas: mechanical buckskin, combed and chevior weaving, wool and synthetic wool spinning, synthetic wool factory, dyeing, fulling and finishing. Even at this time, the name "AUNDE" can be found as a telegram address in the company's letterhead. This abbreviated "wire address" was more advantageous than using the full company name and address, as every letter was charged in the telegram.
On October 18, 1922, Victor Achter and Conrad Ebels founded the “Textilia-Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung” with a share capital of 100,000 marks for the “financing of credit transactions and trade in textiles of all kinds”. They took over the management together. This foundation primarily served to provide legal protection. The two had founded Achter & Ebels as a general partnership and would therefore have been fully personally liable.
Production continued to run on steam power in the 1920s. In March 1921, the “Society for the Monitoring of Steam Boilers in M.Gladbach” approved a new fixed steam boiler. It served the
drive of the factory facilities. Old photographs show that the production facilities were connected and driven by shafts and transmission belts
During 1922, Achter & Ebels expanded its production capacities of the spinning mill and acquired a spinning facility from the Leopold Krawinkel company in Vollmerhausen at the end of August. The “3 ranges and 4 self-factories together with all accessories, transmissions etc.” cost 29,000 marks. The purchase took place in still stormy times: "Hardly ever before has the city gone through such a difficult time in its development as those five years," notes the administrative report for the years 1921 to 1926. Inflation was galloping and political unrest was the order of the day.
The fact that Achter & Ebels was able to continue to exist in these difficult times is probably also due to a clever business decision. Although the company still used steam power to produce its products, Conrad Ebels was very open to technical innovations. He was one of the first people from Gladbach to drive a car. In the 1920s his company began producing upholstery fabrics for the automobile industry, the basis for its success to this day. In 1922 there were only about 83,000 automobiles, but by 1924 there were already 124,000. Accordingly, the demand for upholstery fabrics was still manageable. The first known customer was Opel. In Rüsselsheim the assembly line system of the American Ford factory had been adapted. The so-called "tree frog", the 4/12 hp Opel, was the first automobile to be produced in efficient mass production in Germany.
Most likely, fabrics from Gladbach were used in this model! At the same time, AUNDE was already a customer in Rüsselsheim. The textile manufacturer transported goods through the factory and to its customers with an Opel truck.
At the end of the 1920s, the company, with 500 employees, 175 looms and 11,000 spindles, was the largest textile company in the Gladbach cloth industry in private hands. At that time, AUNDE repeatedly placed newspaper advertisements looking for new staff, such as “capable” weavers, buckskin and worsted darners or card cleaners.
Meanwhile, Gladbach and Rheydt had become so close in terms of development and settlement that the boundaries between the two cities had become blurred. In July 1929 they were finally merged to form the new city of “Gladbach-Rheydt” with around 200,000 inhabitants. The decade ended with the global economic crisis in 1929.
What impact it had on AUNDE is unclear. The new city was hit hard. In the employment office district of Gladbach-Rheydt with 270,000 inhabitants, the number of unemployed rose from 8,000 in 1929 to 30,000 in 1932. It is hard to imagine that this development had no impact on AUNDE.
After Achter & Ebels had undergone impressive development up until the First World War, the company was confronted with the numerous crises of the Weimar Republic. Nevertheless, it managed to expand the business further and start the pioneering production of upholstery fabrics for the automotive industry.
AUNDE in the time of National Socialism
1933 – 1945
When Achter & Ebels took over the first major order from Adam Opel AG in 1934, worth 118,544 Reichsmarks (RM), Germany had changed completely. From the transfer of power to Adolf Hitler at the end of January 1933 to the comprehensive control of the company, the NSDAP only needed a few months. Political and social life was brought into line with the National Socialists' wishes.
From October 1934, a new company code was also introduced at Achter & Ebels, based on the "Law on the Organization of National Labor" of January 20, 1934. The "Führer principle" was introduced, and the works council was replaced by so-called shop stewards. Nazi symbols were present in everyday company life. A swastika flag hung in the followers' room, with a Hitler quote above it: "Working for your people ennobles you yourself."
The cloth manufacturers' association in Gladbach, whose chairman was Victor Achter, was transferred to the cloth and clothing industry specialist group in Berlin in 1933. Achter thus became a member of the specialist group and district manager in Mönchengladbach.
Personally, Achter was close to the Nazi ideology. Before 1933, he had been a member of the German nationalists Stahlhelme, which was incorporated into the SA. From the end of 1937, he was a member of the NSDAP. From 1938, he was also a supporting member of the SS.
In February 1937, his son Dr. Victor Achter Jr. became an authorized signatory and operations manager at Achter & Ebels in addition to his work as a lawyer. During the Second World War, between February 1942 and March 1945, Achter was a conscripted price inspector for textile products in the High Command of the Wehrmacht (OKW) in the price inspection administration. This position was later taken over by the Ministry of Armaments. In addition, in June 1942 he became the honorary head of the "Textile Finishing Specialist Group". Achter paid particular attention to the business problems that became one of the most important areas of work for the Reich Association. Between 1944 and 1945, Achter was also a member of the executive committee of the textile industry economic group. The National Socialist economic policy had a fundamental impact on the structure of Gladbach's textile industry. The obligation to use domestic raw materials encouraged the use of rayon and shredded wool. The majority of Gladbach companies that had been processing synthetic wool for decades - such as Achter & Ebels - had relatively few problems with this. The processing of cotton subsequently continued to decline, while the use of shredded wool was increasingly pushed forward and almost reached the share of cotton.
Gladbach experienced a structural change from the "Rhineland Manchester" to the most important location for shredded wool processing. The Second World War began in Europe with the invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939. Nothing is known about Achter & Ebels' production during this period.
But about the building value of the Achter & Ebels production site on Waldnieler Straße. This was estimated by a report in 1939 at 912,044 Reichsmark (RM). The most valuable building was the spinning mill with an individual value of 183,920 RM. Five years later, another appraisal confirmed that the factory was worth 1.7 million RM, which today would correspond to a value of almost eight million euros. During the Allied air raids, Gladbach became a target for the British because of its industry – especially the Wehrmacht’s terminal stations and bases.
On 9./10. September 1944, the British carried out a major attack on the city. This attack also had devastating consequences on Achter & Ebels. The plant, including the cellar, was badly hit and destroyed that night. The spinning mill and dry finishing plant were particularly affected. Raw materials, semi-finished and finished goods worth around 900,000 RM were burned. Ten years after the major order for Opel, the plant was largely destroyed.
Gladbach experienced its last heavy attack on February 1, 1945. On March 1, the city surrendered and the 29th Infantry Division of the 9th US Army occupied the city. On June 20, 1945, the British rejected the Americans as an occupying force.
From 1933 to 1945, the National Socialist terror regime ruled Germany. The economy and society were aligned with the political and ideological ideas of the new rulers. This period did not pass without leaving its mark on AUNDE either. The textile company could not completely escape the influence of Nazi ideology.
Reconstruction with Liesel Bolten at the helm
1945 – 1970
After the end of the war, two thirds of Gladbach's textile factories were no longer operational. The Achter & Ebels factory was also almost completely destroyed, and extensive reconstruction work was necessary. Lack of materials and improvisations in production dominated the first post-war years at AUNDE.
There was also a significant change in management. Conrad Ebels had died in 1945. His 22-year-old daughter Liesel took over his share in the company and was from then on the "manufacturer". In those years, a clear role model prevailed: female entrepreneurs were hardly socially recognized. Therefore, Liesel, who had the surname Bolten since her marriage in 1945, worked closely with her husband Carl. Both had a significant influence on AUNDE. Memories of a former employee indicate that Liesel "wore the trousers" in the company. Together with Victor Achter Sr., the Bolten couple managed to rebuild it. Liesel and Carl Bolten were to shape AUNDE until the early 1990s.
With Carl Bolten, a new family had joined the company. They owned the Bolten brewery in Korschenbroich on the Kraushof, whose origins can be traced back to 1266. Liesel and Carl's marriage produced five children. Today, AUNDE belongs to the family line of Liesel and Carl's son Carl Conrad Bolten and his descendants.
AUNDE, like the German economy in general, benefited from the currency reform in 1948. It is considered the economic birth of the Federal Republic and was the basis for the "economic miracle", an economic boom that began in 1950 and lasted until the first oil price crisis in 1973. This was the beginning of the success of the German automobile industry, with the VW Beetle breaking all production records. Achter & Ebels also produced coat and uniform fabrics as well as wool blankets, but now it paid off that automobile manufacturers such as VW were among the customer base. The company was successful and always needed new staff: the number of employees rose from 525 in June 1948 to 1,423 in 1951. To improve product quality, AUNDE built a modern laboratory in the early 1950s. Car seat covers were tested here, for example were subjected to a stress test, the so-called abrasion test.
In 1957, Victor Achter senior died. His son Dr. Victor Achter, a co-partner since 1950 and AUNDE managing director since 1951, took over his company shares. Two years later, Victor Achter and the Bolten couple made mutual takeover offers. Liesel, who had promised her father on his deathbed that she would not sell the Ebels shares, prevailed together with Carl, AUNDE became her sole property and Victor Achter left the company.
Her family members tell us today that Liesel, although she was already a mother, began and completed a business studies course in 1959. She wanted to use this to prepare herself for her tasks at AUNDE.
After their takeover, Liesel and Carl Bolten rationalized the production and installed technical innovations. In 1959, the first automatic looms of the Swiss company Sulzer came to AUNDE.
In the mid-1960s, there was great competition in the textile industry. In Mönchengladbach alone, there were 264 companies. AUNDE was able to prevail against them because the most important car manufacturers in the Federal Republic, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Ford, Opel and VW, were customers and the company accepted their tough delivery conditions.
After 1945, Achter & Ebels was faced with the challenge of rebuilding the destroyed company under the difficult post-war conditions. Parallel to the West German “economic miracle”, Achter & Ebels also continued to grow steadily and quickly became one of the most important fully integrated textile companies in Gladbach.
New momentum: Rolf Königs takes over the management
1970 – 1980
Two decades of the “economic miracle” had brought the textile industry intoxicating profits. A seller-dominated market made it possible to sell almost every product produced.
Business flourished and in Germany alone there were around 2,400 textile companies with almost half a million employees. During these years of growth, many companies had no incentive to make their own production more efficient or to invest in new technologies. Raw material prices were low and if costs had to be reduced, this was mainly done by reducing wage expenditure.
There was an incentive to make their own production more efficient or to invest in new technologies. Raw material prices were low and if costs had to be reduced, this was mainly done by reducing wage expenditure.
Instead of modernising existing companies, companies preferred to move to low-wage countries and produce there using the same methods at apparently lower costs. The German textile industry had to learn the hard way that this system was not sustainable, at the latest with the onset of the economic crisis in 1973.
As a result of the oil crisis, the German export industry came to a standstill and the textile industry soon suffered as well: orders, for example from the automobile industry, dried up and import costs exploded.
In the textile industry, favourable competition from abroad became noticable. Rationalization became unavoidable. Technical work steps that replaced manual labor were increasingly used in production. The result was the beginning of a serious crisis: 10.8 percent of employees in the textile industry had to go on short-time work in 1974; hundreds of companies closed their doors. In the first half of the decade alone, more than 150,000 people lost their jobs.
Anyone who wanted to survive under these conditions needed good ideas and the strength to implement them. In this situation, Achter & Ebels was lucky to already have both in its own ranks - in the person of Rolf Königs. Born in Mönchengladbach, he had been an employee of the company since 1964. Initially employed as a laboratory manager, he quickly made a name for himself as a hard-working and determined employee. Königs began to restructure his own work area and also to interfere in the production processes and structures of the entire company. The status quo of the company was not enough for him, or to put it in his own words: Achter & Ebels was previously "a typical textile company: fluff, warm, bad air. I wanted to clean that up." For Königs it was clear that pointing the finger at others and complaining about cheap products from abroad would not lead to anything.
The established working methods and the existing "principalities", as Königs liked to call the company structures at the beginning of his time, had no future for him. Efficient and uncomplicated working methods were to replace the vainly guarded and at the same time rigid structures in the company.
The focus should no longer be on individual "princes" but on the product. Königs was the right man at the right time and he was lucky that the management team recognized this as well.
Liesel Bolten supported Königs' ideas. In 1978, he was given a management position and the restructuring began immediately: the traditional cloth manufacturer developed: Achter & Ebels became a system supplier. New products and manufacturing processes were introduced, and production was adapted to the customers' wishes. The declared target was the automotive industry. With Opel, the company already had a long-standing partner in this industry and, building on this, Achter & Ebels invested heavily in its own reorientation. From 1978, a good 20 million DM was invested in the modernization and renewal of the technical equipment. Rolf Königs gave the company a new concept, a common thread, and it was not long before the first successes were achieved.
In the 1970s, the German textile industry experienced a deep crisis. Thousands of companies had to close their factories and hundreds of thousands of jobs were lost. It was also a decade of profound change for Achter & Ebels.
Internationalization: AUNDE positions itself worldwide and becomes a system supplier
1980 – 2018
In the 1980s, AUNDE was at a crucial point. The world was changing rapidly and the company recognized the need to adapt in order to survive. It was no longer sufficient to limit itself to traditional business areas.
A strategic reorientation was necessary to meet the challenges of the times. Internationalization was a key element in this. AUNDE recognized that it not only had to expand geographically, but also reorient its business areas.
The focus was on the emerging automotive sector. Even then fabrics were developed and manufactured for the major car manufacturers BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Ford, Opel and Volkswagen. AUNDE decided to work closely with these companies worldwide since 1982. When Opel began producing the Corsa in Zaragoza, AUNDE built a new plant nearby in Sant Celoni, Spain, 80 kilometers northeast of Barcelona. This enabled AUNDE to follow
the principle of just-in-time delivery. Liesel Bolten hesitated at first, but Rolf Königs prevailed. He was right; the decision to focus on the automotive sector was an important building block for AUNDE's future. It enabled the company to fully exploit its innovative power and to continuously develop its products. But the road to becoming a global player was still long. Further steps were needed to establish the company in the automotive supply industry.
A significant development was the acquisition of companies such as ESTEBAN in 1986 and ISRINGHAUSEN in 1991. These acquisitions expanded the product portfolio. AUNDE transformed itself from a manufacturer of upholstery fabrics and technical textiles into a system provider of complete car seats. The focus on the production of seats for various vehicle types as well as seating systems for buses and public transport was a decisive step. This development took place under new leadership: Since 1993, Carl Conrad Bolten, owner and managing director of AUNDE. With him the company did not stand still but continued its expansion.
The acquisition of the FEHRER Group in 2014 opened up new opportunities and expanded AUNDE’s offering to new areas in the vehicle interior. The founding of AUNDE Group SE in 2018 was another milestone that brought the company’s various brands under one roof and further consolidated its international presence. The rise of AUNDE is closely linked to the name Rolf Königs. His courage to break new ground and his constant questioning of his own business model contributed significantly to the company's success. Today, the AUNDE Group is a leading international provider of interior solutions for the automotive industry. The path shows that with determination, innovation and strategic foresight, great success is possible even in times of change.
While the textile industry on the Lower Rhine collapsed and structural change destroyed numerous companies and jobs, AUNDE developed into a world leading automotive supplier from the 1980s onwards. The predicted renaissance of the textile industry on the Lower Rhine took place.
Successful together - The AUNDE Group
1991 – Today
The path to the joint group began in 1991 when AUNDE took over ISRINGHAUSEN (ISRI). The company, founded in Bielefeld in 1919, initially produced bicycle saddles and technical springs. In 1957, the company moved to Lemgo, the current headquarters. Over the decades, ISRI specialized in the manufacture of modular seating systems for commercial vehicles.
In 1965, FEHRER manufactured molded parts and polyurethane foam - a technology that was continuously developed over the coming decades.
In 1979, the company developed its first fully automatic seats, followed in 1987 by the world's first commercial vehicle seat with an integrated 3-point safety belt. Today, the ISRINGHAUSEN Group produces in 21 countries and is one of the world's leading suppliers of seating systems and technical springs for trucks, vans, buses and off-road vehicles.
In 2014, another specialist, FEHRER, joined the AUNDE Group. In 1875, Friedrich Sigmund Fehrer founded the company as a “steam and horsehair spinning mill” in Kitzingen, Bavaria. In 1920, FEHRER switched production to quick-cushion mats and signed its first contracts with the automotive industry. In 1965, FEHRER manufactured
technology molded parts and polyurethane foam - a technology that was continuously developed over the coming decades. Today, almost 150 years after its foundation, the company is one of the leading specialists in the manufacture of components for vehicle interiors. FEHRER sees itself not only as a supplier, but as a partner who accompanies the development of vehicle manufacturers from the idea to series production.
AUNDE Group SE, founded in Mönchengladbach in 2018, became the new holding company and combined the three companies AUNDE, ISRI and FEHRER under corporate law. The company has since taken over the management of the group. Rolf Königs became the first managing director.
Since 2019, the company REINERT Kunststofftechnik has also been part of the AUNDE Group, whose headquarters are in Bissingen an der Teck, Germany and Oradea, Romania. The company is an expert in injection molding and the processing of thermoplastic components.
AUNDE, ISRI, FEHRER and REINERT now form the AUNDE Group SE. Each individual company also has additional subsidiaries and joint ventures that complement their field of work. The group's portfolio ranges from yarn production and the manufacture of textile surfaces, sewing and cutting covers, to individual seat production and interior components. 24 German companies and 58 foreign subsidiaries belonged to the AUNDE Group in 2021.
In 1899, Achter & Ebels began its success story as a sole proprietorship on the Lower Rhine. The demands of a globalized market have required a pooling of expertise in recent decades. Today, AUNDE is no longer a single company, but is part of a larger group of companies.
Tradition creates the future
2024
Autonomous driving and e-mobility determine the future of AUNDE Group SE. The car will take people autonomously from A to B and allow them to fill the travel time with other activities. The demands on the interior are increasing accordingly: functional equipment must be combined with individual design ideas. "Interior is the new exterior," Rolf Königs summed up the development. AUNDE aims to shape the appearance of the future with high-quality and innovative products for the car interior.
The Mönchengladbach-based automotive supplier is already working on ensuring that people will feel comfortable in the car of the future. As a technology leader for fabric and interior components, AUNDE Group SE is ideally suited to this task. Topics such as innovative surfaces, individual seating positions, ergonomic environments and technical comfort will continue to be areas in high demand, even independent of autonomous driving.
In order to be ready for the future, the AUNDE Group is investing in the development of innovative products. Since 2019, the automotive supplier has been working with MENTOR, a company experienced in LED lighting technology, on light-active fibers and illuminated fiber optics, and developed woven mats that offer flexible design options in the limited space inside the car.
All developments are based on sustainable production with renewable and recycled raw materials. AUNDE is working on returning products completely to the material cycle after they have been used. The company's own aim is to be an innovation leader in the field of sustainable materials. In 2015, AUNDE set up an energy team to implement savings potential worldwide. In order to conserve resources, AUNDE banned water-intensive bath dyeing from production. Through long-standing customer relationships, AUNDE is responsible for sustainable supply chains. Examples like this show that the AUNDE Group SE is reducing its ecological footprint step by step.
As it has done for 125 years, AUNDE will continue to develop innovative ideas in future among its own employees. The automotive supplier wants to exploit its own potential with strong training and continuing education programs. In Mönchengladbach, the company supports the "Textilakademie NRW" training center initiated by Rolf Königs. AUNDE also maintains close contacts with the Textile and Clothing Technology Department of the Niederrhein University of Applied Sciences. A positive working environment and a workforce with top-class technical training are important factors for AUNDE's future.
In the anniversary year of 2024, Mönchengladbach will see a turning point. Long-standing managing director Rolf Königs is leaving the company after 60 formative and successful years. He built AUNDE from a local textile company into a global group of companies with more than 24,000 employees.
He is handing over a functioning company to his successors Peter Bolten, representative of the fourth generation of the family in the management, and Christian Prause. AUNDE is ready for the future. With expertise acquired over 125 years, the Gladbach-based automotive supplier is looking positively to the future.
Utopia becomes reality: In the not too distant future, we will get into the car, fasten our seat belts, enter our desired destination into the navigation system and sit back and relax. While we read, work or play a game of chess, the car takes us directly to our destination.
