Bleichert, short for Adolf Bleichert & Co.,
was a German engineering firm founded in 1874 by Adolf Bleichert. The company dominated the aerial wire ropeway industry during the first half of the 20th century, and its portfolio included cranes, electric cars, elevators, and mining and ship-loading equipment. It ceased operations in 1993.
History
1874 until 1918
In 1872, Adolf Bleichert started the design and manufacture of the first wire ropeway, also known as the
aerial lift, in
Teutschenthal
Teutschenthal is a municipality in the Saalekreis district, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. In January 2005 it absorbed the former municipalities Holleben and Zscherben, in January 2010 Dornstedt, Langenbogen and Steuden
Steuden is a village and a form ...
(
Saxony, Germany). With the successful start-up of this installation, Adolf Bleichert and Theodor Otto founded a company for the manufacture of wire ropeways in 1874 in
Gohlis
Gohlis is an area in the north of the city of Leipzig, Germany. Once a village outside the city, it is known as the place where Friedrich Schiller wrote the first version of his ''Ode to Joy'' in 1785.
It urbanised during the ''Gründerzeit'' per ...
, near Leipzig. This was the beginning of Adolf Bleichert & Co. which in 50 years, developed into a world-renowned company of the highest standing.
In 1881, Bleichert moved its offices to Leipzig-Gohlis, which became the main factory facility located in a much bigger plant
and was also the company headquarters.
Starting in 1888, Bleichert also expanded into the North American market by concluding a license agreement with the American company Cooper, Hewitt & Co., the parent company of Trenton Iron Inc., which constructed and sold many material wire ropeways based on the Bleichert system.
During
World War I, the Bleichert company developed a specific field cable car used by German military forces in mountain warfare in the
Vosges Mountains, the
Alps, and
Balkan
The Balkans ( ), also known as the Balkan Peninsula, is a geographical area in southeastern Europe with various geographical and historical definitions. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch throughout the who ...
areas.
Until
World War I the Bleichert company manufactured many aerial cable cars especially for material carriage, but also for passenger transportation. Among them are the following:
* 1874: Aerial cableway installation on round bar rails for the solar oil and paraffin factory in
Teutschenthal
Teutschenthal is a municipality in the Saalekreis district, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. In January 2005 it absorbed the former municipalities Holleben and Zscherben, in January 2010 Dornstedt, Langenbogen and Steuden
Steuden is a village and a form ...
near
Halle Halle may refer to:
Places Germany
* Halle (Saale), also called Halle an der Saale, a city in Saxony-Anhalt
** Halle (region), a former administrative region in Saxony-Anhalt
** Bezirk Halle, a former administrative division of East Germany
** Hall ...
, Germany
* 1876: Ropeway conveyor for the material transportation of Sayn Mine Works from the Krupp company near
Bendorf, Germany
* 1880: Aerial cableway for the transportation of
iron ore
Iron ores are rocks and minerals from which metallic iron can be economically extracted. The ores are usually rich in iron oxides and vary in color from dark grey, bright yellow, or deep purple to rusty red. The iron is usually found in the fo ...
from theDoihl Mineto the steelworks in
Rodange, Luxembourg
* 1890: Aerial cableway for wood transportation in the Baina-Buschta region,
Serbia
* 1900: Aerial cableway for the mines of the Kappler Tunnel on the
Schauinsland
The Schauinsland (literally "look-into-the-country"; near Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany) is a mountain in the Black Forest with an elevation of 1,284 m (4,213 ft) above sea level. It is a popular destination for day trips. Due to the h ...
mountain in the
Black Forest near
Freiburg im Breisgau
Freiburg im Breisgau (; abbreviated as Freiburg i. Br. or Freiburg i. B.; Low Alemannic German, Low Alemannic: ''Friburg im Brisgau''), commonly referred to as Freiburg, is an independent city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. With a population o ...
, Germany
* 1902: Aerial cableway for coal-mining activities at
Grand-Hornu
Grand-Hornu is an old industrial coal mining complex and company town (''cité ouvrière'') in Hornu (Boussu), near Mons, in Belgium. It was built by Henri De Gorge between 1810 and 1830. It is a unique example of functional town-planning. Tod ...
, Belgium
* 1903: Aerial cableway for coal-mining activities at the
Sumitomo-Besshi Copper Mine in
Niihama
270px, Niihama City Hall
270px, Aerial View of Central Niihama
is a city located in the eastern part of Ehime Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 115,824 in 57781 households and a population density of 490 persons per ...
, Japan
* 1904: Aerial cableway for the former mining company Harpener Bergbau AG near
Dortmund
Dortmund (; Westphalian nds, Düörpm ; la, Tremonia) is the third-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia after Cologne and Düsseldorf, and the eighth-largest city of Germany, with a population of 588,250 inhabitants as of 2021. It is the la ...
, Germany
* 1905: Aerial cableway for the
Chilecito-La Mejicana gold mining industry, also known as the cable car from the
Famatina
Famatina is a town in the province of La Rioja, Argentina. It has 6,371 inhabitants as per the , and is the only municipality in the Famatina Department. Located in fertile valley between Sierra de Famatina and Sierra de Velasco Famatina's econ ...
pit, Argentina
* 1906: Aerial cableway for the nickel ore loading facility of
Société Le Nickel
Lactalis is a French multinational dairy products corporation, owned by the Besnier family and based in Laval, Mayenne, France. The company's former name was Besnier SA.
Lactalis is the largest dairy products group in the world, and is the se ...
on the pacific coast of the French overseas territory of
Thio, New Caledonia
* 1906: Aerial cableway for the
cement industry for Alsenschen Portland-Zementfabrik in
Itzehoe–
Agethorst/
Wacken, Germany
* 1908: Aerial cableway for the coal-mining industry in
Longyearbyen
Longyearbyen (, locally lɔ̀ŋjɑrˌbyːən "The Longyear Town") is the world's northernmost settlement with a population greater than 1,000 and the largest inhabited area of Svalbard, Norway. It stretches along the foot of the left bank ...
,
Spitsbergen
Spitsbergen (; formerly known as West Spitsbergen; Norwegian: ''Vest Spitsbergen'' or ''Vestspitsbergen'' , also sometimes spelled Spitzbergen) is the largest and the only permanently populated island of the Svalbard archipelago in northern Norw ...
(
Svalbard
Svalbard ( , ), also known as Spitsbergen, or Spitzbergen, is a Norwegian archipelago in the Arctic Ocean. North of mainland Europe, it is about midway between the northern coast of Norway and the North Pole. The islands of the group range ...
islands), Norway
* 1909: Aerial cableway for wood transportation of a sawmill in
Mkumbara – Neu Hornow,
former German East Africa
* 1909: Aerial cableway for material transportation at Toli Mines in the coal-mining district of
Shandong
Shandong ( , ; ; alternately romanized as Shantung) is a coastal province of the People's Republic of China and is part of the East China region.
Shandong has played a major role in Chinese history since the beginning of Chinese civilizati ...
coastal province, China
* 1913: Passenger aerial cableway (Kohlerer Bahn) in
Bolzano,
South Tyrol (
former Austria-Hungary), Italy
* 1913: Aerial cable cranes for the construction of the
Centennial Hall in
Wroclaw (Lower Silesia), Poland
1918 until 1945
Bleichert mainly built material-carrying wire ropeways, but then diversified into passenger cable cars as well, such as the famous
Predigtstuhl Aerial Tramway in the Alps, the
Tyrolean Zugspitze Cable Car
The Zugspitzebahn was the first wire ropeway to open the summit of the Zugspitze, Germany's highest mountain on the border of Austria. Designed and built by Adolf Bleichert & Co. of Leipzig, Germany, the system was a record-holder for the h ...
,
Krossobanen in Norway,
Table Mountain Aerial Cableway
The Table Mountain Aerial Cableway is a cable car transportation system offering visitors a five-minute ride to the top of Table Mountain in Cape Town, South Africa. It is one of Cape Town's most popular tourist attractions with approximately ...
in South Africa,
Burgberg Cable Car
The Burgberg Cable Car (german: Burgbergseilbahn) is a cable car in Bad Harzburg, Germany. It was built in 1929 by the Bleichert
Bleichert, short for Adolf Bleichert & Co., was a German engineering firm founded in 1874 by Adolf Bleichert. T ...
in Germany,
Aeri de Montserrat
The Aeri de Montserrat () is an aerial cable car which provides one of the means of access to the Montserrat mountain and abbey. It can be found 1 hour from the city of Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain.
Travelers using the cable car should take note ...
in Catalunya and the
Port Vell Aerial Tramway crossing the Port of Barcelona from
Torre Sant Sebastia via
Torre Jaume I
Torre Jaume I is a 107-metre (351 feet) high steel truss tower in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, which was built in 1931 by Carlos Boigas. The tower is currently the fifth-tallest aerial lift pylon in the world, and is a part of the Port Vell Aeria ...
to Montjuïc.
By the company's 50th anniversary in 1924, Adolf Bleichert & Co. had designed and built the world's record-holding
wire ropeways: longest and highest elevation (Argentina), length of system over water (New Caledonia), steepest (Tanzania), highest capacity (France), northernmost (Norway), and southernmost (Chile).
In 1926, the company went public, though it was controlled by Bleichert's two sons, Max and Paul von Bleichert. Due to the Great Depression and the collapse of the German banking system, on 4 April 1932 Bleichert & Co. filed for bankruptcy. Its successor, , was incorporated on 28 June 1932 to carry on the firm's work. also became sole shareholder of , the people-mover manufacturing entity. —the wire rope crane division—became an independent entity, though also declared bankruptcy on 4 July 1932. No longer under Bleichert family control, the factory continued to produce during
World War II.
From 1945
With the defeat of Nazi Germany,
Leipzig—the
Saxon
The Saxons ( la, Saxones, german: Sachsen, ang, Seaxan, osx, Sahson, nds, Sassen, nl, Saksen) were a group of Germanic
*
*
*
*
peoples whose name was given in the early Middle Ages to a large country (Old Saxony, la, Saxonia) near the Nor ...
city where much of the company's factories were centered—fell on the eastern side of the Iron Curtain and was taken over by the occupying power, the Soviet Union, and renamed SAG Bleichert. In 1954, SAG Bleichert
was transferred to the
German Democratic Republic (East Germany), and was renamed VEB Bleichert. Soon thereafter, the firm was continued under the name Leipzig. In 1955, the company name changed again to . By 1959, the last reference to the original family business disappeared, as was dropped from the firm's name. Between 1962 and 1985, this entity went through several iterations. However, by 1991, the company had been privatized and entered liquidation, halting production of cranes, conveyance, and pit mining equipment — thus concluding the history of the oldest and largest wire ropeway manufacturer of the world.
Further reading
* Dr. Manfred Hötzel; Stefan W. Krieg: ''An entrepreneur's biography, industrial architecture and company history.'' (=Gohliser Historische Hefte, Bd. 8), Sax Verlag, Beucha 2007, .
* Dr. Peter von Bleichert: ''Adolf Bleichert & Co.'s Wire Rope Systems'', KDP, 2019
* Oliver Werner: (=Beiträge zur Wirtschafts- und Sozialgeschichte, Nr. 101), Steiner, Stuttgart 2004,
* P. Stephan: Verlag von Julius Springer, Berlin 1914
Digitalisat
External links
* Family and company website
Bleichert & Co. - ''The Wire Ropeway Dynasty''Leipzig Lese: Adolf Bleichert und sein Werk
References
{{Authority control
Engineering companies of Germany
Companies established in 1874
1874 establishments in Germany
Manufacturing companies based in Leipzig
Aerial lift manufacturers
Defunct motor vehicle manufacturers of Germany
Electric vehicle manufacturers of Germany
Crane manufacturers
Construction equipment manufacturers of Germany
Sustainable transport pioneers