International Directory of Company Histories | Koenig & Bauer AG - Era of Destruction and Rebirth Begins in 1914

Era of Destruction and Rebirth Begins in 1914

When World War I began in 1914, Koenig & Bauer was cut off from markets abroad and domestic demand for printing machines also came to a sudden halt. During the war, the company manufactured a cornucopia of necessary goods, from grinding machines and agricultural machinery, delivery vehicles, and wheel hubs and axles to horseshoes and cooking equipment. Germany's currency became catastrophically de-valued in the early 1920s. Causing a short boom in demand for money-printing machines on one the hand, galloping inflation rapidly pushed up costs and wages on the other. To gain some advantage from this dire situation, Koenig & Bauer even issued its own emergency currency, which soon gained acceptance in the Würzburg region. Meanwhile, the managing director of the company's Austrian subsidiary, a retired army officer who was fluent in several languages, brought in a number of orders from Eastern and Northern Europe. In November 1920, when one American dollar was worth 4.2 billion German paper marks, the German government got the situation under control with the introduction of a new currency. Through a close cooperation with the German Government Printing Office, Koenig & Bauer strengthened its leading position as a manufacturer of security presses. During the mid-1920s, orders from abroad picked up again. The company delivered large rotogravure press installations to customers in the United States and Canada and installed Europe's largest newspaper web press in Norway. However, the short-lived economic boom was stopped by the Great Depression, initiated by the New York Stock Exchange crash in late October 1929. High import duties shut down the export markets in France and Spain, while domestic demand began to dry up due to decreasing investment activities in the printing industry.

In 1931, Alfred Bolza's son Hans took over as Koenig & Bauer's managing director. The 41-year-old Hans, who had changed his course of studies from physics and mathematics to engineering after his older brother Benno suddenly died, led the company during the chaotic political and economic climate in Germany during the 1930s. By 1932, roughly one-third of German workers were looking for a job. One year later, Adolf Hitler became the country's new chancellor and immediately established a totalitarian regime. Once again, the demand for printing presses slipped into a steady decline. At first, the company's efforts to counteract this trend, including increased investment in trade show presentations, product innovation, reducing the number of models in certain product lines, and job sharing among workers to avoid layoffs, seemed to work. However, as Germany increasingly isolated itself from the rest of the world, demand for the country's products declined. At the same time, the Nazi Party began to suppress publishers that were not in line with its narrow ideology, diminishing the demand for printing presses even further. In 1936, Hitler launched his plan to prepare the country for yet another war, and the National Socialist government seized control of the economy. Koenig & Bauer gave in to the mounting political pressure and began to manufacture war goods. In 1937, the company acquired a Würzburg-based competitor, Schnellpressenfabrik Bohn + Herber. One year later, when Austria was occupied by Nazi Germany, Koenig & Bauer's Austrian subsidiary was unable to bring in business from abroad. During World War II, Koenig & Bauer's remaining workforce repaired damaged machine tools for the German roller-bearing industry in nearby Schweinfurt. In March 1945, just before the war ended, the company's main production facilities in Würzburg were destroyed by Allied bombs.

Under the postwar Allied military administration, Koenig & Bauer's business had to be reconstructed from scratch. While rebuilding its two production plants in Würzburg, the company's engineers took on any kind of mechanical repair work. While bartering flourished during the postwar period, the flood of decrees issued by the military occupation forces had to be put in print, causing the demand for printing presses to pick up once again. The introduction of the new Deutsche Mark in the three western German zones in 1948, the foundation of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1949, and the signing of the Paris agreements in 1954, which granted West Germany its political independence, marked the end of the immediate postwar period. It was followed by an economic boom that became known as the German Economic Miracle. As the world recovered from the devastation of the war, Koenig & Bauer began to receive a steady flow of orders, some of them from countries that had gained political independence after the war or did not suffer significant war damage, such as Portugal, Egypt, Iran, Pakistan, and Ghana. Customers from countries in the newly formed Eastern Bloc that were not able to pay for their orders in an acceptable currency traded other goods for printing presses. In this way, Koenig & Bauer received trainloads of Yugoslavian prunes, Cuban sugar, and Argentinean oranges in return for printing presses. However, the company's main customer base evolved in Western Europe, the United States, and Canada. In 1959, Hans Bolza, who had lost his two sons in the war, formally adopted Hans-Bernhard Schünemann, his best printing-press design engineer, who had joined the company in 1951.

During the 1960s, Koenig & Bauer was able to regain its leading position in printing press technology through a number of important innovations. Among them were the Rotafolio sheet-fed four-color letterpress with an output of 8,000 sheets per hour and the newspaper web press Koebau-Courier, both of which became long-term bestsellers. In addition, Koenig & Bauer began to develop special printing presses for telephone directories. With export business thriving, the company established a number of sales offices abroad in Canada, France, England, and Italy. After the Austrian government had expropriated Koenig & Bauer's subsidiary there, the company was able to regain a controlling stake in Schnellpressenfabrik Mödling. Production capacity in Germany was further expanded with the erection of a brand-new factory in Trennfeld near Würzburg in 1964. Three years later, in the company's 150th anniversary year, the German Post Office issued a stamp honoring Friedrich Koenig's invention of the cylinder printing press.