Hanomag, Germany

Hanomag, Germany  

The Hannoversche Maschinenbaugesellschaft vorm. Georg Egestorff [Hanoverian Machine Company, formerly George Egestorff] started to build agricultural machinery in 1912. In earlier times, it has established itself as a producer of locomotives, steam machines, boilers, and workshop equipment, but also as a foundry. Via its daughter company, the Berlin-based Deutsche Kraftpflug Gesellschaft m.b.H [German Power Plough Company, LLC], it added to its production motor ploughs, which were developed by Ernst Wendeler, a mechanical engineer, and Boguslaw Dohrn, a farmer. These ploughs had four-cylinder Otto engines and power of up to 80hp. By mid-1920s, the company sold over 1,000 such ploughs under the label of WD.  

In 1919, the Wendeler and Dohrn tandem had developed the first European caterpillar tractor; it was equipped by a 20hp gasoline four-cylinder engine. In 1921, the machine was improved to 25hp and in the same year, the company introduced a 50hp caterpillar, the Typ Z 50. Four years later, Hanomag had developed a wheeled tractor, Modell R 26.  

Hanomag managers were fully aware of the importance of advertisement: in 1925, a caravan of Hanomag tractors was for several weeks criss-crossing all over Germany. In 1927, the company introduced its model R 28, and four years later, Hanomag made its first four-stroke diesel tractor developed by Lazar Schargorodsky. During the Great Depression, the company experienced great difficulties, which resulted in a settlement: in 1936, the company was purchased by Hanomag Vereinigte Stahlwerke AG [United Hanomag Steelworks, Public Limited Company]. After the Great Depression, Hanomag produced new types of 50hp diesels and since 1934, its tractors used pneumatic tires. In 1936–1937, the company started to make a large tractor R 38, but concurrently it also responded to governmental directive and developed a tractor for smaller, family-run farms. This was the petrol RL 20 tractor. In 1939, Hanomag introduced various types of the R 40 series.  

After the war, the company managed to repair its damaged factories by August 1945 to an extent that enabled the resumption of tractor production. Alongside the prewar R 40, in 1949 Hanomag introduced also an R 25. Highly successful was the series R 16 to R 45 from the early 1950s, but also crawlers K 55 and K 90, which were, however, used mainly in construction. In 1953, Hanomag had presented at an exhibition a tool carrier R 12 called Combitrac, which met with limited success. In 1954, Hanomag celebrated the production of impressive 100,000 tractors during its existence. At that time, the company had almost 7,000 employees.

In mid-1950s, Hanomag had massively invested into the development of a diesel two-stroke engine, which unfortunately turned out to be prone to malfunction and worsened the company’s position in the market. Starting in 1957, the company returned to four-stroke diesel engines, modifying only the design of the tractors. By 1964, the company had already produced 250,000 tractors. In that year, it introduced a new programme: models Perfekt 300 and 400, Granit 500, Brillant 600, Robust 800, and crawlers K7. The most powerful Robust 900 was designed for towed combined harvesters.  

In the 1960s, the company started exhibiting signs of crisis and in 1969, the Rheinstahl concern, which included Hanomag, started to be sold part by part. In the same year, the concern sold its Argentinian factory to Massey Ferguson and tractor production to Daimler-Benz.

In 1970, the production of tractors in Hanomag had stopped and in 1974, the production of construction machines was sold to Massey Ferguson as well. Of the original about 10,000 Hanomag employees only 2,400 had remained. In 1980, Massey-Ferguson sold Hanomag to the Internationale Baumaschinen Holding der Horst-Dieter Esch, better known as IBH Holding. Four years later, the company was bankrupt again, and its new owner became the Papenburg-Gassmann Group. At this point, the company was renamed Hanomag Baumaschinen Production und Vertrieb GmbH. It currently has about 1,200 employees and focuses solely on the production of construction machines.  

The plough

A plough is an agricultural instrument used for tilling the soil. It is one of the oldest and most important agricultural tools known to humanity. Its purpose is to break the clod and aerate the surface layer of the soil, to work-in the post-harvest remnants, fertilisers, and green manure, and to prevent excessive weed growth. Prehistoric predecessors of modern ploughs were, over time, hoes, ards or scratch ploughs, body ards with metal share, and other types of ploughs, especially the turning plough invented by the Veverka cousins.

The main part of a plough is the mouldboard, which scores the soil and has a board that turns it. Other parts of the plough serve mainly as pulling (or pushing) and stopping elements. Modern ploughs tend to have multiple mouldboards, which provide more effective ploughing.