Where we came from
Courage and Pioneering Spirit have accompanied us – right from the start.
The HOERBIGER brand is a worldwide synonym for courage and a pioneering spirit in the oil, gas, and process industry, the machinery and plant engineering industry, and the automotive industry. Generations of engineers have molded this image.
It was always the technological niches that HOERBIGER wanted to conquer: challenging problem solutions with clear competitive and cost advantages for customers.
The series of patent applications goes back as far as 1894. At that time, Hanns Hörbiger laid the foundation for over a century of successful corporate history with his idea for a valve that was simple but revolutionary in its day.
HOERBIGER 1894 to 1945
Courage and Pioneering Spirit
1894: Hanns Hörbiger, a young engineer from Vienna, who was interested in a great variety of things, had an idea for a new design of blast furnace blowing engine: he replaced the old and susceptible leather flap valves with a steel valve. Opening and closing automatically, light and frictionless guided, the disk valve eliminated all the drawbacks of previous valve designs.
Hanns Hörbiger registered his idea for patent; thus making a decisive contribution to the development of the modern industrial society. His valve smoothed the way for efficient steel production and greater productivity in mining. High-pressure chemistry and the global network of gas exchange - none of these would be possible without the HOERBIGER valve.
In 1900, Hanns Hörbiger and the engineer Friedrich Wilhelm Rogler founded an engineer’s office in Budapest; this was moved to Vienna in 1903. By 1925 it had developed into the HOERBIGER & CO trading company. Alfred Hörbiger, one of Hörbiger’s sons, joined the company in 1925 and assumed the management. Hanns Hörbiger devoted himself to scientific study until his death in 1931.
The company developed rapidly under Alfred Hörbiger’s management: a production facility was taken into service in Vienna and an affiliated company was set up in Düsseldorf.
HOERBIGER expanded into England and concluded numerous licensing agreements with leading manufacturers of piston blowers, compressors and ships’ diesel engines in Europe and North America.
The success was driven by originality and inventive genius. The disk valve became more sophisticated: HOERBIGER developed highlift or high-pressure valves, compressor control systems and damper plates. By 1937, 98 percent of production was destined for export. The name HOERBIGER had become a dependable trademark in valve and control technology for compressors.
HOERBIGER 1945 to 1989
Reconstruction
By 1945 the main facility in the Simmering district in Vienna had been destroyed. Not only had the material assets been lost by the end of the war; all the company’s intellectual property, patents and processes had been released for general use.
After the passing of Alfred Hörbiger in July 1945, his widow Martina Hörbiger assumed management responsibility for the company.
Through her tremendous entrepreneurial courage and will power, Martina Hörbiger not only laid the foundation for the company's early globalization, she also decisively expanded its portfolio: In 1958, HOERBIGER & Co. KG in Schongau, Germany, started the series production of clutch plates. The cornerstone for the Strategic Business Unit Drive Technology was laid. In 1972, the basis for the Strategic Business Unit Automation Technology followed with HOERBIGER Pneumatik GmbH.
Martina Hörbiger passed away in August 1989. She left behind a successful global enterprise operating close to the customer. In the time that followed, her successors established new, forward-thinking management structures and the global expansion continued. Throughout these necessary transformation processes, HOERBIGER maintained its family business nature. Today, this is represented by the company values of Courage and Pioneering Spirit, Fairness and Closeness.
HOERBIGER 1989 to Present
The path to becoming a Group
The company was restructured after Martina Hörbiger’s death. All activities were combined in a holding company under the majority control of the HOERBIGER Foundation, Basel which was established by Martina Hörbiger before she died.
The HOERBIGER Foundation regards its task as maintaining the independence of the company and supporting its continued development - ensured economically by profitable growth. Sustainability and safeguarding the future in balance with social responsibility for the company’s employees symbolize the HOERBIGER guiding principle.
The business of the HOERBIGER companies is gradually being restructured. One milestone in this process was the combination of business activities in three Strategic Business Units: Compression Technology, Automation Technology and Drive Technology.
In 1997, HOERBIGER Holding AG was founded in Switzerland as the operative holding company. Since then it has defined the long-term strategic position. The three Strategic Business Units enjoy a high degree of autonomy in operative business which results in the flexibility required for the market.
Throughout all the changes, HOERBIGER has retained its family business character which is represented by the corporate values Courage and Pioneering Spirit, Fairness and Closeness.
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