The story of our history

On April 13th 1889, the metals and mining conglomerate Hoerder Bergwerks- und Hüttenverein establishes the Rheinische Metallwaaren- und Maschinenfabrik Actiengesellschaft together with a consortium of banks. On May 7th 1889, the new company is registered at the Local Court in Düsseldorf. The same year sees the start-up of production under direction of the engineer Heinrich Ehrhardt in rented space in Düsseldorf's Talstrasse. Barely a year later, the young enterprise is already employing 1,400 people, and turning out 800,000 bullets daily; by the end of 1891, a total of 120 million rounds will have been produced.