July 22, 1950: Cornerstone of the Zeppelin Group

Do you know what happened on July 22, 1950? On this day, 70 years ago, the contract that forms the basis for the Zeppelin Group in its current form was signed. The registration of the company in the commercial register was completed in October 1950. Back then, Zeppelin was still named “Metallwerk Friedrichshafen”.

Metal work and technical expertise

In 1950, the Zeppelin Foundation established “Metallwerk Friedrichshafen” as a successor company to the Zeppelin-Luftschiffbau GmbH. Many of the employees previously worked for companies of the Zeppelin realm and therefore had a broad technical expertise. It was the beginning of the production of aluminum containers and metal constructions and thus, the foundation of the Zeppelin Group in its current form was laid.

Caterpillar dealership

Technical expertise, experience in maintaining vehicles (Zeppelin had started to maintain military vehicles for the French allied forces) as well as high quality working standards were key factors for the US-American construction equipment manufacturer Caterpillar to entrust Zeppelin with the dealership and service of construction machinery and equipment in Western Germany in 1954.

In 1961, Zeppelin was renamed into “Zeppelin-Metallwerke GmbH”. This name was kept until 1995 when the company was re-organized in the form of a holding and renamed “Zeppelin GmbH”. Today, the Zeppelin Group is active in the fields of sales and service of Caterpillar construction machinery, equipment rental services, temporary infrastructure and construction logistics, drive and energy systems, digital business models for construction, logistics and infrastructure, as well as engineering and plant construction.

You want to know how the Zeppelin site in Friedrichshafen looked like back in the 1960s compared to our headquarter in Garching today? Then click our picture sliding show!