Bleichert

Adolf Bleichert & Co. was a famous German engineering firm founded in 1874 by Adolf Bleichert. The company dominated the aerial wire ropeway industry during the first half of the 20th century, and its portfolio included cranes, electric cars, elevators, and mining and ship-loading equipment.

Bleichert diversified into passenger cable cars such as the Predigtstuhl Aerial Tramway in the Alps, the Tyrolean Zugspitze Cable Car, Krossobanen in Norway, Table Mountain Aerial Cableway in South Africa, Burgberg Cable Car in Germany, Aeri de Montserrat in Catalunya and the Port Vell Aerial Tramway crossing the Port of Barcelona from Torre Sant Sebastia via Torre Jaume I to Montjuïc.

By the company’s 50th Anniversary in 1924, Adolf Bleichert & Co. had designed and built the world's record holding wire ropeways: Longest and highest elevation (Argentina); Length of system over water (New Caledonia); Steepest (Tanzania); Highest capacity (France); Northernmost (Norway); and, Southernmost (Chile).

In 1926, the company went public, though was controlled by Bleichert’s two sons: Max and Paul. Due to the Great Depression and the collapse of the German banking system, on April 4, 1932, Adolf Bleichert & Co. filed for bankruptcy. Its successor, Bleichert-Transportanlagen GmbH, was incorporated on June 28, 1932 to carry on the firms work. Bleichert-Transportanlagen GmbH also became sole shareholder of Adolf Bleichert & Co. Drahtseilbahn GmbH, the people-mover manufacturing entity. Bleichert-Kabelbagger GmbH—the wire rope crane division—became an independent entity, though also declared bankruptcy on July 4, 1932.

No longer under Bleichert family control, the Bleichert-Transportanlagen GmbH factory continued to produce during the Second World War. With the defeat of Nazi Germany, Leipzig--the Saxon city where much of the company's factories were centered--fell on the eastern side of the Iron Curtain and Bleichert-Transportanlagen GmbH was taken over by the Occupying Power, the Soviet Union, and renamed SAG Bleichert. In 1954, SAG Bleichert was transferred to the German Democratic Republic (East Germany), and was renamed VEB Bleichert. Soon thereafter, the firm was continued under the name VEB Transportanlagenfabrik Bleichert Leipzig. In 1955, the company name changed again to VEB Schwermaschinenbau Verlade- und Transportanlagen Leipzig vorm.Bleichert. By 1959, the last reference to the original family business disappears, as ‘vorm.Bleichert’ is dropped from the firm’s name. Between 1962 and 1985, this entity went through several iterations. However, by 1991, the company had been privatized and entered liquidation, halting production of cranes, conveyance, and pit mining equipment—thus concluding the history of the oldest and largest wire ropeway manufacturer of the world.

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