Elsässische Maschinenbau-Gesellschaft Grafenstaden

The Elsässische Maschinenbau-Gesellschaft Grafenstaden (Alsatian Engineering Company in Grafenstaden) was a heavy industry firm located at Grafenstaden in the Alsace, near the city of Strasbourg.

In 1826, André Koechlin founded the engineering works of Andre Koechlin & Cie in Mulhouse, which made steam engines, turbines, spinning and weaving machinery and, from 1839, steam locomotives too. The subsequent history of the firm is closely linked to the history of Alsace-Lorraine. After losing the Franco-Prussian war of 1870/71, France had to withdraw from the so-called Reichsland and cede it to the German Empire. As a result, the company, now called the Elsässische Maschinenbaugesellschaft Andreas Köchlin & Cie. in Mülhausen and the Maschinenwerkstätte Rollé & Schwillgué in Strassburg-Grafenstaden found themselves inside the German Empire. In 1872 the two factories were merged into the Elsässischen Maschinenbau-Gesellschaft Grafenstaden.

The scale-making factory of "Rollé & Schwillgué", that predominantly made decimal weighing equipment based on the 1821 patent of a Benedictine monk, was bought in 1837 by the Strasbourg engineering company, which transferred the workshop with its work force of 40 employees one year later to Grafenstaden, a few kilometres south of Strasbourg. In 1846 they began the manufacture of tenders, and from 1856 locomotives as well.

After the takeover of Alsace-Lorraine by the German Empire in 1871, many Alsatians who considered themselves to be Frenchmen moved to the area around Belfort where, in 1872, the Société Alsacienne de Constructions Mécaniques (Alsatian Mechanical Engineering Company), SACM, was opened. After the peace treaty of Versailles in 1919 Alsace-Lorraine, and with it the Elsässische Maschinenbau-Gesellschaft Grafenstaden, returned to France, where the Grafenstaden firm was merged with the SACM. The factory in Belfort was worked until 1926 and taken over in 1928 by Thomson-Houston and Alsthom, the present-day firm of Alstom.

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