Family history
The Henschel industrial legacy, and how Henschel Robotics GmbH carries those values forward today.
The Henschel family is one of the pillars of German industrial history. Its origins go back to the late 18th century, when Georg Christian Carl Henschel established a foundry in Kassel. From these beginnings the family business grew into Henschel & Sohn, a driving force in mechanical engineering, locomotive building and, later, vehicle and armaments production.
Under successive generations, among them Carl Anton Henschel and Oscar Henschel, the company pioneered technical advances and set new standards in social responsibility, offering vocational training and employee welfare decades ahead of its time.
By the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Henschel & Sohn had grown into the largest locomotive manufacturer in Germany, exporting worldwide and playing a central role in the industrialisation of Europe.
The family’s commitment to innovation was matched by remarkable resilience. The company came through periods of war, economic upheaval and rapid technological change. Under leaders such as Sophie Henschel, who took over after the death of her husband Carl Anton Oscar Henschel in 1894, it not only survived but grew, building its 5,000th locomotive in 1899 and its 10,000th by 1910. By 1923 the company had built 20,000 locomotives, and by the end of the 1920s it employed around 12,000 people.
The product range kept expanding: steam, diesel and electric locomotives, but also trucks, buses, military vehicles and aircraft. Through the Great Depression and two world wars, the company remained at the forefront of German engineering.
Through later mergers and restructurings, parts of the original firm were absorbed into groups such as Thyssen, ABB, Daimler, Rheinmetall and Alstom. The Henschel legacy continued to shape engineering and manufacturing in Kassel and beyond.
Today
The commitment to engineering and quality that defined the Henschel tradition finds a new expression in Henschel Robotics GmbH. The founder, a member of the family, established the company to contribute to robotics and automation in his own way. Henschel Robotics is not a direct continuation of the historic Henschel & Sohn, but we are proud to carry forward some of the values and the pioneering mindset long associated with the name.
Henschel Robotics develops energy-efficient servo drives and integrated motion solutions for robotics and automation. Our aim is to bring practical, well-engineered products to market, informed by the engineering tradition of the family’s past while charting our own course.