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“… from a metalworking shop to a global enterprise” – 150 years of Polysius

Exhibition design & realization
ThyssenKrupp Polysius AG, Neubeckum, 2009

1859: Gottfried Polysius opens a metalworking shop in Dessau. The little workshop quickly develops into a successful iron foundry and machine factory.

1893: Only 34 years later, his sons present Dessau machinery products at the Chicago World's Fair. It is the breakthrough to becoming a global firm. In 1907, the first complete cement plant is built overseas.

1946: The family company in Dessau is expropriated by the Soviet occupation authorities. A difficult, new beginning starts in the Westphalian town of Neubeckum.

2009: Today, the ThyssenKrupp Polysius AG is one of the world's leading engineering companies providing equipment for the cement and minerals industries. Between its founding and now lie 150 years of exciting company, family, and industrial history.

The central part of the exhibition is a glazed, 30-meter-long bridge whose integrated timeline shows the close connection between the company’s first 100 years of history and world history. Animations as well as historical and recently shot films vividly recall revolutionary events of industrial history. The latest modern media technology is used alongside traditional exhibition elements: four glass cubes present extraordinary exhibits about the company’s history, showing its rapid rise to success.

The opening of the in-house exhibition took place in early October 2009.

For more information: ThyssenKrupp Polysius AG

Timeline: Company history and world history depicted in media steles
ThyssenKrupp Polysius AG’s new communication centre, Neubeckum, exterior view
Ground plan: Ground floor and outside area
100 years of company history: commemorative publications and catalogues