Gildemeister Aktiengesellschaft, often referred to simply as Gildemeister AG, was a long-established German company in the machine tool industry.
It was founded in 1870 by master locksmith Friedrich Gildemeister as the machine tool factory
Gildemeister & Comp. At the end of the 19th century, the company was converted into a stock corporation.
Over the next few decades, the factory at Bielefeld railway station was expanded with additional production halls. On September 30, 1944, all production facilities were completely destroyed by a bombing raid. Under the leadership of Karl Bernhard Grauthoff, reconstruction of the factory began in 1947. In 1964, Gildemeister began construction of new production halls in Sennestadt. In 1969, the shares were widely distributed, turning it into a publicly traded company.
In 1970, Gildemeister acquired a controlling stake in the Hamburg-based machine tool manufacturer Heidenreich & Harbeck, thereby gaining the necessary expertise in CNC-controlled lathes.
In 1975, it presented the world's first machine tool with CNC (computerized numerical control) control. In 1994, the company took over the business operations of Deckel Maho AG in Pfronten.
In 2013, the company merged with Japanese machine manufacturer Mori Seiki, creating the global engineering group DMG Mori.
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