We congratulate on 100 years of RASOMA – A success story of the courage to rise up again.

About 100 invi­ted guests, inclu­ding Prime Minis­ter Michael Kret­schmer, NSH share­hol­der and Chair­man of the Board Prof. Dr.-Ing. E.h. Hans J. Nau­mann and the Mayor of the City Döbeln Hans-Joa­chim Ege­rer, accepted the invi­ta­tion to the 100th anni­ver­sary of RASOMA Machine Tools GmbH – which was for good reason. RASOMA not only cele­bra­ted an anni­ver­sary, but also its history of cou­rage to rise again, even after serious set­backs. We take this as an oppor­tu­nity and take a look at their history.

This beg­ins with Johan­nes Lie­bert and Arthur Gür­t­ler. On 29 May 1919 they acqui­red a fac­tory pro­perty and began to build flat grin­ding machi­nes and, after a short time, various lathes. A suc­cess story beg­ins. Only ten years later, the 2000th lathe left the fac­tory. On average this means 16 machi­nes per month since 1919. The legen­dary VDF stan­dard lathe is also built by Lie­bert & Gür­t­ler in the early 1940s.

With the capi­tu­la­tion in 1945 the dis­mant­ling of the com­pany began and thus the tem­po­rary end of mecha­ni­cal engi­nee­ring in Döbeln. Only five years later was the com­pany again able to pro­duce a mecha­ni­cal lathe. It moved upwards again. After the pri­vate com­pany was con­ver­ted into a com­pany with state par­ti­ci­pa­tion, the pro­duc­tion of lea­ding and trac­tion spindle lathes was adjus­ted in order to con­cen­trate on the auto­ma­ted lathes.

Howe­ver, the next set­back came again. The com­pany was natio­na­li­sed in 1972 and given the name VEB Werk­zeug­ma­schi­nen­fa­brik Döbeln. In 1980 the com­pany was trans­for­med into VEB RASOMA Döbeln in the course of the GDR’s for­ma­tion of a com­bine. After unsuc­cessful attempts by the Treu­hand to find an inves­tor, the com­pany is liqui­da­ted in 1993. Mr. Jür­gen Kamm and Mr. Peter Kai­ser sub­se­quently came up with an MBO con­cept and take over the busi­ness. This was the second time that the com­pany was saved from its sup­po­sed dis­ap­pearance. RASOMA Machine Tools GmbH was foun­ded. Shortly the­re­af­ter, tur­ning machi­nes were again deve­lo­ped, pro­du­ced and mar­ke­ted, initi­ally the ver­ti­cal tur­ning machine DS 200, which is still being built today – con­ti­nuously fur­ther deve­lo­ped and modernized.

In 2002, the com­pany suf­fe­red its third serious set­back with a see­mingly hope­l­ess future: The com­pany was mas­si­vely floo­ded by the huge flood.

»We didn’t know what to do next. We stood up to our knees in the water and nobody knew what will happen next. Even after the water was gone, remained huge mud masses . In our mind we gave up the company«, remembers Managing director Marcus Kamm.

Only a few weeks after the flood, some­thing very impres­sive hap­pened: the entire work­force showed full rea­di­ness to rebuild RASOMA. And not only that:

»We received support from NILES-SIMMONS Industrieanalagen from Chemnitz to rebuild the machines. Even competitors helped us. This is unimaginable today and were very big actions for which we are very grateful« says Kamm.

In the same year machi­nes could be built again due to this hel­pful­ness. In 2004 a new, modern assem­bly hall was inau­gu­ra­ted. Four years later, new offices for sales were built and ano­ther assem­bly hall was also ope­ned in 2009.

NILES-SIMMONS-HEGENSCHEIDT GmbH also lear­ned of this cohe­sion and per­sis­tence and acqui­red the majo­rity of the shares in 2016.

»We are proud to have such a traditional company with us in the Group and congratulate them sincerely,« said the NSH shareholder and Chairman often the Board Prof. Dr.-Ing. E.h. Hans J. Naumann.

In the same year, Peter Kai­ser said good­bye, who had worked for the com­pany for 60 years and had been mana­ging part­ner until then.

We, the NILES-SIMMONS Industrieanlagen from Chemnitz, congratulate our colleagues from Döbeln on this great history and wish them all the best for the future challenges and the coming 100 years. 

You can find the pic­ture gal­lery here