SACHS

Ernst Sachs, the technical director, and Karl Fichtel, who ran the business side, founded the Schweinfurt precision ball bearing factory on 1 August 1895 with a capital of 15,000 marks. Sachs patented the bicycle freewheel and the backpedal brake, and the torpedo freewheel hub of 1903, with an integrated freewheel and coaster brake, made the firm grow fast: by 1905 it had 1,800 employees and made 382,000 hubs. In 1929 Ernst Sachs sold the rolling bearing division to the Swedish group SKF.

Besides automotive parts the company built motorcycle engines, bicycle parts and, through the subsidiary Sachs Motorcycles, motorcycles, mopeds, motorised bicycles and all-terrain vehicles. In 1997 it was taken over by Mannesmann and renamed Mannesmann Sachs, from 2001 it belonged to ZF Friedrichshafen, and since 2011 Sachs has been a brand of ZF, with development and production still in Schweinfurt.