Experience, innovation and commitment

Friedrich Köster GmbH & Co. KG are able to look back on nearly 150 years of company history. Master forger, Joachim Martin Voss, founded the “Maschinenfabrik und Eisengießerei J.M. Voss”, in Rickelshof/Heide, in 1861. Agricultural machinery such as ploughs, land rollers, straw cutters, threshing machines and beet cutters were manufactured at the time. In 1898 the founder’s four sons-in-law took over the running of the firm. Three of them took their leave of the business 10 years later. The fourth, the rail manufacturer, Ernst Köster, ran the company together with his son, Johann Friedrich Wilhelm, from then on. 

After taking over the management of the firm, Johann Friedrich Wilhelm Köster proved to be a leader full of ideas. He not only gave the company a new name but developed products which were abreast with the rapid technological developments at the time and the ensuing needs of the market: wind power plants for stationary production of electricity as well as irrigation and drainage of low-lying land.
 

As a result of the ever progressing blanket electrification of the country, the wind turbine business declined more and more over the years. The inventive company owner was one of the first German engineers to develop not only screw pumps for irrigation and drainage purposes but also deep well and taper propeller pumps together with vehicles for keeping ruts and drainage ditches ( tidal gullies ) free in the mudflats, the so-called dredger boats. The patents he received in the field of pump technology made him one of the leading German engineers.
 

Numerous new designs in the field of lifting gear are also to be traced back to Friedrich Köster’s inventive prowess, for example: windlasses for hay, grain and flower in mills as well as elevators. These technological solutions were always customised to meet the needs of  individual users. The numerous custom-built equipment from Köster also includes the legendary “blue sand” machine. This special vehicle for enriching soil in farming literally dug out calciferous deposits from geologically old banks of seashells by means of a 9 metre long mandrel, and spread the resulting natural fertilizer on the ground in a single operation. Friedrich Köster was granted more than 50 patents for his inventions. 

The innovative entrepreneur attached great importance to training new employees. Thus, he set up an in-house training facility where apprentices were instructed by company staff. This state-approved facility was unique throughout Schleswig-Holstein and was in use till 1976. The fully integrated apprentice training shop still exists today. Friedrich Köster’s son, Joachim Martin Friedrich began his engineering studies in the summer of 1939 but was forced to interrupt them as a result of the Second World War and call-up. He graduated in 1948 upon returning from France, where he was a prisoner of war. He followed in his father’s footsteps seven years later, assuming responsibility for the technical and commercial management of Messrs. Köster. In the meantime, Friedrich Köster junior has also submitted patent applications for numerous new technical developments, e.g. for the Adler electric winches as well as for an innovative wave producing machine for swimming pools.