Our company has been in Solingen for over 80 years. Both the city and its inhabitants have made us what we are. Based on this relationship, it is very important to us to give something back to our hometown and our fellow citizens. That is why for years we have been supporting three projects that are particularly close to our hearts.
The first project is the everyman cycling team Citec-Röltgen-Cycling-Team. In this amateur cycling team young women and men race very successfully all over Europe. The students come mainly from Solingen but also from all over Germany. We support the team with clothing and various bicycles, which have meanwhile developed into expensive high-tech products.
You can meet our team at the races “Rund um Köln” and “Rad am Ring” at the Nürburgring, but also at Gran Fondo races in the Alps. Gran Fondo races are marathon races (several hundred kilometers distance) mostly in very mountainous landscapes. We wish the team continued success.
The Solinger Kinderstuben are our second project. Every year, we donate an amount to the Kinderstuben via the so-called Zöppkesmahlzeit (Zöppken = knife in Solinger Platt, a dinner for Solingen entrepreneurs for the purpose of making donations), which is organized by the Stadt-Sparkasse-Solingen. The donations are used to help disadvantaged children or facilities for children in Solingen. Because everybody knows that children are our future and should get the best possible conditions for their development.
The third project that we support as a sponsoring member is the industrial museum “Gesenkschmiede Hendrichs” in our direct neighborhood. This museum, which is supervised by the Landschaftsverband Rheinland, shows visitors how scissors were forged in the 19th and partly still in the 20th century. In the 19th century, Solingen was considered the “workshop for the world”.
School classes in particular take up the offer to experience live how the large drop hammer forges the scissors blank. With a loud roar, the red-hot piece of steel is hammered into shape. Where can you still marvel at this nowadays?
Other, long forgotten, machines and devices are also on display, without which production would not have been possible in the past. For example, the old boiler and the 250 hp motor to drive all the machines by belts. And the great thing is that these machines also run and the children can hear the hissing and humming, as well as feel the vibrations and heat.
