The Workshop for Precision Mechanics and Electrical Engineering in Stuttgart

The history of Bosch as a company can be broken down into a total of five phases. In the first phase, from 1886 to around 1900, Bosch was a small craft business in Stuttgart that survived at subsistence level for the first few years until the development of magneto ignition transformed it into a fast-growing automotive supplier.

When the "Workshop for Precision Mechanics and Electrical Engineering" opened on November 15, 1886, the work initially performed by the first two associates of Robert Bosch involved constructing and installing electrical devices of all kinds, including telephone systems and remote electrical water-level indicators. The operating capital of 10,000 German marks that Robert Bosch had inherited from his father was soon used up. Only a bank loan, for which his relatives stood surety, kept the company afloat. Further loans were soon needed. Robert Bosch invested most of the company's small earnings in new machines. By 1895, after nine difficult years, all debts were finally repaid and the business with electrical installations and products slowly began to pay off.

Magneto ignition – a product with a future
As it happened, magneto ignition was to be a crucial milestone in the company's development. In 1887, just a few months after opening his workshop, Robert Bosch had produced a magneto ignition device at the request of a customer which was based on a product by the engine manufacturer Deutz in Cologne. Bosch made key improvements to the design

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Bosch becomes a global supplier of automotive equipment

In the second phase of its history from around 1900 to 1925, the company moved solidly into the automotive technology sector. At the same time, it began to internationalize, with the founding of the first sales offices and manufacturing sites outside Germany. This period, however, was marked by a major disruption, with the loss of property and assets outside Germany after the First World War and the reconstruction of the company.

As magneto ignition for automobiles underwent further development, the first orders came from the automotive industry in 1898. Bosch became an automotive supplier, and the company enjoyed undreamt-of growth thanks to the success of the automobile. From fewer than 40 associates in 1900, the workforce had risen to nearly 1,000 by 1907. Together with the company's British partner Frederick Simms, the first sales offices outside Germany were set up in England and France (1898 and 1899). Soon, Bosch was represented in nearly all European countries and, as from 1906, on other continents as well. These included the U.S. and South Africa (1906), Australia (1907), Argentina (1908), China (1909), and Japan (1911).

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New products, modernization, drafting of today's corporate constitution

In the third phase of the company's history from around 1925 to 1960, new business units were founded covering areas outside the field of automotive technology, and the corporate constitution was redrafted. During this phase, Robert Bosch withdrew from the operational side of the business. In his last will and testament dated 1937, five years before his death in 1942, he laid the groundwork for the corporate constitution
that is still valid today. This period, however, was also overshadowed by National Socialism and the Second World War. After the end of the war in 1945, the company again had to rebuild production and trading networks outside Germany and the production facilities that had been destroyed in Germany itself. [...]

New business units such as Power Tools, Junkers Gasgeräte (manufacturers of natural gas-fired water heaters), Blaupunkt (radios for the car and the household), Fernseh GmbH (television studio equipment), Kinobauer (cinema projectors), and Household Appliances soon put the company back on an even keel. Key milestones of the restructuring included the
first power tool (1928), the first series-produced car radio in Europe from Blaupunkt (1932), and the first Bosch
refrigerator (1933).

During this period, a new business unit was also created in automotive technology that had a lasting effect on strengthening this Bosch business sector. This new development was the diesel injection system for trucks (1927) that also became available for passenger cars from 1936 onwards and formed the technical basis for subsequent gasoline injection systems.

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Bosch becomes a global technology group

In the fourth phase of its history from around 1960 to 1990, Bosch began by introducing far-reaching reforms to its corporate structure and constitution. The end of this phase was marked by the fall of the Iron Curtain.

As early as 1959, director of manufacturing Eugen Hagmaier presented a paper on the future development of the Bosch Group analyzing the company's situation from a manufacturing point of view in particular, and formulating appropriate consequences. The same year saw the start of work to restructure the company into divisions. The first was the Power Tools division, founded in 1960.

The work of Hans Walz, honorary chairman of Robert Bosch GmbH and chairman of the executors' committee, in drafting a new constitution for the company led in 1964 to a milestone in the company’s history.

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New challenges of globalization

The fifth phase in the history of Bosch spans the period from 1990 to the present day. It includes the opening up of the eastern European markets, the rapid growth of Asian economies, and global networking of development, production, and sales.

In 1993, Marcus Bierich handed over chairmanship of the board of management to Hermann Scholl. The Cold War was over and the states of the former Warsaw Pact were undergoing a process of democratization which for Bosch also meant new opportunities and new markets. At this point, however, the global economy was in the midst of a major recession. This recession was keenly felt by Bosch from the summer of 1992 onwards, and resulted in rationalization measures and job cuts at German locations between 1992 and 1994.

Growing markets in eastern Europe and Asia
At the same time, however, efforts were intensified to tap into foreign markets opening up in Asia and eastern Europe. The share of sales generated outside Germany, still 49 percent in 1993, increased to 72 percent by 2000.

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