Company history 1881—1945

Leipzig has been associated with electroplating technology for over 100 years. On 01/12/1881 Dr. Georg Langbein founded a chemical factory and laboratory for plating and the metal industry (Fabrik und Laboratorium für Galvanoplastik und Metallindustrie) in Leipzig-Sellerhausen. In 1907 the company merged with Wilhelm Pfanhauser's Fachfirma für Galvanotechnik, established in Vienna in 1873, to become Langbein-Pfanhauser Werke AG (LPW). The complex range of processes used in the separating of common metals, coupled with the continuous improvements in industrial systems, served to stimulate the growth of LPW — the headquarters of which were in Leipzig — to become the largest specialist electroplating company by the end of the Second World War, with a workforce of 2000 in 1940.