30.03.2011

Erich Sennebogen 1932 - 2011

Erich Sennebogen senior, the founder of Bavarian based Sennebogen cranes and excavators, has died aged 79.

Sennebogen passed away on Monday, March 21st but we only received the news this morning. Please register to see all images

Erich Sennebogen senior

Sennebogen was a tough and determined entrepreneur and engineer and founded his company in Pilling near Straubing in 1953 at the tender age of 21, the initial business was a producer of agricultural and heavy equipment .

In 1957 Sennebogen developed his first mechanical crawler crane for the construction industry and in 1959 renamed the business as Sennebogen Maschinenfabrik and moved to a new facility in Straubing. In 1969 he introduced the world's first fully hydraulic crawler crane. The company's first telescopic came along in 1978.

Over the years Sennebogen not only pushed his small team hard with his motto "Nothing is impossible", but also took advantage of any business opportunities that came his way, such as the change to supply Caterpillar dealer Zeppelin and later Caterpillar itself, with wheeled excavators in 1980 - just one of the deals that helped build the business into a strong, internationally recognised equipment manufacturer.
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Erich Sennebogen (R) with Bavarian politician legend Franz-Josef Strauß (next to him)

Today the company has facilities in Straubing and Wackersdorf in Germany, as well as Hungary, the USA, Dubai and Singapore, with 1,000 employees and more than €300 million in revenues. Products include excavators, lattice boomed and telescopic cranes, materials handling equipment, special machines and steel components.

The latest 'coup' for the company founder and his sons Eric and Walter was the opening of a new €30 million plant in Straubing-Sand industrial park in 2008.

Erich Sennebogen was widely recognised for his contribution to the Bavarian economy and the industry he served. In addition to serving as a local judge and helping out in other community projects, he was founder and president of the Bavarian employers association and his many awards included: Being given the keys to the Hungarian town of Balatonfüred, wining the 2005 Entrepreneur of the year award, the University of Karlsruhe’s Innovation Award, the Lions Club Gold Medal of Merit and star. The German Federal Cross of Merit 1st Class, the Bavarian Order of Merit and the Gold Medal for citizens of his home town of Straubing. Please register to see all images

Sennebogen was also founder und later honrary President of the Vereinigung der Bayerischen Wirtschaft (vbw), the federation of bavarian economy

The crane industry has lost one of its driving forces and one of the characters that helped create the modern crane industry.