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Friedrich Deckel: Germany Connections

Karl Berger Deckel B: 1825 Jungingen D: 1906 M: Thekla Miller B: Jungingen D:

Friedrich Wilhelm Deckel B: 12/11/1871 Jungingen, a German municipality located in the Land of Baden-Württemberg D: 07/12/1948 Munich. Became one of the largest German manufacturers of camera and machine tool shutters based in Munich. He worked as a laboratory mechanic since 1889 at the Zeiss company in Jena under the direction of Ernst Abbe , one of the co-founders of Zeiss. In 1898 he founded his own mechanical workshop in Munich and in 1903 the inventor Christian Bruns joined it, thus Bruns & Deckel was born. In 1905 Bruns leaves Bruns & Deckel and consequently Friedrich Deckel becomes the sole owner of the newly formed "Friedrich Deckel GmbH". In the 1950s, DECKEL began to focus more on machine tool construction and they designed and created milling machines based on the experiences gained through the production of camera shutters. These milling machines achieved a level of quality never seen before. In 1993, Deckel merged with the cutting machine manufacturer MAHO. A year later, DECKEL-MAHO was taken over by Gildemeister to create DMG MORI AG, which continues to manufacture the milling machines on which DECKEL had built its reputation. The Compound shutter, marketed from 1904 which remain in production for 65 years, until 1970.

1~Hans Deckel

2~Fritz Deckel

Friedrich Deckel 1871-1948

Some of the remaining Deckel family members remain outside of Hanover, working in the family plant, Milling Machine Manufacturer founded by Friedrich Deckel. "Deckel" was formed on June 15th, 1903, in Munich at Klenzestrasse 34 (back building) under the name of "Bruns & Deckel". Bruns dropped out after 2 years, and so it became just "Deckel".

Business objective was it to develop and produce camera shutters, which was a big problem in those days. It was very cutting edge to produce a fast camera shutter that could produce a measurable and adjustable shutting speed. The result was the "Compoud" shutter mechanism. Later came the "Compur" and the "Synchro-Compur". Thes shutters were very complicated precision mechanical devices with many gears, shafts and levers. For production purposes Deckel build in-house production equipment like engravers, which enventually were requested by customers. The same happend for the small cutter grinder and the for in-house uses developed FP stamp milling machine. Eventually a machine tool production line grew out of this, but the camera shutter business remained the core operation. Deckel also developed and produced Diesel injection pumps, but by 1939 the machine tool offering had grown to include the G0 and G1, the G1L and G2, the GK1 and GK2, the KF2, the FP1, the GS (predecessor of the SO), and the S1. After the war the production for shutters, machine tools and injection pumps is running again by 1946. On Juli 10th, 1948, 3 weeks after the "Deutsche Mark" is introduced, Friedrich Deckel dies. In 1952 the deckel FP2 is introduced to the market and in 1953, 50 years after its founding. It was more then halftime for the company, but the foundation for things to come had surely been laid. A company philosophy for quality and design had clearly been established, and would be recognizable throughout the second half of the company history.

In its earliest years it launched the first of its famous leaf shutters. Then it started making machine-tools and injection pumps. With its Compur shutter it became the technology leading maker of leaf shutters. In 1952 the company had 3000 employees. At the end of the 1950s its production became focused on the machine-tools. In 1994 it ended in bankruptcy.

Feinmechanik Michael Deckel GmbH & Co. KG, Weilheim, Germany. Its official corporate history dates its inception to 1950. It still manufactures the Deckel S0, S0E, and S11speed (derived from the S1, I think) tool and cutter grinders (as well as an array of very modern CNC cutter grinding machines). I remain confused about the origins and early manufacture of the Deckel cutter grinders, because literature for them published under the name of Friedrich Deckel exists which seems to postdate the 1950 founding of Michael Deckel. See theDeckel Notebook in the CircuitousRoot Cutting Tool Forming and Sharpening Notebooks for more on the Deckel cutter grinders. It merged with MAHO AG in the very early 1990s. Gildemeister AG acquired Deckel MAHO Seebach GmbH by 2001.

Deckel Machine Factory