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Friedrich Deckel: Germany Connections

Charles C. Deckel, Baron Von Deckel, served under Charles VI. As a result of harsh military training that all young German youths of that era were put through, Two sons of Baron Von Deckel, Charles the oldest, and John the second son, and their cousin Friedrich, left the hard life of Germany and came to America. Family tradition has it they stowed away aboard a sailing ship and eventually arrived in the Harbor at Savannah, Georgia.

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