The History of MAN

Dampfmaschine

MAN – the three letters stand for one of the world’s leading vendors of commercial vehicles, large diesel engines and special gear systems. Volkswagen Aktiengesellschaft acquired a majority share in the parent company MAN SE at the head of the capital goods concern, with its workforce of over 54,000 people worldwide, in a gradual process culminating on November 9, 2011. MAN has been an independently operating brand of the Volkswagen Group since that time. Volkswagen Aktiengesellschaft had held a strategic minority share of 15.06 percent in MAN AG since October 3, 2006. The control and profit transfer agreement approved at the shareholders’ meeting of MAN SE on June 6, 2013 and implemented by entry in the Register of Companies on July 16, 2013 also aided the creation of an integrated commercial vehicles unit. MAN is now one of the three commercial vehicles brands of the Volkswagen Group which since September 1, 2012 have been co-ordinated by Group parent Volkswagen Aktiengesellschaft’s Management Board Commercial Vehicles function. Like the other brands, MAN runs its vehicle business operations independently. The Volkswagen Group’s integrated commercial vehicles strategy seeks to utilise synergies from the closer co-operation between Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles, MAN and Scania under the umbrella of parent company Volkswagen Aktiengesellschaft.

Eisenhütte St. Antony
ST. ANTONY IRONWORKS
Dampfmaschine
STEAM ENGINE
Bau der Müngsten Stahlbrücke
STEAM ENGINE
Erster Dieselmotor
FIRST DIESEL ENGINE

It was only the 1898 merger with Maschinenfabrik Augsburg to create the “Vereinigte Maschinenfabrik Augsburg und Maschinenbaugesellschaft Nürnberg AG” which delivered the essential capital increase, and at the same time marked the start of business in innovative diesel engines, which were seen as replacements for the now outdated steam engine technology – though at first primarily for stationary applications. The first power plant run on a MAN large diesel engine from Augsburg was opened in Kiev in 1904. The merger of the two machine works in Nuremberg and Augsburg, though largely still organised on a decentralised basis, created the biggest industrial concern in Bavaria. Its name was first shortened to “Maschinenfabrik Augsburg-Nürnberg AG” (M.A.N.) at the annual general meeting held on December 7, 1908.

Erster MAN LKW mit Dieselmotor und Direkteinspritzung
STEAM ENGINE
Zweitakt-Großdieselmotor
THE MOST POWERFUL DIESEL TRUCK IN THE WORLD
Stärkster Diesel-Lastwagen der Welt
THE MOST POWERFUL DIESEL TRUCK IN THE WORLD
Schienenbus-Fertigung
RAILBUS PRODUCTION

M.A.N. was looking to grow, and to that end in 1955 acquired the site of the former BMW motor works in Allach near Munich, which had been confiscated and quickly cleared by the US Forces in 1945. By targeted investments, production capacity was increased five times over, so in the same year, 1955, truck production was consolidated in Munich, while diesel engine making remained in Nuremberg. This enabled the truck business to grow further. The Type 400, a 4.5 tonne 115 hp truck launched in 1955, was the first new model to be developed in full by M.A.N. The central-ball fuel injection method was characterised by quiet engine running and greatly reduced fuel consumption, and from 1963 onwards was refined into the high-performance central-ball technique for heavy-duty trucks. This provided the company with an innovative edge. The 6-cylinder diesel engine featuring central-ball fuel injection remained the benchmark for fuel-saving commercial vehicle engines for decades, and was licensed by M.A.N. to 15 companies worldwide. In 1955, Deggendorfer Werft und Eisenbau GmbH (DWE), an inland ship building specialist which had been part of the GHH Group since 1924, began making pressure-tube reactors for the chemical and petrochemical industries. Today DWE, whose products in that sector are world market leaders, is a part of MAN Diesel & Turbo.

Turbokompressor
TURBOCOMPRESSOR

By the time the thirty-thousandth truck rolled off the production line in 1960, M.A.N. was operating more than 33 service centres and parts stores, and had over 100 contract partners in Germany. In the same year, the M.A.N. plants in Augsburg, Nuremberg, Munich, Gustavsburg and Hamburg employed a total of 32,470 people. In 1961 the M.A.N. Group generated sales of DM 1.13 billion, with DM 440 million – or almost 40 percent – attributable to the Commercial Vehicles division. M.A.N. was the strongest unit and key driver of innovation within the GHH concern.

G Baureihe
G SERIES

The merger of M.A.N. into the GHH concern to create MAN Aktiengesellschaft in 1986 formalised what had long been commercial reality: MAN was the Group’s primary earner, employing three quarters of its workforce. Its share of total Group business was rising steadily, and promised further growth, which was now to be managed from the company’s headquarters in Munich instead of from Oberhausen. At the same time, the new MAN Group reduced its activities in other business fields, focusing on commercial vehicles, industrial services, printing machines, diesel engines, and machinery and plant manufacture, culminating in the creation of the Commercial Vehicles and Power Engineering divisions. A key area of focus in the manufacture of fuel-saving drive and transport solutions since the mid-1980s had been the development of electric buses and hybrid drive systems involving the recuperation of braking energy to generate driving power. It was a principle which MAN went on to integrate into the development of a number of bus models. From 1988 onwards, the brand focused on three model series in the light, medium and heavy-duty truck sectors, organising its internal structures around the German locations of Munich, Nuremberg, Penzberg, Gustavsburg and Salzgitter. In the same year, MA N began developing industrial gas turbines.

Constellation Baureihe und MAN LKW
CONSTELLATION SERIES AND MAN TRUCK
MAN Produktfamilie
MAN PRODUCT FAMILY
MAN Concept S
MAN CONCEPTS
The specified fuel consumption and emission data does not refer to a single vehicle and is not part of the offer but is only intended for comparison between different types of vehicles. Additional equipment and accessories (additional components, tyre formats, etc.) can alter relevant vehicle parameters such as weight, rolling resistance and aerodynamics, affecting the vehicle's fuel consumption, power consumption, CO2 emissions and driving performance values in addition to weather and traffic conditions and individual driving behavior. Further information on official fuel consumption data and official specific CO2 emissions for new passenger cars can be found in the "Guide to fuel economy, CO2 emissions and power consumption for new passenger car models", which is available free of charge from all sales dealerships and from DAT Deutsche Automobil Treuhand GmbH, Hellmuth-Hirth-Str. 1, D-73760 Ostfildern, Germany and at www.dat.de/co2.