cleanup to meet wikipedia s quality standards . the specific problem is the article needs to be wikified and have some links standardized . please help improve this article if you can . april 2016 learn how and when to remove this template message r chling group type gmbh & co. kg industry plastics processing founded 1822 headquarters mannheim germany key people ludger bartels president and ceo erwin doll r diger keinberger steffen rowold revenue 1 6 bln . eur number of employees ca. 8400 website http www.roechling.com headquartered in mannheim baden w rttemberg r chling se & co. kg is a medium sized group which is globally active in the field of plastics processing . the r chling group is one of the world s leading companies with a broad technology base that extends to all areas of plastics processing . the group which is divided into three divisions industrial automotive and medical currently has 77 locations in 22 countries across europe america and asia . 1 the industrial division s product range encompasses a spectrum of various semi finished products ranging from profiles and injection molded and shaped parts through to machined assembled and painted finished parts made from standard and engineering high performance plastics . 2 the automotive division provides automobile manufacturers and system suppliers all over the world with technologically superior plastic applications that are used to solve the current challenges facing the automotive industry the reduction of emissions weight fuel consumption and costs . 3 the medical division provides customers from the medical technology and pharmaceutical sectors with injection molded components through to blow molded primary packaging for devices and instruments pertaining to the areas of surgery pharmaceuticals diagnostics and dialysis . contents 1 history 1.1 the early years 1.2 pre war years 1.3 first world war 1.4 1920 to 1945 1.5 second half of the 20th century 1.6 the new millennium 2 r chling foundation 3 literature 4 external links 5 references history edit the early years edit the origins of the r chling group date back to the early 19th century . in 1822 friedrich ludwig r chling went into business for himself by founding a coal trading business in saarbr cken . r chling passed away childless in 1836 and bequeathed the business to his four nephews the sons of his brother christian . the brothers theodor ernst carl and fritz r chling from which gebr . r chling kg takes its name began with the production of coke and the industrial processing of iron in 1849 . the businesses were largely run by carl r chling 1827 1910 particularly at the turn of the century since he outlived his brothers by decades . he bought the v lklingen ironworks in 1881 which from then on operated under the name v lklinger eisenwerk gebr . r chling ohg . the acquisition of the v lklingen ironworks which was heralded as the world s first industrial monument and elevated to the status of a world heritage site by unesco in 1994 marked the dawning of the steel era for r chling . the first blast furnace was put into operation there in 1883 . pre war years edit in the 1890s hermann r chling 1872 1955 gradually took over the responsibilities of his father carl . under his direction the pre industrial ironworks developed into a modern blast furnace plant which was also able to produce the quality steels that were increasingly in demand . first world war edit at the beginning of the first world war in 1914 the v lklingen ironworks was converted to meed the demands of the war . a factory was erected on the premises which produced bullets of almost every caliber for the artillery . what s more a large part of the material that was required to manufacture the steel helmets for the german army was produced in v lklingen . after the end of the war the french allied powers dispossessed the r chling family of its ownership of the carlsh tte ironworks in diedenhofen as well as the iron ore mines in lothringen and all their subsidiaries in france . hermann r chling and his imprisoned brother robert were court martialed in amiens on the grounds of dismantling french businesses in the occupied territories and were sentenced to long term imprisonment . whereas robert was acquitted on appeal and released from prison after 22 months the sentence against hermann remained formal because he refused to appear before a french court martial for the annulment of the judgment . 1920 to 1945 edit during the 1920s and 1930s hermann r chling pressed ahead with the reconstruction of the family business and acquired new companies including its first plastics company holzveredelung gmbh berlin in 1922 which over the decades evolved into today s r chling engineering plastics se & co. kg and became politically involved in the reincorporation of the saar region into germany which was subjected to a league of nations mandate until 1935 . in 1935 he joined the national socialist german workers party nsdap and became an armament advisory board member of the reich ministry of defense . in 1938 he was appointed wehrwirtschaftsf hrer or leader of a war materials factory to demonstrate he was contributing to the war economy and in 1942 he became a reich delegate for iron and steel in the occupied territories . on the grounds of his industrial exploitation of the occupied territories and his role in increasing the war potential of the third reich and significantly contributing to the implementation of the abduction program for the purpose of forced labor 4 hermann r chling was sentenced by a french military tribunal in a court of appeals in rastatt to ten years imprisonment along with the expropriation of his assets and the deprivation of his civil rights . he was released early from prison in 1951 . hermann r chling died in mannheim in 1955 . in the same year the company acquired rheinmetall berlin ag supplier to the newly founded german federal armed forces . second half of the 20th century edit the v lklingen ironworks remained under french sequestration until 1956 when it was returned to the r chling family . in the same year ernst r chling a nephew of hermann r chling took over the running of the plant in v lklingen . in 1960 the company was divided into two parent companies gebr r chling kg and industrie verwaltung r chling gmbh which was renamed the r chling industrie verwaltung riv gmbh in 1972 . it encapsulated all the listed companies primarily the participation in rheinmetall ag . in the 1960s and 70s the r chling group started to feel the effects of the looming downturn in coal and steel which escalated into a global steel crisis . the company responded by completely changing its corporate strategy it sold the v lklingen ironworks in 1978 and withdrew entirely from the steel industry and the saarland . instead of conforming to the economic and science trends at that time the group focused on diversification and acquired participations and entire companies in the fields of mechanical engineering telecommunications electrical installation franking systems and measurement and control technology . the acquisition of the seeber group and sustaplast kg instigated the further expansion of the plastics processing division in the 1980s . the new millennium edit at the beginning of the new millennium the conglomerate consisted of more than 300 subsidiaries and affiliates and employed approximately 30 000 employees generating sales of around eur 6 billion . however the not only frequent but increasing number of difficulties associated with the high diversification prompted the family to make essential changes to its leadership and strategy . a fundamental reform of the guiding principles of the company was thus decided upon . a key issue here was the decision to concentrate the family strengths exclusively in the supervisory boards in future and thus dispense with their operational functions within the company . in this context klaus greinert the son in law of richard r chling and managing director of the group since 1994 joined the advisory board . he replaced kurt wigand freiherr von salmuth in 2000 who had presided over the boards from 1986 until his 70th birthday . in 2008 dr. bernd michael h nle managing director since 1994 joined the supervisory bodies as the last operationally active descendant of the company founder . moreover the r chling family once again decided upon a fundamental and radical change in strategy under the new non family ceo georg duffner in 2001 where it turned away from the confusing conglomerate and expanded the plastics processing division . this included the sale of all non plastic activities sales of approximately eur 5 billion in particular the sale of a majority stake in rheinmetall ag via the stock exchange in 2004 . 5 in parallel to this reconstruction the company strengthened the internationalization of the plastics group in eastern europe america and asia . new markets were developed especially in medical technology . the restructuring was completed in 2006 . operating purely as a processor of plastics the r chling group is thus building on its now almost 200 year old tradition of materials specialists thanks to almost one hundred years of experience in plastics . the appointment of johannes von salmuth as chairman of the shareholders committee in 2008 and chairman of the advisory board in 2010 saw a sixth generation direct descendant of friedrich r chling once again preside over the supervisory bodies . 6 his deputies dr. bernd michael h nle shareholders committee and dr. carl peter th rmel advisory board are also two r chling family members . 7 the name of the company was changed from gebr . r chling kg to r chling se & co. kg in 2004 . r chling foundation edit the r chling family established the r chling stiftung gmbh in 1990 with the aim of pursuing its social commitment and assuming joint responsibility for the community . the foundation is financed by seed capital from the company shares in r chling companies that have been given and bequeathed by shareholders the proceeds from assets and donations . when the foundation selects the charitable and scientific projects to be sponsored it focuses on projects of a limited duration that have a thematic connection to plastic or are of local relevance to a r chling group location . the focus is on the topics of teaching and learning healing and helping as well as the environment and technology . literature edit gerhard seibold r chling . kontinuit t im wandel . jan thorbecke stuttgart 2001 isbn 3 7995 0101 0 d. richard nutzinger das haus r chling in ludwigshafen a. rh . 1849 1929 . bilder aus der familien orts und wirtschafts geschichte . ludwigshafen a. rh . julius waldkirch & cie. 1929 d. richard nutzinger u.a. 50 jahre r chling v lklingen saarbr cken v lklingen 1931 r chling hermann . in ernst klee das personenlexikon im dritten reich . wer war was vor und nach 1945 s. fischer frankfurt 2003 isbn 3 10 039309 0 s. 502 . hans christian herrmann hermann r chling in der deutschen kriegswirtschaft . in jahrbuch f r westdeutsche landesgeschichte 20 koblenz 1994 issn 0170 2025 s. 405 450 . inge plettenberg ber die beziehungen saarl ndischer schwerindustrieller zum nationalsozialismus . in zehn statt tausend jahre . die zeit des nationalsozialismus an der saar 1935 1945 . katalog zur ausstellung des regionalgeschichtlichen museums im saarbr cker schloss . merziger saarbr cken 1988 isbn 3 923754 06 x s. 61 76 ralf banken r chling hermann . in neue deutsche biographie ndb . band 21 duncker & humblot berlin 2003 isbn 3 428 11202 4 s. 705 f. digitalisat . external links edit portal rheinische geschichte v lklinger h tte carl r chling in den