Rheinmetall

Rheinmetall is a German arms and vehicle manufacturer headquartered in Düsseldorf, North Rhine-Westphalia, and the largest German and fifth largest European arms maker. It was founded in April 1889 in Düsseldorf as the Rheinische Metallwaren- und Maschinenfabrik Aktiengesellschaft to make ammunition, and under its engineer Heinrich Ehrhardt it grew into one of the biggest armaments firms of the German Empire. After the First World War it turned to civilian goods that included locomotives, railway carriages and agricultural machinery. In 1933 it bought the locomotive builder Borsig and in 1936 became Rheinmetall-Borsig; in 1937 it founded the subsidiary Alkett in Berlin to develop and build armoured tracked vehicles. State control grew through the Reichswerke Hermann Göring, and most plants were destroyed by the end of the Second World War. Today the group produces armoured fighting vehicles and armoured personnel carriers in wheeled and tracked versions, as well as munitions and air defence systems.