1882 – Industrial engineering comes to Oberursel

The story of the Motorenfabrik Obersursel is attributed to Wilhelm Seck, who together with his wife, Adelgunde, purchased in March 1882 the site of the former Wiemers mill with the Urselbach stream providing the hydro power and erected here a subsi-diary of his Bockenheim Windmill manu-facturing company, Seck Brothers and Co. Seck manufactured above all mechanical grain mills to replace the centuries-old me-thod of grinding grain. This production required skilled labour which was different to the textile mills in Oberursel, which relied predominantly on semi-skilled labour.

Wilheml Seck took skilled workers with him from Bockenheim, but resorted also to using local craftsmen from Oberursel. He hired the first trainee mechanics two months after acquiring the site. His was the first engineering factory in Oberursel with an industrialised production and organisation form and furthermore established the training of a skilled workforce in the town.

This advancement of the industry coupled with the improved traffic and information links lead also to the establishment of a technical and commercial management, important for the sustainment of factories, which had settled in the emerging town of Oberursel thus improving the town’s desirability.

When Wilhelm Seck moved his factory in 1886 to Darmstadt the factory in Oberursel fell into a deep sleep until Willy Seck, the Secks’ oldest son woke it up again in 1890.