ROPEventures

140 Years of Material Handling Technology from Leipzig for the World – From Adolf Bleichert to VEB VTA

Who hasn’t looked up at a gently gliding cable car in the mountains, admired the panorama from the cabin, or been pulled up the snowy slope on skis by a surface lift?

The invention comes from Leipzig. 140 years ago, Adolf Bleichert, together with Theodor Otto, founded a company that grew at its later Leipzig-Gohlis location into the world’s largest and oldest aerial cableway factory.

Adolf Bleichert – Engineer and Entrepreneur
The anniversary exhibition honored Adolf Bleichert (*1845 Dessau, †1901 Davos/Switzerland), the inventor of the German aerial cableway. As a young engineer, he constructed the first wire ropeway in 1872 for the Solar Oil and Paraffin Factory in Teutschenthal near Halle/Saale. In 1875, he developed the eccentric coupling, providing a solution for coupling and uncoupling transport carriers from the haul rope. Cargo ropeways became, alongside railways, a key means of transporting bulk goods in mining and heavy industry. By 1899, Adolf Bleichert & Co. had built 1,000 ropeways on all continents.

Record-Breaking Ropeways
Branch plants soon emerged in Neuss on the Rhine, Lichtenegg (Austria), and Kharkov (Russia). The product range now included electric suspension railways, cranes, bucket elevators, and conveyor belts. Record-breaking projects included the Thio/ New Caledonia sea cableway (1.3 km), the Usambara Railway in East Africa (9.125 km), and the copper ore railway in the Argentine Cordillera (34 km). In 1911/12, Bleichert built one of the first passenger cableways, the Kohlererzbahn in Bolzano/South Tyrol, and during World War I, cableways for transport behind the front lines.

Using a patent from Swiss cableway pioneer Josef Zuegg, the company became successful between the world wars with passenger cableways, especially in the Alps and at the Fichtelberg in the Ore Mountains. The Predigtstuhlbahn near Bad Reichenhall has been running with original Bleichert technology since 1928.

From 1922, the electric cart “Eidechse” with footboard steering was also introduced for in-house transport. After a turbulent history, the company continued after World War II as the VEB Verlade- und Transportanlagen (VTA), producing conveyor systems for lignite mining, crane systems for port handling, and forklifts. Its tradition continues today under TAKRAF.

5,000 Ropeways and Systems
Over 140 years, around 5,000 ropeways and other systems were built in Leipzig. The exhibition presented selected large-scale items from the product range — a cable car cabin, chairlift, ski lift from Davos, forklift — along with three-dimensional models, company documents, and, of course, pieces of wire rope.

Special exhibition in cooperation with the Saxon Business Archive e.V. Leipzig, the Gohlis Citizens’ Association e.V. Leipzig, the Heinrich-Budde-Haus Support Association e.V. Leipzig, Dresden Transport Company AG, Bergbahnen Group, and the Chemnitz Museum of Industry