Reader's Corner

A look back on 200 years at KBA

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It was 1807 when German inventor Friedrich Koenig first set out for London with a dream of creating a steam-driven printing press. There, fate aligned his path with that of precision engineer Andreas Bauer. In 1814, The Times became the first paper to be printed on a double-cylinder press that the two men designed.

The duo returned to Germany and on August 9, 1817, they signed a contract establishing Schnellpressenfabrik Koenig & Bauer in a secularized monastery in Oberzell, near Wurzburg. In 1823, the Haude und Spenersche Zeitung in Berlin became the first European newspaper printed on presses from Oberzell.

When Koenig died in 1833, his widow, Fanny Koenig, and Bauer, continued his work, developing new presses at a feverish pace. By 1838, KBA had delivered its hundredth press.

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