Amazonen-Werke

History of the name

In 1891, Heinrich Dreyer wanted to give a name to his most successful machine, a grain cleaner. A local teacher from Gaste suggested the name of "Amazone" referring to the female warriors from Greek mythology. Dreyer accepted the suggestion and had the name registered as a trademark.

In 1912, the company Maschinenfabrik H. Dreyer was renamed Amazonenwerk. The main reason for this change was due to confusion with his brother Wilhelm, who went by the name Heinrich Wilhelm Dreyer and was a competitor.

History of the company

As early as the 18th century, the Dreyer family, who were active in agriculture, carpentry, and wheelwrighting, became involved in the construction of agricultural machinery and equipment and produced several winnowers each year for cleaning grain: for example, in 1778, Heinrich Dreyer’s great-grandfather, Johann Caspar Dreyer, delivered a winnower to the city of Osnabrück. Heinrich Dreyer founded Amazone in 1883. The first production machines were the grain cleaners, later tine cultivators, potato sorters and in 1915 the first fertiliser spreader was brought to the market. From those early days, Heinrich Dreyer began to export his machinery; in 1906 the first grain cleaners were sold in Valparaíso, Chile. He substantiated this with his slogan: "We must go out into the world".

With the outbreak of World War I, business collapsed abruptly. All young men were immediately drafted into military service, reducing the workforce to around 40 employees after the company had already been temporarily shut down entirely. In the years after 1934, the Amazone auger spreaders and potato sorting machines experienced a significant boom, leading to the expansion of the workforce in Gaste to more than 500 employees by 1939. This upswing was also the result of substantial government support for agriculture following the National Socialists’ rise to power in Germany. In 1934, the founder’s sons, Erich and Heinrich, took over the business. Heinrich Dreyer Sr. died on June 11, 1939, just a few months before the outbreak of World War II. Heinrich Dreyer Jr. was a member of the SA from 1934 to 1938 and subsequently joined the NSDAP.

During World War II, Panzer Regiment 6 "Neuruppin" and three other companies were temporarily quartered at the Amazone factory. Male employees fit for military service—including Erich Dreyer, the company’s commercial director—were drafted into the armed forces, due to which the workforce over time significantly reduced. The missing workers were replaced by assigned prisoners of war. On April 18, 1945, Erich Dreyer was killed in what was then Czechoslovakia.

On November 28, 1957, Heinrich Dreyer died suddenly and unexpectedly at the age of 57. On January 2, 1958, Heinz Dreyer and Klaus Dreyer took over the management of Amazone as the third generation of the family.

In 1942, the first potato harvesters were introduced to the market, in 1949, the seed drill and then in 1959, a manure spreader. In the 1960s, Amazone achieved market leadership through the success of its twin-disc ZA fertiliser spreaders and the D4 seed drill. In 1967, the company entered the tillage market and developed a PTO-driven reciprocrating harrow that could be used in conjunction with a seed drill. Additionally, a rotary harrow and rotary cultivator were introduced. After German reunification, a range of passive soil tillage machinery was added to the product range following the acquisition of BBG Bodenbearbeitungsgeräte in Leipzig in 1998. In 1987, Amazone introduced its first precision seeder.

In 1999, Christian Dreyer took over management from his father, Klaus Dreyer. At the end of 2005, Justus Dreyer, the son of Heinz Dreyer, also joined the management team, completing the involvement of the 4th generation of both Dreyer families..