At the start of the ’50s Gerhard Hänel went to West Germany on business. It was here that he met his second wife Liselotte. After the wedding she accompanied her husband to East Germany where their first son Michael was born in 1951.

‘But with all the duplication of work, I always yearned for the free West and my former customers, who were now experiencing a revival.’
Quotation from G. Hänel

Gerhard Hänel saw no commercial future in East Germany and sought a new opening in the West.

This was where their second son Joachim was born in 1953.

By 1952 he had relocated with his wife Liselotte to Stuttgart where Liselotte‘s parents lived and one year later started ‘from scratch’ in Bad Friedrichshall.

Working from what he called a ‘wooden shed’ he built mobile cupboards and hairdressers’ cabinets. Business expanded quickly. Then one day when Gerhard Hänel saw some automated office carousels in an American brochure he thought: ‘I can do that.’ Gerhard

In 1957 he was the first person in Europe to series-produce filing carousels designed according to the Ferris wheel principle. His nephew Karl-Bruno Hänel supported him as Plant Manager from the very beginning, helping to put his ideas and developments into practice. The Hänel filing carousels were distributed through a renowned vendor of hanging folders until the end of the ‘60s.

By 1958, following the purchase of a plot of land, he was able to increase output in a newly built production hall. With demand increasing steadily, production was expanded further in 1968, and another manufacturing plant was set up in Wiesentheid. In the same year he also founded the Hänel Gear Factory, which was initially installed at the company headquarters then moved into its own building three years later.

In 1971 the first Hänel filing carousel was sold under the name of ‘Mikros’ as the Hänel company‘s own product. Thanks to Gerhard Hänel‘s continuous refinement of the Ferris wheel principle, he was soon able to add heavy-duty vertical carousels for industrial use to his product portfolio. The Hänel Rotomat® industrial carousels were born.

1972 saw the laying of the foundation stone for Hänel Plant 3 in Altstätten, Switzerland.

Now Kurt Velmeke was successfully expanding sales and Dieter Carl promoting the export of Hänel Rotomat® carousels. Branches were established in the US, France and the Netherlands.

At the age of 65 he handed over the management of the company to his two sons. The company of Hänel Office and Industrial Storage Systems has remained in the hands of the Hänel family since it was founded.
But in Gerhard Hänel‘s view, this was no reason to take things easy. At 85 years of age he still played a decisive role in the development and production of the Hänel Lean-Lift® with vertical lift technology. Among other things he invented the Hänel profile wall. By doing so he set new standards in intralogistics. This ingenious design is still the basis for the reliability and durability of the Hänel Lean-Lift® and the Hänel Multi-Space® which was launched in 2005.

With his business vision, Gerhard Hänel turned Hänel Office and Industrial Storage Systems into a globally active company with distributors in over 60 countries.

Today Hänel Office and Industrial Storage Systems remains the world‘s oldest existing manufacturer of vertical carousels for the office!

For almost 40 years I had the privilege of accompanying Gerhard Hänel through his professional life – 7 years as a business associate and 33 working for him directly. Initially I came into contact with Mr. Hänel as his customer when I was working as Sales Manager for a renowned vendor of filing equipment. He supplied us with index-card and filing paternosters for resale purposes.

During my many encounters with Mr. Hänel, I came to appreciate his straightforwardness, his technical expertise and his sincere and courteous manner.

Mr. Hänel was not satisfied with simply producing systems to customer specification. He simultaneously developed an innovative range of card-index and filing carousels on his own initiative. These attracted a great deal of attention worldwide because of their revolutionary technology and cutting-edge design.

Following the death of the owner of the company that had been his main customer, there was a gradual cessation of dealings between the two firms. Mr. Hänel wanted to detach himself from such dependencies so that he could later hand over to his sons a flourishing business with its own sales division.

The second phase of my association with Mr. Hänel began on April 1st, 1971, when I came to work for him directly. When his company started its own sales activities, Mr. Hänel had two administrative employees in the in-house sales department and myself as Sales Manager.

His entrepreneurial thinking, combined with an aptitude for incisive and quick decision-making, ensured a healthy, continuous upward trend. We worked together for 33 years – a long period which shaped me professionally and personally.

On the rare occasions that our opinions differed, the debate always took place objectively without once escalating to the personal level. Gerhard Hänel had an exceptional ability to promote the company‘s interests in a goal-oriented way using his outstanding leadership qualities, while at the same time showing his employees their value and constantly motivating them in their shared tasks.

Can there be any better résumé of one‘s life than to say: “Je ne regrette rien“. If I had to choose again today, I would without hesitation opt for the enlightening and personally fulfilling years I worked with Mr. Gerhard Hänel.

Kurt Velmeke

A swim early in the morning and then again in the evening – that‘s how Gerhard Hänel kept fit. He didn‘t need any other leisure activities: “The shop floor is my hobby”. Gerhard Hänel was a very disciplined person. “Moderation in all things” was his principle in life.

Liselotte Hänel was a vital support to her husband throughout his life, both at home and at work. “If I hadn‘t had this woman as my life companion,” said Gerhard Hänel, “I couldn‘t have done it all”.