Success through innovation:
The entrepreneur and inventor
Ernst Curt Loesche

[1919–1939]

Despite the fact that the German cement industry found itself in a deep and sustained crisis after the First World War, Curt von Grueber Technisches Bureau managed to stay afloat by opening up a new market: in 1924, the company began supplying new coal-fired power stations with mills. In 1927, Ernst Curt Loesche developed the Loesche mill for the Klingenberg power station in Berlin-Rummelsburg. This mill proved to be a milestone in the history of roller grinding mill technology. The success of the Loesche mill helped the company to rapid growth. However, these positive developments were checked by the world economic crisis of the early 1930s. As the world economy recovered, so too did the company’s fortunes. Orders for its mills increased. Under National Socialist rule, it sold mills to customers all over the world. In 1937, Ernst Curt Loesche bought Curt von Grueber’s share in the company and became sole owner.