This year, ESG looks back on a 40 year partnership with the German Armed Forces and industry. Since its foundation it has planned, developed and integrated hardware-neutral electronic, software and logistics systems based on advanced technologies. With a total turnover of 143 million euros (2002) and over 1000 employees, ESG is now one of the leading system and software houses in Germany. Since its entry into the civil sector around 15 years ago, ESG has since generated a third of its complete turnover in this field.
Numerous figures from the world of politics, the German Armed Forces and related associations have already offered ESG their congratulations on its anniversary. The Minister for Economic Affairs for Bavaria wrote how ESG represents a significant economic factor: “It is particularly pleasing to witness how ESG can recordgrowing profits and operating levels despite decreasing expenditure on defence and the IT crisis”. For the Permanent State Secretary in the German Ministry of Defence, Dr. Peter Eickenboom, it is a sign of dependability and mutual trust whenever a partnership lasts 40 years: “This service partnership is so successful because both partners treat each other equally and thus profit from each other.”
In mid-September, ESG will celebrate the 40 year partnership with the German Armed Forces and industry with a small ceremony in Bonn. The company had already invited current and former employees to a summer party in Fürstenfeld in July. ESG’s chief executive officer, Gerhard Schempp, formally thanked the employees: “They were and are all a driving force behind our positive development, which we shall continue.”
The foundations for the anniversary were laid on 11 November 1963 with the founding of FEG Flug-Elektronik-Gesellschaft mbH. One of this new company’s first tasks was to establish and resolve the reasons behind the regular crashes of the military aircraft F-104 G (“Starfighter”). At this time, 370 of the US aircraft manufactured under licence for the German air force had crashed.
Four years after FEG, on 14 December 1967, the ESG Elektronik-System-Gesellschaft mbH was also founded through an initiative launched by the German Ministry of Defence. At that time, it was based on the combined know-how collected from several companies for the development of complex electronic systems. The founding shareholders of ESG were AEG-Telefunken, Rohde & Schwarz, Standard Elektrik Lorenz (SEL) and Siemens. The first major project of this Munich-based company was the development of an avionic system for the “Starfighter’s” successor, the “Tornado”.
Soon demand arose to combine FEG’s experience in logistics, which they had gained from existing fighter planes, with ESG’s experience in the field of the development of electronic systems. Subsequently, FEG and ESG were organisationally amalgamated and in 1992 they merged together to become what is known today as ESG Elektroniksystem-und Logistik-GmbH.