Maschinenfabrik Emil Kessler

Place: Baden-Baden

Born: 1813

Death: 1867

Biography:

Emil Julius Carl Kessler was a German businessman and founder of the Maschinenfabrik Esslingen ('Esslingen Engineering Works'). He was born on August 20, 1813, in Baden-Baden. Kessler attended school there and later studied constructional and mechanical engineering in Karlsruhe. In 1837 he founded an engineering works with Theodor Martiensen in Karlsruhe, where tools, small machines, and railway equipment were manufactured. He built his first steam locomotive, the Badenia for the Grand Duchy of Baden State Railway (Großherzoglich Badische Staatsbahn), in 1841. Kessler was the sole owner of the new firm Kesslers Maschinenfabrik ('Kessler's Engineering Works') from 1842 and it was converted into a public limited company in 1848, but liquidated on October 30, 1851, and acquired by the Baden government in 1852. He died on March 16, 1867, in Esslingen am Neckar from a heart attack.