Liebherr - from tower crane to hydraulic excavator
Image: Liebherr R934 Litronic crawler excavator. Photo by MarkusHagenlocher, licence CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.
Liebherr is today one of the world's largest manufacturers of construction machinery. But the company did not start with excavators. It started with a crane, one man, and a problem to solve.
Hans Liebherr and the crane that changed everything
In 1938, Hans Liebherr took over the family construction business in Kirchdorf an der Iller in southern Germany. After World War II, he faced a practical challenge: the cranes used on small construction sites were heavy, difficult to transport and time-consuming to assemble.
In 1949 he developed a solution - a mobile tower crane, the TK 10, that could be assembled in a few hours without specialised equipment. It was presented that same year at the Frankfurt Trade Fair and immediately attracted demand. Out of the small construction company, a machine manufacturer was born.
Europe's first hydraulic excavator
Four years later, Liebherr entered the excavator market - and did so in a way that would change the entire industry.
In 1953, Hans Liebherr rented a conventional cable excavator for a construction project. He identified a clear problem: the machine was heavy relative to the amount of soil it could actually move. Cable excavators relied on bucket weight alone as the digging force - a system with limited efficiency.
Liebherr saw a better solution in hydraulics. The result, in 1954, was the L300 - Europe's first hydraulic excavator. The machine weighed 7.5 tonnes and, using hydraulic cylinders, could dig with considerably more force than conventional alternatives of the same size. This was not just a new product - it was a new way of thinking about how an excavator should work.
Expansion through the 1950s and 1960s
Growth was rapid. In 1954 a second crane factory opened in Biberach an der Riß, and that same year Liebherr started refrigerator production in Ochsenhausen - a business division that remains part of the group today.
By 1958 the company had passed 2,000 employees and established its first overseas subsidiary in Ireland. In 1960 a factory opened in Bischofshofen, Austria, for the production of wheel loaders. By the mid-1960s, Liebherr accounted for around 60 percent of all crane production in Germany.
One family, one company
What makes Liebherr unusual among the world's large machinery manufacturers is its ownership structure. The group has never been listed on a stock exchange. Since its founding in 1949, it has remained entirely owned by the Liebherr family.
Hans Liebherr died in 1993. Since then, the second generation - siblings Isolde and Willi Liebherr - have led the company. In March 2023, the third generation took on a more formal role when Jan Liebherr became chairman of the board.
Today Liebherr has over 150 companies in more than 50 countries, more than 54,000 employees and revenue of €14.6 billion (2024). The group's headquarters are in Bulle, Switzerland, where the registered office was moved in 1982.
Liebherr in construction machinery today
Liebherr today manufactures a wide range of construction machinery - crawler excavators, wheeled excavators, wheel loaders, telescopic handlers and dump trucks. Excavators are produced at factories in Kirchdorf an der Iller and in Colmar, France, where production started in 1961.
Machines are commonly identified by the designation system R for crawler excavators (Raupenbagger) and A for wheeled excavators (Mobilbagger), followed by a number indicating the machine size class. Litronic is Liebherr's designation for its electronically controlled systems, a technology introduced during the 1980s.
Spare parts for Liebherr
Liebherr machines are not common in the Swedish construction fleet and we currently have no Liebherr parts in stock. Do you have a Liebherr excavator that is being phased out or is no longer worth repairing? We buy machines in any condition - get in touch and we will come back with an assessment.
Or call us on 033-400 59 00.