"The company's successful history is an obligation to further improve our market position. The potential is there
available," said CEO Roland Hartwig on January 27, 2021 at the company's headquarters in Hanzing in Freinberg near Schärding. At the end of 1871, Josef Schwarzmüller announced in Passau that he had founded a forge in Passau's Innstadt district, significantly at Schmiedgasse 12.
This advertisement from December of the same year is regarded as the founding document of the company, which today is one of the leading European manufacturers of trailers and truck bodies.

It only became known through the historical research of Dr. Herbert Wurster, the former head of the archives of the diocese of Passau. He reconstructed the history from the documents for the anniversary and corrected the founding year from 1870 to 1871. "The chronicle of our company is the first major project in the anniversary year. A company with tradition needs to know where it comes from in order to decide where it is going," emphasized CEO Hartwig. In any case, five generations of the Schwarzmüller owner family have developed a leading company with their consistent development work.

Vehicle construction was an early focus
The blacksmith's shop was quickly joined by a wainwright's shop in the 19th century. This gave rise to the then fledgling vehicle construction business, which Schwarzmüller registered in the 1930s. During the turmoil of the global economic crisis, the growing company moved to the nearby but Austrian town of Freinberg and in 1936 built the plant in the Hanzing district that is still the company headquarters today. The plan
The plan was different: the Greater German Reich had planned a highway in the area, and the company wanted to make use of this modern infrastructure. The highway never came, but the plant still exists today. 750 employees work here, more than half of them in production. This makes Schwarzmüller one of the largest employers in the Innviertel region.

Targeted expansion to the east
During the period of the economic miracle, the company began to establish a network of branches in Austria and achieved market leadership in the domestic market in the 1990s. At around the same time, the decision was made to expand into the countries behind the Iron Curtain. Plants were established in Hungary and the Czech Republic, and since 2020 there has been a fourth plant in Germany. Schwarzmüller is currently the market leader in Austria, Switzerland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. More than 2,000 people
work to ensure that 150 different vehicle types are successfully sold in 21 countries. Around 10,000 units are sold each year.

"In our anniversary year, we feel that we are ideally positioned to make an even stronger presence in Europe," says Hartwig confidently. Schwarzmüller can rely on its expertise in design and metal processing as well as its dynamic organization. A completely new flow production facility has helped to ensure that the company will celebrate further successes in its anniversary year with the best vehicle portfolio in its history, says Hartwig confidently.