Orenstein & Koppel

Orenstein & Koppel
Orenstein und Koppel
Company typePublic
IndustryManufacturing
Founded1 April 1876 (1876-04-01)
FounderBenno Orenstein
Arthur Koppel
Defunct1 January 1999 (1999-01-01)
FateAcquired
Area served
Worldwide
ProductsRailway vehicles
Heavy equipment
Escalators
ParentNew Holland Construction

Orenstein & Koppel (normally abbreviated to "O&K") was a major German engineering company specialising in railway vehicles, escalators, and heavy equipment. It was founded on April 1, 1876, in Berlin by Benno Orenstein and Arthur Koppel.

Originally a general engineering company, O&K soon started to specialise in the manufacture of railway vehicles. The company also manufactured heavy equipment and escalators. O&K pulled out of the railway business in 1981. Its escalator-manufacturing division was spun off to the company's majority shareholder at the time, Friedrich Krupp AG Hoesch-Krupp, in 1996, leaving the company to focus primarily on construction machines. The construction-equipment business was sold to New Holland Construction, at the time part of the Fiat Group, in 1999.