50 years of Klietsch GmbH

50 years of Ingenieurgemeinschaft Klietsch
A round anniversary in a constantly pulsating industry

1973 to 2023, 50 years - what a period, what a number!

When Karl-August Klietsch founded Ingenieurgemeinschaft Klietsch in Siegen in 1973 as an engineering office for technical calculations, he certainly never dreamed that the one-man office would one day develop into a software development company with 26 employees.

That year was marked by the first oil crisis, the Watergate affair – in other words, things that had already been in the history books for decades – the Audi 80 B1 was car of the year, and the Xerox Alto was the first computer with a graphical user interface that could be operated with a mouse.

Even though cars can tell you at a glance how much time has passed, the Xerox Alto, considered the first personal computer and the size of a small refrigerator, had a more profound impact on the future development of the company than anyone could have imagined at the time.

Home-grown solution becomes a global success

Karl-August Klietsch quickly became known as a reliable partner for the design of steel structures. Early on, he was one of the first in the region to opt for computer-aided calculations and consistently rely on IT solutions. When his son Matthias joined the company, which now operates as a GmbH, the course was finally set in the direction of programming and digital working methods.

A software idea originally developed for the company's own use found favor with other engineers and was expanded version by version into the comprehensive structural analysis software STAHL 2000, which today is used in the steel construction industry with more than 6,000 licenses.

The company had found its successful niche, but it was not content to rest on its laurels. As early as 1983, Klietsch was one of the first companies in the Siegerland region to use CAD software to create drawings. The cost of the first CAD workstation at that time was an unbelievable DM 150,000, and although many thought we were crazy, we were convinced of the digital possibilities and recognized the potential. For Matthias Klietsch, developing our own CAD solutions was a natural progression.

Milestones in CAD and 3D

The fact that there was an IT professional with solutions for steel construction in the southern tip of North Rhine-Westphalia quickly became known, and the development of CAD and 3D technologies marked milestones for the company.

In 1985 the cooperation with CTM started and shortly after Klietsch became an HP partner for the CAD system ME10. An own development team was built up and the move to the new headquarters in Siegen-Geisweid illustrated the dynamic development.

At the turn of the millennium, Klietsch entered the technical field of 3D design. Klietsch became an official contractual partner of PTC (at that time still CoCreate) in the tri-state area of North Rhine-Westphalia, Hesse and Rhineland-Palatinate.

How it all started fifty years ago: Matthias and Sebastian Klietsch with one of the company's first business cards.

Inherited passion - the 3rd generation

Digital development requires constant transformation - and so does corporate development. In 2010, Sebastian Klietsch, the grandson of the company's founder, joined the family business. With a lot of verve and his own ideas, he brought a breath of fresh air to the company, which also worked to attract strong cooperation partners.

Today, Klietsch is a full-service provider of turnkey 3D, CAD, PLM and PDM solutions based on the PTC Creo product family, including proprietary solutions and assistants for Creo Elements/Direct Modeling, SOLIDWORKS, Siemens NX and Autodesk Inventor.

The next step in the transformation is already underway: the development team has long since taken the step into the era of cloud solutions and is working intensively on AI solutions that are already being used in products today. The next fifty years want to be approached in a well-planned manner.

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Press release 50 years Klietsch GmbH
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50 years of Ingenieurgemeinschaft KlietschA round anniversary in a constantly pulsating industry

50 years of Ingenieurgemeinschaft Klietsch
A round anniversary in a constantly pulsating industry