1966 war die Firma Kuhlmann mit Sitz in Bad Lauterberg auf halber Strecke zwischen Hannover und Leipzig bereits 50 Jahre im Geschäft und stellte eine Reihe von Schleifmaschinen und Pantographengravuren her. Ihre Jubiläumsbroschüre war vielleicht nicht die umfassendste oder spektakulärste, gab aber einen interessanten Überblick über die früheren Jahre und die nachfolgenden Fortschritte des Unternehmens.
Die Geschichte wird in deutscher Sprache in der unten wiedergegebenen Broschüre zum 50-jährigen Jubiläum fortgesetzt.
By 1966 the Kuhlmann Company, based in Bad Lauterberg halfway between Hanover and Leipzig, had been in business for 50 years and was making a range of grinding machines and pantograph engravers. Their Anniversary brochure might not have been one of the more comprehensive, or spectacular, but did give an interesting overview of the Company's earlier years and subsequent progress.
A maker, over many decades of an unusually wide variety of machines, the story of the Kuhlmann enterprise began in 1873 when a clockmaker, Bernhard Friedrich Kuhlmann from the Münsterland region, took over a clock-selling shop with an attached workshop in the German naval port of Wilhelmshaven. Before long, in place of clocks, he was making high-class instrumentation, including items to assist with navigation, locating and targeting. Although in 1899 Bernhard's eldest son, Franz, had taken over the workshop, on the 1st of July, 1903 he founded his own company in the town with five employees and two apprentices. By 1906 the new Company was officially registered with work continued on various naval contracts. During WW1, demand for the small company's products required an expansion of manufacturing capacity and so,  as no suitable facilities were available in Wilhelmshaven it was in Bad Lauterberg, in the Harz Mountains, that in the late autumn of 1916 that Franz Kuhlmann was able to purchase the former Hillegeist'sche chair factory. This factory, which was created by expanding the old Schuchardt'sen sawmill, also had a water wheel - a great advantage for, at the time, there was a shortage of coal to run steam engines. The output of the water wheel was improved by replacing its lower shaft with a small turbine. Since the well-trained staff from Wilhelmshaven-Rusringen was available, the manufacture of precision gun aiming devices - so important to the war effort - began as early as January 1917. At the end of the war in 1918, in view of the location of the Lauterberg plant in the densely wooded Harz Mountains, Franz Kuhlmann decided to switch to making something different and future-proof items - sawmill machinery. The main plant in Wilhelmshaven now switched to the development and manufacture of precision drawing systems such as engineering drawing boards and their associated equipment - a market that was growing strongly at that time. The first mass-produced woodworking machines manufactured were intended for sawmills and the manufacture boxes - though the first items made were "vertical gates" for the cutting of tree trunks.
During the following decades, a wide variety of machinery was produced, including, in 1918, wood-working machinery such as vertical saw frames and pendulum saws for use in the densely wooded Harz region.
1920 Development and construction/production of drawing boards and other parallelogram-type  drafting machines and accessories in Wilhelmshaven
1928 Construction of a new plant in Bad Lauterberg for the production of joinery machines
1934 Development and production of pantograph engraving machines and 3D copying machines
1948 Construction and production of universal tool grinding machines
1950 Production of automatic wood-working machines for the furniture industry and for the manufacture of doors and windows
1960 Development of photo-electronic drawing readers as a first step towards automation of engraving machinery
1970 Start of the development of the CNC controls for engraving machines
1980 Delivery of the first engraving machine, the KR 130/230, with Andron NC control
1982 Engraving machines in portal design with factory developed control and software
1983 Development and manufacture of a special milling machine, the P25E, for the production of electrodes
1989 Development of the Polaris Series and of the HSC "Saturn" milling machine
1992 Foundation of Kuhlmann Werkzeugmaschinen + Service GmbH
1997 Development of direct clamping systems for the SU2 tool cones
1998 A tool measuring system for precision cutter grinders
1999 Kuhlmann achieves certification according to ISO 9001:2000
2001 Launch of the "Saphir" and "Rubin" HSC milling machines
2003 Development of the Topas model range for the processing of flexible dies
2006 Introduction of the new Topas L flexible die milling machines with linear drive and the Rubin version with roller option and an integrated vacuum system
2008 Presentation of the new SU2 with camera and measuring software
2010 Introduction of a revised design of Rubin
2012 Launch of the OPAL series as follow-up for the P20P
2013 Launch of the TOPAS S5 5-axis milling machine
2016 the 100th Anniversary of Kuhlmann in Lauterberg
Today, 2022, Kuhlmann continues the tradition of high-quality manufacture