The foundry workers Max and Felix Lindner as well as Paul Boettcher founded the “Armaturenfabrik Lindner & Boettcher, Rabenstein” on December 29th, 1905. After the resignation of Boettcher in 1906 both Lindner brothers continued the business under the name “Lindner & Co. Rabenstein”. Already after a few years the initial production capacities became insufficient, so that a new factory was built in 1914 at the current premises at “Kurze Strasse 10”. In 1925 the erection of a foundry with three melting furnaces folllowed. The number of employees had raised to 180 at that time. Many wholesalers from all over Germany belonged to Lindner’s customers. “Fine taps” for kitchen, bath, cellar and garden as well as gas and industrial valves have been produced until the outbreak of the Second World War. Based on drawbacks of the war the product range changed to simple mass products.

Between 1950 and 1972 the previously family run business had nearly completely been expropriated by the GDR. The governmental shareholding was approximately 80 %. In 1972 the former tap manufactory “Lindner & Co. Rabenstein” had become the nationally-owned entreprise “Armaturenwerk Karl- Marx-Stadt” with 50 employees. Already in 1955 an iron foundry had been established compulsorily since the use of brass had been impeded by governmental limitations. Thus, 500 tons of iron casting and 100 tons of brass casting have been casted and processed annually. However, due to lacking investments mainly with a state of technology from 1930. The transmission drive that had been installed in 1914 when building the factory has been used until 1965. After the expropriation the nationally dictated range of products has been minimised, so that nothing remained from the previous variety of “finest sanitary taps”.

In order to assure governmental orders and thus the existence of the factory, the “Armaturenwerk Karl-Marx-Stadt” had been affiliated to the state combine “Armaturenwerk Eisenberg” in 1975 and was called from then on “nationally-owed entreprise Armaturenwerk Eisenberg Business unit Karl-Marx-Stadt”. Until 1989 / 1990 the formerly well-run private entreprise has been ruined to an economically unviable sub-supplier of inferior products. At June 30th, 1991 all employees were dismissed by the nationally-owned company.

The reprivatisation, which had already been applied for shortly after the disappearance of the inner German border, lasted until January 1993. Nevertheless, Mr Stefan Lindner, grandson of the co-founder Felix Lindner, already started clean-up works in July / August 1991 with the help of former colleagues of the nationally- owned company and owing to the vital support of the company HANSA Armaturen Stuttgart. Besides the outer building shell, the company needed a total gutting and complete refurbishment. The new Lindner Armaturen GmbH, that had been founded on June 28th, 1991, was modernised in only 3 months with an unimagineable commitment of all helpers. This way the company could re-start business on August 12th, 1991 with 10 employees. Initially, all business units from the production to sales to the accounting department had to be re-organised according to modern Western standards. The first large investment was the commissioning of a CNC lathe “Index GB 30”, that improved the production performance and quality of the goods essentially and was soon operated to its full capacity. Further high-performance CNC machining centres followed.

The first products were miscellaneous turned parts as accessories to valves and fittings, since the demand for installation material was quite high within the “New Laender”after Germany’s reunification. Own patented developments as professional distributors, anti-twist wall bushings and cross-fittings for radiator connections followed and made Lindner known and favoured in the market. Since 1994 the brass product line is being completed by the order-bound manufacture of reinforced flexible hoses for heating and sanitary, which shortly became a vital business field of Lindner Armaturen GmbH.

Numerous major customers from the most divers business sectors from the classical tap manufacturing to apparatus engineering, from building services to medical and even aerospace engineering trust today in high-quality Lindner flexibles made out of many innovative materials. Besides oxygen impermeable hoses of the brands OXYblock, O2Stop and OXYban for the connection of chilled ceilings, the product range also comprises the ultra-clean polyethylene hoses “Lc-flex”, which meet the latest hygiene requirements of the German Drinking Water Ordinance. A large choice of connection fittings according to international standards, special fittings as the cuprofit and John-Guest-push systems as well as individual fitting solutions fulfill nearly every customer request, no matter if in single, medium-sized or large production series.

Lindner flexibles do not only hide within many building projects as the city gate of Düsseldorf or the Deutsche Bank Towers in Frankfurt, but can also be found within Swiss coffee machines and airplanes by Airbus. In order to optimise the production process of the hoses, a new hall has been built in 2008 with modern production lines, testing and laboratory facilities as well as a storage for the single components of the assortment that comprises nearly 5.000 variants. This way up to 10.000 hoses can be produced daily. The excellent quality of Lindner products is confirmed since 2000 by the certified quality management system according to DIN EN ISO 9001:2008 of the DVGW - German Technical and Scientific Association for Gas and Water. Also internationally Lindner established as a considerable market player. The direct export share within the entire European Union currently amounts to 30 % and is continuously growing.

Besides own products, that are marketed over the traditional German three-stage distribution channel, Lindner manufactures products for industrial customers in small and large series. Rotationally symmetrical parts and bodies are produced with the highest precision. Since 2010 the production of free-form-parts is possible with the latest generation of the CNC-turning-milling-centre “Index R 200”.

The scope of services ranges from the development of customised product solutions, through the manufacture to order from drawings to the pre-production of complexe product units. Turning, milling, bending, flowdrill, soldering, pressing and comprehensive assembly works are offered as well. The in-house tool shop quickly provides samples, individual parts, special tools, assembly and testing facilities as well as special machinery. Various brass alloys, of course also lead-free, are primarily processed as well as non-ferrous other metals, band steel and plastics.

Nevertheless, the roots of Lindner Armaturen GmbH do not fall into oblivion - the manufacture of high- quality, innovative sanitary taps is of special interest to the today’s Managing Director and Co-Partner, Mr Falk Höhne.

The development of customised tap solutions for sanitary, for gastronomy and for laboratory needs, forms a growing business field of Lindner Armaturen GmbH since 2009. Next to conventional single-lever or infrared taps with unusual designs, as for example for kindergartens and schools, Lindner develops innovative user-oriented tap concepts as the new LINDNER MODULA concept that is available from 2012. After Lindner had already developed new manifold systems for the heating market with flowdrilled ports by the end of the 1990’s, the market launch of an own innovative floor refurbishment system with additional floor heating followed in 2004 and conquered the undeveloped market niche of underfloor heating systems for retrofit. The system that was introduced under the brand name “max4therm” is based on steel sheets and offers a highly load-bearing, massive, heated floor with an extremely thin build-up and a very light weight.

Since 2007 the entire assortment from the insulation through the panels for the underfloor heating to the screed are independently sold under the brand “effidur”. Of course planning works and on-site-support belong to the service. The retrofit solution that is now known under name “effidur comb panel system” could establish throughout the entire European market and offers today remarkable references as e.g. the Royal Palace of Dresden. The increased demand requested further investments into the production line of the comb panels. With a fully-automatic facility 400 tons of rolled coil steel are processed annually. Further floor systems of the second product generation are currently introduced on the market.