1703
Johann Gottfried Röchling, progenitor of the Saarbrücken line of the Röchling family, which had many branches, was born in Dortmund-Wickede.
1730
Johann Gottfried Röchling moved to Saarbrücken and founded a business there.
1763
Count palatine Christian IV appointed Johann Gottfried Röchling director of two ironworks.
1774
A grandson of Johann Gottfried Röchling's, Friedrich Ludwig, became director of the Abentheuer Ironworks near Birkenfeld. Its owners were the Stumm brothers, later competitors of the Röchling family.
1822
Friedrich Ludwig Röchling set up a coal business in Saarbrücken. This enterprise was the starting-point of all subsequent Röchling enterprises.
1827
Carl Röchling was born.
1849
In Ludwigshafen, a branch of the Röchling family enterprise was founded. An important pillar of the international coal business.
1850
As well as the coal business, the Röchlings founded branches dealing in iron, and a banking business.
1862
Together with partners, the Röchlings purchased an ironworks in Pont à Mousson and shares in certain iron ore fields in Lorraine.
1872
Hermann Röchling, the seventh son of Carl Röchling, was born.
1881
Carl Röchling acquired a disused ironworks at Völklingen.
1896
The Völklingen ironworks became a 'GmbH' (limited company) and was given the name 'Röchling's Iron and Steelworks GmbH'.
1907
Carl Röchling was appointed a 'Geheimer Kommerzienrat' by the Prussian State. Hermann Röchling assumed the directorship of the Völklingen Ironworks.
1910
Carl Röchling died in Saarbrücken.
1918
Herrmann Röchling was appointed a Royal Prussian 'Kommerzienrat'
1919
A French court sentenced Robert and Hermann Röchling in absentia to 10 years' imprisonment in the dungeons. The list of charges made against them included the destruction of French factories.
1942
Hermann Röchling was among those in command of the German war economy. The positions he occupied included
• member of the Council of Arms
• chairman of the Imperial Iron and Steel Association
• director of the Iron and Steel Producing Industry Trust
• Imperial Representative for iron and steel in the occupied areas
1945
After the end of the Second World War, Röchling's Iron and Steelworks was placed under French sequestrator's receivership.
1948
Opening of the trial of Hermann Röchling, family members Ernst Röchling and Hans-Lothar von Gemmingen and directors Albert Maier and Wilhelm Rodenhauser in Rastatt. They were accused of war crimes.
1949
Pronouncement of judgement by the Court of Appeal (1st judgement, dated July 2nd 1948): Hermann Röchling, Ernst Röchling and von Gemmingen were given prison sentences. In addition, they were deprived of their civil rights and their entire private fortune was confiscated. Maier was acquitted, but Rodenhauser also received a prison sentence.
1951
Ernst and Hermann Röchling were pardoned.
1953
Hermann Röchling was awarded the Siemens Ring, the highest German award for services to science and technology.
1955
Hermann Röchling died in Mannheim. Since the end of the war, he had not been allowed to return to his homeland.
1956
The sequestrator's receivership came to an end. The Völklingen Ironworks was returned to the Röchling family.
1967
Dr. Hermann Röchling, a grandson of Kommerzienrat Hermann Röchling, stepped down as director of the company for reasons of health. For the first time, the directorship of the company was no longer in the hands of a family member.
1978
97 years after the brothers took over the Völklingen Ironworks in 1881, the family parted company with the works. The family's shares were sold for DM160m to ARBED (Aciéries Réunies de Burbach-Eich-Dudelange).
2004
Following the sale of their shares in Rheinmetall AG, the Röchling family completely withdrew from the steel business. Today the world wide operating Röchling group proves its expertise in plastics with 54,000 employees spread over 54 locations in 20 countries. Active in two operational divisions, high performance plastics and automobile plastics they concentrate on the processing of high quality plastic into semi-finished products, parts and systems for numerous industrial purposes. Röchling stands for innovative products and the most modern technological procedures in the processing of plastics technology.
