Elegant, corrosion-resistant and stable: these were the three characteristics with which the company Dr. Dörnemann & Co, once based in Gitter, advertised the products it had been manufacturing since 1957 under the Elkosta trademark. Posts, gates, fences, barriers and profiles were part of the product range of the medium-sized company, whose founder is still remembered today on Dr.-Dörnemann-Straße between Salzgitter-Bad and Gitter.

The clientele included private individuals and public institutions in Germany and abroad. The entrance to the Federal Chancellery in Bonn was once secured with technology from Gitter. Founded in 1951, the family business was first sold to Euromicron AG Frankfurt in 1994 and then ten years later to the Swedish Gunnebo Group. In the fall of 2004, the group announced that production was to be relocated to Salzkotten. The workforce in Salzgitter fought back with petitions and protests, and politicians intervened to mediate, but ultimately could not prevent over 100 Elkosta employees from being made redundant.

Even though the security technology specialists in Salzgitter are already history: Even today, security systems such as barriers and bollards are still sold worldwide under the Elkosta brand name.

Thanks to a former employee of elkosta security systems GmbH, the Salzgitter city archive was able to take over the leather-bound tome, which is more than ten centimetres thick and weighs almost as many kilos: It contains brochures, price lists, service specifications and advertisements from the early days of the company up to the 1980s.

The Salzgitter city archive has gladly added this gem to its collection of archival documents on local economic history.

If you would like to know more, please contact Claudia Böhler at the city archive (phone: 05341/839-2124 or archivstadt.salzgitterde.