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Giesecke & Devrient (G&D) is a German company headquartered in Munich, but originally founded in Leipzig on June 1, 1852 by Hermann Giesecke (1831–1900) and Alphonse Devrient (1821–1878). Initially specialising in the printing of securities and Banknotes, the business diversified into the supply of security paper and machines for banknote processing, then subsequently into other security technologies, specifically the areas of Identity Documents, smart card production, electronic payments, Internet security, and specialist security solutions for mobile technology.

Today, G&D is family-owned company, remaining privately owned since 1852, and has become a global market leader for innovative security solutions to the Banking, Mobile Telecom, Transit and Enterprise industries. It consists of 58 subsidiaries, joint ventures, and associated companies in 32 countries worldwide, and had around 10,500 employees as of the end of 2011, generating 1.635 billion euros in sales in fiscal 2011 – of which 87 percent was earned outside the domestic market.

History

Founded in 1852 by Hermann Giesecke and Alphonse Devrient under the name of "Officin für Geld- und Werthpapiere" (Printing Shop for Banknotes and Securities), the firm initially specialized in high-quality printing, notably currency and securities printing.

The partners were not unknowns in the printing industry; Devrient, in particular, was a member of the prominent Teubner printing family of Leipzig. From the start, Giesecke and Devrient's company, endeavored to set new technological standards for the banknote and securities printing industry. In this way, the partnership soon emerged as a prominent figure in the German securities printing market, noted particularly for the work with the guilloche style of engraving. By 1856, Giesecke & Devrient, as the company came to be known, had won their first contract for the printing of banknotes, for a ten-thaler note from the Duchy of Altenburg.

From 1854 to the creation of the German empire in 1871, G&D printed state-issued paper money for eight German principalities, and banknotes for 19 private central banks. During this time the firm also printed some of the important biblical editions of the noted German biblical scholar Constantin von Tischendorf, among them, the Codex Sinaiticus. The partnership's reputation for quality work was confirmed at the 1867 international exhibition in Paris. Archive Nationale: Exposition universelle de 1867 a Paris

In 1870, new business segments opened up in Europe, and G&D began printing high denomination banknotes for private banks in Switzerland and Sweden up to 1899. By the 1880s, Giesecke & Devrient had not only established itself among the leading German banknote printers, it had also begun to win its first contracts on the export market. South America provided the company with its earliest export success, and by 1900 Giesecke & Devrient had fulfilled a variety of contracts in the region. The company's product range by then had expanded to include postage stamps and government bonds, in addition to banknotes. Giesecke & Devrient had also added a number of Asian markets to its export operations, including the printing of banknotes and postage stamps for Thailand since 1891. At the turn of the century, G&D expanded into the Chinese and African markets. This foreign expansion continued strongly into 1914, when G&D began fulfilling large orders from the Ottoman Empire for revenue stamps, securities and banknotes.

In the domestic market in the early 1920s, when the German economy was swept up in the hyperinflation of the post-World War I era, the Weimar government adopted the policy of printing more money to reduce the onerous burden of Germany's wartime reparations commitment (a move considered to have been a factor in the continuing hyperinflation). Unable to meet the demand for new paper currency by itself, the government turned to private printers, and in early 1923, Giesecke & Devrient received its first contract, for a thousand Papiermark note, which became known as the Giesecke Tausender. The company quickly received a number of new orders, as the inflation in the Weimar Republic took on a life of its own through that year. At the height of overinflation, the German government had hired some 130 private printers including G&D to maintain its demand for banknote production.

Finally, in November 1923, the Weimar government moved to halt hyperinflation by introducing a new interim currency, called the Rentenmark, which was backed by real estate and other holdings. The plan, which exchanged one trillion old Papiermarks for a single Rentenmark, provided Giesecke & Devrient with a new and highly lucrative contract, and through the course of that contract, the company printed nearly 50 million Rentenmark notes. These remained in circulation through the 1930s, even after the introduction of the Reichsmark in 1924.

Following the introduction of the Reichsmark, among other leading printers, G&D also became responsible for printing various denominations of the Reichsmark through the 1930s and to the end of World War II. The company also maintained its strong export business, printing banknotes for a large number of countries, and branching out into other areas of printing. In 1936, for example, the company received the contract for printing the tickets for the Olympic Games, held in Berlin that year, but was also responsible for printing all the tickets for the 1972 Olympics in Munich, as well as the tickets when West Germany hosted the 1974 FIFA World Cup.

Giesecke & Devrient were hit hard during and immediately after World War II, however. The company lost some three-quarters of its facilities after Allied bombing raids destroyed Leipzig's printing district in 1943, and by the end of the war, Leipzig had fallen within East Germany, controlled by the Soviet Union. The remainder of G&D's operations were then confiscated under the new Communist-backed government. The company might have disappeared altogether if it had not been for the efforts of Siegfried Otto. Married to Jutta Devrient, daughter of the company's last chairman, Ludwig Devrient, Otto had spent three years in a Soviet prisoner-of-war camp before returning to Germany in 1948. Otto joined the other members of the Giesecke and Devrient families in Munich, and called a meeting with the company's shareholders to decide the company's fate. During that meeting, the shareholders group agreed to reestablish the company in Munich. Giesecke & Devrient was reborn in 1948, starting out with a single small office in an attic, and no printing press. Yet, led by Otto, the company won its first printing contracts, which enabled G&D to set up a new shop in a building at the Riem airport in Munich, a location where today the company has offices for some its most innovative solutions.

Before long, Otto had restored Giesecke & Devrient to its former position at the top of its specialized printing sector. In 1955, the company had won the contract to develop Germany's first Deutschmark-based traveler's check and by 1958, Giesecke & Devrient was an essential partner to the Bundesbank, receiving a contract to supply 50 percent of Germany's banknote requirements. That contract was to remain in place into the next century. The company's importance in the German, and European, printing markets was further underscored in the late 1960s, when G&D became one of the core developers of the eurocheque and eurocard banking systems. Around this time in 1957, the companies distinctive G&D signet appeared, designed by the Munich-based painter and graphic designer Hermann Virl (1903 – 1958) and currently used in the companies logo virtually unchanged from the original. In 1959, the company's headquarters moved to Prinzregentenstrasse in Munich, where it remains today. Later, in 1991, the company purchased the former G&D head office in Liepzig, destroyed in 1943. Today, the Liepzig office is the second pillar of G&D's banknote and security printing operation.

Giesecke & Devrient also returned to the international market in the 1950s. An important expansion for the company came in 1958, when it set up securities and security printing operations in Mexico under the Giesecke y Devrient de Mexico subsidiary. The extension into that market, which paved the way for the group's broader expansion throughout Latin and North America, came as part of the company's strategy of diversifying its base of operations, in the event of new hostilities in Europe. In the mid-1960s, the company moved to broaden its operational base again, this time through the acquisition of Papierfabrik Louisenthal, based in Gmund, in 1964. The company expanded that operation, constructing a state-of-the art specialized paper mill and specialising in the production of paper for banknotes and securities. By the end of that decade, G&D had completed another acquisition, of the Teubner printing company, which had relocated to Stuttgart following World War II, and introduced the Komori technology for printing banknotes to Europe. The purchase of the Konigstein Paper mill near Dresden by Lousienthal in 1991 increased the companies capacities for banknote and security paper even further. In 2000, Giesecke & Devrient established its North American headquarters in Dulles, Virginia, a suburb of Washington, D.C. Today, the company operates printing facilities in Germany (Munich and Leipzig), as well as Ottawa, Canada, and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The firm is the world's second largest supplier of banknotes and currently supplies euro notes for the German Bundesbank; and banknotes for many other nations worldwide.

Giesecke & Devrient turned toward the future at the start of the 1970s, founding a new subsidiary, Gesellschaft für Automation und Organisation (GAO), which became the first to receive a patent for developing a card with an embedded microchip. GAO became the company's spearhead for developing so-called "cashless" currency transaction systems and equipment. G&D sought other directions for adopting new technologies. In 1975, the company introduced an automatic currency processing system. In conjunction with that system, the company also brought out the worlds first banknote that could be read by machine. For the credit card market, then still in its early days, the company introduced the worlds first system for laser personalisation of credit cards, which is still regarded as the most secure system available. The heightened security offered by the system, launched in 1979, helped bank cards gain a new level of acceptance. Two years later, G&D gained another first when it launched the industry's first chip cards, later more commonly known as smart cards, in a contract with the German post office and two banks in France.

The company continued extending its technology through the 1980s. In 1984, G&D launched the first series of telephone cards for Deutsche Bundespost, then also introduced the first SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) in 1989, establishing what was to become a global SIM Card industry standard. The SIM soon became an important feature of the cellular telephone market, with the first commercial rollout of a SIM-based telephone in 1991. Smartcard technology evolved further with the launch of the worlds first multi-application smart card operating system later that year, leading to G&D being awarded the contracts for production of the statutory health insurance card for the German Health Service, multi-function contactless smartcards for Deutsche Lufthansa, and masks, cards and terminals for Germany's Geldkarte, the worlds largest multifucntional smart card program. In October 2002, Giesecke & Devrient, along with The Information Security Group, Royal Holloway, University of London and Vodafone set up the Smart Card Centre, which is part of the ISG at Royal Holloway. In November 2009 Giesecke & Devrient announced plans to form a new company with SAP AG and Nokia Corp., named Original1, to deliver product authentication and anti-counterfeiting services globally, headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany. Original1 offers security solutions for the entire value chain, including user authentication, end-to-end encryption of the information flow and database encryption. Original1 On-Demand is an online product providing a complete solution for brand product protection.

Extending security technologies over the entire payment value chain, the first generation of Point of Sale POS security terminals were also introduced in 1989 as part of an increasing demand for secure networked hardware in the Banking industry. 1990 saw the launch of a new range of high performance banknote processing systems for government Treasuries, leading to a major order from the Federal Reserve Bank of the United States of America.

In the modern period, G&D has expanded operations to include mobile security solutions, after introducing the worlds first mobile banking solution, the world first SIM-based browser solution, and SIM solutions supporting the evolving 2G and 3G networks. In 2006, G&D formed Venyon with Nokia to provide services for secure chip management in near field communication. Shortly afterwards in 2009, G&D acquired SmartTrust AB, a global leading provider of server solutions for managing applications on SIM cards and mobile phones, and fully acquires Venyon from Nokia, and becoming one of the leading trusted service managers TSM in the NFC market. This development led to G&D and Telefonica Digital establishing a single Europe-wide platform for NFC Services, with G&D providing the TSM services for this solution.

Zimbabwe involvement

Giesecke & Devrient have a history of doing business with Rhodesia and its successor state Zimbabwe going back to 1965, and they have been supplying paper for banknotes to the government of Zimbabwe throughout the hyperinflation in Zimbabwe.

In June 2008 U.S. officials announced they would not take any action against the firm 'that is providing key support to Zimbabwe's brutal regime and is also an important contractor to the American government'. It was reported that on 1 July 2008 company's Management Board decided to cease delivering banknote paper to the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe with immediate effect. The decision was in response to an "official request" from the German government and calls for international sanctions by the European Union and the United Nations. Dr. Karsten Ottenberg, CEO and Chairman of the G&D Management Board, explained:

"Our decision is a reaction to the political tension in Zimbabwe, which is mounting significantly rather than easing as expected, and takes account of the critical evaluation by the international community, German government and general public."

References

• Bender, Klaus W. (2006). Moneymakers: the Secret World of Banknote Printing. Weinheim, Germany: Wiley-VCH Verlag. 10-ISBN 3-527-50236-X; 13-ISBN 978-3-527-50236-3; OCLC 69326754
• (in German) Faulmann, Karl. (1882). Illustrirte Geschichte der Buchdruckerkunst: mit besonderer Berücksichtigung ihrer technischen Entwicklung bis zur Gegenwart. Vienna: A. Hartleben. OCLC 2847445.

External links

• G&D corporate website
• G&D North American subsidiary website

Category:Manufacturing companies of Germany Category:Banknote printers