Operating out of the backroom of a clock-maker's factory, the new firm made both household and industrial sewing machines.

As the business profile became enhanced among local customers, the firm moved to a new building close to market street, Bielefeld in 1870.

After World War I, the firm's debt profile grew and fell under the receivership of banks who went on to sell its automobile unit to Mercedes Benz.

[3] Kochs Adler, which was majority-owned by the Oetker family, produced munitions and employed forced labor.

In 1990, it merged with Koch Adler, another Bielefeld based industrial sewing machine manufacturer that was founded in 1860.