40 years of MAGNESIA

Looking back on a long tradition

40 years of MAGNESIA: From a salt works to an international raw materials supplier

MAGNESIA GmbH was found­ed in 1983 by Mr. Wolf­gang Born­mann, the last man­ag­ing direc­tor of Saline Lüneb­urg und Chemis­che Fab­rik GmbH. After the sus­pen­sion of salt min­ing and the clos­ing down of the increas­ing­ly unprof­itable oper­a­tion of the salt works, Mr. Bornmann’s mis­sion was to con­tin­ue the flour­ish­ing busi­ness with the dis­tri­b­u­tion of min­er­al raw mate­ri­als such as mag­ne­sium and cal­ci­um com­pounds. He under­took this by found­ing MAGNESIA GmbH, which is still active today as an inter­na­tion­al­ly suc­cess­ful sup­pli­er of min­er­al raw mate­ri­als. In 2023, we will cel­e­brate 40 years of MAGNESIA. Learn more about our his­to­ry below.

956 A.D.

First doc­u­ment­ed men­tion of the Lüneb­urg salt works (in Ger­man “Saline Lüneb­urg”) in a doc­u­ment of King Otto I.

Until the end of the 16th century

Devel­op­ment of the Saline Lüneb­urg into one of the largest salt pro­duc­ers in North­ern Europe and thus a major eco­nom­ic fac­tor for Lüneburg.

Saline Lüneb­urg around 1598 1

End of the 19th century & beginning of the 20th century

Plan­ning and con­struc­tion of the “Chem­i­cal Fac­to­ry” (in Ger­man “Chemis­che Fab­rik”) as part of the Saline Lüneb­urg. The aim is to both stock and dis­trib­ute soda ash, sul­fu­ric acid and chlo­ri­nat­ed lime. In addi­tion, pro­duc­tion of mag­ne­­si­um- and cal­­ci­um-sil­i­­cate-based ther­mal insu­lat­ing agents begins under the brand names “Per­Mag” and “Dia­Mag”.

1961

The future man­ag­ing direc­tor of MAGNESIA GmbH, Mr. Udo Schenk, begins his train­ing as an indus­tri­al clerk at lat­ley formed “Saline Lüneb­urg und Chemis­che Fabrik”

1968

The lat­er founder of MAGNESIA GmbH, Mr. Wolf­gang Born­mann, joined the “Saline Lüneb­urg und Chemis­che Fab­rik” as a senior employ­ee. He has since built up a func­tion­ing dis­tri­b­u­tion busi­ness with mag­ne­sium and cal­ci­um com­pounds as an alter­na­tive for the increas­ing­ly unprof­itable min­ing operation.

PDF Ansicht

Prod­uct port­fo­lio of “Saline Lüneb­urg und Chemis­che Fab­rik” 2

1969

The man­ag­ing direc­tor of that time, Mr. Wolter, retires. He was suc­ceed­ed by Mr. Wolf­gang Born­mann, who became then man­ag­ing direc­tor of “Saline Lüneb­urg und Chemis­che Fabrik”.

1980

Pro­duc­tion of salt at the “Lüneb­urg Saline und Chemis­che Fab­rik” is dis­con­tin­ued due to ris­ing ener­gy costs as a result of the crude oil cri­sis. Pro­duc­tion oper­a­tions, machin­ery and equip­ment, and in some cas­es build­ings and land have been liquidated.

Build­ing of the “Saline Lüneb­urg und Chemis­che Fab­rik” in 1983 3

1983

Mr. Wolf­gang Born­mann takes over inven­to­ry, cus­tomer records as well as exist­ing con­tracts and found­ed the MAGNESIA on this basis. The share­hold­ers’ agree­ment is final­ly signed in Octo­ber 1983.

PDF Ansicht

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion between Mr. Born­mann and the notary’s office on let­ter paper of the “Saline Lüneb­urg und Chemis­che Fab­rik” regard­ing the found­ing of MAGNESIA 4

1983 until the 90s

MAGNESIA’s first head­quar­ters is the loca­tion “Auf der Hude 72”, which lat­er became the icon­ic Lüneb­urg dis­cotheque Garage and is now home to a dig­i­tal adver­tis­ing com­pa­ny. Due to the company’s growth, the move to the indus­tri­al area Lüneb­urg Hafen took place in the 90s.

For­mer com­pa­ny head­quar­ters “Auf der Hude 72” in Lüneb­urg 5

2001

Mr. Schenk and Mr. Born­mann re-estab­lish con­tact with each oth­er. On Jan­u­ary 1st, 2001, Mr. Schenk is appoint­ed as the sec­ond man­ag­ing direc­tor of MAGNESIA GmbH along­side Mr. Bornmann.

2004 — 2005

Move to the cur­rent loca­tion at Max-Jenne-Straße 2–4 with a 2,000 m² ware­house and the poten­tial to expand the office space in the com­ing years.

Com­pa­ny head­quar­ters in the “Max-Jenne-Straße” in Lüneb­urg in 2010 6

2008

25th com­pa­ny anniver­sary with atten­dance of local guests (here the for­mer may­or of Lüneb­urg, Mr. Ulrich Mädge) and inter­na­tion­al cus­tomers at the company’s head­quar­ters in Lüneburg.

Wolf­gang Born­mann, Ulrich Mädge and Udo Schenk on the 25th anniver­sary 7

2010

Mr. Born­mann retires. Pre­vi­ous­ly, he sold 100% of his shares in the com­pa­ny to Dr. Rudolf Sei­del, who con­tin­ues to run MAGNESIA as a share­hold­er in the spir­it of Mr. Born­mann. From now on, how­ev­er, Dr. Sei­del leaves the strate­gic and oper­a­tional man­age­ment to Mr. Schenk, and oth­er Man­ag­ing Directors.

Michael Mett and Dr. Rudolf Sei­del in front of the company’s head­quar­ters 8

Since 2013

In 2013 Mr. Markus Cord­ing and in 2018 Mr. Johann Studt­mann are appoint­ed as man­ag­ing direc­tors. Both man­age MAGNESIA to this day.

Johann Studt­mann and Markus Cord­ing 9

2023

MAGNESIA cel­e­brates its 40th anniver­sary and takes this oppor­tu­ni­ty to explore the his­to­ry togeth­er with the Ger­man Salt Muse­um (Deutsches Salz­mu­se­um), the Lüneb­urg City Archive, the Lüneb­urg Media House (pub­lish­er of local news­pa­per) and con­tem­po­rary witnesses.

Udo Schenk and Markus Cord­ing hand over to Dr. Alexan­dra Hentschel, Direc­tor of the Ger­man Salt Muse­um, pos­si­ble exhibits of the salt works peri­od from the MAGNESIA archive 10.

Future

In the com­ing decades, we intend to con­tin­ue pur­su­ing our vision of being one of the lead­ing experts for min­er­al raw mate­ri­als, as well as a provider of indi­vid­ual ser­vices around our portfolio. 

Learn more.

Apply now and become part of MAGNESIA

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1 Source: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%BCneburger_Saline
2 Source: MAGNESIA GmbH
3 Pho­to: Balz­er 2009 – Deutsches Salz­mu­se­um Indus­triedenkmal Saline Lüneb­urg
4 Source: MAGNESIA GmbH
5 Pho­to: MAGNESIA GmbH
6 Pho­to: Gun­na Geller
7 Pho­to: Lan­deszeitung Lüneb­urg / Edith Möller
8 Pho­to: MAGNESIA GmbH
9 Pho­to: Kai-Hen­drik Schroed­er
10 Pho­to: MAGNESIA GmbH

Do you have any questions?
Get in touch!

info@magnesia.de

+49 4131 8710-0

MAGNESIA GmbH
Max-Jenne-Straße 2–4
Industriegebiet Ost
21337 Lüneburg, Germany

© MAGNESIA GmbH - 2023