
Georg Knorr at the test stand for passenger train brakes, 1908. | © Knorr-Bremse
It was 120 years ago that Georg Knorr founded Knorr-Bremse GmbH in Berlin. With his innovations in the field of air brakes, his determination and his far-sighted approach to technology, he guided the young company through turbulent times and laid the foundations for the extraordinary success of Knorr-Bremse. Georg Knorr was a pioneer in the field of railway brakes. Without his inventions, which enabled the safe deceleration of trains that were becoming faster and heavier as time went by, the dawn of the new era triggered by the railways in the second half of the 19th century would not have been possible.

Early Beginnings: From Engineer to Pioneer of Modern Braking Systems
Ernst Theodor Georg Knorr was born on October 19, 1859 in Ruda (West Prussia). After studying engineering in Braunschweig, he initially started to work for the Royal Prussian railway administration in Krefeld. In 1884 he then joined the Berlin office of the American engineer Jesse Fairfield Carpenter, who was trying to distribute in the German market the twin-chamber compressed air brake that he had developed. By 1893, however, Knorr's employers faced ruin: The railway authority had decided not to renew the ten-year contract and had opted instead for Westinghouse brakes. Having effectively lost the entire basis of his business, Carpenter returned to America. Georg Knorr, however, stood his ground with remarkable foresight. He could see that the railways were in the process of opening up a whole new dimension of mobility. And he could sense that, far from just transforming people’s private lives, they were about to revolutionize the manufacturing and trading sectors, as well.
A Turning Point: Acquiring Carpenter & Schulze and Strategic Realignment
Convinced that these developments held immense opportunities for the braking systems manufactured by his company, Knorr took over Carpenter & Schulze, added the words “Proprietor G. Knorr” to its title, and moved it to Berlin-Britz. Despite the difficult economic conditions, he succeeded in rescuing the company and was finally able to make a secure living. At the same time, Knorr continued to apply his inventive talents to developing a new control valve, the component at the heart of the air brake.
Technological Breakthrough: The Knorr Single-Chamber Rapid-Action Brake
The breakthrough came with Georg Knorr’s own Knorr single-chamber rapid-action brake with K1 control valve, which combined several aspects of his earlier developments: Its simpler design guaranteed greater reliability with shorter stopping distances and, above all, a smoother braking process. Moreover, from the outset, Knorr had taken steps to ensure that his new brake could be combined with its counterpart from Westinghouse in one and the same train. As a result, as the new century dawned, Prussian State Railways decided to adopt Knorr’s rapid-action brake for its passenger trains. Around the same time, the question of developing a continuous freight train brake also appeared on the agenda, and in 1903, "Carpenter & Schulze, Proprietor G. Knorr" was commissioned to design an appropriate system.
Expansion: Establishing Knorr-Bremse GmbH
In response to the need to expand development and delivery capacity, Georg Knorr transferred the company to a larger site in Berlin-Rummelsburg in 1904. Soon, though, even the new facilities were bursting at the seams and Knorr found himself in need of additional capital to fund further growth. On January 19, 1905 Georg Knorr and the Executive Board of Berlin-based machine tool company Ludw. Loewe & Co. AG concluded a partnership agreement setting up a limited company, Knorr-Bremse GmbH. Georg Knorr held almost half the share capital of 800,000 marks and was appointed sole managing director. His new-found partners and his new financial footing meant that he was now at liberty to pursue his innovations in a much larger setting.
Growth and Collaboration: Merger with Kontinentale Bremsen-GmbH
In the years that followed, some 50,000 braking systems with K1 control valves were supplied. On April 1, 1907 Johannes Philipp Vielmetter joined the company as its commercial director. He was responsible for the merger of Knorr-Bremse GmbH and Kontinentale Bremsen GmbH, which not only brought market advantages for Knorr-Bremse but also enabled the company to recruit Wilhelm Hildebrand, a rail vehicle braking specialist. In 1911 Vielmetter changed Knorr-Bremse into a share-issuing company, thereby creating a broader capital basis for its operation.
Final Innovations and Legacy: The Kunze-Knorr Brake
To the last, Georg Knorr’s driving passion was development work, and he was the originator of a whole series of additional innovations. In 1910 he had started to develop a graduated-release compressed air brake, but was not able to complete his work, as he died on April 15, 1911 at the age of 51 following a severe illness. Together with government construction adviser Bruno Kunze, Wilhelm Hildebrand further developed Georg Knorr’s ideas into the Kunze-Knorr brake, which in the years to follow would become the leading graduated release braking system in Europe.


Enduring Impact: Georg Knorr's groundbreaking innovations continue to influence the global rail braking systems industry.
With his countless innovations, visionary Georg Knorr helped to significantly improve the safety and efficiency of rail vehicle braking systems. The company continues to follow in his footsteps and is the global leader for braking systems and a top supplier of other systems for rail and commercial vehicles.