The logos

August Thyssen-Hütte AG, the name selected again in 1953 in memory of the company's founder, introduces a new logo in April 1967 based on the standard elements used in trademarks since the 1920s - circles, polygons and combinations of letters. An "open T" developed from the first letter of the name Thyssen can be combined with the traditional logos of companies acquired and thus shows that the subsidiaries belong to the group, even though most of them at this time do not incorporate the name "Thyssen" in their company name. The logo is thus the first step towards illustrating that individual companies are part of the Thyssen group.

When August Thyssen-Hütte AG acquires a majority shareholding in Rheinstahl AG in 1973, it is generally assumed that the new company will adopt the Thyssen logo. However, in two years of negotiations the executive board of August Thyssen-Hütte AG is convinced of the modernity and symbolic value of the Rheinstahl arch and on January 12, 1976 resolves "to introduce the Thyssen arch as the standard logo for all domestic and foreign subsidiaries of the Thyssen group. It will symbolize, as it were, the "arch over all Thyssen activities". In March 1976 the new logo appears for the first time on the cover of the employee magazine "Our ATH".

While the yellow "Rheinstahl" lettering is replaced by the blue "Thyssen" lettering, the arch remains as a central element linking together a changed and bigger group. So it is that in 1976 two company identities are united in a single logo.

Founded in 1871, Rheinische Stahlwerke did not have a trademark of its own until the introduction of the Rheinstahl arch in 1958. In the early 1950s the publication of the annual report for the years 1948 to 1953 gives rise to the wish for a company logo.

Rheinstahl chooses the design of the Hamburg graphic artist Schierning, which is based on the distinctive shape of the Rheinstahl pavilion at the German industrial show in Hanover. With loving attention to detail, the combined logo and lettering are developed on this basis featuring curves which cannot be calculated using simple mathematical formulae. The colors chosen are blue and yellow, the colors of the city of Essen. The yellow lettering Rheinstahl on the blue arch is a reference to the company's home town.

Since 1875 three rings have been the worldwide symbol of products made by Krupp and serve at the same time as a reminder of the seamless forged and rolled railway tires invented by Krupp and patented in Prussia in 1853.

Prior to 1875 furnishes his steel products initially with steel quality labels and stamps such as "Krupp zu Essen" (1839), "Fr. Krupp bei Essen" (1840) or "Fr. Krupp bei Essen in Preußen" (1841). In later years the stamps read only "Fr. Krupp" or simply "Krupp". Only when the imperial law on trademark protection is passed on November 30, 1874 does Alfred Krupp decide to develop his own trademark. Of the designs drawn up he chooses the Three Ring Emblem, showing three double rings placed on top of each other (not interlinking!) to symbolize railway tires.

This Three Ring Emblem is registered for the first time on December 9, 1875 with the imperial district court in Essen as a trademark of Fried. Krupp "for steel and iron as well as steel and iron goods". Before World War One the Three Ring Emblem is a registered trademark in 56 other countries outside Germany. In 1994 the trademark ceases to be protected in its original open form. Until the merger with Thyssen AG the more modern version with the solid black rings is used which had already been registered as an additional trademark on October 9, 1934.