Drägerwerk

What they do

Dräger works in two fields: medical technology and safety technology. In hospitals it supplies ventilators, anaesthesia machines, patient monitors and neonatal care products. For fire services, mines, industry and police it makes breathing apparatus, gas detectors and alcohol testing devices.

The company was founded in Lübeck in 1889 by Johann Heinrich Dräger together with Carl Adolf Gerling. Stefan Dräger, the fifth generation of the family to run the business, has been chief executive since 2005.

Why it matters

Breathing is the common thread. Dräger's early work with compressed gases led to products that support patients who cannot breathe on their own and protect workers in toxic or oxygen-poor environments. During the pandemic, intensive care ventilators became critical infrastructure, and Dräger was among the suppliers governments relied upon.

Its safety business is equally consequential. Firefighters, mine rescue teams and chemical plant workers depend on equipment that must function under extreme conditions, and gas detectors and breath alcohol testers extend that protective role into everyday industrial and road safety.

Products to know

• Evita: intensive care ventilators.
• Infinity: acute care workstations and patient monitoring.
• Babylog: ventilators for newborns.
• PSS AirBoss: self-contained breathing apparatus for fire services.

The German angle

Dräger shows how a Hanseatic trading city produced a world-class engineering firm. Lübeck remains its home, with headquarters on Moislinger Allee.

Lübeck's long history as a port and trading centre gave the young company access to engineers, customers and international shipping, and the business has stayed in the city for well over a century. Its legal form, Drägerwerk AG & Co. KGaA, is a German construction that lets a family keep control while raising money on the stock market. Since its 1979 listing the family has held the voting common shares, while preference shares trade freely. The arrangement secures long-term ownership and is shared by a number of other German family companies listed in Frankfurt.