Claas
international agricultural machinery company from Harsewinkel, Germany
CLAAS is an agricultural machinery manufacturer based in Harsewinkel, Germany, in the federal state of North Rhine Westphalia. Founded in 1913 by August Claas, CLAAS is a family business and one of the market and technology leaders in harvesting technology. It is the European market leader in combine harvesters and considered as world market leader in self-propelled forage harvesters. The product range also includes tractors, balers, mowers, rakes, tedders, silage trailers, wheel loaders, telehandlers and other harvesting equipment as well as farming information technology. CLAAS employs around 11,650 employees worldwide and reported a turnover of roughly 4.9 billion euros in the 2025 financial year. About 77.6% of sales were generated outside of Germany.
History
Early days
The beginnings of the company go back to 1887, when Franz Claas founded a company in Clarholz for the production of milk centrifuges. From about 1900 onwards, he also manufactured other agricultural machinery there, such as straw binders and cutters for mowing machines.
The official foundation of the company took place in 1913, when the son of Franz Claas, August Claas, informed the responsible office in Herzebrock that he was manufacturing straw binders with two locksmiths and one unskilled worker. In 1914 his brothers Franz jun.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Claas” is international agricultural machinery company from Harsewinkel, Germany. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Claas, international and agricultural, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “international agricultural machinery company from Harsewinkel, Germany” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
The record creator and administrative purpose are central evidence, because official documentation reflects both action and institutional priorities. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 28, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q704756. VIAF identifies the subject as 143970933. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1913, 2025, 1887 and 1900.
Later summaries often reconcile disputed chronology or motive more neatly than the contemporary record permits. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Compare institutional narratives with records created by participants and affected communities. Dates and formal titles are useful anchors, but not substitutes for context.
- Event chronology
- Institutional context
- Locating named record creators
Contemporary correspondence, government or organizational records, oral histories and cited historical scholarship.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Claas”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Claas primary sources, Claas archive and Claas research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Claas”?
- Who created the surviving record, and for what administrative purpose?
- Which voices are present, absent or mediated by the institution?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Claas” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.