In Emden/East Frisia's Bolardusstraße in April 1932, blacksmith Franke Franken and his son Andreas, who was 20 at the time, established the business.

The business relocated to a pre-existing structure in Nesserlander Straße in 1935. These were the factories and the production areas. This led to orders being placed for nearby brickworks, railroad, and port operations. Refurbishments and overhauls of loggers' and fishermen's boats used in the era's herring fishery should not be overlooked.

Once firm founder Franke Franken passes away in 1936, his son Andreas succeeds in passing the master craftsman's examination for the locksmith trade and takes over the steadily expanding company on his own.

For his own operational usage, Andreas Franken created a mobile surface milling machine and a mobile drilling rig in 1970.

Meindert Iken rose to fame as a