Editing Bofors (section)

==History==
Located in [[Karlskoga]] neighborhood of Bofors, [[Sweden]], the company originates from the [[hammer mill]] "Boofors", which was founded as a [[royal family|royal]] state-owned company in 1646 when P. L. Hosman was permitted to erect a [[forge]] at the site.''{{Sfn|Jernkontoret|1920|p=18}}'' [[Sigrid Ekehielm]], also known as Boås-Beata,<ref name="Name:0">{{Cite book |last=Bande |first=Alf |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v7PNuAAACAAJ |title=Bofors och boforsare |date=1996 |publisher=Probus |isbn=978-91-87184-36-9 |page=13 |language=sv}}</ref> who lived from the 1640s to 1700, at one point owned it.<ref name="Sigrid">"Sigrid Ekehielm", https://skbl.se/en/article/SigridEkehielm, [[Svenskt kvinnobiografiskt lexikon|Svenskt kvinnobiografiskt lexikon (SKBL)]] [Biographical Dictionary of Swedish Women] (article by Sofia Danielsson, translated by Alexia Grosjean), retrieved 2023-09-3.</ref>

The Bofors Works was acquired by [[Johan Eberhard Geijer]] (1733–1796) in 1762. It was then acquired by the latter's brother, [[Emanuel af Geijerstam]].{{sfn|Steckzén|1946|p=28}}
[[File:Bofors hotell.jpg|left|thumb|The [[Bofors Hotel]], which was designed by Wilhelm von Eick and built in an [[Italianate Style|Italianate style]], was initially intended to exclusively serve the guests of Bofors.]] The modern corporate structure was created in 1873 with the foundation of [[Aktiebolag]]et (AB) Bofors-Gullspång.
A leading Swedish steel producer by the early 1870s, when steel began to be used for gun manufacture in Sweden, Bofors initially sold cast and forged steel produced by the [[Siemens-Martin process]] to [[Finspång]] gun works, but soon started to expand into weapons manufacture. The company's first [[cannon]] workshop was opened in 1884. Bofors' most famous owner was [[Alfred Nobel]], who owned the company from 1894 until his death in December 1896.<ref>{{cite book|last=Bergengren|first=Erik|title=Alfred Nobel: The Man and His Work|date=1962|publisher=Thomas Nelson & Sons Ltd|location=Edinburgh}}</ref>''{{Sfn|Jernkontoret|1920|p=19}}'' Nobel played a key role in reshaping the former iron and steel producer to a modern cannon manufacturer and [[chemical industry]] participant.<ref>{{cite book|last=Schück|first=H|title=Nobel - The Man and His Prizes|date=1950|publisher=Solhmans Förlag|location=Stockholm|isbn=0444001174|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/nobelmanhisprize0000nobe}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Latter life|url=https://www.nobelprize.org/alfred_nobel/biographical/articles/sanremo/|work=Alfred Nobel : Biography|publisher=Nobel Prize : Official website|access-date=4 March 2014}}</ref> The powder manufacturer AB Bofors Nobelkrut, later an explosives and general organic-chemical producer, was created in 1898 as a wholly owned subsidiary.[[File:Bofors - huvudkontor.jpg|thumb|The Bofors Headquarters completed in 1930]]By 1911, AB Bofors-Gullspång had outcompeted, bought and closed down its Finspång Swedish competitor in cannon manufacture. The company's name was shortened to AB Bofors in 1919.<ref>{{cite book|last=Subramaniam|first=Chitra|title=Bofors: the story behind the news|date=1993|publisher=Viking|location=India|isbn=0670845256|url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6945943-bofors}}</ref> 

When the [[Treaty of Versailles]] [[German disarmament|severely limited]] Germany from developing new artillery and banned its exports, German military companies started to offshore their R&D abroad, and [[Krupp]], prohibited to develop guns under 17 cm in caliber, started to co-operate with Bofors already in 1919 in order to secretly engage in arms design and manufacture:
<blockquote>When, after the end of the war, it became a certainty that, for Krupp, gun production would come to a complete standstill, Krupp concluded an agreement with Aktiebolaget Bofors, a Swedish firm, which made available to Bofors information on Krupp's experiences relative to the production of steel in certain fields, and especially of steel for the manufacture of guns, also a license agreement on the basis of which Bofors was authorized to duplicate some types of Krupp's artillery designs, insofar as they were not classed as secret by the Reich. Krupp combined with this the intention of benefiting by the experience gathered at that end. Bofors pledged itself at Krupp's request to permit Krupp employees admission to its works at all times and to supply them with all desired information.<ref>{{cite book |title=Trials of War Criminals Before the Nuremberg Military Tribunals Under Control Council Law No. 10, Nuernberg, October 1946-April 1949 |date=1950 |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NF8TAQAAMAAJ |language=en}}</ref></blockquote>
Bofors was also able to take over pre-war Dutch and Danish contracts of Krupp in September 1919. Under a 1921 agreement the company agreed not to export any Krupp-derived materiel to the victors of WWI: the UK, US, France, Italy and Japan. The Swedish government fully endorsed all that activity.<ref>{{cite book |title=German Yearbook on Business History 1982 | isbn=9783642687921 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IRvrCAAAQBAJ&pg=PA131 | last1=Engels | first1=W. | last2=Pohl | first2=H. | date=6 December 2012 | publisher=Springer }}</ref> Also, since 1920 Krupp held 31.8% of Bofors stock through its Swedish subsidiary AB Boforsintressenter despite a 1916 law prohibiting foreigners from having over 20% stock of a Swedish business. As a result of such a collaboration, Bofors prospered, and by the early 1930s it employed ~2800 people (not counting the supply subsidiaries).<ref>{{cite book |last1=Lorenz-Meyer |first1=Martin |title=Safehaven: The Allied Pursuit of Nazi Assets Abroad |date=2007 |publisher=University of Missouri Press |isbn=978-0-8262-6586-9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4uQkGYKHWeIC&pg=PA10 |language=en}}</ref>

After [[Adolf Hitler's rise to power]], the [[German rearmament]] became public and increased in scale so there was no more need in using front companies abroad, hence German armaments firms returned their R&D to the home turf. The Swedish parliament also banned foreign ownership of military industries in 1935, so Krupp had to liquidate Boforsintressenter and sell off its Bofors shares to Swedish entrepreneur [[Axel Wenner-Gren]], who long had good connections with Krupp.

Karlskoga grew around the Bofors Works, which employed almost 10,000 people by 1970.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Fransson |first=Stig A |year=2001 |title=BOFORS – förändringsvindar i gammal tid och nutid |url=http://www.boflv.se/arkiv/150117_Boforshistoria.pdf |access-date=29 November 2022 |language=sv |quote=Bofors är nu som störst och har nästan 10 000 anställda i Karlskoga.}}</ref> The arms industry created numerous job opportunities in the 1900s, contributing to the population boom of the city.

Throughout its history, the works has been linked to several influential Swedish families such as Robsahm, Liljeström, Flygge, and Ekehjelm.''{{Sfn|Jernkontoret|1920|p=18}}''