Robert Bosch was born in Albeck, Germany on September 23, 1861. At just 22 years old, he earned a living in the U.S. by working as a precision mechanic. He began by honing his skills at Bergmann in New York City, which produced a variety of electrical equipment, and subsequently took a position at Edison Machine Works. After spending a year in the U.S., Robert Bosch returned to Europe with mixed feelings regarding modern American production methods and working conditions. Before returning to Germany, he then spent six months working for Siemens Brothers in London.

The early years
Just one year after his return, Robert Bosch opened his workshop for precision mechanics and electrical engineering in Rotebühlstrasse, Stuttgart on November 15, 1886. In 1902, the Bosch magneto ignition device with spark plug was launched. This product supplied the increasingly fast combustion engines in cars with the ignition sparks that were required. Since the U.S. was second only to Europe in motor vehicle manufacturing, Robert Bosch began positioning himself as a supplier in this market. Although the good reputation of the Bosch ignition device had already spread “across the pond,” business there was restricted to individual deliveries, since the Bosch ignition product was primarily retrofitted to used vehicles.

In 1906, when Bosch had produced its 100,000th magneto ignition device, Bosch sales executive Gustav Klein traveled to the U.S. to build upon a successful advertising campaign. It was Hugo Borst, a nephew of Robert Bosch and a sales executive of the company, who had had the idea for the ads. In September 1906, Gustav Klein founded Robert Bosch New York Inc., which changed its name to Bosch Magneto Company in 1908 and expanded its business by opening branches in Chicago (1908) and San Francisco (1909).

The first Bosch factory in America
Sales of magneto ignition devices in America rocketed as the automotive industry grew rapidly. By late 1908, Bosch Magneto Company secured a new four-story building in New York City. With Bosch's U.S. facilities maintaining day and night shifts of about 350 workmen each, it was possible to turn out an average of 8,000 to 10,000 magnetos per month. In 1910, customs tariffs which had to be paid on every imported product prompted Bosch to open its own U.S. production facility in Springfield, Massachusetts. 

In 1914, Bosch Magneto Company purchased another factory in Plainfield, New Jersey. The acquisition of Rushmore Dynamo Works in Plainfield not only served to expand production, but also allowed Bosch to acquire Rushmore‘s patent on starters. Bosch had already done some development work in this field, but was unable to make the product ready for manufacturing because of the complex patent situation.

Bosch Magneto Company also had achieved sales higher than its parent company in Germany. By 1914, 70% of Bosch's worldwide sales were in the U.S.

The 1920‘s
Before the First World War, Bosch was generating up to 88 percent of its sales outside of Germany. When war broke out in 1914, and in particular when the U.S. joined the Allied side in 1917, the internationally aligned company suffered a severe blow. During the First World War and the years immediately following, Bosch found itself cut off from the world market. Its patents were expropriated and released, removing more than half of the company‘s assets. Bosch was unable to prevent the American government from expropriating Bosch Magneto Company, including its factories in Springfield and Plainfield, and selling it to an American investment group.

The dispute over trademark rights
Not only had its operations outside Germany been expropriated, but Bosch also suffered from the fact that the company was continuing to produce automotive components under the Bosch name. However, the products were not of the same high quality that Bosch had insisted on since it started doing business. The newly created American Bosch Magneto Corporation (ABMC) advertised its products using the Bosch name, and took the Stuttgart company to court in an attempt to prevent it from using its trade name in the U.S. In order to distinguish its own goods from those of ABMC, products manufactured by Robert Bosch Magneto Company Inc. – which was newly founded in New York in 1921 – were branded with the “armature in a circle” trademark developed by Gottlob Honold, and bore the word “Germany.” 

It was only in 1929/1930 that the issue of trademark rights was settled in a series of agreements. Robert Bosch Magneto Company Inc. was given the right to use the “Bosch” trade name without any further qualification all over the world, including the U.S., while American Bosch Magneto Corporation had to use the name “American Bosch” only. In the same year as this settlement, Robert Bosch Magneto Company Inc. managed to obtain a share in this American-led company. The two companies merged to form United American Bosch Corporation, based in Springfield. This organization was known simply as American Bosch Corporation (ABC) from 1938, and in 1941/42, during the Second World War, it was once again expropriated by the U.S. authorities.

Once the political unrest resulting from the war had largely died down, Bosch was able to gain a foothold in the U.S. once more. In 1953, a new sales office, Robert Bosch LLC, was founded in New York. It was not until 1983 that the Bosch Group won back the trademark rights expropriated during the war and finally regained the unrestricted right to use the Bosch name worldwide.