Founded 1872

TÜV Rheinland AG

Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany

A German testing, inspection and certification group organized into industrial services, mobility, products, and business-assurance units, running laboratory centers that perform materials, product and vehicle-component testing worldwide.

Headquarters
Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
Founded
1872
Website
www.tuv.com

Notable facts

  • Founded October 31, 1872 as the Verein zur Überwachung der Dampfkessel (Steam Boiler Monitoring Association) by textile manufacturers in the Elberfeld/Barmen districts, now Wuppertal.
  • Renamed TÜV Rheinland e.V. in 1962 and began national and international expansion under chairman Albert Kuhlmann, with its first foreign subsidiary founded in 1970.
  • Marked its 150th anniversary in 2022, consistent with its 1872 founding date.
  • Reported about 25,900 employees and €2.71 billion revenue in 2024, with roughly 52% of revenue generated outside Germany.
  • Operates about 275 test centers globally, including seven major laboratory hubs in Cologne/Nuremberg, Bangkok, Budapest, Milan, Silicon Valley, Shanghai, and Yokohama.
  • Inspects roughly 8.6 million vehicles annually as part of its mobility/vehicle-testing business.

Testing categories

Sources. This profile is compiled from public reference data, WebSearch-verified againstsource 1 · source 2 · source 3. Data as of 2026-07-14. See methodology.

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