The company was founded in December 1909 by the Alsatian Georges Chatel. It started with the license-production of French aircraft; Hanriot monoplanes and Farman biplanes. From 1912, the factory started building its own successful biplanes, designed by Robert Wild.

Just at the beginning of World War One, on 1 August 1914 the company was relocated to Freiburg due to French threat, and then to new facilities in Leipzig-Heiterblick in 1916. The company did not continue after the 1919 Treaty of Versailles.