Before “Euroscope” became a name recognised across borders, the story began with a much simpler machine: a coin-operated telescope.
From that starting point, a company emerged over decades that passed through war, economic disruption, geographic expansion, and a deep shift in focus. The history of Automaten Winkels is therefore not only a chronology of products and years. It is also a story about how a company repeatedly found its way back to its tourism roots.
In the Beginning, There Was a View into the Distance
According to the source chronicle, the company was founded in 1926 by Friedrich Winkels in Starnberg. He took over coin-operated telescopes from his insolvent former employer, “Graphoskop”, and made their installation the core of the business.
What would define the company over the long term was already visible at that stage: the connection between technology, public space, and the visitor experience. After a few years, Friedrich Winkels moved the company back to his birthplace of Wuppertal and rebuilt it gradually after the global economic crisis. Alongside vending machines and gaming machines, the tourism business remained the central line of work. Even the telescopes were already being used to sell souvenir medals.
The early customer list gives the story real places. The Heidelberger Konigstuhl and the Drachenfels in Konigswinter were already among them. At the fortress in Salzburg, the telescopes eventually had to be removed under pressure from the Gestapo because they apparently offered a view of Hitler’s house on the Obersalzberg.
After the War, Survival Came First
After the Second World War, a normal machine business was initially hard to imagine. There were no valid coins available for the operation of machines. So the company first produced hospitality items, using leftover military stock and machines recovered from bombed-out factories.
That section makes the later development more striking. The company did not simply continue along an existing path. It first had to work its way back to one.
The Return to the Core Business
With the currency reform and the Federal Republic, Friedrich Winkels and his son, also named Friedrich, returned to the business of coin-operated machines. New coin-operated telescopes were developed, built, and installed at tourist sites across West Germany.
Over the following decades, however, the main focus shifted more towards vending machines and gaming machines. The company’s tourism origin remained intact, but it stood less at the centre for a time.
When the founder died in 1966, his son continued to run the company alone.
The Next Generation Brought Tourism Back to the Centre
At the end of the 1970s, Jochen Winkels, the founder’s grandson, joined the company. With him, the focus gradually moved back towards the company’s original tourism identity.
New telescopes were built, information machines were developed, and expansion into neighbouring countries began. In 1984, the first foreign branch opened in Austria, followed by the Netherlands in 1986 and France in 1989.
According to the chronicle, German reunification brought the company a boom. Around the turn of the millennium, it was also serving Switzerland, England, Belgium, and Italy.
This phase marks the real transition from an established family business to a broader European tourism brand.
From Existing Customers to a Bigger System
As the company expanded, not only its geography changed but also its product logic. To make better use of its existing customer base, it also moved into the production and installation of additional tourism machines.
The chronicle names embossing machines, medal dispensers, and souvenir banknote machines, all of which were installed across Europe in large numbers. What had once been a telescope business became a broader tourism offer built around recognisable visitor moments.
The Name Euroscope
At some point, that development also needed a name larger than the original company story.
Bettina Bahr, who had joined the company as a partner in the meantime, came up with the name “Euroscope”. The chronicle describes how it became a trademark recognised across borders.
That is one of the quiet turning points in the story. Automaten Winkels did not simply become a larger operator. It became a name that matched the company’s international trajectory.
The Later Handover to a Younger Generation
According to the chronicle, the Dutch competitors Lucoba and Corforma were integrated in 2013/14. The creative contribution of Cor Sponselee from Corforma is explicitly described as a positive development boost.
After the coronavirus pandemic, Jochen Winkels and Bettina Bahr gave up their shares for reasons of age, and with heavy hearts passed the company into younger hands.
That ending changes the tone of the chronicle. It does not close as a dry company note, but as a reflection on shared work built over time.
Why This Story Is More Than a Timeline
The source text says that the expansion since the 1990s was only possible because of relationships with many wonderful customers, creative suppliers, and capable, committed employees.
That makes clear how the chronicle understands itself. It is not only a record of machines, sites, and dates. It is also a note of thanks to the people who carried the company over decades.
In the end, what remains is not only a founding year, but an image: a company that began with coin-operated telescopes, repeatedly reinvented itself, and eventually moved into a new generation under the name Euroscope.