35 Years of SMA: Our Company’s Anniversary
Guests from the worlds of politics, business and society took up the invitation and celebrated 35 years of SMA with us at the beginning of September. The official ceremony was followed by the SMA summer party for the employees at the Kassel site in Germany. Here are a few images from the festivities.
The ceremony to mark the company’s anniversary took place in the Solar Academy with more than 150 guests.
An attentive audience: During the ceremony, we showed the film “35 Years of SMA — A Vision Becomes Reality.”
35 years SMA: The video
SMA founder Reiner Wettlaufer (center) in conversation with guests.
The atmosphere in the Solar Academy was festive with sparkling wine and snacks.
Discussion outside the Günther Cramer Solar Academy (left to right): Mayor of Niestetal Andreas Siebert, District Administrator Uwe Schmidt, SMA CEO Pierre-Pascal Urbon, Member of State Parliament Timon Gremmels, and the Mayor of Kassel Bertram Hilgen.
SMA companions: IdE Managing Director Dr. Hoppe-Kilpper in conversation with Prof. Postlep, former president of the University of Kassel.
Prof. Werner Kleinkauf, mentor to the SMA founders, and Irene Cramer raise their glasses to the company’s 35th anniversary.
The guests waited full of anticipation for the new name of the SMA Solar Academy to be revealed.
The curtain comes down: To mark the company’s anniversary, the SMA Solar Academy was renamed Günther Cramer Solar Academy in honor of Günther Cramer.
Check out this video of the festivities
Starting at 3:00 p.m., SMA employees also celebrated the company’s 35th anniversary at our Niestetal location on Sonnenallee.
SMA Managing Board members Jürgen Reinert (left) and Roland Grebe cut the birthday cake.
Upholding tradition: The SMA capella choir is an integral part of the program for the summer party.
Sketchnote artist Friederike von dem Bussche portrayed the Managing Board’s speech—with fantastic detail.
The anniversary speech as sketchnote.
Full concentration on the racetrack: SMA employees put their driving skills to the test on the three-lane Carrera racetrack.
It wouldn’t be a summer party without live music: There were performances by four bands with musicians from the SMA staff and friends. It kicked off with Spitfire & Band.
The summer party was a welcome start for the 34 new trainees who began their training at SMA on September 1.
The Selfie Box was a big hit at the summer party.
The party picked up speed as it got darker: Make your Statement fired up the crowd and got people singing along.
With beats from the turntables and the drums, Ben&Hitch kept the cheerful SMA employees entertained even after midnight.
To sum up: It was a wonderful event! 🙂
Want to send congratulations? No problem, you can do so on our anniversary website. Thanks!
Thank you so much for such an amazing blog. I’m impressed by the details that you have on this website. I hope all this information would be helpful for us!!
Congratulations to you all at SMA, for the 35years milestone of research, producing and supplying technology to the world for renewable energy. We look forward to more milestones as you continue to generate more Gigawatts of inverter technologies.
Regards,
Jesse