the establishment was founded by peter engel and christian "chris" hahn (a ship engineer by training), although engel soon left. the company was originally a repair shop in pinneberg, a hamburg suburb, but hahn began converting a few mercedes into limousines. this side of the business grew quickly, and hahn received a contract to convert 40 s-class mercedes to limousines in all the colors of the rainbow for the 1981 wedding of mohammed bin zayed al nahyan, the future crown prince of abu dhabi. other regular clients included the sultan of brunei and king fahd of saudi arabia. the business grew quickly, and in 1984 and 1985 the firm had 100 employees and also used several subcontractors to carry out conversions. in particular wille karosseriebau, a body builder of trucks, buses, and trailers in seevetal, carried out many jobs for sgs.