It all began in 1972 in the era of the GDR when the industrial valve manufacturing concern then named "Armaturenwerk Prenzlau" took up the responsibilities for the production of industrial refrigeration valves as a division of the "Kombinat Magdeburger Armaturenwerk" (MAW). In the beginning the product range included shut off valves, regulation valves and check valves. The production of safety valves began in 1974 and as from 1978 the pilot regulation valves and solenoid valves.

The German Democratic Republic (GDR) existed from 1949 to 1989  as an independent State and was the centre of development, manufacture and supply of components and systems for industrial refrigeration mainly within the member states of the socialist federation which included the Soviet Union, Albanian, Bulgaria, Poland, Romania, Czech Republic, Hungary, Cuba, Mongolia and Vietnam. More than 400,000 valves were delivered to the Soviet Union alone between 1972 and 1989. At that time the company employed over 1000 people.

In 1990 the two German states were unified and the valve production works in Prenzlau was offered for privatisation by the trustees. The company underwent a management buyout by Mr Peter Jörg Mahnke, director for sales, design and development and Mr Ferdinand Strotköttter director for production, accounts and acquisition. Each of the directors took a 50% interest in the company and with a total of 37 employees and staff the AWP Kälte Klima Armaturen GmbH was begun.

In 2003 the two directors stepped down and handed over their company management positions to their respective sons, Thomas Strotkötter and Lars Zimmermann.

In 2006 the GEA group AG purchased the company and integrated AWP into the GEA refrigeration division.

In 2007 the GEA refrigeration valves manufacturing company Revalco BV from 's-Hertogenbosch in the Netherlands were incorporated into the the AWP concern, taking over the complete production, sales and supply of spare parts.

In 2008 the company was officially renamed and was presented at the 2008 Chillventa trade fair in Nuremberg as the GEA AWP GmbH.