Drägerwerk AG & Co. KGaA, commonly known as Dräger, is a publicly listed company based in Lübeck, Germany. It develops, manufactures, and sells devices and systems in the fields of medical and safety technology.

Rescue workers in the North American mining industry are often referred to as a Drägerman due to Dräger’s respiratory protection equipment.

The company was founded in Lübeck in 1889 as Dräger & Gerling by J. Heinrich Dräger [de] and Carl Adolf Gerling. In the same year, the Lubeca valve, a pressure reducer, was patented. In 1899, Dräger introduced a pressure gauge for breathing gas cylinders, which is still referred to today as a finimeter. In 1902, Dräger developed the Roth-Dräger anaesthesia apparatus, named after Lübeck doctor Otto Roth, which was used in Germany until the end of World War II. Early developments also included the Dräger BG 1904/09, a helmet breathing device used in mines rescue operations.

In 1907, Dräger developed a diving rescue device for submarine crews and the emergency ventilator Pulmotor, and the company opened its first branch in the United States in the same year. In 1912, Heinrich Dräger's son, Bernhard Dräger, became the sole owner of the company. From this point on, the company was known as Drägerwerk Heinr. und Bernh. Dräger (also: Drägerwerk Lübeck. Heinr. & Bernh. Dräger).

In 1937, Dräger developed the first so-called Dräger tube, a test tube for the early measurement of carbon monoxide in the air. This system improved safety in mining by replacing the traditional use of canaries, which had previously served as early warning indicators due to their sensitivity to even small amounts of toxic gases.

During the Third Reich, forced labourers were employed at Dräger. In 1941, approximately 1,200 forced labourers were employed. In June 1944, nearly 500 women were transported from the Ravensbrück concentration camp to Dräger’s facilities in Hamburg-Wandsbek for forced labour. Until April 1945, they lived in the Hamburg-Wandsbek subcamp of the Neuengamme concentration camp in barracks on the factory grounds. They were employed in the production of gas masks and in clearing debris after bombings in Hamburg. Some of the prisoners were subjected to human experiments on survival in gas-tight air-raid shelters. Approximately 550 women were liberated in May 1945 by British soldiers and the Swedish Red Cross.

In 2010, a memorial site was opened next to the former Hamburg-Wandsbek camp, and a memorial was erected for the forced labourers. In 2022, the Initiative Stolpersteine placed five Stolpersteine in front of Dräger in Lübeck. Dräger sponsored these memorial stones, which are dedicated to five executed forced labourers and the camp inhabitants of former factories in Siems, Herrenwyk, Schlutup, and other businesses that employed forced labour during the Nazi period.

In 1953, Dräger introduced the first alcohol test tubes, which were continuously improved and later adopted worldwide by police forces and companies. In 1998, results from measurements taken by officially approved devices became valid in court. In total, more than 30 million test tubes were produced before being replaced by electronic measuring devices, with production ending in 2016.