Adolf Finze

Adolf Finze (* 1833 in Lobositz on the Elbe ; † February 5, 1905 in Kalsdorf near Graz ) was an Austrian entrepreneur.

Early years

Adolf Finze was born as the son of an innkeeper in 1833 in Lobositz on the Elbe, in what was then the Austrian crown land of Bohemia . He studied mechanical engineering at the Technical University in Prague and Vienna , after completing his studies he turned to what was then Austrian northern Italy and finally went to France to expand his knowledge through practical and manual work.

He then joined the Austrian Navy as a naval engineer , but left the Navy two years after his marriage, which took place in 1866, and settled in Knittelfeld , the seat of the Styrian “iron nobility”. In the same year he founded a wire and rotary pen factory there with modest own funds and with the substantial help of his father-in-law Franz Kappel . Finze managed the company so skillfully that in 1878 production was expanded to include the manufacture of screws and rivets . Ing.Finze used the good reputation that Adolf Finze , as it was then called, was able to acquire and initiated the expansion of the company.

The unfavorable spatial conditions in the Knittelfeld plant prompted him to look for a completely new location for his company. Only Karl Finze remained in Knittelfeld, a relative who worked as an innkeeper and beer brewer . The man couldn't cope with the collapse of his brewhouse in 1904. The inn was demolished and a savings bank was built in its place.

Relocation to Kalsdorf

Ing.Adolf Finze, however, turned to Kalsdorf near Graz , where in 1893 he acquired the completely run-down cardboard factory and wood grinding shop, the Heinrichsmühle, from the Rubinstein brothers . For Finze, this property was worth striving for because the use of the water power of the mill passage naturally present at the mill did not pose any problems and one building (the main building of the old factory, the converted Heinrichsmühle) already existed. Hand in hand with the necessary renovations, Finzes moved to Kalsdorf and operations could already be fully started in 1895.

death

On February 8, 1904, he was accepted into the home association of the Kalsdorf community. After an extremely busy working life, he died on February 5, 1905 at the age of 72 in Kalsdorf near Graz. His sons, Adolf Finze jun. and Dr. He left Julius Finze an excellently organized company that was in full economic bloom.

literature

• Ingo Mirsch: The history of the market town of Kalsdorf