Adolf Messer

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Adolf Messer (born April 6, 1878 in Hofheim am Taunus ; † May 13, 1954 in Frankfurt am Main ) was a German designer and industrialist and founder of the company that produces oxy-fuel welding and cutting technology and industrial gases. The Adolf Messer GmbH since 1965 with the Knapsack Griesheim AG to GmbH Messer Griesheim merged.

life and work

Adolf Messer was the son of the master butcher and cattle dealer Johann Matthias Messer (1853–1921) and his wife Margarethe. Messer's parents owned a butcher's and inn in Höchst am Main . From March 1892 he did an apprenticeship in a gas engine factory. After visiting the technical center in Neustadt i. Meckl. , He studied from 1898 mechanical engineering at the Technical University of Darmstadt . He dealt with the acetylene lighting, which was modern at the time, and built an acetylene system for his father's business and for the associated restaurant. This system attracted the interest of visitors and brought Messer orders for such systems. At the age of 20 he founded the company Adolf Messer GmbH in Höchst am Main. By 1905 the company had supplied 2,200 systems for the development of acetylene for lighting as well as for cooking, heating, warming and soldering. He moved his company to Frankfurt / Main and expanded it here several times. From 1906 he concentrated on the oxy-fuel welding and cutting technology, as the competition from electricity for the other applications was getting stronger. In 1908, Messer built an air separation plant and produced industrial gases . In 1912 he had 15 employees and 50 workers and from then on also sold on the American market. During the First World War , on behalf of the Reich government, he developed systems for the production of liquid oxygen , which was also used as an explosive, since Chile's nitrate and glycerine could no longer be imported.

During the Nazi era , the company managed by Messer profited considerably from the regime's arms production, employed forced labor and was a supplier for V2 production and the Wehrmacht . In the denazification process , Messer, who had been a member of the NSDAP since 1933 , was classified as a follower in 1948. A one-off monetary payment was imposed on Messer as an atonement. The person and the company have been the subject of several reports from the historians' group Andreas Fahrmeir , Jörg Lesczenski and Werner Plumpe, as well as the National Socialist Education Research Center at Goethe University Frankfurt am Main , which come to different perspectives on Adolf Messer. The reason for the preparation of the expert opinion was the naming of a student workroom on the university campus Riedberg as the Adolf Messer Foundation Lounge .

In 1949 the company again had over a thousand workers. The son Hans Messer joined the company's management in 1952.

Adolf Messer had been a member of the German Acetylene Association (DAV) since 1899 and a member of the board of directors since 1915, member of the board of the Autogenous Metal Working Association, which he co-founded in 1919, and a founding member (1925) of the welding technology committee of the Association of German Engineers (VDI).

Adolf Messer was in his first marriage to Margarethe Messer geb. Merten (1877–1956) married. The couple had eight children together, five of whom died very early. In 1924 he married Thea Bicker (1900-1996) for the second time. He had three children with her: Elisabeth (born 1921), Hans (1925–1997) and Rosemarie (1933–1963). Adolf Messer died on May 13, 1954 and was buried in Königstein im Taunus .

Awards

aftermath

On the occasion of Adolf Messer's 100th birthday, the Messer family established the Adolf Messer Foundation in 1978 . The foundation annually awards two scientific advancement awards at the TU Darmstadt and the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main . At the Goethe University in 2014, the foundation supported the establishment of a student work room on the Riedberg campus with € 100,000.

In 2015, the then presidium of the Goethe University took the decision to name this room after the foundation as the Alfred Messer Foundation Lounge . This decision led to heated discussions in 2018 and to the call for the room to be renamed; The background to this are allegations made against Messer in the meantime, to which the educational scientist Benjamin Ortmeyer said: “It is now beyond doubt that he worked for the armaments industry and employed slave labor. Incidentally, some of them were arrested and executed by the Gestapo because they had left their place of work - here in Preungesheim . So the man got involved in the Nazi system. And for a university it is intolerable to honor such a man. ”On March 21, 2018, the Senate of the Goethe University endorsed a recommendation by a Senate commission to rename the room. In July 2018, the executive committee of the Goethe University decided on the name: Adolf Messer Foundation Lounge - Discourse Room - Science in History and Society . In the entrance to the lounge, this name is explained with an appreciation of the foundation's commitment, but also with the historical-critical classification of Adolf Messer and the connection between science and society.

literature

  • Katja Link: Memories of Adolf Messer . Ammelburg, Frankfurt am Main 1954
  • F. Lerner (Ed.): The active Frankfurt . 1955, p. 386 ff.
  • Franz Lerner:  Messer, Adolf. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 17, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1994, ISBN 3-428-00198-2 , pp. 214-216 ( digitized version ).
  • Jörg Lesczenski: 100 percent knife. The return of the family business from 1898 to the present day . Munich / Zurich 2007.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b On the history of the knife works in NS from the files of the Hessian State Archive. (PDF) Files on the person of Adolf Messer, on forced labor camps in the Messer factories and on forced laborer Raymond Charles Petitjean. Research Center Nazi Education at Goethe University Frankfurt am Main, March 8, 2018, accessed on November 30, 2018 .
  2. ↑ Sascha Zoske: Convincing Nazi or everyday opportunist ? In: FAZ.net . June 9, 2018, accessed October 13, 2018 .
  3. ^ A b Franz Lerner:  Messer, Adolf. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 17, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1994, ISBN 3-428-00198-2 , pp. 214-216 ( digitized version ).
  4. ↑ adolf-messer-stiftung.de ( Memento of the original from August 11, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Portrait @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.adolf-messer-stiftung.de
  5. ↑ adolf-messer-stiftung.de ( Memento of the original from May 6, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.adolf-messer-stiftung.de
  6. ↑ Frankfurt: "It is intolerable for the university to honor such a man". In: Frankfurter Rundschau . November 30, 2018, accessed November 30, 2018 .
  7. ^ Information from the Presidium on the naming of the Adolf Messer Foundation Lounge on the Riedberg campus , on the university website, as of August 20, 2018
personal data
SURNAME Messer, Adolf
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German designer and industrialist
DATE OF BIRTH April 6, 1878
PLACE OF BIRTH Hofheim am Taunus
DATE OF DEATH May 13, 1954
Place of death Frankfurt am Main