Albert Nestler drawing technique

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The company Albert Nestler drawing technique was a manufacturer of slide rules , drawing boards and construction jobs in Lahr / Black Forest . The factory, founded in 1878, was already considered an industry leader in 1925 and was the world's largest manufacturer of slide rules before the Second World War. In the late 1970s, Nestler was the European leader in carriage drawing machines. The company's history ended with bankruptcy in the early 1990s. The former company premises, the Nestler area , is an important inner-city quarter in Lahr.

history

Drawing board

The Jacob Nestler linen weaver family came to Lahr in the 18th century. Christian Daniel Nestler (1811–1894) and his four sons founded an important industrial dynasty. The son Albert Nestler (1851–1901) founded the Beck & Nestler company in 1878 with the Swiss optician Theophil Beck , in which drawing rulers , drawing devices and extendable photo tripods were manufactured, and later also slide rules . In the early 1880s, partner Beck left the company. The company initially benefited from the general boom of the early days , but also in particular from the introduction of the metric system , which created a large market for the manufactured products. After an initial boom, however, a major fire in the factory around 1900 and the death of the founder in 1901 meant serious setbacks.

The founder's sons, Albert and Richard Nestler, rebuilt the company and added surveying equipment to the product range. After 1900 the company also opened up export markets, especially in Russia, Scandinavia, the Balkans and South America. In 1911, the company was expanded significantly with the construction of a factory building on Thiergartenstrasse. Shortly before the outbreak of World War I , a timber trade and a sawmill were also incorporated into the company, making production largely independent of suppliers. During the First World War, production was temporarily changed over to products owed to the war economy. After the end of the war, the company returned to its traditional products and was able to survive the economic crisis and inflation of the early 1920s without significant losses. The company was expanded to include a workshop for mechanics and locksmithing on Bahnhofstrasse and a factory site on Westendstrasse. In the 1920s, the company took a further boom with the addition of drawing machines and slide rules. The Darmstadt slide rule was a particularly successful model . In 1925/26 the company was considered to be the market leader in the area of ​​slide rules and drawing boards. In the course of the company's further growth, the company's own sawmill was relocated to Westendstrasse and further wood sheds were built on Gutenbergstrasse. Before the Second World War, Nestler was the world's largest manufacturer of slide rules.

Model N ° 23R, produced from 1922 to 1934

The Second World War led to a turning point in the company's history, as numerous employees were drafted into army service and the company became more and more involved in the war economy and arms production in the course of the war. Shortly before the end of the war, the main plant was completely destroyed by an air raid. Most of the remaining machines were confiscated by the French after the war.

Once again it was up to Albert and Richard Nestler to rebuild the company. The reconstruction was completed by the early 1950s and around 500 workers were employed again. The company was split into the production company Albert Nestler GmbH and Albert Nestler Vertriebsgesellschaft GmbH . Production initially consisted mainly of slide rules, then gradually shifted to drawing tables and drawing equipment. Richard Nestler was President of the Mittelbaden Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Lahr from 1930 to 1933 and from 1947 to 1952, the government of southern Baden appointed him Councilor of Commerce , he was also awarded the Great Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany and was made an Honorary Senator of the Technical University of Darmstadt appointed.

In 1954 Albert and Richard Nestler handed over the business to their sons Erich and Richard junior. Nestler. Following the old building on Bahnhofstrasse, an extension was built on the site of private buildings that had been destroyed by the war, connecting the two previous company properties on Bahnhofstrasse and Thiergartenstrasse to form a complex.

In 1968 the management passed to Heinrich Friedrich (son-in-law of Richard senior Nestler and long-time Lord Mayor of Lahr) and Karl Rieker. The company was once again internationally successful with the Nestler Ingenieur drawing table , and at the same time the production of electronic data acquisition devices began. At the beginning of the 1970s, the range of products was expanded to include all technical office equipment. In 1977 Nestler presented the first drawing machine with an electronic angle display. With the increasing change towards electronics and furniture, further extensions were built at the plant. In the late 1970s, Nestler was the European leader in carriage drawing machines.

In 1978, in the hundredth year of its existence, Dieter Lindemann and Dr. Bernd Friedrich took over the management of the company. At that time, 315 workers were employed in the production company and 110 workers in the sales company. In 1978 their own CAD system was developed, which came onto the market three years later and was intended in particular for mechanical engineering companies. The turnover amounted to DM 25 million in 1978 and around DM 60 million in 1990.

The company experienced its economic decline in the early 1990s and was dissolved in bankruptcy proceedings. Polar Form GmbH, which still exists in Lahr today, emerged from the company's former mold making department . The Nestler area on Bahnhofstrasse was used for various purposes and stood empty for several years before it was acquired by the Kenzing company Freyler Industriebau GmbH . It is currently the subject of the ongoing renovation of the old town in Lahr, after the work has been completed, a larger business center is to be built.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Die Industrie in Baden , ed. from the Baden Statistical Office, 1926
  2. ↑ Schlosser in Geroldsecker Land , ed. vom Ortenaukreis, issue 22, 1980
  3. ↑ , WA Boelcke, in: Badische Tüftler und Inventer, Jörg Baldenhofer (Ed.), P. 59, 1992, ISBN 3-87181-262-5

literature

  • Ernst Schlosser: 1 00 years Albert Nestler, drawing technology, Lahr ; in: Geroldsecker Land, issue 22, 1980
  • Joachim Becker, Bernd Friedrich (ed.): The Nestlers. History of an entrepreneurial family from Lahr. Bärenfelser Verlag 2016, ISBN 978-3-86372-046-9 .

Web links