Alexander Rodenstock

Christian Alexander Rodenstock (born February 24, 1883 in Munich , † August 30, 1953 in Bad Wiessee ) was a German entrepreneur and economic functionary who belonged to the circle of military economic leaders in the National Socialist German Reich .

Life

The son of the company's founder , Josef Rodenstock, studied physics and economics at the Technical University of Munich and became a member of the Corps Vitruvia Munich. At the insistence of his father, he broke off his studies and in 1905 at the age of 22 joined the company Optische Anstalt G. Rodenstock, which had just 200 employees . In 1908 he founded a company health insurance fund for his employees .

In 1918 he was a founding member of the Bavarian People's Party (BVP) and involved in the suppression of the Munich Soviet Republic . From 1919 to 1925 he was a member of the Munich city council and campaigned, among other things, for the technical works of the city of Munich to remain "unrestricted property of the city" despite the tendency towards a corporation at the time. In 1919, as a partner in what was now Optische Werke G. Rodenstock KG, he effectively took over management of the company. In 1920 he became vice president and later president of the Reich Association of the German Optical Industry. In 1923 he was a co-founder of the employers' association for the Bavarian metal industry, of which he was a board member until 1933. In 1924 he received the title of Kommerzienrat for his services to the community and social policy . Between 1937 and 1945 he was a member of the advisory board of the Munich Chamber of Commerce and, until 1933, Vice President of the German Student Union . After the death of his father in 1933 he became the sole partner of the company. In the same year he took over the chairmanship of the Bavarian district group of the precision mechanics and optics business group.

Under his leadership, the Rodenstock company changed from a manual to an industrial company. In addition to glasses, lenses were produced for numerous camera manufacturers and other optical devices. He led his company through the difficult times of the First and Second World Wars as well as the Great Depression and consistently adhered to the private character of the family company. During the Nazi era , his company was active in the armaments industry, including the manufacture of armored telescopes and viewing prisms for tanks. The business group also classified eyewear production as "decisive for the war". To this end, Rodenstock increasingly employed women and later also forced laborers and prisoners of war.

Just a few weeks after the end of the war, Rodenstock received an operating license to supply the Munich population and the 3rd US Army with glasses. After the end of the war, a lengthy judicial tribunal procedure found that he was not encumbered, among other things due to his support for Jewish families, the economic loss caused by the bombing war and no verifiable monetary donations to the party, and Rodenstock was able to continue his business. In 1947 he became a member and Vice President of the Bavarian Senate . In the same year he was one of the founders of the Association of the Bavarian Metal Industry, of which he became Deputy Chairman, and of the Association of Employers' Associations in Bavaria.

Alexander Rodenstock's company had over 2,000 employees when he died in 1953. His son Rolf Rodenstock , who had already represented him during the arbitration chamber proceedings, then took over the management.

Honors

• 1953: Great Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany

Individual evidence

1. ^ Ernst Klee : The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945 . Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, Second updated edition, Frankfurt am Main 2005, ISBN 978-3-596-16048-8 , p. 501.
2. ^ Address list of the Weinheimer SC. 1928, p. 268.
3. ↑ Dirk Reder and Severin Roeseling : AugenBlick. The history of the optical works G. Rodenstock. Piper Verlag, Munich 2003, ISBN 3-492-04482-4 , pp. 84-100.