Alfred Amann

Alfred Immanuel Amann (born September 20, 1863 in Bönnigheim ; † February 1, 1942 there ) was a German textile entrepreneur.

Life

Amann was born as the second son of the textile manufacturer Alois Amann in 1863 in Bönnigheim. He first attended the Latin school in his hometown and then the grammar school in Heilbronn , which he graduated in 1879. Amann then completed a two-year commercial apprenticeship in a fabric house in Darmstadt and then worked as a businessman in a fabric house in Celle . After disputes with the son of the company owner Böhringer, Amann's father paid off the business partners and took over the company alone. That is why Alfred Amann returned to Bönnigheim in 1882 and started in his father's factory. He got to know the company's production processes for a year and worked on each machine for several weeks. So he got an extensive knowledge of the production. In 1883/1884 Amann completed his one-year military service in the Uhlan regiment "King Karl" (1st Württembergisches) No. 19 in Stuttgart .

In 1884 the sewing silk factory got its own dye works. Alois Amann wanted his son to learn dyeing so that the company would not have to rely on outside help. Amann therefore completed extensive training as a dyer in Lyon , London and finally in Krefeld . On his return in 1888 he became the company's technical director.

Villa Amann , residence of Alfred Amann in Bönnigheim

At that time, “Amann & Söhne” was regarded as the leading German silk threading mill . After the death of their father in 1892, Alfred and Emil Amann took over the company and remained partners until 1917, when the "bon vivant" Emil Amann left the company and moved to Wiesbaden as a privateer . At the turn of the century Amann expanded strongly: a second location was built in Northern Italy , in 1902 the old factory in Bönnigheim was demolished and a new building was built in its place. Amann & Söhne was the first textile factory to start processing artificial silk . To avoid waste when tying the silk strands, Ammann invented a "tie button". The company grew rapidly in the course of industrialization , so that at the end of the 19th century Amann was the largest employer in the region and brought the city some prosperity. In 1914 the company had more than 1,000 employees and the region's unemployment rate was almost zero.

In 1933 Amann retired from the company and handed it over to his son-in-law. In 1939 Amann developed prostate cancer and died in 1942.

The Amanns were considered to be very socially committed. The plant had a company health insurance fund, and his wife Julie founded a soup kitchen in 1908. Amann donated two schools and a gym, a public swimming pool and a chapel.

Honors

In 1923 Amann became an honorary citizen of his city, and in 1931 a street was named after him. The Progymnasium he founded was named after him, the Alfred Amann Gymnasium . There is also the "Alfred-Amann-Weg", a hiking trail around Bönnigheim.

literature

• Jörg Alexander Mann: The villa of the factory owner Alfred Amann in Bönnigheim: A country house in the chalet style as an example of the picturesque architecture in Württemberg at the turn of the 19th to the 20th century . Dissertation, Faculty of Architecture, University of Karlsruhe, 2007, pp. 8–10 ( online ; PDF)