Anton Kathrein senior

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Anton Kathrein senior (* April 22, 1888 in Kiefersfelden -Mühlbach; † June 13, 1972 in Rosenheim ) was a German entrepreneur in the field of antenna technology .

Beginnings

Kathrein's father was a railroad car attendant. After elementary school and an apprenticeship as an electrical engineer, Anton Kathrein spent years traveling at home and abroad. He worked at various electricity and overland plants, including as a chief fitter. At the Oberbayerische Überlandzentrale , branch Rosenheim, he became an operations inspector in high-voltage construction and dealt in detail with the dangers of lightning for overhead lines. Here he invented the mast disconnector surge arrester with built-in fuse , which protects low-voltage networks from failures caused by lightning, and with which he set up his own business in Rosenheim in 1919. While he was initially manufacturing in a basement workshop, thanks to the demand for his lightning protection device, he was soon able to build a small factory. With further patents in the area of lightning protection , he expanded his plant, which later became Kathrein-Werke KG. With the introduction of broadcasting in 1924, he also recognized here applications for lightning protection and shifted later its emphasis on antennas and antenna accessories. Because of its accumulated experience in the United States he built a Bakelite -Presswerk, which enabled him, porcelain - insulators to replace.

Armaments factory and Nazi reference

In the summer of 1941, Kathrein applied to the National Socialist Federation of German Technology for the professional title of " engineer " to be awarded. For the 25th anniversary of the company, he was awarded the honorary “engineer”. During the war, the Kathrein company was to be regarded  as a production company of the Air Force due to an instruction from the armaments inspection of Wehrkreis VII . On the occasion of its fifth application in the performance struggle of German companies in 1942/43, the company pointed out that as a manufacturer and sub-supplier of precision parts, it had received the highest level of urgency. In April 1942, possibly also because of this, 41 women from the Ukraine were assigned to the company as forced laborers . Some of them had to work 72 hours a week (without wages) and were locked in the cellar by Kathrein if they did not perform well. Kathrein was a NSDAP member (number 1724236) as well as a supporting member of the SS and was appointed by the NSDAP to the Rosenheim municipal council.

post war period

After the reconstruction took Kathrein 1950-1955 a comprehensive antenna program and presented the first company in Germany FM - dipoles ago. Then the production of television antennas began. After his death, his son Anton (1951–2012) took over the company.

Publications

  • Planning and calculation of central antenna systems ; 1958
  • Goubau management : Description u. Assembly instructions ; 1959
  • Introduction to antenna technology ; 1966

Awards

A street in Rosenheim is named after him.

literature

  • Veronika Diem: Foreign work in Upper Bavaria. Studies on the history of forced labor using the example of Rosenheim and Kolbermoor 1939 to 1945 , in: Supplement 1 of the yearbook of the Kolbermoor History Workshop , 2005
  • Klaus Weber: Döser and Kathrein. Profiteers from the Nazis? An event and its consequences , in supplement 4 of the yearbook of the Geschichtswerkstatt Kolbermoor eV , 2009

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ ETZ: Elektrotechnische Zeitschrift: Ed. A., Volume 79 (1958), p. 399
  2. ^ Anton Kathrein senior. Rosenheim City Archives , accessed on November 18, 2012 .
  3. ↑ Rosenheim location strengthened. Retrieved on February 18, 2014 : "... and the street that is named after the grandfather of today's CEO."
personal data
SURNAME Kathrein, Anton senior
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German entrepreneur in antenna technology
DATE OF BIRTH April 22, 1888
PLACE OF BIRTH Kiefersfelden -Mühlbach
DATE OF DEATH June 13, 1972
Place of death Rosenheim