Albert Borsig

August Julius Albert Borsig

August Julius Albert Borsig (born March 7, 1829 in Berlin ; † April 10, 1878 there ) was a German entrepreneur . He was the son of August Borsig , the founder of the Borsigwerke .

Career and Succession

Albert Borsig attended the Friedrichwerdersches Gymnasium for the last three years of his school education . He spent a large part of his free time in the workshops of his father's company and had already learned molding when he graduated from high school in 1848. After extensive practical training in the factory, he attended the Royal Commercial Institute in Berlin for a year and then did his military service in the artillery . At the age of 25, he joined the thriving family business in 1854 and took over management of it after August Borsig's death. His three sons ( Ernst Borsig , Arnold Borsig and Conrad von Borsig ) in turn ran the mechanical engineering company and iron foundry in Moabit until the Berlin production facilities were merged into a large plant near Tegel at the turn of the century.

Entrepreneurial activity

Railway construction near Borsig, from the cycle Life story of a locomotive by Paul Friedrich Meyerheim

The mechanical engineering institute in Berlin, which was founded by August Borsig in 1837 near the Oranienburger Tor , mainly built locomotives . The wrought iron required for this initially had to be obtained from England. This dependency led to the establishment of a separate ironworks in Moabit in 1847 , which went into operation in 1850. The acquisition of coal mines near Biskupitz in Upper Silesia in 1854 was aimed at building a blast furnace in the immediate vicinity. Albert Borsig carried out his late father's plans and in 1859 the furnace was completed.

The construction of the mines and works in Upper Silesia was Albert Borsig's first entrepreneurial achievement. He also succeeded in steadily increasing the production of the plants and thus increasingly producing for the international market. In the period from 1856 to 1858, the production facilities in Berlin and Moabit were greatly enlarged and annual production increased to 150 to 160 locomotives. In 1870 Borsig relocated the Moabit rolling mill to Silesia , while blacksmiths and boilermakers' workshops for the locomotive construction company were set up in the vacant rooms . This increased production to 250 locomotives a year. The hundredth locomotive was completed in 1846, the five hundredth in 1854, and the three thousandth in 1873; by 1885 there were a total of 4,100 locomotives. The company's production program was supplemented by the steam engines, water holding and hoisting machines, equipment for commercial systems, steam boilers and bridges supplied by the Moabit plant.

In 1872 Albert Borsig co-founded the Maschinenfabrik Deutschland (MFD) in Dortmund in the immediate vicinity of the Borsigplatz , which is named after him, on Borsigstrasse, as well as the Berlin-based construction company for railway companies, F. Pleßner & Comp.

For his services to the common good, Albert Borsig was awarded the honorary title of a secret councilor in 1869 .

With the death of Albert Borsig, the most successful chapter of Borsig's activity ended. The company was then placed under a board of trustees until his sons were old enough and could take over the management of the company in 1894.

Borsig as a squire

Gut Groß Behnitz around 1860, Alexander Duncker collection

Borsig estate

In 1866 Albert Borsig acquired the estate of the former Itzenplitz Castle in Groß Behnitz in Havelland for himself and his family . Its entrance, which was restored around 1980, is known for its early classical sandstone trophies created by Carl von Gontard from the Oranienburger Tor , which was on the other side of the street opposite the Borsig factory and was demolished in 1867 . Borsig had them transported from Berlin to Groß Behnitz and placed on the red brick plinths to the right and left of the gate. Under Borsig's management, an extensive ensemble of brick structures was built on the estate as the center of a model agricultural business organized on the basis of modern technologies.

Albert Borsig enriched the park with rare trees and made a name for himself as a plant connoisseur; The climbing plant " Delicious window leaf " ("Monstera borsigiana", also "Monstera deliciosa var. borsigiana") , which was introduced into Europe from Mexico in 1848, was named after him.

Borsig Palace

In the Voßstraße  one on the corner of Wilhelmstrasse Borsig settled from 1875 to 1877 to build a landmark home. However, he could no longer use his Palais Borsig as he died soon after it was completed.

literature

• Meyers Konversationslexikon . 4th edition, Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig and Vienna 1885–1892.
• Herbert Schwenk: Lexicon of Berlin Urban Development. Haude & Spenersche Verlagbuchhandlung, Berlin 2002, ISBN 3-7759-0472-7 , p. 163.
• Kurt Pierson: Borsig - a name goes around the world. Rembrandt Verlag, Berlin 1973, ISBN 3-7925-0204-6 , p. 77.