Axel Th. Simon

Axel Theobald Simon (born August 11, 1943 in Bitburg ; † April 25, 2018 ) was a German entrepreneur and brewer . He was president of the experimental and training institute for breweries in Berlin from 1989 to 2014 and head of Bitburger Holding since 2004 .

Life

Simon was the great-great-grandson of Theobald Simon . He grew up as the son of Josef Bertrand (Bert) Simon (1913–1970), a co-owner of the Bitburger Brewery , and his wife Genia, née Rauter.

After attending primary school from 1950 to 1954, he was at the New Language High School Bitburg until 1960 and at the Montana Institute on the Zugerberg from 1960 to 1964 . After acquiring the cantonal Matura, he spent a year as an intern at the malting, brewery and hop growing company Otto Höfter & Söhne in Neuhausen near Mainburg in Lower Bavaria.

From 1965 to 1969 he studied brewery technology at the Faculty of Agriculture of the TU Berlin and earned the title of graduate engineer. He then did an internship at Verhülsdonk & Partner, an auditing and tax consulting company in Cologne, for a year. From 1970 to 1972 he completed a postgraduate course in industrial and economic sciences at the Technical University of Munich and obtained the title of Diplom-Wirtschaftsingenieur.

On June 1, 1972, he started working for the Bitburger brewery Th. Simon GmbH in his hometown. Together with his cousins Michael Dietzsch and Tomasz Niewodniczański by marriage , he took over the management of the Bitburger brewery in 1975; as the successor to his uncle Hanns Simon , he became managing director for the technology and environment department. In 2007 he handed over this task to Jan Niewodniczański , son of his cousin Marie-Luise Niewodniczańska (* 1938), a daughter of Theobald Simon .

In 1984 he successfully defended his dissertation on the technological and economic assessment of modern wort boiling processes, paying special attention to discontinuous pressure boiling. at Faculty 13 "Food Technology and Biotechnology" at TU Berlin with Friedrich Meuser , Karl Wackerbauer and Heinz Petersen . The findings from this research project were tested in the innovative brewing technologies of the Bitburger breweries and ensure significantly lower energy consumption.

Simon was married; he left three daughters and seven grandchildren.

Parish Church of Our Lady

The death official for Simon took place on May 5, 2018 in the parish church of Liebfrauen zu Bitburg.

Honorary positions

• Member of the board of the Rhineland-Palatinate Future Initiative (ZIRP)
• Vice President of the Chamber of Commerce Trier
• Member of the board of the Trier Entrepreneurs Association
• Deputy Chairman of the Brewing Barley Association for Rhineland-Palatinate
• Chairman of the representative assembly of the AOK Bitburg-Prüm
• Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Volksbank Bitburg
• Member of the city council of Bitburg from 1994 to 2004
• Member of the works committee of Stadtwerke Bitburg and the association assembly of the Zweckverband Flugplatz Bitburg
• Chairman of the Bitburg tennis club
• Founding President of the Bitburg Golf Club
• Vice President of the European Brewery Convention (EBC)
• Member of the board and executive committee of the German Brewers Association
• Deputy Chairman of the Hesse / Rhineland-Palatinate Brewery Association

Awards

• 2004: Federal Cross of Merit on ribbon
• 2007: Business Medal of the State of Rhineland-Palatinate
• 2013: "Maximi honoris causa" plaque for many years of commitment by the City of Bitburg
• 2014: Honorary President of the VLB
• On October 16, 2017, the library set up in the VLB's new building was inaugurated as the Axel Simon Library

literature

• Katharina Dehnke, Heinrich Tappe: Simon, brewery entrepreneur. In: Neue Deutsche Biographie 24 (2010), pp. 428–429.
• Dietmar Henle, Katharina Dehnke: Chronicle of the Bitburger brewery. Brewing tradition since 1817. Cologne 2003.

Web links

• The VLB Berlin mourns its honorary president
• Simon Hage, Christoph Neßhöver: Please no bit. How the brewing clan from the Eifel gambled away their legacy . Manager Magazin 1/2014,
• Heribert Waschbüsch, Dagmar Schommer: A festival for a real connoisseur: Beer brewer and entrepreneur Axel Simon celebrates his 70th birthday - many surprises at the reception in Bitburg . volksfreund.de , August 12, 2013
• Axel Simon: Bitburger brewer turns 60 . stern.de , August 11, 2003
• Dr. Axel Th. Simon is "70" . Bitburger Brewery Group, August 12, 2013

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Heribert Waschbüsch: Obituary: Mourning for Axel Simon: A life for the brewery . volksfreund.de , April 26, 2018, accessed on April 27, 2018.
2. ^ Björn Thomann: Simon family: Brewery dynasty (since 1817) . In: Internet portal Rhenish History of the Rhineland Regional Council , accessed on April 27, 2018.
3. ↑ Axel Th. Simon: Technological and economic assessment of modern wort boiling processes with special consideration of discontinuous pressure boiling . Dissertation at the TU Berlin, 1984, DNB 850192277 .
4. ↑ Great honor for Dr. Axel Th. Simon . Message from the city of Bitburg, December 4, 2013, accessed on April 27, 2018.
5. ↑ Dr. Axel Th. Simon appointed honorary president of VLB Berlin . ( Memento of the original from April 27, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Experimental and educational institute for brewing in Berlin, October 1, 2014, accessed on April 27, 2018. 
6. ↑ Library according to Dr. Axel Simon named . Message from the city of Bitburg, January 12, 2018, accessed on April 27, 2018.