Bernhard Markwitz
Bernhard Markwitz (* 1920 in Königsberg i. Pr .; † February 10, 2000 in Hamburg ) was a German businessman . Markwitz is considered to be the inventor of the armbands in Germany.
Life
Markwitz comes from a Königsberg hotelier family and was trained as a lifeguard . After the Second World War and the British captivity, Markwitz moved to Hamburg in 1948. As a businessman he traded in spirits and cosmetics and from 1949 also worked for the German Life-Saving Society (DLRG) in Hamburg. In 1957 he began swimming training for three to six year olds at the DLRG, which he developed himself, and was district manager of the DLRG from 1953 to 1961. In the summer of 1956 his three-year-old daughter Annette fell into a goldfish pond in Hamburg-Winterhude and almost drowned. Markwitz developed and produced a swimming aid that was supposed to make swimming safer, especially for children, than the cork swimming rings that had been common up until then . A lottery win of DM 253,000 gave him the necessary start-up capital. It was not until 1964 that the armbands took their final shape. Initially, the armbands only had an air chamber and no check valves in the valves. On June 13, 1964, his triangular armbands made their first official appearance in the Hamburg-Ohlsdorf swimming pool . Under the brand name "BEMA" (for Be rnhard Ma rkwitz) they have been sold over 150 million copies. The swimming aids were also produced in Taiwan from 1972 and in Thailand in the 1990s. Markwitz died in February 2000 at the age of 79 after heart surgery.
He was married to his wife Gisela and had a daughter and a son. In 2000, the long-term partner, Wehncke Freizeit from Hamburg, took over BEMA. The management remained with Gisela Markwitz until July 2002, before the licenses were sold to the Friedola Gebr. Holzapfel GmbH group of companies in Meinhard - Frieda . Friedola produced around two million pieces in 2010 and had a turnover of 100 million euros.
Awards
- Federal Cross of Merit on Ribbon (October 6, 1982)
- 1967 honorary member of the DLRG Alster district
Web links
- NDR: Bernhard Markwitz, The Swimming Helper
- The inventor of the armbands died ten years ago (welt.de)
- Chronicle of the DLRG district Alster in Hamburg ( Memento from June 17, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
Individual evidence
- ↑ Office of the Federal President
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Markwitz, Bernhard |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German businessman and inventor |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1920 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Koenigsberg i. Pr. |
| DATE OF DEATH | February 10, 2000 |
| Place of death | Hamburg |