Carl Grundmann

Carl Heinrich Grundmann (born June 29, 1818 in Danzig , Prussia , † August 21, 1878 in Herzogenburg , Lower Austria ) was a locksmith and train driver from Emperor Franz Joseph, inventor and manufacturer.

Life

The trained locksmith Carl Grundmann settled at the age of 20 on the Walz in Vienna in 1838 . Here he learned the profession of locomotive driver. He was the first train driver in the Austrian Empire . All other train drivers already working for the Austrian railways came from England , which is where the locomotives of the Kaiser Ferdinand Nordbahn came from.

In the course of the October Revolution , the court fled to Olomouc with Emperor Ferdinand and his successor Archduke Franz Joseph on October 7, 1848 . Grundmann played an important role as the first local train driver after the English (dressed in tails and top hats) and received a correspondingly generous reward. He was also granted the imperial privilege of keeping Lipizzaners .

In 1862, with his savings, he founded a locksmith's business in Vienna-Leopoldstadt , where locksmith goods were machine-made. Until his retirement in 1865 - he was also the train driver of Archduke Maximilian - he remained a train driver. Only then was he able to enlarge his business and move it to Hernals near Vienna. Here he mainly produced galvanic batteries for the railroad.

Carl Grundmann had four sons, of whom Julius, Gustav and Heinrich worked in his company, while the eldest son Wilhelm initially stayed in Germany and completed further training. Wilhelm left his father's business in 1894 and founded his own locksmith's goods factory in Hainfeld .

Grundmann also worked for the Austro-Hungarian Army and developed industrially manufactured closures for ammunition boxes. Due to the good order situation, he was able to expand further and in 1875 rented the halls of the Vollrath company in Oberndorf on the plain near Herzogenburg , as cheap energy was available through the use of hydropower.

However , the company founder did not experience the construction of his own factory on the Traisen in Herzogenburg, as he suffered an attack of typhoid in August 1878 and died shortly afterwards from the consequences.

Due to the economic importance of the Grundmann-Werke, Herzogenburg was elevated to the status of a city in 1927, despite the insufficient population of only 2700 inhabitants, in order to set an internationally unmistakable signal of Austria's industrial performance in the beginning global economic crisis. Hainfeld was promoted to town in 1928 for the same reason, although the population was far too small for that. Two cities in Lower Austria owe their town charter to Carl Grundmann.

Grundmann's operation continues in the two companies Kaba Locking Technology and the Georg Fischer Group in Herzogenburg as well as Grundmann Beschlagtechnik in Hainfeld.

literature

• Mathis, Franz: Big Business in Austria. Austrian large companies in brief presentations. Munich: Oldenbourg 1987.
• Glaubauf, Karl , Mrskos, Franz: 125 years of the labor movement and social democracy for Herzogenburg, Herzogenburg 2013, without ISBN, Festschrift, ed. from the SPÖ city party Herzogenburg.

Web links

• Entry about Grundmann, Carl in the Austria-Forum , author / editing: Karl Anton Glaubauf (biography)