Carl Paul Goerz

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Carl Paul Goerz

Carl Paul Goerz (born July 21, 1854 in Brandenburg an der Havel , † January 14, 1923 in Berlin ) was a German entrepreneur and founder of the optical institute CP Goerz , the largest Berlin manufacturer of precision optics at the time.

Life

The son of a minor official lost his mother early and grew up with his uncle in Rathenow . He attended secondary school and completed a three-year commercial apprenticeship with Emil Busch in 1873 . After his military service, Goerz worked as a traveling salesman for various precision engineering and optical companies. From 1883 to 1886 he lived in Paris and was for a time partner in the company of Eugen Krauss , which manufactured lenses and later cameras and binoculars under license from Carl Zeiss . In 1886 Goerz settled in Berlin and founded a mail order business for mathematical instruments, drawing tools and protractors , primarily for schools. In 1887 he began selling photographic equipment and accessories, which he acquired as CP Goerz, Spezialfabrik photograph in 1888, after taking over the mechanical workshop from FA Hintze . Amateur apparatus also self-produced. In order to be able to manufacture the lenses himself, Goerz hired the engineer Carl Moser (1858–1892) in September 1888, who had previously worked for Carl Bamberg and was an expert in the field of calculating lens systems. With the employment of the optician Karl Hertel in October 1888 the production of lenses began.

Camera from CP Goerz

Since the introduction of the first lens in 1890, Goerz called his company Optische Anstalt CP Goerz . In the same year he secured the sole production of the momentary lock invented by Ottomar Anschütz . The Goerz-Anschütz-Moment-Camera , which for the first time enabled photography of moving objects with a shutter speed of 1/1000 of a second, became a commercial success. The Goerz double anastigmat , a lens developed by Emil von Höegh , who was employed by the late Moser in 1892, was equally successful .

Goerz proved his foresight by applying for military contracts early on. Within a few years he made his company the world's largest manufacturer of military optics. In 1903 he converted the Optische Anstalt into a stock corporation with a share capital of 3.5 million marks. In 1908 Goerz founded Goerz Photochemische Werke GmbH, which was independent of the Optical Institute .

Goerz was a skilled and successful entrepreneur. Due to the rapid expansion of his company in the 1890s, there was a need for skilled workers that was difficult to meet. Goerz therefore recruited apprentices from other precision engineering and optical companies and hired them with full pay. In order to bind the skilled workers to his company, Goerz introduced the eight-hour working day as early as 1894 and paid vacation leave in 1897. When Goerz died in 1923, Goerz AG was the second largest German precision engineering and optics company after Carl Zeiss .

As early as 1921, his son Paul Goerz took over the management of Goerz AG and from 1929 was chairman of the board of the newly founded TV AG based in the "Goerzwerk" Berlin-Zehlendorf (from October 1939, Fernseh GmbH ). Paul Goerz jun. became head of Ideal-Werke AG in Berlin-Hohenschönhausen in 1932 (from December 1938: Blaupunkt -Werke GmbH, Berlin-Wilmersdorf ).

Goertz was a member of the Berlin Freemason Lodge To the three golden keys .

Works

  • Paul Goerz (Ed.): Detailed instructions for making photographs for enthusiasts . Verlag Robert Oppenheim, Berlin, undated (1889).

Awards

  • Gold medal (CP Goerz) in the photography category at the Antwerp World's Fair in 1894.
  • Honorary diploma at the amateur photographer exhibition in Salzburg 1893.
  • Bronze medal (4th Department of Chemicals, Apparatus, etc.) for CP Goerz for inexpensive and good objectives at the anniversary photographic exhibition in Berlin in 1889.

Honors

tomb

Carl Paul Goerz was promoted to Kommerzienrat on September 28, 1903 and from the Technical University of Charlottenburg to Dr. Ing. E. h. appointed. The city of Berlin is honoring his life's work with an honorary grave in the Grunewald cemetery . Goerzallee in Berlin-Zehlendorf is named after him.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Krauss Photo in the Baden-Württemberg Economic Archive
  2. ↑ Review in: Charles Scolik (Ed.): Photographische Rundschau 3, Wilhelm Knapp, Halle / S., 1890, pp. 330–332.
  3. ^ Hermann Wilhelm Vogel (ed.): Photographische Mitteilungen , 31st vol., Robert Oppenheim, Berlin, 1895, p. 260, ( online ).
  4. ^ Richard Neuhauss (ed.): Photographische Rundschau , 7th year 1893, p. 351, ( online ).
  5. ^ Hermann Wilhelm Vogel (ed.): Photographische Mittelungen , 26th year, Robert Oppenheim, Berlin, 1890, p. 164, ( SLUB Dresden).
personal data
SURNAME Goerz, Carl Paul
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German entrepreneur
DATE OF BIRTH July 21, 1854
PLACE OF BIRTH Brandenburg on the Havel
DATE OF DEATH January 14, 1923
Place of death Berlin