Carl soot

This article is about the chocolate maker Carl Russ. For other people see also Karl Russ .

Johannes Carl Maria Russ (born  November 22, 1838 in Wald , today Solingen ; †  February 12, 1925 in Neuchâtel ) was a Swiss chocolate manufacturer of German origin.

Life

Carl Russ was the first child of Carl Johann Adolph Gisbert Theodor Russ (1802-1870), teacher at the Protestant school in Wald, and his second wife Christiane Oelbermann (* 1804). The modest financial circumstances of the large teachers' household (the five children from the first marriage were joined by five younger siblings from the second marriage) did not allow the talented boy to be sent to high school and study. He therefore completed a commercial apprenticeship and in 1861 joined the Suchard chocolate factory, founded by Philippe Suchard in 1825 in Neuchâtel, Switzerland, as a traveling salesman, where he rose quickly thanks to his talent for sales, his commercial skills and his language skills.

In 1868, Carl Russ Suchard's daughter Eugenie married and called herself Carl Russ-Suchard. He has been part of the company's management since 1867, and after the death of Philippe Suchard in 1884 (whose son Philippe Jr. had died in 1883), he became the sole managing director. From 1919 onwards he shared the management of the company with his son and successor Willy Russ, from which he only retired in 1924 due to illness.

Russ-Suchard & Cie invoice dated March 4, 1890

Share in the Romanian Suchard subsidiary from 1923

The company, which in 1884 already had more than 200 employees and was by far the largest Swiss chocolate factory with around half of total Swiss production, took on the status of Russ-Suchard & Cie. another huge boom and expanded beyond the borders of Switzerland: in 1880 a factory was opened in Lörrach (Baden), in 1888 the first Austria-Hungary chocolate factory in Bludenz , and in 1903 a factory in Paris . Further branches were set up in Strasbourg and in San Sebastian, Spain . In 1905 the company was converted into a joint stock company (Suchard SA), but remained under the control of the owner family.

On the one hand, product improvements such as the production of milk chocolate using milk powder , which was developed in the 1890s, contributed to economic success, and on the other hand, Carl Russ-Suchard, like Philippe Suchard, was aware of the importance of catchy brand names . For his Alpine milk chocolate, which was launched in 1898, he created the Milka brand (short for “milk” and “cocoa”) with the key color purple, which is still successful today and which was launched in 1901 in Switzerland and the German Empire (here as the first chocolate brand at all) Trademark has been registered. In 1901 Russ-Suchard became the first president of the newly founded Association of Swiss Chocolate Manufacturers (today: Chocosuisse ).

Just like his father-in-law, Ruß cultivated a paternalistic management style towards employees. His ideal of the “corporate family” was shaped by social responsibility and welfare measures for the workforce on the one hand (e.g. health and benefit funds, building of workers' housing estates with hospitals, people's kitchen and library), on the other hand by educational influence and social control (e.g. Fight against alcohol, promote hygiene and orderly family relationships). This also included the fight against any union organization of the workforce, which Russ-Suchard was able to successfully prevent during the time he was running the company.

Like his son later, Ruß was also an art patron, collecting art and making purchases from both established and young artists. Among other things, he supported the young painter Erwin Bowien (1899–1972) through numerous purchases during his time in Neuchâtel.

Foundations

Ruß set up two foundations at his place of birth: on April 20, 1904, on the occasion of the inauguration of the Ohligs-Walder-Realgymnasium, the "Teacher-Carl-Ruß-Foundation" to award scholarships to "worthy Protestant students", especially the sons of teachers, and on April 21, 1904. In April 1905, in honor of his parents, the "Eheeute-Carl-Russ-Stiftung" established a housekeeping school and supported poor women who had recently given birth and needy Protestant apprentices. For this he was made an honorary citizen of the city of Wald on May 29, 1908 .

The considerable capital of the foundations (for the married Carl Russians foundation last 150,000 marks, for the teachers Carl Russians foundation 20,000 marks) was destroyed by the inflation in 1923, so that the teachers Carl Russians foundation was dissolved in 1924 had to become. The remainder of their endowment capital was added to the married Carl Russ Foundation. Since their foundation assets also included real estate values, they could be continued in a reduced form. Today it is administered by the city of Solingen and awards grants to gifted and needy Solingen pupils and students.

On December 4, 1997, a street in the Wald district of Solingen was named after Carl Russ.

literature

• Willy Russ: Karl Russ-Suchard (1838–1925). Attinger, Neuchâtel 1926.
• Claire-Aline Nussbaum, Laurent Tissot: Suchard. Entreprise familiale de chocolat, 1826–1938: naissance d'une multinational suisse. Neuchâtel 2005.

Web links

• Soot Foundation: 100 years old. In: Solinger Tageblatt , May 17, 2005
• The married Carl Russ Foundation on the website of the city of Solingen

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Chocosuisse (Ed.): Chocologie. History and present of the Swiss chocolate industry. Bern 2001, p. 8
2. ↑ Michaël Voegtli: Crise de foi dans l'industrie chocolatière Suchard. Du paternalisme à l'État social (1870–1940)
3. ↑ Erwin Bowien: The beautiful game between spirit and world. My painter life . Ed .: Bettina Heinen-Ayech and Freundeskreis Erwin Bowien eV U-Form Verlag, Solingen 1995, ISBN 3-88234-101-7 , p. 22.23 .