Carl Wilhelm Luther

Carl Wilhelm Luther (born June 23, ^jul. / 5. July  1859 ^greg. In Tallinn , Governorate of Estonia ; †  10. June 1903 in Berlin ) was a Baltic German engineer and industrialist.

Life and Entrepreneurship

Carl Wilhelm Luther was born as the son of the Baltic German businessman and entrepreneur Alexander Martin Luther (1810–1876) and his wife Henriette Caroline Luther, née. Steding, (1825–1905) born in the Estonian capital. Carl's older brother was the entrepreneur Christian Wilhelm Luther (1857–1914), with whom Carl remained closely connected both privately and commercially throughout his life.

In the course of the 19th century, the influential and economically aspiring father rose to become one of the leading merchants and politicians in the Estonian capital Tallinn ( Reval in German ) through his building materials and timber trade . He was one of the first industrialists in Estonia to use the most modern machines.

The father invested a lot in the education of his children. Carl Wilhelm Luther graduated from the Polytechnic in the Livonian capital Riga in 1885 with a degree in mechanical engineering . The newly qualified engineer then worked in the Russian capital Saint Petersburg before returning to Estonia.

The former factory building of the AM Luther company in the Veerenni district of Tallinn

In 1887 Carl Wilhelm Luther became a partner in the woodworking factory that his brother Christian Wilhelm Luther had continued and expanded after the death of his father Alexander Martin Luther.

Carl became the technical director of the flourishing wood and furniture company, which had specialized in veneer from 1884 , a novelty in what was then the Russian Empire. He constructed special machines for veneer production. The flourishing company expanded rapidly in Tallinn. It also had its own power plant, a drying plant for wood, sawmills and extensive factory buildings for the mass production of furniture.

In 1898 the company was transformed into the stock corporation AS AM Luther , whose technical director was Carl Wilhelm Luther. The invention and patenting of waterproof veneer glue by a cousin of the Luther brothers gave the company further impetus. From then on, it also manufactured suitcases, hat boxes, buckets and other utensils, and later also parts for planes, cars and trains. For the English export market, she produced boxes for transporting tea. The export company Venesta (for "Veneer + Estonia") was founded in London in 1897 and had the sole right to distribute the products in the British Empire.

Together with his brother Christian, Carl Luther founded the Volta factory in Tallinn in April 1899 , which focused on the manufacture of electric motors and generators for the Russian market. He held the office of director of the joint stock company with him.

Both brothers took part in the World's Fair in Paris in 1900. Three years later, the still young Carl Wilhelm Luther died in Berlin.

literature

• Eesti elulood. Tallinn: Eesti entsüklopeediakirjastus 2000 (= Eesti entsüklopeedia 14) ISBN 9985-70-064-3 , p. 262.
• Genealogia Lutherorum rediviva, or, News about the Luther Family in Estonia and Russia. Total from Robert Luther; supplemented and annotated by Carl Russwurm. Reval 1883.

Web links

• History of the Luther family business ( Äripäev , October 2, 2008, Estonian)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original dated August 10, 2013 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.  
2. ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from June 26, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.