Casimir Otto Katz

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Casimir Otto Samuel Katz (born July 16, 1856 in Gernsbach ; † 1919 there ) continued the tradition of the Katz family dynasty , which was active in the Baden wood processing industry, and was a pioneer of industrial beer mat production .

Life

origin

Casimir came as the third child of the timber industrialist Casimir Rudolf Katz and his wife Jenny geb. Michaud (from Vevey in the French-speaking part of Switzerland) in Gernsbach in Baden. His mother died of tuberculosis in 1859. The three-year-old then came to see his aunts in Basel, who spoke to him in French. He didn't learn German until he was ten. Later he was accepted into a special class of a Karlsruhe grammar school for selected noble and middle-class children, together with the later Grand Duke Friedrich II , with whom he later became friends. After graduating from high school, he went on an extensive trip to Scandinavia to get to know the local timber business. This was followed by commercial training in Basel and the Netherlands. His father was not only the largest shareholder in the Murgschifferschaft , but also one of the first industrial pioneers in Baden. The company Katz & Klumpp , which he founded with his partner Gottlieb Klumpp , developed into one of the most important companies in the wood industry, thanks in particular to the business with impregnated telegraph poles.

Takeover of the timber company

When his father died in 1880, Casimir was 24 years old. He inherited only a fourteenth of the parental assets. The paternal company was liquidated. Casimir had to sell all of his 20 plants across Germany, except for three sawmills in the local Murgtal valley , in order to pay off his stepmother and six siblings. In 1881 he married the 18-year-old Johanna Kast (* 1863, † 1952), who came from a long-established Gernsbach boatman family. With the help of her dowry of 50,000 marks, he was able to continue the company. It was not until the 1890s that the company Katz & Klumpp , which was taken over by the father, ran successfully, after impregnated wooden poles were increasingly used for the expansion of the telephone network and the beginning of the establishment of the power supply. Katz built new plants in Aalen , Lübeck-Schlutup and Olbersdorf and exported worldwide.

Beer mat production

As early as 1882, Katz laid the foundation for the Murg Valley paper industry with the first wood grinding shop in the Murg Valley in Weisenbach . There, wood waste from the sawmills was first processed into wood pulp for paper mills and, from the 1890s, hand-made wood board was produced on cylinder molds. Since he also owned a brewery in Metz , in 1903 Katz came up with the idea of industrially manufacturing beer coasters from local spruce wood in pulp board, as a replacement for the felts previously used and perceived as unhygienic. At the same time the idea arose to print the beer mats and use them as advertising media. The beer coasters had previously been registered as a German patent by the Saxon manufacturer Robert Sputh in October 1892 .

In 1910, Casimir was appointed councilor of commerce by Grand Duke Friedrich II of Baden . He and his wife had seven children and did not live until 1913 in the Villa Katz, built by his ancestors between 1797 and 1813, with the associated Katz garden . Katz suffered from diabetes and died in 1919. His company had more than 1000 employees and was one of the largest woodworking companies in Germany. Today, the Katz Group, managed by his successors, is the world market leader with an annual output of 3.5 billion beer coasters with a world market share of around 75%. It has been part of the Koehler Paper Group since October 2009 .

Casimir Otto Katz is an honorary citizen of Gernsbach. Casimir-Katz-Strasse is named after him. It leads from the old town to the former hospital, the construction of which Katz provided significant financial support at the beginning of the 20th century.

literature

  • Wolfgang Froese: Casimir Otto Katz - benefactor and honorary citizen of the city of Gernsbach . In: Gernsbacher Bote 4 of November 24, 2010, Casimir Katz Verlag Gernsbach. Online version (PDF, 3.36 MB), p. 11 f
  • Max Scheifele , Casimir Katz, Eckart Wolf: The Murgschifferschaft. History of the raft trade, the forest and the timber industry in the Murg Valley . Series of publications by the State Forest Administration of Baden-Württemberg (Volume 66). 2nd Edition. Katz, Gernsbach 1995, 521 pp., ISBN 3-925825-20-7 , pp. 483 f., 491 f.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Gernsbacher Bote, Casimir Otto Katz, 4/2010, p. 11 f. (PDF file; 3.4 MB)
  2. ↑ Max Scheifele , Casimir Katz, Eckart Wolf: Die Murgschifferschaft. History of the raft trade, the forest and the timber industry in the Murg Valley . Series of publications by the State Forest Administration of Baden-Württemberg (Volume 66). 2nd Edition. Katz, Gernsbach 1995, 521 pp., ISBN 3-925825-20-7 , pp. 491-492
  3. ^ Katz Group , accessed July 22, 2011
  4. ^ Koehler Paper Group: The Katz Group , accessed July 22, 2011
personal data
SURNAME Katz, Casimir Otto
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Katz, Casimir Otto Samuel
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German timber industrialist
DATE OF BIRTH July 16, 1856
PLACE OF BIRTH Gernsbach
DATE OF DEATH 1919
Place of death Gernsbach