Chronos movement

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Chronos-Werk Reuther & Reisert KG
legal form Limited partnership
founding 1881
resolution 2004
Reason for dissolution insolvency
Seat Hennef (victory) GermanyGermanyGermany 

Photo of the workforce at the C. Reuther & Reisert machine factory in 1882. Eduard Reisert on the scales on the right, Carl Reuther on the far right

The Chronos-Werk Reuther & Reisert KG was a 1881 Manufacturer of scales based in Hennef an der Sieg . The company produced and sold, among other things, the world's first automatic and verifiable scales.

history

Site of the former Chronos works

The entrepreneur Carl Reuther (born August 17, 1834 in Hennef, † February 9, 1902 ibid) had been running the factory for agricultural machinery C. Reuther & Companie AG in Hennef since 1859, where he produced, among other things, a non-automatic decimal scale.

The engineer Eduard Reisert (born February 16, 1847 in Alzenau / Lower Franconia, † January 20, 1914 in Cologne) founded the Munnem & Reisert machine works with the manufacturer Munnem in Cologne in 1876 . In 1877, he developed the first level-like throughput measuring device with the number 66 and applied for a patent for it.

After Carl Reuther left C. Reuther & Companie in 1880, he and Eduard Reisert founded the Hennef machine factory C. Reuther & Reisert on July 1, 1881 in Hennef. The first factory building was erected in 1881 between Frankfurter Strasse and Sieg, not far from the train station. In the period that followed, they developed the Chronos scale, the world's first calibratable, automatic scale, which was granted patent protection in December 1882. On April 12, 1883, the Imperial Normal Aichungs Commission granted approval as a valuer.

By 1890 the company owned 70 patents. During this time, the company was certified as having an almost exclusive monopoly in the world . In 1900 more factory and administration buildings were built on the company premises. In addition, Carl Reuther built a factory owner's villa and Eduard Reisert opened his own factory for everyday objects (Klio-Werk) opposite to produce a fountain pen he patented . Carl Reuther died in 1902 and his son Wilhelm Reuther joined the company as managing director. Eduard Reisert died in 1914. The company survived the First World War and the period of the Weimar Republic with the global economic crisis quite well. Wilhelm Reuther died in 1933. Walter Reuther and Eduard Reisert took over management from the founding families and in 1938 converted the company into a limited partnership.

During the Second World War , the plant was one of the armaments factories. After the end of the war in 1945, located in the British occupation zone , the machine factory was not removed from the list of companies to be dismantled until 1950. As a result, the company was rebuilt and the company was renamed Chronos-Werk Reuther und Reisert KG. Eduard Reisert died in 1961.

In 1972 the Chronos movements were taken over by Howe Richardson Scale Co. The company renamed Chronos Richardson GmbH. The purpose of the company was the manufacture of electrical measuring, control and navigation devices. In the mid-1980s, the production site was relocated from the city center to the Hennef-West industrial estate. As a result, the city of Hennef implemented the Quartier Chronos residential project on the 0.8 hectare company site in the city center . In 1990, the Chronus works was taken over again by Staveley Industries and incorporated into the Weighing & Systems Group with the companies Salter and Weigh-Tronix. In 1998 employees took over the factory in Hennef in a management buy-out , but in 2000 they sold it again to the Canadian company Premier Tech. In 2004 Chronos Richardson GmbH filed for bankruptcy .

Quartier Chronos

Quartier Chronos with Chronos Platz and the former factory (left) and administration building (right)

For the subsequent use of the fallow company premises of the Chronus-Werke in downtown Hennef, the city council decided on a small-scale residential development including individual historical buildings. For this purpose, a design competition was launched in 1999, which the Cologne-based architecture firm Peter Böhm Architekten won. Michael Deisenroth took over the planning for the integrated old buildings and the project development. In the same year, construction began on the Quartier Chronos project . By 2001, a promenade along the Sieg, two squares, 45 residential buildings with underground parking and a combined heat and power plant as well as a number of shops and restaurants were built. In 2003 the Quartier Chronos received recognition at the German Architecture Prize and in 2004 the NRW Architecture Prize.

Chronos scales

The Chronos scale is an automatic weighing system for bulk goods or liquids. The core of the balance is a tandem balance beam with a wake regulator. The goods to be weighed are poured into the scales and, when a previously set weight is reached, automatically poured out using a tilting container or bottom flap. Chronos balances can be adjusted and calibrated for different weighing goods with different bulk densities and weights to be weighed and were manufactured for different measuring ranges between 0.2 kg and 3000 kg. In the first few years they were mainly used as so-called bagging scales for agricultural products.

Historical traces

Former Remise of Chronos-Werke in 2015
  • Factory complex: Frankfurter Strasse 93 in Hennef. The shed roof hall with the fire tower of the former Chronos works is now a listed building .
  • Villa Reuther: Frankfurter Strasse 95 in Hennef. Factory owner's villa with coach house built around 1900 by Carl Reuther according to plans by the architect Jos. Bröhl. Restored 2010–2011. Today it is a listed building and is still owned by the Reuther family.
  • Chronos factory administration: Frankfurter Strasse 91 in Hennef. Administration building built around 1900 according to plans by the architect Heinrich Kiefer. Today under monument protection.
  • Remise: Frankfurter Strasse 89 in Hennef. The outbuilding of the former Chronos works is now a listed building.
  • Chronos Waage: In Hennef there is the permanent exhibition Weights, Scales and Weighing Through the Ages at Chronos and the Chronos-Waage, displayed in a shop window at the train station, is the focal point of the Hennef Waagen-Wanderweg as a pioneering achievement .
  • As part of the redesign of the Hennef city center with the Chronos district , Chronosplatz was created on the former company premises. In Hennef there is also Reutherstrasse 3, named after Carl Reuther.

Web links

Commons : Chronos work  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Wolfgang Euler, Heinz Weisser, Rudi Keinath: History of the scales - Part 4. (PDF) Retrieved on October 24, 2016 .
  2. ↑ a b c d e Helmut Fischer: Hennef an der Sieg: 91 villages - one city . Sutton, 2011, ISBN 978-3-86680-815-7 , pp. 40 ff . ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  3. ↑ Julia Hero; Sandra Wennmacher: History / Commercial Development . In: Stadt Hennef (Hrsg.): Land use planning city of Hennef . May 16, 2011, p. 34 ( o-sp.de ).
  4. ↑ DEPATISnet research
  5. ^ Department I armaments factories . In: Archive of the University of Cologne . S. 8 ( uni-koeln.de [PDF]).
  6. ↑ Factories in the British zone going beyond the bizonal industrial level . In: Archive of the University of Cologne . S. 8 ( uni-koeln.de [PDF]).
  7. ↑ Anke Vehmeier: Chronos Richardson files for bankruptcy. In: General-Anzeiger . December 16, 2004, accessed June 3, 2018 .
  8. ↑ Hennef "Quartier Chronos". In: Database of Werkstatt-Stadt. Federal Institute for Building, Urban and Spatial Research, July 3, 2014, accessed on June 4, 2018 .
  9. ↑ Quartier Chronos. In: German-Árchitects. Retrieved June 4, 2018 .
  10. ↑ Quartier Chronos. In: Baukunst NRW. Chamber of Architects North Rhine-Westphalia, accessed on June 4, 2018 .
  11. ^ Quartier-Chronos residential area with underground car park and shops, Hennef. In: Architekturpreis Nordrhein-Westfalen 2004 - Awards. Association of German Architects, accessed on June 4, 2018 .
  12. ↑ a b c d City of Hennef (ed.): List of monuments of the city of Hennef (Sieg) - Part A - Architectural monuments . June 2016, p. 10 ( hennef.de [PDF]).
  13. ↑ a b Historic Buildings. Verkehrs- und Beschönerungsverein Hennef eV 1881, accessed on June 6, 2018 .
  14. ↑ The Hennef weighing trail. In: Tourismus-Hennef. City of Hennef, accessed on June 3, 2018 .

Coordinates: 50 ° 46 ′ 30.1 ″  N , 7 ° 17 ′ 8.3 ″  E