Else Kröner

Else Kröner (née Fernau, born May 15, 1925 in Frankfurt am Main ; † June 5, 1988 ) was a German entrepreneur and founder . She played a key role in the upswing of her Fresenius company after the Second World War.

Childhood and youth

Else Kröner was the only child of the businessman Christoph Fernau and his wife Therese. When she was three years old, her father died and Therese Fernau earned a living as housekeeper for the Eduard Fresenius family , the owners of the Frankfurt Hirsch Pharmacy and the pharmaceutical company “Dr. Eduard Fresenius chemical-pharmaceutical industry KG ” . The married couple Else and Eduard Fresenius were childless and supported Else Kröner as a foster child. For example, they enabled her to graduate from high school in 1943. After Else Kröner had completed her compulsory year in the Reich Labor Service and had been an intern at the Hirsch pharmacy in Fresenius, she decided to study pharmacy. But before Else Kröner could complete her studies, Eduard Fresenius died in 1946 and left her with both the company and the pharmacy together with her mother Therese Fernau and the authorized representative of the Hirsch Pharmacy, Emilie Scheele.

Entrepreneur

The "Dr. Eduard Fresenius chemisch-pharmaceutical Industrie KG ”had survived the Second World War undamaged, but was heavily indebted. Business in the Hirsch Pharmacy was not going well either, as it was temporarily housed in a barrack after the bombing raids in 1943 and 1944. Else Kröner took over the management of both companies and at the same time tried to finish her studies as quickly as possible. In 1950 she passed her exams in Erlangen. In the following years, Else Kröner acquired business management skills in evening courses. When the Hirsch-Apotheke's shop was rebuilt in the 1950s, she leased the pharmacy to a colleague so that she could concentrate fully on the development of the Fresenius company in Bad Homburg from now on. Eduard Fresenius had made a name for himself in the 1920s with the manufacture of infusion solutions and this is exactly where Else Kröner came in: Together with her advisor, friend and, since 1964, husband Hans Kröner , she developed a comprehensive range of special solutions that were sold directly to hospitals were. From the 1960s onwards, Fresenius entered medical technology, and from the 1970s onwards with its own products, such as devices for dialysis and intensive care medicine. With the development of new markets and, since the 1980s, also through takeovers of foreign companies, it was possible to develop the original family business into a global group. Else Kröner held leading positions at Fresenius until the end of her life. First as managing director and after the conversion into a stock corporation in 1982 as chairwoman of the supervisory board.

Founder

In addition to her personal humanitarian commitment - she adopted five children and sponsored numerous sponsorships around the world - Else Kröner also campaigned for her company to become humanitarian. Therefore, together with her husband, she founded the non-profit Fresenius Foundation in 1972, the aim of which was to spread medical knowledge and support humanitarian and medical initiatives.

In 1983 Else Kröner founded the non-profit Else Kröner-Fresenius-Stiftung , to which she bequeathed all of her private fortune in her will. When she died on June 5, 1988, 95 percent of the Fresenius Group's share capital was transferred to the foundation. The purpose of the EKFS is to promote medical science and support medical-humanitarian aid projects. While the foundation's assets were 150 million euros when Else Kröner died, in 2008 they had grown to 2.6 billion, making them one of the largest German industrial foundations.

Honors

Else Kröner received the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1973 for her political activities and her charitable commitment. In January 1988 the city of Oberursel - from 1978 to 1998 the headquarters of Fresenius KG, later AG and today's Fresenius SE & Co. KGaA - honored them with the city's medal of honor.

literature

• Michael Kamp , Florian Neumann: Who, if not us. Else Kröner - entrepreneur and founder. Dreesbach, Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-940061-44-7 .
• The founder Else Kröner. In: Promoting research, helping people. 2008 to 2011. Dreesbach, Munich 2012, pp. 11–16 ( online ).

Web links

• Biography on the website of the Else Kröner-Fresenius-Foundation

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Janko Tietz: Mud battle for inheritance. In: Der Spiegel . May 19, 2008.
2. ↑ Michael Psotta: Medical funding as a by-product. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . September 1, 2008 (PDF; 2.32 MB).