Carl Erdmann Kircheis

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Portrait of entrepreneur CE Kircheis on a board at the vocational school center

Carl Erdmann Kircheis (born April 24, 1830 in Aue ; † August 21, 1894 there ) was a German entrepreneur in the mechanical engineering industry.

Life

The son of a Steiger attended elementary school in Zell near Aue and began an apprenticeship in mechanical engineering in the Lauckner cotton spinning mill in Aue in 1844 . In 1855 he became technical director at the Dessau company Jahn & Arendt with 80 employees and stayed there until 1859. After his return to Aue, Kircheis was head of Ernst Gessner's company . In March 1861 he started his own business as a small entrepreneur and initially produced beading machines with a partner in a rented room near the market . Soon more workers were added, and his younger brother also joined the company. Later he made scissors and bending machines for the manufacture of household and kitchen appliances.

The sheet metal working machines of the Kircheis family exhibited at the Chemnitz industrial and commercial exhibition in 1867 received prizes for “good construction and usability”. At the Vienna World Exhibition in 1873, Kircheis' products received the highest award, the Progress Medal. Due to the good order situation and the limited hydropower of the Mulde in the city center, Kircheis acquired land on the banks of the rivers Zwickauer Mulde and Schwarzwasser, which are combined there, near the cell of Klösterlein , in order to have its own factory buildings with six water motors built on it. The production range has been constantly expanded, for example with drawing presses , machines for closing cans or for the production of sheet metal casings.

Kircheis died on August 21, 1894. He left behind his widow Louise Pauline, nee. Fischer, (1840–1913) and was buried in the cemetery in Aue -zelle. His son-in-law, Wilhelm Röll (1850–1926), royal Saxon councilor of commerce , who had married his daughter Pauline (1860–1931), winner of the Royal Saxon Carola Medal , became the new owner of the company. Today the company belongs to the Leonhardt Group as part of Blema-Kircheis .

Create and work

KIRCHEIS press, exhibited in Otto von Bahrenpark (Hamburg)

Inspired by the drawing presses at the Philadelphia World's Fair in 1876, Kircheis began his own experiments in this area. He succeeded in manufacturing seamless sheet metal bodies from one piece. In 1878 he received patent no. 1810 for the connection of circular scissors with an oval mechanism . In the same year he had his first drawing press patented and received the honorary award of a lamp company and the royal Prussian state medal in silver in Erfurt. In 1879, at the specialist exhibition of the German metal industry in Nuremberg, a large number of its now 80 products received further awards.

In 1882 the Geifenrunder was patented for rounding off geifical objects. The can seaming machine was developed during the same period. Because of the granted patent for this machine, a separate department for the mass production of machines for sheet metal cladding was set up in the company in the following year. In 1884, Kircheis had its own foundry set up and in 1886 the department for plumber's hand tools was outsourced. Up to this point in time a total of around 10,000 plumbing tools and around 5,200 machines had been delivered. On March 15th of the same year the company celebrated its 25th anniversary, on this occasion the newspaper for sheet metal industry published a detailed article about Kircheis and his company.

The Erdmann Kircheis company is considered a pioneer in social engagement, because from 1888 a relief fund and a factory health insurance were introduced. An in-house dining room as well as washrooms and changing rooms followed. In the same year, the company's product catalogs appeared for the first time in foreign languages ​​such as English, Danish and French. At the machine exhibition in Munich, the company received the Royal Bavarian State Prize . In 1890, Kircheis sent his machines and products to all the renowned national and international exhibitions.

In 1894 the material assets of the company amounted to six water motors , 200 auxiliary machines and its own foundry with two cupolas . By then the company had delivered around 9,500 machines around the world. In his will, Kircheis gave the church, the school, the community and the women's association of Aue -zelle 15,000 Reichsmarks each  .

Awards and honors

To Kircheis' most important awards include the Progress Medal at the World Exhibition in Vienna in 1873, the Royal Prussian Golden State Medal in Altona in 1881 and the gold medal at the World Exhibition in Paris in 1889. He also received many other national and international awards.

In 1877, Kircheis and Otto Wilhelmy founded the first German technical college for sheet metal workers in Aue. The idea for founding a technical college for sheet metal working was conceived as early as 1875 at the meeting of the plumbing industry in Kassel. Since he was a board member of the school for many years and generously equipped it, it was named after Kircheis. After their renovation in the 1990s, the buildings continue to serve as a vocational training center for Erdmann Kircheis technology . On the occasion of his 175th birthday in 2005, the Au city council decided in January 2006 to rename part of Bahnhofstrasse to Erdmann-Kircheis-Strasse.

Kircheis is considered a pioneer of Au's sheet metal working industry, which has been an important branch of the city of Aue's economy since the second half of the 19th century. Kircheis was a knight of the Royal Saxon Order of Albrecht, 1st class.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b written information from Jana Hecker, press officer for the city administration of Aue from May 2009
personal data
SURNAME Kircheis, Carl Erdmann
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German entrepreneur
DATE OF BIRTH April 24, 1830
PLACE OF BIRTH Aue
DATE OF DEATH August 21, 1894
Place of death Aue