Ernst Borsig

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Ernst August Paul Borsig

Ernst August Paul Borsig , from 1909 from Borsig (born September 13, 1869 in Berlin-Moabit ; † January 6, 1933 at Gut Groß Behnitz , Havelland district , Brandenburg ), Dr.-Ing. hc, Privy Councilor of Commerce , was a German industrialist, chairman of the Association of German Employers' Associations (now BDA ) and the Reich Association of German Industry . With his brothers Arnold and Conrad , he ran the Borsigwerke in Berlin, founded in 1836 by his grandfather August Borsig .

Life

The coat of arms of the von Borsig family (1909)

Borsig passed his Abitur in Berlin in 1889 and then completed a year and a half technical training at the A. Borsig mechanical engineering institute. He then studied at the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität and the Technische Hochschule Charlottenburg . In 1890 he became a member of the Corps Hansea Bonn .

Since the three brothers were still children when their father Albert Borsig (1829–1878) died, a board of trustees made up of senior executives initially ran the company before the brothers took over management of the company in 1894. Ernst Borsig - after Arnold Borsig's accidental death in a mine accident in the Hedwigswunsch mine in Biskupitz-Borsigwerk in the province of Silesia - played a key role in the relocation of the Moabit workshops to Berlin-Tegel . For this purpose he visited a number of well-known factories at home and abroad, and sent some of his technical officials on extensive study trips to England and America. This resulted in the drafts for the new plant, which after its completion in 1898 became a Berlin landmark. Through the joint management of the company with his brother Conrad von Borsig , the patriarchal leadership developed into modern management.

In 1898 he married Margarete Gründler, who had four children: Karl Albert Arnold (1899), Margret (1900), Annelise (1902) and Ernst von Borsig junior. (1906).

After 1900 he had the Villa Borsig built on Reiherwerder on Lake Tegel , the first villa was completed in 1908.

In 1910 Ernst von Borsig was one of the 60 richest men in the Kingdom of Prussia with a fortune of 22 million marks (1871) . He was significantly involved in the formation of the central working group of industrial and commercial employers and employees . He was chairman of the Berlin Metal Industry Association (1906–1932), committee member of the Central Association of German Industrialists , since its founding in February 1919 presidential member of the Reich Association of German Industry and from 1920 to 1933 President of the General Association of Employers' Associations in the Metal and Electrical Industry . From 1924 to 1931 he was chairman of the Association of German Employers 'Associations (today the Federal Association of German Employers' Associations ). From 1923 to 1934 he was also President of the Association of German Mechanical Engineering Institutions . He was a member of the Berlin Club . He was also chairman of the Stega , a secret armaments organization.

After the Lokomotivbau was sold to AEG in 1931 , A. Borsig GmbH had to stop paying at the end of that year. The family left the company. Ernst von Borsig retired to his Groß Behnitz estate in Havelland , where, like his father, he found his final resting place in the family grave.

Attitude to economic and social policy

In economic and social policy, Borsig represented a liberal and sometimes social Darwinist view. So he wrote in 1932:

“It can be that without the care exercised by the state, perhaps 50,000 people perish who can cope with life with the help of this care. But it can also be that, if this care did not exist, perhaps 4-5000 other people would develop their energy and ability to such an extent that this - from a purely economic point of view - would be even more important. Maybe these 4-5000 people would be able to create value, and maybe they would even be able to drag them through with their increased performance. "

After the First World War, he financially supported the Freikorps (e.g. the Ehrhardt Brigade ). In January 1919 he was instrumental in founding an anti-Bolshevik fund. He was a member of the Gäa , founded in 1922 , which organized right-wing mass propaganda. Also from 1922 he became one of the most important donors of the NSDAP . He got to know Hitler during his speech to the Berlin National Club in 1919 . He met with him several times and began to advertise the Hitler movement among his industrial friends and to raise money for the NSDAP. On March 12, 1927, Borsig wrote in the "Berliner Tageblatt" about his motivation to support the NSDAP:

"I believe I have found a man in Hitler who could help bridge the gap between the different social classes through the movement he initiated, in particular through the revival of the national sentiments of the workers."

- Ernst von Borsig

With this Hitler-friendly attitude he differed from most of the major industrialists in the Weimar Republic ; but before 1933 he moved away from her. In November 1932 he was one of the 339 signatories of the appeal "With Hindenburg for the people and the Reich". The appeal supported the Papen cabinet and turned against the NSDAP.

Honors

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Kösener Corpslisten 1960, 11/306.
  2. ↑ Ernst v. Borsig: An entrepreneur's considerations on social policy . StA Hamburg, Blohm / Voss 1932. Quoted from: Karl Christian Führer: Unemployment and the emergence of unemployment insurance in Germany 1902–1927 . Berlin 1990, p. 206.
  3. ^ A b Henry Ashby Turner : The big entrepreneurs and the rise of Hitler , Siedler Verlag, Berlin 1985, p. 70 f.
  4. ^ Henry Ashby Turner, The Big Entrepreneurs and the Rise of Hitler , Siedler Verlag, Berlin 1985, p. 357
personal data
SURNAME Borsig, Ernst
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Borsig, Ernst August Paul; Borsig, Ernst von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German entrepreneur
DATE OF BIRTH September 13, 1869
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin-Moabit
DATE OF DEATH January 6, 1933
Place of death Groß Behnitz estate , Havelland district , Brandenburg