Ernst Göhner

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Ernst Göhner (born February 28, 1900 in Zurich ; † November 24, 1971 in Risch ) was a Swiss building contractor and entrepreneur, living on Gut Aabach in Risch, Canton Zug .

Life

Ernst G. Göhner was the son of the master carpenter Gottlieb Göhner (* 1863 in Untergruppenbach near Heilbronn , †  1920 in Zurich ) and Anna Margarethe Göhner-Schwenninger (1868–1940). After the early death of his father, who had built his first residential buildings around the turn of the century (e.g. Hammerstrasse 38-46 building complex in Zurich), Ernst Göhner took over the family business founded by his father in 1890 as the second youngest of six children Zurich Seefeld. All family members, his siblings, brothers-in-law and their children or grandchildren of Gottlieb Göhner subsequently participated in the establishment of the company. As early as 1922 Ernst Göhner realized his first construction projects and this construction activity became the basis for the expansion of the company.

As a result, he bought another door and window factory in 1932 (TUFA AG, later EGO Werke and today's EgoKiefer AG ) and switched to the production of the first standard windows and later of houses in element construction. For over 40 years, his brother-in-law, Viktor Kühnlein-Göhner, was responsible for the implementation of industrial production in the company as a member of the board of directors and management. As CEO, he also took over the industrialization of TUFA AG and EGO-Werke. In the 1930s, Göhner developed the production of mosaic parquet until it was ready for series production and in 1944 founded Bauwerk Parkett AG , which was later managed by Paul Göhner, a grandson of Gottlieb Göhner.

In 1925 Ernst Göhner married Amelia Burkhard (née Azzoli from Mantova , Italy), with whom he was married until her death on January 21, 1968. From December 8, 1968 until his death on November 24, 1971 he was with Silvia Göhner-Fricsay, née Valeanu, (born January 1, 1913 in Budapest ; † January 21, 2003 in Switzerland), the widow of the conductor Ferenc Fricsay and divorced sister-in-law of the skier Horst Scheeser , married.

His companies became a large construction group and specialized in the construction of large-scale developments ( satellite towns ) using element construction or panel construction . Ernst Göhner AG took on everything for these buildings, from buying the property to marketing the apartments . Several municipalities in the agglomeration of Zurich (including Adlikon near Regensdorf , Greifensee ZH and Volketswil ) doubled their population with such developments in the 1960s.

After several mergers (Merkur, Zschokke), his general contractor, Ernst Göhner AG , is now part of what is now Switzerland's largest construction group, Implenia .

In order to spread risk, Ernst Göhner built up various other national and international holdings during his lifetime, including a 40 percent stake in the logistics and forwarding company Panalpina and in other companies in the USA in 1967/1969 . At that time Panalpina Welttransport AG owned around 50 affiliated companies in 20 countries and with around 5000 employees a global network for transport services. Panalpina was ranked 14th (1974) among the companies with the highest turnover in Switzerland, led by Nestlé, Ciba-Geigy, Brown Boveri and Migros.

He then owned 49 percent of the Alpina-Reederei AG in Basel, which was active in the deep-sea shipping with its own ships. Together with Gottlieb Duttweiler - his closest friend - he founded the Reederei Zürich AG. Politically, too, he was close to Gottlieb Duttweiler and other representatives of the Landesring der Independencies , and he was sometimes committed to the social market economy. In 1935 he ported several successful entrepreneurs as candidates for the National Council for the Landesring, who were also selected straight away, so u. a. Balz Zimmermann , the founder of the airline Balair , which merged with Swissair in 1931.

As early as the 1930s, he began manufacturing and assembling car bodies for the DKW brand of the Chemnitz Auto Union and his company Holka took over their general agency in Switzerland. After the Second World War, Ernst Göhner invested on July 9, 1951 in a 45 percent stake in Auto Union GmbH, newly founded in Ingolstadt (since 1985: Audi AG ), which in the mid-1950s already employed around 14,000 people. This made him the largest shareholder and one of the most important donors in building the "new" Auto Union in West Germany after the war. From December 1, 1953 to May 6, 1958, Ernst Göhner was a member of the Supervisory Board of Auto Union. In 1958 the Göhner Group sold its Auto Union shares, which had meanwhile been reduced to 41 percent, to Daimler-Benz ; there were several investments in local Mercedes-Benz plants and branches.

Ernst Göhner Foundation

Since Ernst Göhner wanted to maintain the continuity of the family business founded by Gottlieb Göhner in 1890 and the companies that emerged from it, and so that what he had created could be continued and expanded in his spirit, he set up his universal heir in 1957 with the purpose of once The Aabach Family Foundation, which was renamed the Aaborn Foundation in 1960 and the Ernst Göhner Foundation in 1969 and received its definitive statutes. The family foundation served him from 1957 as a company holding company for his widespread group . On the occasion of its establishment, he assigned his main asset to the family foundation as a means of fulfilling its purpose, i.e. H. all shares of Ernst Göhner AG (foundation and testamentary endowment of the family business).

In 1960, all of Ernst Göhner's beneficiaries - his wife Amelia Göhner and his siblings - signed inheritance waiver contracts in favor of the now mixed family foundation and its purpose as a universal heir. This was also done with the aim of finding an entrepreneurially optimal and responsible succession solution for the group and to preserve the jobs. The collective of the foundation, consisting of beneficiaries, board members and directors of Ernst Göhner AG, was to take the place of Ernst Göhner after the death of the founder and to maintain and continue his life's work "in his spirit". Already during his lifetime he brought almost all of his assets into the entrepreneurial, social benefit of his employees and workers, non-profit and as a family foundation .

In 1971 - shortly before Ernst Göhner's death - the foundation sold part of the company to Elektrowatt - Electrical and Industrial Companies, Zurich. These were the companies: Ernst Göhner AG, EGO Werke AG, Bauwerk AG (in which there has been a stake again since 2009), Teppichfabrik Ennenda AG and Ibus-Bartels-Werke in Germany. The remaining holdings ( Panalpina , Mercedes Benz holdings, shipping companies, etc.) as well as the real estate remained in what was perhaps the largest foundation in Switzerland at the time, so Ernst Göhner himself set the course for further expansion after his death. The seat of the foundation is today in Zug.

The amendment to the Articles of Association resolved on February 1, 1972 initially envisaged - in the sense of a formal foundation purpose - a foundation managed, organized and administered according to explicitly entrepreneurial and economic aspects ( corporate governance regulation). The entrepreneurial responsibility or the appointment of the management bodies could therefore no longer lie in the majority of the family succession, as was previously the case, but must, in accordance with the purpose of the foundation, be perceived according to the aspects and governance aspects customary for companies of this size in the economy. The Ernst Göhner Foundation is probably the only foundation in Switzerland that prescribes such clear corporate governance criteria in the actual purpose article. For this reason, the Ernst Göhner Foundation has since been regarded in legal literature as an exemplary example of the connection between a corporate foundation and a family foundation.

A special concern of Ernst Göhner was the social responsibility of the foundation towards the workforce and retirees, which should be expressed in the foundation's purpose and the associated social security contributions. In accordance with the ideas of his friend Gottlieb Duttweiler at Migros (Migros Culture Percentage for the Promotion of Social and Cultural Tasks), his companies should also assume their responsibility through his foundation in accordance with the ideas of the social market economy .

The services for charitable purposes, which were provided annually by Ernst Göhner through his foundation and his companies, were also significant. Hospitals, student residences and other institutions that serve the common good received notable donations during his lifetime and still today.

In accordance with the definitions of legal theory, the Ernst Göhner Foundation thus pursues a non-profit purpose and two private benefit purposes in addition to an economic corporate foundation purpose, i.e. H. a social purpose for the benefit of deserving employees / workers and a family foundation purpose. The statutes thus correspond to a certain extent to today's widespread stakeholder approach.

The Ernst Göhner Foundation still holds around 43 percent of the Panalpina Welttransport (Holding) AG (PWT), which is now listed on the stock exchange . A complete subsidiary of the foundation, EGS Beteiligungen AG, has held a 10 percent stake in Wasserwerke Zug AG since 1988 , in FAES AG in Wollerau since 2005, 40 percent in optoelectronics manufacturer CEDES Holding since 2007, and 40 percent in parquet flooring manufacturer since 2009 Bauwerk Parkett has held a 24 percent stake in the office supplies manufacturer Biella since 2010 and held a 40 percent stake in the market-leading Swiss electric bicycle manufacturer BikeTec (brand: Flyer) from 2012 to 2017, when it was sold to the German two-wheeler purchasing cooperative , most recently as the majority shareholder . Participations are also held in Huber + Suhner , Liechtenstein's VP Bank and other companies. In addition, the foundation owns more than 200 properties and holdings in real estate companies, mainly in the Zurich area, but also abroad, which are combined in the subsidiary Seewarte Holding AG.

literature

  • Heini Bachmann u. a. ( Collective of authors at the architecture department of the ETH Zurich ): «Göhnerswil» - Housing construction in capitalism. An investigation ... using the example of the “Sunnebüel” suburban housing estate in Volketswil near Zurich and the general contractor Ernst Göhner AG . Book 2000, Affoltern am Albis / Verlagsgenossenschaft, Zurich 1972, DNB 57348998X .
  • Alfred A. Häsler : Somebody has to do it: the life and work of Ernst Göhner . Huber, Frauenfeld 1981, ISBN 3-7193-0792-1 .
  • Sigmund Widmer : Ernst Göhner (1900–1971). Building in standard (= Swiss pioneers in business and technology , Volume 49), Association for Economic History Studies, Meilen 1990, DNB 901402745 .
  • 16 × the same apartment or the same apartment 16 × differently furnished , published by Ernst Göhner, Zurich 1977.
  • Anniversary publication from Ernst Göhner AG: Göhner «1890–1960».

Movie

  • Documentary about Ernst Göhner: «An Example», Condor-Film Zürich , 1970; Director: Stanislav Bor, production: Heinrich Fueter.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ History of Bauwerk Parquet
  2. ↑ Danube Monarchy on Lake Zug , accessed on March 22, 2019
  3. ↑ TOP 100: The change of the Swiss companies with the highest turnover in four decades . In: Handelszeitung , No. 12, March 20, 2014.
  4. ↑ Hans Georg Ramseier: The emergence and development of the state ring of the independents until 1943 . Dissertation, University of Zurich, 1973, pp. 208ff.
  5. ↑ Hans Georg Ramseier: The emergence and development of the state ring of the independents until 1943 . Dissertation, University of Zurich, 1973, p. 31ff.
  6. ↑ Gerhard Mirsching: Audi: Four decades Ingolstadt Automotive - The path of DKW and Audi in 1945 . Bleicher Verlag, Gerlingen 1988, p. 18ff
  7. ↑ Christian Suhr: Power of the Four Rings: Commercial vehicles of Auto Union and their brands Audi, DKW, Horch, Wanderer, NSU . Verlag kraftakt, Reichenbach / Vogtland / Halle / Saale 2007, pp. 142ff
  8. ^ History of Ernst Göhner AG: Jubilee brochure 1890–1970
  9. ↑ Sigmund Widmer: Ernst Göhner (1900–1971). Build in standard . Association for Economic History Studies, Meilen 1990, Swiss Pioneers in Business and Technology, Volume 49, p. 82.
  10. ^ Alfred A. Häsler: Somebody has to do it: the life and work of Ernst Göhner . Huber, Frauenfeld 1981.
  11. ^ History of Ernst Göhner AG: Jubilee brochure 1890–1960
  12. ↑ Hans Michael Riemer: Bern Commentary on Foundation Law . Stämpfli Verlag, 1981, pp. 250, 259.
  13. ↑ Adele Duttweiler: Adele Duttweiler remembers the combative Migros founding years . In: Blick für die Frau , August 12, 1988.
  14. ↑ Dominique Jakob: Protection of the Foundation: The Foundation and its legal relationships in conflict of interests . Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2006, p. 49ff.
  15. ↑ http://www.zeg.de/fahrrad/NeuheitenDetails.html?id=535
  16. ↑ Investments . Ernst Göhner Foundation
  17. ↑ real estate . Ernst Göhner Foundation
  18. ^ History of Ernst Göhner AG: Jubilee brochure 1890–1960
personal data
SURNAME Göhner, Ernst
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss building contractor
DATE OF BIRTH February 28, 1900
PLACE OF BIRTH Zurich
DATE OF DEATH November 24, 1971
Place of death Risch ZG