Ernst Sachs (entrepreneur)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ernst Sachs with a high bike

Ernst Sachs (born November 22, 1867 in Konstanz-Petershausen , † July 2, 1932 in Schweinfurt ) was a German industrialist , secret councilor , Dr.-Ing. H. c., honorary citizen of Schweinfurt and inventor of the freewheel hub with coaster brake on the bicycle.

Life

After an apprenticeship as a toolmaker in Stuttgart, Schwenningen and Esslingen, Sachs initially worked as a precision mechanic in Frankfurt am Main, where he a. a. met the Opel brothers from Rüsselsheim . He finally came to Schweinfurt and married the daughter of Wilhelm Höpflinger , the co-founder of the Schweinfurt rolling bearing industry.

In 1894 Sachs applied for his first bicycle hub patent, and a year later he founded the “Schweinfurt Precision Ball-Bearings Fichtel & Sachs ” together with the businessman Karl Fichtel . He achieved numerous decisive developments in the field of bicycle hubs and roller bearings ("Sachs bearings"). The ' torpedo freewheel hub ', patented by Sachs in 1903, revolutionized cycling and ensured the company a best seller for decades. After the death of the co-founder Karl Fichtel in 1911, all business decisions were made by him. Before the First World War , branch plants were set up in Tschirnitz ad Eger and Lancaster (Pennsylvania, USA). The conversion to arms production brought fantastic profits until 1918. At its first peak, the company had 8,000 employees at the time.

During the Weimar Republic he was politically close to the DVP . In his company he ruled as the undisputed patriarch. When, at the end of the 1920s, the German rolling bearing manufacturers could no longer counter the pressure of the Swedish SKF Group , he sold the rolling bearing division of his company to the newly founded Vereinigte Kugellagerfabriken AG in 1929 , where he himself became chairman of the supervisory board. At Fichtel & Sachs , he paid off the Fichtel heirs with the proceeds from the sale of rolling bearings and invested in new developments (Sachs motor, clutches, shock absorbers). With these future-proof products, he positioned Fichtel & Sachs AG even more clearly as an automotive supplier, but did not experience the stormy upward trend of the 1930s himself. In the middle of the global economic crisis, he died in 1932 after a short illness at the age of 64 of leukemia. His funeral was tantamount to a state funeral. Thousands lined the streets of Schweinfurt when the body was pulled in a four-horse cart to the main cemetery, where his son Willy Sachs had a monumental tomb erected for him. The swimming pool foundation stands out among several of the social institutions he finances. The Ernst-Sachs-Bad in Schweinfurt, which was much praised at the time for its modern architecture, was built by Roderich Fick in 1931–33 . It made it possible for workers, who barely had a bathroom in their apartments, to exercise in addition to physical activity, as well as personal hygiene, which was by no means a matter of course for broad sections of the population at the time.

In 1912 he bought the Rechenau estate near Oberaudorf / Upper Bavaria as a hunting seat , which is still owned by the family today. At the same time, Privy Councilor Sachs built a villa in Oberaudorf that still bears the name Sachs today. In the middle of the First World War , in December 1915, he acquired Mainberg Castle at the gates of Schweinfurt and had it converted into a prestigious industrial residence. The countless lavish parties of the Sachs family are legendary to this day. The desire to establish a dynasty at Mainberg Castle was expressed in the marriage of his only son Willy Sachs to Elinor von Opel, the daughter of his childhood friend Wilhelm von Opel . In 1925 he acquired the former Villa Sachs in Friedrichshafen , also named after him .

Sachs family grave

Ernst Sachs was one of the few ingenious inventors who also knew how to sell their product. At the same time, as the course set in the years after 1929 shows, he had enormous strategic vision. In the midst of the global economic crisis , he left his son, consul Willy Sachs, a Fichtel & Sachs AG that had shrunk considerably with only 3,000 employees, but was viable for the future . Coming from the simplest of backgrounds, around 1930 he was one of the leading German industrialists. I.a. he was a member of the board of the Reich Association of the Automotive Industry .

Ernst Sachs was the grandfather of Ernst Wilhelm , Gunter and Peter Sachs.

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Sachs, Ernst
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German industrialist, secret councilor of commerce
DATE OF BIRTH November 22, 1867
PLACE OF BIRTH Constance-Petershausen
DATE OF DEATH July 2, 1932
Place of death Schweinfurt