Frank Schon, Baron Schon

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Frank Schon, Baron Already Kt (birth name: Franz Alfons early * 18th May 1912 in Vienna , † 7. January 1995 in London ) was a from Austria originating British entrepreneurs of the chemical industry and business leaders , who for ten years influential chairman of the National Research Development Corporation (NRDC) and became a member of the House of Lords in 1976 as Life Peer under the Life Peerages Act 1958 .

Life

Origin, studies and entrepreneur

Already, who came from a Jewish family and whose father worked as a lawyer , began studying chemistry at the Charles University in Prague and the University of Vienna after attending the Rainer Gymnasium in Vienna . In 1931 he started working in a chemical company that worked with Böhme AG in Chemnitz , for which Heinrich Gottlob Bertsch and Fewa developed the first fully synthetic detergent in 1932 . First he worked in Prague and, after a temporary stay in Vienna, since 1937 again in Prague. After the invasion of German troops on 15 March 1939 in the "rump Czechoslovakia" and the establishment of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia , he fled to Britain, where he arrived on March 28, 1939 and some time in a detention center in Cumbria spent.

With low capital founded already on the short 1939 in a dilapidated house in London company Marchon Products Ltd , its Chairman and Managing Director he was to 1967th The company's first products were lighters , which were made from excess sawdust and naphthalene . After the company was bombed in late 1940, he re-established operations in Whitehaven . There he built the company into one of the world's largest producers of raw materials for detergents and cleaning agents, which most recently employed 2,300 people. Through the chemical company Solway Chemicals Ltd , which he also founded in 1943 and of which he was also chairman and managing director from 1943 to 1967, he contributed significantly to the economic development of Cumbria.

On April 28, 1947, he acquired British citizenship through naturalization .

Chairman of the NRDC and Member of the House of Lords

Afterwards Schon, who was beaten to a Knight Bachelor's degree on November 8, 1966 and henceforth had the suffix "Sir", became a member of the National Research Development Corporation (NRDC) in 1967, an institution founded by the British government to transfer innovations from public research institutions private company. In addition, he was appointed a member of the Industrial Reorganization Corporation in January 1967 , chaired by Frank Kearton .

1969 was already by then Technology Minister ( Minister of Technology ) Tony Benn , succeeding William Black, Baron Black Chair of the NRDC. In this role he underlined the paramount importance of major investments in manufacturing to maintain the balance of payments. A major shift in British resources for export led to a four percent increase in gross national product in the 1960s , while personal domestic consumption fell by 1.5 percent in the second half of the 1960s. It was already considered necessary to support the balance of payments through investments in the manufacturing industry in order to bring growing wage inflation under control.

During this period he was also concerned about the "exploitation" of industrial workers who had taken a defensive and non-cooperative stance by the union , and tried to overcome this stance by encouraging understanding management for such an attitude. As chairman of the NRDC, he thought Britain's entry into the European single market was a step in the right direction, but also hoped that the British negotiators would not only think about what Britain would win but also have to do.

At the end of his tenure as chairman of the NRDC, he was exposed to criticism from the House Committee on Science and Technology, which called for a more liberal and easier granting of grants, which he rejected in 1977.

Already as a life peer with the title Baron Schon , of Whitehaven in the County of Cumbria, was raised to the nobility by a letters patent dated January 27, 1976 and was a member of the House of Lords until his death. His official introduction ( Introduction ) as a member of the House of Lords took place on February 10, 1976 with the support of Noel Annan, Baron Annan and Alexander Robertus Todd, Baron of Trumpington . During his membership in the House of Lords, he mainly dealt with questions of technology and university policy.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ London Gazette . No. 37995, HMSO, London, June 24, 1947, p. 2882 ( PDF , accessed November 19, 2013, English).
  2. ↑ London Gazette . No. 44169, HMSO, London, November 11, 1966, p. 12199 ( PDF , accessed November 19, 2013, English).
  3. ↑ London Gazette . No. 44219, HMSO, London, January 3, 1967, p. 88 ( PDF , accessed November 19, 2013, English).
  4. ^ London Gazette  (Supplement). No. 46777, HMSO, London, December 30, 1975, p. 1 ( PDF , accessed November 19, 2013, English).
  5. ↑ London Gazette . No. 46810, HMSO, London, January 29, 1976, p. 1409 ( PDF , accessed November 19, 2013, English).
  6. ↑ Entry in Hansard (February 10, 1976)
personal data
SURNAME Already, Frank, Baron Schon
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Already, Franz Alfons (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British politician
DATE OF BIRTH May 18, 1912
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH January 7, 1995
Place of death London