Franz Kessler (entrepreneur)
Franz Kessler (born September 22, 1888 in Jonsdorf , † January 9, 1971 in Buchau ) was a German engineer and founder of the Kessler engine plant .
Life
Franz Kessler was born in the Austro-Hungarian Empire as the son of the miner Karl Kessler and his wife Anna. Little is known about his career. He studied mechanical engineering either in Prague or in Brno and completed it in 1909/1910.
Attracted by the onset of electrification and the associated technical challenges, he began his career at PÖGE Elektricitäts-Aktiengesellschaft. The company, founded in 1874, aimed to build telegraph stations , but at the end of the 19th century turned to the generation and transmission of electrical energy. In 1930 PÖGE merged with Sachsenwerke , and a little later this company was merged with AEG .
The nationwide supply of electrical energy revolutionized the energy supply for machines in the factory halls in particular. Franz Kessler recognized a wide range of tasks in the newly emerging electrical drive technology and created variable-speed drives for machine tools and textile machines. So he made the decision to set up his own business in Chemnitz , an important Saxon mechanical engineering center . He benefited from the fact that his wife Emmy actively supported his project.
The Kessler-Motoren-Werk he founded began developing DC motors for grinding machines. These required good concentricity properties down to low speeds. Kessler's successes as an engineer established the company a good reputation and a growing customer base until the Second World War.
After the Second World War
Franz Kessler and his family survived the Second World War well, but the factory in Chemnitz was destroyed and the new rulers in the Soviet occupation zone worried the entrepreneur. Around 1947, Franz Kessler had made the decision to go to the West. The family had by no means given up hope that the political situation would change after all and that they could return in the foreseeable future. His daughter Elfriede, who married Kurt Petschel, an employee of Kessler, shortly before the planned move, stayed with him in the occupation zone and continued the business there on a modest basis. At that time, the older daughter Anna Marie was married to a Metzingen businessman who came from a family of dentists and who had a good relationship with his parents, Franz Kessler. This is where the Kesslers initially stayed after they moved. During this time he also worked as a freelance development and calculation engineer for the electric motor manufacturer Blocher in Metzingen. Kessler wanted to set up his own business again. So the request of the grinding machine manufacturer "Fortuna" from Stuttgart , a customer from the Chemnitz time, to finally start again with the production of his converters and DC motors, served as the decisive trigger.
Kessler became aware of Buchau through an agency in Tübingen because it was possible to rent premises here from the property of the Jewish Vierfelder family who had emigrated to the USA.
He rented the premises of the former Café Vierfelder at Hofgartenstrasse 3 to accommodate a business premises and got his first apartment at Karlstrasse 3. By renting the residential and business premises, the requirements for a new start were met. The business registration took place on January 2, 1950.
The new company in Buchau expanded and increased both its customer base and the number of employees. Franz Kessler rented an area in Schussenriederstrasse with a workshop, residential building and courtyard as a new company site and thus laid the foundation for Franz Kessler GmbH in Buchau. The increased importance of the company was entered in the commercial register in 1958, initially as a so-called sole proprietorship, but the conversion into a limited partnership was already planned. On January 1, 1959, Franz Kessler KG was founded with Franz Kessler as general partner. Limited partners were his wife Emmy and his two daughters Anna Marie Mühlhäusler and Elfriede Petschel. On January 1, 1960, his daughter Elfriede Petschel became a general partner, Franz Kessler remained in the company as a limited partner at the age of 71.
On January 9, 1971, Kessler died of leukemia . Until shortly before his death, he was active in the company and calculated machines, especially in the test field . His daughter Elfriede Petschel took over the management.
A street in Bad Buchau is named after Franz Kessler. He is also the namesake of the Franz Kessler charitable foundation company .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Moritz Vierfelder (1877–1960) emigrated to the USA in 1940. Joseph Walk (ed.): Short biographies on the history of the Jews 1918–1945. Edited by the Leo Baeck Institute, Jerusalem. Saur, Munich 1988, ISBN 3-598-10477-4 , p. 374.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Kessler, Franz |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German engineer and founder of the Kessler engine plant |
| DATE OF BIRTH | September 22, 1888 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Jonsdorf |
| DATE OF DEATH | January 9, 1971 |
| Place of death | Buchau |