Franz Morat jun.

Franz Morat jun. (* April 27, 1911 in Eisenbach, Upper Black Forest ; † October 9, 1986 in Geneva ) was an internationally successful entrepreneur whose development work resulted in the world's first fully electronically controlled circular knitting machine .

Adolescent years

As the second son of Franz Morat sen. and Theresia, b. Klaiber, saw Franz Morat jun. the light of the world on April 27, 1911 in Eisenbach. At that time, his father, together with the brothers Joseph and Hermann, ran the Johann Morat and Sons company, which was founded in 1863 on the Höchst mountain. In August 1912, the three brothers decided to convert this general partnership into two companies with their own names .

School time and studies

After attending the Eisenbach elementary school and the Neuburg-Oberrealschule in Freiburg im Breisgau , where he passed his Abitur in 1930, Franz Morat began studying mechanical engineering at the Technical University in Karlsruhe . After only three semesters, he broke off his studies at his father's request in order to open up new sales markets for the company, which had got into difficulties due to the global economic crisis . For this purpose he went to Paris in February 1932 .

Professional background

Start of self-employment

In the Paris suburb of Neuilly he founded the Framex company, which took over the distribution of his father and brother Hugo's products. These included the patented photo self-timer and time switches for car winkers.

Although the development was complicated because of the latent anti-German hatred in France ("On achète pas chez les boches - Les boches payeront tout"), the first successes soon emerged, so that Morat had a Buick and a sports aircraft for regular flights as early as 1936 to London could acquire. In the same year he founded another company in the automotive accessories sector. In 1937 the first voyage to the USA took place to conclude a license agreement with one of the most important North American manufacturers of car accessories. During this voyage, he met his future father-in-law.

World War II and post-war period

End of August 1939, shortly before the outbreak of World War II , he had to leave Paris to the detention to escape. With the French defeat in June 1940, he returned to his Parisian factory. At the same time he was appointed operator in Eisenbach by the armaments command. Until the end of the war, he was able to successfully avoid joining the NSDAP , which was actually connected with this process , by having the documents forced on him by Neustadt district leader Kuner sent back and forth several times between Paris and Neustadt .

On June 1, 1940, he married Anneliese Charlotte Wilhelm from Wiesbaden in Eisenbach . Two children were born in this marriage, Franz Armin in November 1943 and Gisela Christiane in October 1945.

Immediately after the end of the war, Franz Morat was charged by the French authorities for collaboration with the Germans and imprisoned in the Fresnes remand prison. Since he had never given up his German citizenship , he was acquitted after three months and released from custody. However, he was sentenced to confiscate his possessions in Paris for acting to harm France . At the same time, the Eisenbach company was severely affected by the so-called dismantling until 1949 . It was for this reason that he looked for economic activity in the American zone . In this context, the American occupation authorities offered him the opportunity to run a manufacturer of circular knitting machines in Stuttgart-Vaihingen . Its owner had been banned by the Americans from continuing to work because of his membership in the SS. In the summer of 1945, at the urging of the then director of Deutsche Bank , Karl Butsch , Franz Morat took over the company Fritz Hellige & Co. GmbH in Freiburg, a manufacturer of electro-medical devices. The Stuttgart company was initially incorporated into the Hellige company. Hellige Morat & Co. GmbH was founded in Stuttgart-Vaihingen in 1947.

Business success

His knowledge of the achievements of the still young electronics gave Franz Morat the idea of ​​transferring elements of this technology to the field of mechanical engineering. Substantially contributed to the engineer Jan Friedrich Tonnies, who already in a research institute of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society in Berlin-Buch the first direct writer for 1936 electrocardiograph had developed, and the neurologist Richard Jung , of the parallel research on the development of Elektroenzephalografen had promoted , at.

After 15 years of development work, the first fully electronically controlled circular knitting machine in the world, the "Moratronic", was built in 1963 and presented at the 4th International Textile Machinery Exhibition in 1963 in Hanover . The global breakthrough came at the 1967 textile trade fairs in Basel and Paris. The rapid development made it necessary to build a new plant in Bonlanden , whereby in 1971 a sales volume of almost DM 300 million was achieved with 2,500 employees. This expansion with large investments was only possible thanks to the support of the Swiss mechanical engineering group Sulzer . This took over the majority of the company shares in stages and in 1974 the name was changed to Sulzer Morat GmbH. The Eisenbach parent company participated in these expansions. The main plant, which was handed over to his cousin Josef Morat as management in 1948, was initially enlarged in 1963 with a new building. The necessary expansion of the company took place in 1972 and 1985. On April 1, 1963, Oskar Haberstroh and his cousin Franz Morat founded the plastic injection molding company F. Morat & Co. GmbH in the vacated old building. In 1968 a branch was established in Kenzingen for the production of feeder motors for circular knitting machines.

Retirement and death

In the mid-1970s, health problems prompted Franz Morat to increasingly withdraw from business activities. In 1975 he was made an honorary citizen of the Eisenbach community and generously supported local associations. In 1977 he passed the company shares on to his children Gisela Brake-Morat and Franz Armin Morat. He himself remained connected to the company as Chairman of the Advisory Board.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Entrepreneurs and sponsors . Badische Zeitung Online. Retrieved April 27, 2011.
2. ↑ Honorary citizen of the Eisenbach community  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Website of the Eisenbach community. Retrieved May 3, 2011.