Franz Saurer

Franz Saurer (1806-1882)

Franz Saurer (* probably on October 3, 1806 in Veringendorf ; † November 28, 1882 in Arbon TG) was the founder of what would later become a large corporation, Aktiengesellschaft Adolph Saurer in Arbon, Switzerland on Lake Constance .

Life

Reliefs of the Arbon industrialists Franz (left), Adolph and Hippolyt Saurer , embedded in the wall of the Arbon Castle, with a worker. Bronze sculpture by the Eglisau artist Ernst Heller, created on the occasion of the company's anniversary in 1953.

Franz Saurer grew up as the son of a farmer in Veringendorf an der Lauchert (Principality of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen ). At the age of 15 he moved to Switzerland with a younger brother because he could not find a livelihood in his home country. Via Laufen am Rheinfall, where his half-sister lived and where he completed an apprenticeship as a blacksmith and locksmith with Johann Georg Neher , he reached Wülflingen near Winterthur in 1827 . There he worked as a journeyman in the Wimmersberger mill construction workshop. At the end of 1832 he found a job in the machine shop of Michael Less in St. Georgen (then the municipality of Tablat ) near St. Gallen . In 1833 he stayed in Vienna for a year. On March 9, 1834, he married Maria Catharina Kunz (1813–1861). From 1835 to 1848 she gave birth to six boys: Johann Anton (April 28, 1835 to March 12, 1872), Franz Carl (December 27, 1839 to January 4, 1850), Adolph (February 14, 1841 to February 23, 1920), Julius Emil (July 7, 1843 to October 19, 1896), Hippolyt Conrad (September 9, 1847 to September 21, 1877) and Heinrich (December 26, 1848 to March 30, 1888). In 1848 Franz Saurer left the St. Georgen machine works in protest against wage cuts. He now lived, among other things, from the truck stop that had meanwhile been built up.

In 1853 he opened his own iron foundry in the property at St. Georgenstrasse 203-205, which he had bought in 1848, and which probably also served as a supplier to the St. Georgen machine factory, which still existed. At first he only had two workers, but he brought his sons to help out. In 1854 he received the citizenship of Tablat and became Swiss. The 48-year-old wife Maria died on April 26, 1861.

Already on August 11, 1862, Franz Saurer married again, with Maria Paulina Theresia Stoffel, b. Frei (1821 to 1888). She was the widow and universal heir of Franz Xaver Stoffel (1811–1861), who had been running a mechanical workshop for the construction and repairs of jacquard machines for looms in the old hospital north of Arbon Castle since 1842 . He had gradually acquired several properties and finally had a sizable property in the town of Arbon that extended to the lake. After his early death in 1861, his niece Anna Stoffel, who was an orphan, continued to run the business. She made Franz Saurer, who had lived in Arbon with his five sons since the beginning of July 1862 and with whom she was said to have got along, familiar with the machine business. In 1864, the enterprising Anna Stoffel left Arbon. In January 1863, Franz Saurer relocated the company from St. Georgen to Arbon, where it now operated under the name “Mechanische Werkstätte & Eisengiesserei Franz Saurer-Stoffel, Arbon”. The company, which initially only employed a few workers, soon had an impressive, varied production program, although the driving force was initially still obtained from a horse .

It was only when the sons joined the company that it developed into a growing company in the field of embroidery machine construction . In the second half of the sixties, Adolph (1866) and Anton (1867) joined their father’s company, followed in 1872 by brother Emil (meanwhile a qualified mechanical engineer). Later the merchant Hippolyt made a sensible addition to the brother team. The company was renamed as early as 1869, which is now "F. Saurer & Sons "was called. Also in 1869 the first model of a Saurer hand embroidery machine left the company. In the personnel area, however, there were major changes quite soon. Anton, who was not yet 37 years old, died in 1872 of complications from appendicitis. Hippolytus († 1877) only died at the age of 30 after a long illness. For the next two decades, the remaining Adolph and Emil Saurer should successfully determine the fate of the company. Father Franz Saurer, who let the two sons have their way over long stretches, died on November 28, 1882 after a brief illness at the age of 76. The only son from his second marriage, Franz Xaver Saurer (1864 to 1892), is said to have been gifted. However, he died at the age of 28. Little is known about him.

meaning

Portrait Franz Saurer (detail)

Franz Saurer was undoubtedly a particularly skilled craftsman who worked his way up from the poor farmer's child to the factory owner who even employed up to 500 workers for a short time. The decision he made in 1848 to start his own business is a testament to his great self-confidence. Franz Saurer will also have benefited from the general positive economic development that followed. With his first wife Maria Kunz, he was supported by an extremely capable woman who went beyond her strength to support the family and the company. The second wife, Paulina Stoffel, enabled him to create the conditions for a larger company with her inherited business and the conveniently located turnaround. The short-term influence of the third woman in his environment (Anna Stoffel) should not be underestimated. Towards the end of his life, Franz Saurer struggled with the considerable expansion of the company. At least he let the sons, who were always acting more arbitrarily, do their own thing, even if this was not always easy for him. With funds from his estate, the foundation was laid for an Arbon city park to be created. From the south of the promenade road, respectively Rebenstrasse located, still exists today called Pärkli originated with aviary .

literature

• Hans Ulrich Wipf, Mario König , Adrian Knoepfli: Saurer. From a small business in Eastern Switzerland to an international technology group , here + now, Verlag für Kultur und Geschichte, Baden 2003, ISBN 3-906419-55-X
• Markus Mäder: Three generations of Saurer. Franz Saurer (1806-1882), Adolph Saurer (1841-1920), Hippolyt Saurer (1878-1936) . Swiss pioneers in business and technology, Volume 48, published by the Association for Economic History Studies, Meilen 1988

Web links

• http://www.saurer.com Saurer AG
• Bruno Meyer: Saurer, Franz. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
• http://www.fpt-motorenforschung.ch/portrait/