Friedrich Soennecken

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Friedrich Soennecken

Friedrich Soennecken (born September 20, 1848 in Dröschede (now the city of Iserlohn ), † July 2, 1919 in Bonn ) was a German businessman , entrepreneur , inventor and graphic artist . He was the founder of the office supplies manufacturer Soennecken and developed the circular writing with circular writing springs ( tension springs ).

life and work

Soennecken's stationery catalog with the Kgl. Prussia. State Prize advertises his company, 1895
formerly Soennecken-Locher
Mausoleum of the Soennecken family in Poppelsdorf

Soennecken was born in 1848 as the son of a blacksmith . On May 27, 1875 he founded F. Soennecken Verlag , a trading company in Remscheid . The company developed very well thanks to his inventions and developments related to writing and writing . On October 19, 1876, he and his company moved to Poppelsdorf , also because of its proximity to the University of Bonn .

The production of nibs began here in Luisenstrasse in 1877 in order to avoid imports from Great Britain. In 1884 he moved to an area between Kirschallee and Jagdweg, where a three-story building was built. Due to expansion, the operating area had to be expanded in 1887. In 1883 the young entrepreneur employed 40 people. Soennecken achieved its first worldwide success with the design of a new type of writing nib , the round writing nib for fountain pens .

F. Soennecken tried to methodically design the circular script, which was only used by a few in Germany, by means of appropriately constructed, broadly cut steel springs

At that time was with pointed feathers ( Schwellzugfedern written) originally came from England. Soennecken initially had its springs manufactured there and later began production in Poppelsdorf. In order to create sales, Soennecken developed itself the right to the springs, on the French Ronde font constructive Rundschrift , a script that was easier to learn by facilitating the hand position than the Schwellschrift. Writing has been made easier, especially for beginners in school. His publishing house published teaching and exercise books, the circulars . They appeared in several languages ​​and at the same time advertised the circular pens, which he sold in parallel.

Soennecken is considered to be the inventor of the file folder , which he brought onto the market in 1886 as the "letter folder". As a complementary item , he had his paper punch for binder files patented on November 14th, 1886 (“device for temporarily stitching letters together” when applying for a patent) (later advertising slogan : small or large - great punch! ). In 1890 he developed a folder calendar, in 1903 ring binders. On October 3, 1896, a new company site was inaugurated in Poppelsdorf. The first portable hole punch called “Phoenix” was sold in 1901 by the Stuttgart company Louis Leitz , which had already developed the Leitz folder named after it in 1871 . On February 19, 1898 a building for the furniture manufacturing was inaugurated. Since 1903/1904 Soennecken also manufactured shelves and office cabinets, in 1905 "Soennecken" was registered as a trademark. In 1910 he was honored for his inventions at the 1910 World Exhibition in Brussels. His company developed into a global company. In 1913 alone, Soennecken, with the help of 1,000 employees, sent 72,000 parcels to Australia and India via its export houses in Berlin, Leipzig, Amsterdam, Antwerp and Paris.

His son Alfred Soennecken (born January 24, 1881 in Bonn; † July 19, 1954) had worked at the plant since 1911. In 1911, a five-story company headquarters in Poppelsdorf was completed. Friedrich Soennecken's daughter Karoline (* June 8, 1883; † 1972) married Wilhelm Hammerschmidt, the son of Rudolf Hammerschmidt , in 1911 . The Soennecken company, which Alfred Soennecken continued after the death of his father in 1919, went bankrupt in 1973 , but the "Großeinkaufsvereinigung deutscher Bürobedarfshäden" in Overath sold their office products under the bankrupt company "Soennecken eG". BRANION eG emerged from the merger between Soennecken eG and Büro Actuell eG in 1999 and renamed Soennecken eG in 2007.

Friedrich Soennecken died on July 2, 1919, he was buried in the family's mausoleum in the Poppelsdorf cemetery in Bonn.

Further inventions and developments

Honors

Soennecken was posthumously awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Bonn (Dr. med. Hc). Streets in Iserlohn, Bremen and Tannenbusch as well as the Friedrich Soennecken School in Poppelsdorf are named after him.

this and that

In 1888 Friedrich Nietzsche wrote to a friend: “... I discovered this paper , the first on which I can write. Also pen, but this one from Germany: Soennecken's circular pen. "

Fonts

  • The circular . Bonn 1876.
  • The German writing system and the necessity of its reform . Bonn / Leipzig 1881.
  • Fraktur or Antiqua in the first lesson? Lecture by Friedrich Sonnecken, given in Bonn in 1913 . Bonn (inter alia) 1913.
  • -, Richard Döring: The possible uses of war invalids in trade. Two lectures given at the conference of war invalids. Welfare, August 23-25 ​​(1916) in Cologne . Hamburg 1916.
  • The inscription on the Reichstag building "Dem Deutschen Volke". A scripture study . Munich 1920, DNB .

literature

Web links

Commons : Friedrich Soennecken  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Heinz Schmidt-Bachem : From paper. A cultural and economic history of the paper processing industry. 2011, p. 457. ( Google Books )
  2. ^ Friedrich Soennecken (encyclopedia entry). In: Brockhaus' Kleines Konversations-Lexikon. 11th edition, FA Brockhaus, Leipzig 1911. 1911, accessed on May 29, 2018 .
  3. ↑ From Riculus, Robert Hösel:  Friedrich Soennecken †. In:  Seidels Reklame , year 1919, issue 3 (July), year IV, p. 69. (Online at ANNO ). Template: ANNO / Maintenance / srk.
personal data
SURNAME Soennecken, Friedrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German graphic artist, inventor and entrepreneur
DATE OF BIRTH September 20, 1848
PLACE OF BIRTH Iserlohn -Dröschede
DATE OF DEATH July 2, 1919
Place of death Bonn