Fritz Berg

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Fritz Berg 1955

Fritz Berg (born August 27, 1901 in Altena ; † February 3, 1979 in Cologne ) was a manufacturer of mattress springs and from 1949 to 1971 the first president of the Federal Association of German Industry (BDI) after the Second World War .

Life

The entrepreneur's son Fritz Berg attended the Realprogymnasium Altena and then completed an apprenticeship in banking and in an export company in Hamburg . From 1922 to 1924 he studied in Cologne, where he became a member of the Corps Hansea Cologne .

1925–1928 he worked in the USA and Canada (including the Ford plants in Detroit ). In 1928 he was already an authorized signatory in his father's company, which dealt with steel products .

In 1940 he became the sole owner of the company, in 1942 a member of the advisory board of the Gau Chamber of Commerce , in 1943 deputy head of the iron, steel and sheet metal industry group and member of the presidium of the metal goods business group . From April 16, 1945 to August 7, 1945 he was appointed the first honorary mayor of the city of Altena . A fire in the Westphalian Economic Archives on January 29, 1961 destroyed files from the history of the Chamber, but at this point in time the files from the earlier period, which were lost in 1944, were already missing. At least his function as head of the “Bicycle and Motor Parts” department of the Reichsgruppe Industrie (RGI) during World War II is documented.

Plaque on the Fritz Berg Bridge over the Lenne in Altena (1982)

His post-war biography continues seamlessly in 1946 with the chairmanship of the Iron, Sheet Metal and Metalware Industry Association in Düsseldorf . In the same year he also became a member of the committee on questions relating to the Marshall and Schuman Plan . In 1948 Berg was President of the South Westphalian Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Hagen .

In 1951 Berg headed the first West German industrial delegation to the USA. Later he was a member of the Presidium of the German Society for Foreign Policy , landowner and chairman or member of numerous supervisory boards. Berg was also managing director of the Citizens' Association and thus involved in the controversial party funding of the CDU in the 1970s. As BDI President, on the occasion of the “ wild ” September strikes in the steel industry in the Ruhr area in autumn 1969 , he said that “one should have shot quietly, then at least order will prevail”.

The Fritz Berg Foundation , which he decreed in his will , has been running the Fritz Berg House, a care facility for the elderly in Altena , since 1995 .

Honors

Web links

Commons : Fritz Berg  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Mayor of the City of Altena (Westphalia)
  2. ↑ Information about Fritz Berg in a cabinet meeting minutes from January 15, 1958 (from the online holdings of the Federal Archives )
  3. ^ Peter Birke: Wild strikes in the economic miracle: labor disputes, trade unions and social movements in the Federal Republic and Denmark . Campus, Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 3-593-38444-2 , p. 228
  4. ↑ List of all decorations awarded by the Federal President for services to the Republic of Austria from 1952 (PDF; 6.9 MB)
personal data
SURNAME Berg, Fritz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German entrepreneur, 1st BDI chairman after 1945
DATE OF BIRTH August 27, 1901
PLACE OF BIRTH Altena
DATE OF DEATH 3rd February 1979
Place of death Cologne