Gerhard Meyer (entrepreneur)

General partner Horst Meyer, left, in 1966 at one of the daily job consultations with senior employees of his Plastolit company

Gerhard Meyer (born April 7, 1910 in Dresden , † April 19, 1971 in Dernbach (Westerwald) ) was a German entrepreneur , businessman and inventor .

Live and act

Former Myraplast plastics factory , Gartenstrasse 50

In March 1950, the business graduate Meyer applied for his first patent for a novel process for the production of air-filled balls. At the same time he opened in Radebeul industrial area , the G. Meyer plastics processing , an operation for toy making. Because of problems with the quality of the plastic films supplied, he took this over into his own hands and built a plastic rolling mill for the production of PVC films next door (Gartenstrasse 50). From 1953 this traded under the name Myraplast (from Meyer Radebeul Plastic ). Both companies grew very strongly, also due to international demand. Due to its growth, the Myraplast site was later extended to Gartenstrasse 54 ( Sarrasanihaus ).

In 1956/1957 Meyer had the Meyer Villa , which is now a listed building, built as his house in the Oberlößnitz district . It is considered a "rare example of a GDR entrepreneur villa".

Since Meyer was threatened with expropriation due to the company's size, he transferred the toy manufacturer to his brother Horst Meyer (1906–1995). He continued the business under the name Plastolit .

The colored and transparent foils produced by Gerhard Meyer under the trademarks Cortina and Myraflex were not only unrivaled in the GDR because of their high quality , but were also exported to thirty predominantly western countries as a source of foreign currency. Meyer, who was popularly known as Igelit-Meyer or Plaste-Meyer , applied for numerous international patents on the basis of his own development department, some of which are still used today.

In 1958 Meyer was forced to take up a “voluntary” state participation for his very healthy and profitable company . Due to ongoing reprisals, Meyer moved to West Germany in 1960, where, as a qualified plastics specialist , he set up new businesses in Staufen (today Bilcare Research) and at his last residence in Montabaur (today Klöckner Pentaplast ).

View into a Plastolit production hall where work is being carried out on high-frequency welding systems .

The Radebeul factory was gradually nationalized until 1972 and after the political change in the early 1990s, completely worn out, it was returned to Gerhard Meyer's son. He had to close the run-down plant with no prospects, on the site he developed an industrial park, in which eleven companies had already settled in 2006.

Meyer's brother Horst's Plastolit company relocated to Meyer's departure and continued to grow. In 1965, the internationally sought-after products were exported to 80 countries. Plastolit was also nationalized in 1972 and shut down in the early 1990s. Horst Meyer, who died in Radebeul, is today in the Radebeul-Ost cemetery in the listed Burghagen / Meyer grave. The tomb with a marble relief by Sascha Schneider stands on the west wall of the cemetery , as does Karl May's grave not far away .

literature

Frank Andert (Red.): Radebeul City Lexicon . Historical manual for the Loessnitz . Published by the Radebeul City Archives. 2nd, slightly changed edition. City archive, Radebeul 2006, ISBN 3-938460-05-9 .

Individual evidence

^ Large district town of Radebeul (ed.): Directory of the cultural monuments of the town of Radebeul . Radebeul May 24, 2012, p. 7 (Last list of monuments published by the city of Radebeul. The Lower Monument Protection Authority, which has been located in the Meißen district since 2012, has not yet published a list of monuments for Radebeul.).

↑ ^a ^b ^c Frank Andert (Red.): Stadtlexikon Radebeul . Historical manual for the Loessnitz . Published by the Radebeul City Archives. 2nd, slightly changed edition. City archive, Radebeul 2006, ISBN 3-938460-05-9 , p. 138 .

↑ Volker Helas (arrangement): City of Radebeul . Ed .: State Office for Monument Preservation Saxony, Large District Town Radebeul (= Monument Topography Federal Republic of Germany . Monuments in Saxony ). SAX-Verlag, Beucha 2007, ISBN 978-3-86729-004-3 , p. 117 .

↑ Gudrun Täubert; H.-G. Staudte: Art in Public Space II. Gravestones (Radebeul-Ost main cemetery) . In: Association for Monument Preservation and New Building Radebeul (ed.): Contributions to the urban culture of the city of Radebeul . Radebeul 2005.

personal data
SURNAME	Meyer, Gerhard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German entrepreneur, businessman and inventor
DATE OF BIRTH	April 7, 1910
PLACE OF BIRTH	Dresden
DATE OF DEATH	April 19, 1971
Place of death	Dernbach (Westerwald)

[1] Large district town of Radebeul (ed.): Directory of the cultural monuments of the town of Radebeul . Radebeul May 24, 2012, p. 7 (Last list of monuments published by the city of Radebeul. The Lower Monument Protection Authority, which has been located in the Meißen district since 2012, has not yet published a list of monuments for Radebeul.).

[stadtlexikon-2] Frank Andert (Red.): Stadtlexikon Radebeul . Historical manual for the Loessnitz . Published by the Radebeul City Archives. 2nd, slightly changed edition. City archive, Radebeul 2006, ISBN 3-938460-05-9 , p. 138 .

[3] Volker Helas (arrangement): City of Radebeul . Ed .: State Office for Monument Preservation Saxony, Large District Town Radebeul (= Monument Topography Federal Republic of Germany . Monuments in Saxony ). SAX-Verlag, Beucha 2007, ISBN 978-3-86729-004-3 , p. 117 .