Gotthilf Kuhn

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Gotthilf Kuhn.

Gotthilf Kuhn (born June 22, 1819 in Grafenberg , in what was then the Oberamt Nürtingen ; † January 24, 1890 in Stuttgart-Berg ) was a Stuttgart industrial pioneer.

Life

The son of the schoolmaster Johann Ludwig Kuhn († 1828) was orphaned at an early age, learned a locksmith in Giengen an der Brenz and worked his way up to work foreman with Carl Hoppe in Berlin, who taught him mathematics and mechanics. In 1848 he married Maria Henriette Caroline Haberbrecher (1827–89) here. When he wanted to set up his own business back home in 1851, Hoppe equipped him with construction drawings for his locomobiles.

In 1851 he bought the former Gauger'schen beer cellar in the Stuttgart suburb of Berg , in which he set up a mechanical workshop with a business partner named Landenberger. Since business did not go as expected in the first year, Landenberger got out and Kuhn founded a new company, G. Kuhn, machine and boiler factory, iron and brass foundry . In return for a guarantee from relatives, he received a loan of 4,000 guilders from the Stuttgart industrialist Karl Jobst . With 30 workers and a small steam engine, he started his machine factory, to which a boiler shop was added. In 1857 he opened his own foundry. In 1859 he already had 249 civil servants and workers.

In the bear market of 1855, he set up his own health insurance company. King Wilhelm I campaigned personally for the necessary capacity expansion and Friedrich Jobst jun. became a silent partner with a contribution of 100,000 guilders.

Gotthilf Kuhn's family grave in the former Berg churchyard.

He was also supported by Ferdinand Steinbeis , who advised him around 1860 to look into Lenoir's gas engine. Max Eyth learned here from 1857–61, Rudolf Ernst Wolf worked for him as chief engineer from 1854–62 and Immanuel Lauster as a designer of internal combustion engines from 1888–92 . In 1890 he tried to build a gas engine under license from Richard Langensiepen from Buckau-Magdeburg.

After a major fire in July 1867, the factory was rebuilt. In 1878 he began building steam rollers. In 1880 he paid off the Jobst partners.

He had fallen out with his eldest son Friedrich. Gustav died as a child. His third-born son Ernst (* May 18, 1853; † 1903) had completed a commercial apprenticeship after attending school in Magdeburg and then studied mechanical engineering at the Technical University of Aachen. 1879–1890 Ernst was the factory's main shareholder. When he expanded the factory to 1246 workforce around 1900, he took over economically and had to unite the company with the Esslingen machine factory .

Gotthilf Kuhn died on January 24, 1890 in Stuttgart-Berg . He is buried with his wife and two children in a family grave in the former Berg churchyard. The western extension of Stuttgarter Strasse (today Steubenstrasse), which bordered the factory in the north, was named Kuhnstrasse in 1895.

literature

  • Ulrich Gohl: Made in S-Ost: manufacturing companies in the east of Stuttgart from the beginning until today. Stuttgart: Verlag im Ziegelhaus, 2016, pages 134–144.
  • Paul Sauer : Becoming a big city: Stuttgart between the founding of an empire and the First World War; 1871-1914 , Stuttgart 1988, pages 174-177.
  • Hans Christoph Graf von Seherr-Thoß:  Kuhn, Gotthilf. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 13, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1982, ISBN 3-428-00194-X , p. 259 f. ( Digitized version ).

swell

  1. ↑ Hans Christoph Graf von Seherr-Thoß:  Kuhn, Gotthilf. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 13, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1982, ISBN 3-428-00194-X , p. 259 f. ( Digitized version ).
  2. ↑ http://www.dmg-berlin.info/page/history/ehrenverbindungen.php
  3. ↑ http://www.albert-gieseler.de/dampf_de/firmen0/firmadet1370.shtml

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Kuhn, Gotthilf
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Stuttgart industrial pioneer
DATE OF BIRTH June 22, 1819
PLACE OF BIRTH Grafenberg (District of Reutlingen)
DATE OF DEATH January 24, 1890
Place of death Stuttgart mountain