Gustav Ehrhardt
Gustav Ehrhardt (born January 12, 1868 in Zella St. Blasii ; died February 23, 1945 in Pforzheim ) was a German automobile pioneer, vehicle designer and motor sports enthusiast.
Life
Gustav Ehrhardt was born on January 12, 1868 as the son of the future engineer and entrepreneur Heinrich Ehrhardt in Zella St. Blasii (today: Zella-Mehlis ). He studied at Western University in Pittsburgh in the United States , where he became interested in automobiles . In April 1889 he married Wilhelmine Friederika Huthsteiner in Pittsburgh. He had three children with Wilhelmine .
After his return to Germany, his father appointed him factory director and chairman of the board of the Eisenach vehicle factory, which he had recently founded . In Eisenach , Gustav Ehrhardt played a key role in the development and marketing of the Wartburg motor vehicle. With this he also took part successfully in racing events, such as in the automobile race Innsbruck - Munich in 1899 . In 1902 he was appointed chief designer at the Eisenach vehicle factory.
When the Association of German Motor Vehicle Industrialists, renamed the Association of the Automobile Industry in 1946 , was founded in the Eisenacher Hotel Kaiserhof on January 19, 1901 , Gustav Erhardt was one of the founding members. He was also represented in other automobile associations, partly as a founding member.
Brauschbeck's Sportlexikon already paid tribute to him in 1910: Gustav Ehrhardt "... is one of the pioneers of automobilism in Germany, who has earned merit as a gentleman driver and as the founder of automobile associations ..."
In 1903 Heinrich and Gustav Erhardt left Eisenach and the vehicle factory after there had been tensions with the bankers represented on the supervisory board, and returned to Zella St. Blasii. Here he worked for his father's Ehrhardt-Automobil AG until it was taken over by the Szawe Automobil- und Karosseriefabrik in 1922 . Gustav Erhardt then tried his hand at being a car dealer and lived temporarily in poverty, but from 1933 was dependent on state support.
In 1936 he moved with his wife Wilhelmine to his daughter Marie Huthsteiner in Pforzheim. During the air raid on Pforzheim on February 23, 1945 , he, along with his wife, daughter Marie and one of his granddaughters, was victim of the bombing.
literature
- Matthias Doht : Gustav Ehrhardt - the car pioneer in Eisenach. The history of the Wartburg motor vehicle . Nestler Verlag, Eisenach 2016, ISBN 978-3981315974
Web links
- Matthias Doht: The Eisenach automobile functionary Gustav Ehrhardt , Thüringer Allgemeine , January 12, 2018
- Matthias Doht: 150th birthday of Gustav Ehrhardt , eisenachonline.de, January 12, 2018
Individual evidence
- ↑ Axel Polnik: The Bayreuth fire brigades in the Third Reich . BoD, Norderstedt 2011, ISBN 978-3842395633 , page 31, footnote 103
- ↑ Brauschbecks Sportlexikon , 1910, quoted from Stiftung Automobile Welt Eisenach , accessed on January 12, 2018
- ^ Zella-Mehlis History and Museum Association , accessed on January 12, 2018
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Ehrhardt, Gustav |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German automobile pioneer, vehicle designer and motor sports enthusiast |
| DATE OF BIRTH | January 12, 1868 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Zella St. Blasii |
| DATE OF DEATH | February 23, 1945 |
| Place of death | Pforzheim |