Gustav Polensky

Gustav Polensky (born May 6, 1846 in Driesen ; † January 18, 1908 there ) was a German civil engineering contractor and founder of the Polensky & Zöllner construction company .

Life

Gustav Polensky was born in Driesen in the Friedeberg district of Nm in May 1846 . Born as the son of textile specialist Friedrich Polensky. After leaving school, Gustav worked in the textile industry in the vicinity of his father. Around 1863 he joined the general contractor Krossberg in Königsberg (Prussia) , which had made a name for itself in railway construction, and learned the building trade from scratch. In the mid-1870s he was the construction manager of a company that helped build the railway line from Wannsee (Berlin) near Berlin via Belzig to Sangerhausen .

In 1878 Gustav Polensky finally went into business for himself, initially as a building materials dealer with his own fleet of vehicles. He supplied various road and iron construction sites in the eastern provinces with falling rocks. On September 24, 1880, he received his first major construction contract. He was commissioned to build an underpass under the railway line between Berlin and Königsberg near his home town. Since the order situation was positive in the following years, he teamed up with his friend, master bricklayer August Zöllner (1846–1902), and founded a general partnership under the name Polensky & Zöllner. The company achieved a breakthrough in 1888 when it was awarded two lots as part of a public tender for the Kiel Canal . The task was to move around 8,850,000 cubic meters of soil and to fortify banks and embankments. The order volume is said to have been 8.5 million gold marks. The company used steel dump trucks for this and was able to complete the order on time by 1893. The Polensky & Zöllner company thus made a name for itself, especially when it comes to moving large amounts of earth.

In the period that followed, the company received numerous orders in the areas of canal, lock and port construction, as well as the construction of railway networks. The orders included, for example, the expansion of the port of Emden, which was completed in 1898.

Two years after the death of August Zöllner, who had no descendants, Gustav Polensky also withdrew from the company's operational business. On April 1, 1904, the company was converted back into a general partnership and transferred to the two sons Otto and Gustav. The third son, Fritz Polensky , also joined in 1912.

Gustav Polensky died in January 1908 at the age of 61 in his hometown. He was born in 1872 with Emilie Polensky. Gaede (1848–1931) married. The couple had three sons Otto (1873–1936) and the two twin brothers Gustav (1876–1940) and Fritz Polensky (1876–1959). He was buried next to his friend and business partner August Zöllner in the Driesen cemetery.

literature

• 75 years Polensky & Zöllner 1880–1955. A look back, Frankfurt am Main 1955.
• Polensky & Zöllner. 1880-1980. The past, the future, Frankfurt am Main 1980.