Gustav Rheinberger

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Gustav Rheinberger on his 70th birthday

Gustav Rheinberger (born June 30, 1889 in Pirmasens , † January 23, 1968 in Douala , Cameroon ) was a German entrepreneur . He managed to develop the Rheinberger company into the largest shoe factory in Germany.

life and work

Gustav Rheinberger was born as one of the sons of the shoe manufacturer and councilor Eduard Rheinberger (1856–1918).

After attending the Progymnasium Pirmasens and the commercial school in Lausanne , he completed a commercial apprenticeship in Paris . From 1907 he was employed in London before he joined his father's company on February 1, 1909.

After the First World War , from which he returned as a lieutenant in the reserve, Gustav Rheinberger and his brother Robert (1894–1937) took over management of the company after their father's death on March 10, 1918. In June 1919, Gustav Rheinberger married Doris Kapff from Göppingen , daughter of Ernst Kapff (1863-1944), the fatherly friend, teacher and sponsor of the young Hermann Hesse . The marriage resulted in three daughters, including the sculptor Gerda Kratz , who married the sculptor and university professor Max Kratz . In 1932 - for the 50th anniversary of the Rheinberger company - the Rheinberger estate was inaugurated. New sales markets were opened up and the number of employees rose to almost 2,300.

After the almost complete destruction of the factory in Offenbach and major damage in Pirmasens, production was resumed with 30 workers in 1945. Gustav Rheinberger managed to create the largest shoe factory in Germany with over 2500 employees in just a few years.

Gustav Rheinberger showed particular social commitment to his employees. From 1927 to 1928 a retirement home for employees and senior citizens of the city of Pirmasens with 48 rooms and in 1935 the first company canteen in the city, the Eduard Rheinberger housing estate and in 1937 a company kindergarten, a works savings bank, a death and benefit fund and a pension fund. During the Second World War , however, the Rheinberger company, along with other large companies such as Salamander and Fagus, took part in material tests on the shoe test track in Sachsenhausen concentration camp , in which numerous prisoners were killed.

In 1954 he was awarded the Great Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany . On the occasion of the company's 75th anniversary in 1957, Gustav Rheinberger became an honorary citizen of the city of Pirmasens. He was also an honorary member of the German shoe industry, an honorary senator of the Mannheim Business School and vice-president of the Palatinate Chamber of Commerce .

After retiring from the company management, the passionate rider, animal and plant lover wanted to see the wild animals of Africa in January 1968. Gustav Rheinberger never returned from his trip to Cameroon. He died on January 23, 1968 in Duala hospital.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b ( page no longer available , search in web archives: Dynamikum Zeitung ), special edition of the Pirmasenser Zeitung on April 26, 2008, p. 11.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.pirmasenser-zeitung.de
  2. ↑ The Progymnasium emerged from the former Latin school in 1888 and was transferred to a humanistic grammar school in 1909; see history of the Immanuel-Kant-Gymnasium in Pirmasens
  3. ^ A b Albert Gieseler: Eduard Rheinberger GmbH, shoe factory
  4. ↑ a b c Julius Ganser: 100 years Rheinberger. 1882-1982. Pirmasens, 1982
  5. ↑ Anne Sudrow: The Shoe in National Socialism. A product story in a German-British-American comparison . Wallstein, Göttingen 2010, ISBN 978-3-8353-0793-3 , p. 534.
  6. ↑ Chronicle of July 8, 1954, No. 27 , Die Zeit Online
personal data
SURNAME Rheinberger, Gustav
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German shoe manufacturer
DATE OF BIRTH June 30, 1889
PLACE OF BIRTH Pirmasens
DATE OF DEATH January 23, 1968
Place of death Douala , Cameroon