Hans Grohe

Hans Grohe (* May 14, 1871 as Otto Johannes Grohe in Luckenwalde ; † July 23, 1955 ) was a German entrepreneur . In 1901 he founded a manufacturer of sanitary products , today's Hansgrohe SE.

Life

Hans Grohe was born as the sixth child of the cloth maker Karl Grohe in Luckenwalde. After an apprenticeship as a cloth maker, he went on a journey as a model weaver between 1890 and 1892. He then worked as a weaver in Luckenwalde before moving to Schiltach in the Black Forest with his family in 1899 (three children from his first marriage to Luise Hannemann: Helene, born 1893, Liesel, born 1895, and Johann, born 1895, later called Hans junior) pulled. There he got to know the metal handle trade.

On June 15, 1901, he founded his own company, today's Hansgrohe SE, and specialized in the sanitary sector. In the initial three-man operation, Grohe was managing director, punch, traveling salesman and accountant rolled into one. In the following years he opened up new markets and from then on supplied the wholesale trade instead of individual sheet metal workers and plumbers in the Black Forest. The First World War led to raw material restrictions, and from 1917 the company was obliged to produce armaments (fuse parts). In the 1920s the company, which had grown to almost 100 employees, concentrated on exports . During the National Socialist era , Hans Grohe founded several diplomatic missions abroad. In 1934 he brought the first automatic bath drain and overflow set onto the market. From 1936 there were again restrictions on raw materials that required the use of substitute metals. During the Second World War , Hans Grohe was obliged to produce detonators; for this purpose women from the region were conscripted and foreign workers were assigned. This increased the number of employees to 466 in 1944. After 1945 the French occupying forces dismantled half of the machinery and imposed import bans for various metals. Nevertheless, Hans Grohe was able to maintain production by making pots and bowls from aluminum, among other things. In 1953 he developed the world's first shower rail; Grohe received the Federal Cross of Merit that year and handed over the management of his company to his son Hans Grohe junior (1895–1960).

Another son emerged from the second marriage with Magdalena Schöttle: Friedrich Grohe (1904–1983). With his father's consent, he left his father's company and in 1936 acquired a factory for the manufacture of fittings, from which today's company Grohe AG emerged . From his third marriage to Emma Wolber, Klaus Grohe (* 1937) was the third son.

Web links

• Peter Grohmann: The clever Hans or the true fairy tale of Hans in luck. 2nd, expanded edition. Hansgrohe SE, Schiltach 2010 (PDF; 6.0 MB).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Peter Grohmann: The clever Hans or the true fairy tale of Hans in luck. ( Memento of the original from October 25, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 2nd, expanded edition. Hansgrohe AG, Schiltach 2010, p. 72, accessed on September 17, 2017 (PDF; 6.0 MB). 
2. ↑ Markus Plate among others: Large German family businesses: Generational succession, family strategy and corporate development . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2011, ISBN 978-3-525-40338-9 , pp. 263-270, here pp. 264-266.
3. ^ Sanitary contractor Klaus Grohe turns 75 . In: Schwäbisches Tagblatt , March 30, 2012, accessed on September 17, 2017.
4. ↑ Peter Grohmann: The clever Hans or the true fairy tale of Hans in luck. ( Memento of the original from October 25, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 2nd, expanded edition. Hansgrohe AG, Schiltach 2010, p. 29, accessed on September 17, 2017 (PDF; 6.0 MB).