Hans Neufeldt

Hans Adolph Neufeldt (born September 12, 1874 in Elbing ; † March 17, 1963 in Heikendorf ) was a German engineer. He created what was once the largest electrical engineering company in the province of Schleswig-Holstein . He also supported numerous inventions in underwater sound, control and remote transmission technology during their development into a marketable product.

education

Hans Neufeldt came from a family of Mennonites . Frederick II had settled the ancestors in the Vistula Delta after 1772 . His father Heinrich Adolph Neufeldt (born March 11, 1848 in Elbing; September 10, 1930 in Meran ) was married to Marie-Louise, née Bohne (born August 28, 1851 in Aschersleben ; † December 3, 1902 in Berlin-Friedenau ). Heinrich Adolph Neufeldt had a factory for sheet metal and enamel in Elbing. After the establishment of the German Empire in 1871, he manufactured, among other things, new liter sizes and employed 800 people.

Neufeldt went to the upper secondary school in Elbing, which was located on Kalkscheunenstrasse. During the school holidays he received his first manual training in his father's factory. He left school without a qualification and began training in his father's company on January 2, 1891. He later switched to the Tyssen iron foundry in Elbing. On January 1, 1891, he began a traineeship at Erdmann & Kircheit in Aue, which produced machines for sheet metal processing. In April 1893 he traveled with his father to the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago .

In 1893 Heinrich Adolph Neufeldt sold the company in Elbing and acquired shares in a bicycle manufacturer in Freiburg im Breisgau . On August 31, 1893, Hans Neufeldt passed the journeyman's examination at A. Beyerle in Aue. He did vacation work at several metalworking companies in Gaggenau , Freiburg and Chemnitz . On March 15, 1894, he passed the one-year exam in Kassel. He then studied at the Hildburghausen Engineering School by October 1895 . After studying electrical engineering at the Technical University of Charlottenburg in 1896/97, he worked from November 1, 1897 as an electrical engineer at the Kaiserliche Werft Kiel .

Company formation

In the spring of 1899, Neufeldt and the businessman Karl Kuhnke opened the company Neufeldt & Kuhnke (N & K) based in Kiel . It was a "technical bureau, connected with workshops for the execution of electrotechnical systems". The entrepreneurs had their own foundry and 20 employees who mainly produced installation material. In addition, they installed systems on ships and built lighting and transmission systems.

During his time at the shipyard, Neufeldt had already worked with the land and sea cable works from Cologne-Nippes and two electrotechnical factories from Berlin. He now represented these companies in Kiel. By 1904, his company set up electrical "block stations" for individual blocks of houses in Kiel. There were also several power plants, including in Hademarschen , Gettorf , Laboe , Hassee and Schrevenborn. From 1904 the focus of business shifted to long-distance transmission technology.

In 1903 Hans Usener joined Neufeldt's company. Usener held important patents and in 1907 became a partner in the company, which quickly became a leader thanks to its own production. Hermann Anschütz-Kaempfe , who retired in 1908, invented the gyro compass in the factory buildings . Oskar Martienssen then continued researching this compass. Neufeldt founded at least 13 companies with which he expanded production. They reflected the respective focus of the entrepreneurial activity:

• In 1905, together with L. v. Bremen the "Hanseatische Apparatebau-Gesellschaft formerly L. v. Bremen & Co. mb H. ”The company designed the so-called“ deep sea diver ”and manufactured it. In 1937 it merged with Neufeldt & Kuhnke to form Hagenuk .
• From 1906 to 1916 Neufeldt & Kuhnke had a foundry with Howaldt.
• In 1911, the "Signal Society" was established, which mostly developed underwater sound devices.
• In 1911 Neufeldt founded the "Schiffsunion" together with Bergmann Elektrizitätswerke from Berlin and the Nissen company from Hamburg. This carried out ship installations.
• The “Society for Nautical Instruments” founded in 1912 tried to promote the use of the gyro compass in deep drilling technology.

In 1912 the construction of a larger company building began on Ravensberg. On April 1, 1913, 300 employees moved here. The number of employees grew rapidly during the First World War . In 1916 the "Spreng- und Tauchgesellschaft" was established, in the following year the "Liquid Gase G. mb H." The first company took over the dismantling of the fortress Laboe and the shipyard after 1918. The second company manufactured storage vessels for liquefied gases. In 1918, Neufeldt managed to prevent unrest in his factories with social commitment.

At the end of the First World War, Neufeldt employed 1,300 people. He tried to keep most of the jobs, but had to realign production. He merged the administration of all subsidiaries and from then on produced everyday objects, including pots and boots. Since he ran out of raw materials, Neufeldt was looking for new industries. In 1920 he planned to produce prostheses in “Prothese G. mb h”. Since this production was nationalized, this attempt failed.

From 1920 Neufeldt's company produced crude oil and three-phase motors. A cooperation with the Deutsche Reichspost in the area of ​​the production of desk telephones became increasingly important. From 1923 the company manufactured magnetic headphones and radio sets with built-in loudspeakers, as well as regulators that ensured constant voltages in power plants, remote indicators for command and remote measuring systems on ships and around the mining industry, heating components for the Deutsche Reichsbahn and then the people's receiver .

Decline

Despite all efforts, Neufeldt did not generate sufficient profits. In 1922 the company became a limited partnership with Th. Goldschmid from Essen as a partner. In the following years, most of the subsidiaries ceased their business. The Submarine Signal Compan y from Boston took over the Signal Company in 1923. Electroacoustics emerged from it in 1926 . In the same year two societies founded during the war ended. In 1927, Neufeldt and Kuhnke had to hand over management to Th. Goldschmid and leave the company.

In retirement, Neufeldt looked for reasons for entrepreneurial failure with his well-developed products. He therefore dealt with the theories of Karl Marx and Silvio Gesell . Gesell's view of Schwundgeld appealed to him. He also realized that he had supported too many inventions instead of continuously pursuing and introducing individual devices.

family

Neufeldt married Elsabeth ( Elsa ) Emma Joanina Dahlström on November 25, 1903 in Hamburg (born April 22, 1874 in Hamburg; † February 13, 1965 in Heikendorf). His wife was a daughter of the entrepreneur Hermann Dahlström . The couple had two daughters and two sons.

literature

• Helmut Grieser: Neufeldt, Hans . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Volume 8. Wachholtz Verlag, Neumünster 1987, pp. 247-249.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} Helmut Grieser: Neufeldt, Hans . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Volume 8. Wachholtz Verlag, Neumünster 1987, p. 247.
2. ↑ Helmut Grieser: Neufeldt, Hans . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Volume 8. Wachholtz Verlag, Neumünster 1987, pp. 247-248.
3. ↑ ^{a b c} Helmut Grieser: Neufeldt, Hans . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Volume 8. Wachholtz Verlag, Neumünster 1987, p. 248.
4. ↑ Helmut Grieser: Neufeldt, Hans . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Volume 8. Wachholtz Verlag, Neumünster 1987, pp. 248-249.
5. ↑ Helmut Grieser: Neufeldt, Hans . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Volume 8. Wachholtz Verlag, Neumünster 1987, p. 249.