Hans Ringsdorff

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Hans Friedrich Julius Ringsdorff (born November 11, 1887 in Beeck , today Duisburg , † June 7, 1951 in Bad Godesberg ) was a German entrepreneur. From 1921 until his death, he was in charge of the Ringsdorff works in Mehlem , which is now part of the Bad Godesberg district of Bonn .

Live and act

Ringsdorff was the son of the entrepreneur Johannes Friedrich Peter Ringsdorff (1853–1923) and his wife Pauline geb. Röltgen (also Paula ; 1863–1939). His father founded the Ringsdorff works in Essen in 1886 , which initially produced electrical power and lighting systems and finally carbon brushes developed in- house. In 1910 the company was relocated to Mehlem in the former mayor's office in Godesberg to an empty factory site, where it already employed 400 people in 1914 and developed into one of the world's leading carbon brush manufacturers. Hans Ringsdorff took even before the death of his father as director general the management of the entity previously registered partnership operated inn and turned it into of May 1921 into a public limited company has to offer. Under his leadership, the first attempts to manufacture synthetic graphite (electrographite) - a main product of the company to the end - began in 1923 , with which fire-resistant and chemically resistant laboratory equipment as well as pencils and electrodes were manufactured.

On February 1, 1932, and thus before the National Socialist seizure of power (1933), Ringsdorff joined the NSDAP (membership no. 894187). In the spring of 1933 he made an administrative building of his company ("Villa Rita"; Koblenzer Straße 4a) available free of charge to the local party association, which was then used as the Adolf Hitler House . In addition, he made exceptionally high payments to the mayor of Godesberg Heinrich Alef as a member of the company's advisory board. Ringsdorff rejected the position of manager introduced in the course of the introduction of the National Socialist leader principle in the private sector at the beginning of 1934 with reference to his state of health and delegated it to a member of the board. During this time he also hired the physicist and former rector of Bonn University Heinrich Konen , who had been retired for political reasons , as a research assistant . In 1934 Ringsdorff was for a short time one of six parish elders in the Mehlem parish until it was incorporated into Bad Godesberg the following year. On May 9, 1935, the Supreme Party Court of the NSDAP pronounced him dismissed from office for life for unknown reasons . During the National Socialist era , the company, the largest industrial company in the then independent town of Bad Godesberg, with its 2,000 employees (as of 1938) was classified as an important war company in which artificial, lighting and headlight carbon and sealing material were produced. In August 1935, Ringsdorff became personally liable partner of the company in the course of the conversion of the Ringsdorff-Werke to a limited partnership . In 1936, the former mayor of Cologne, Konrad Adenauer Ringsdorff, was one of those people from whom he hoped to gain political support for the withdrawal of his deportation from the Cologne administrative district . From the beginning of 1942 he acted within the framework of the wartime economic cooperation structures as ring leader of the approximately 40 electric coal and brush holder factories in Germany, which he was supposed to control and advise on the use of labor and production processes. At the end of February 1945 Ringsdorff offered the Swiss Consul General Franz-Rudolf von Weiss rooms in his home at Rolandstrasse 67 (1955-99 residence of the US Ambassador), who moved into them the following month as the official seat of the Consulate General, which had moved from Cologne due to the war , and at the peaceful Handover of Bad Godesberg to the American occupation forces.

After the end of the war, Ringsdorff was removed from management by the British military government in August 1945 due to his membership in the NSDAP, and his house, both his own and the premises of the Swiss Consul General, was searched by the British military police on September 27, 1945. His most important advocate in the course of the denazification process was his former colleague Heinrich Konen, who was rector of Bonn University at the time. Only a few months before the end of the proceedings in spring / summer 1947, during which he was classified as a follower , he was able to return to the top of his company. In September 1948 Ringsdorff presented as general counsel of the company's former diplomat Alexander Werth one, the ring Dorffs married daughter Helge. In December 1949 he had to vacate his house (Rolandstrasse 67) due to a seizure by the British occupying forces, as it was to be made available to the US Deputy High Commissioner as a residence. In 1951 Ringsdorff died unexpectedly as a result of an operation. Subsequently, his son-in-law Werth took over the company with its then 700 employees and ran it until 1971. In the early 1990s, the Ringsdorff-Werke merged with a US company and were renamed SGL Carbon . Today the company in Bad Godesberg has around 750 employees (as of 2018).

Family and religion

Ringsdorff was with Hildegard born from 1921 until the divorce in 1932. Schmeykal from Prague married. In 1934 he married Elfriede Gante († 1983) in Berlin. Both left the Evangelical Church during the National Socialist era and described themselves as believers in God , and in December 1947 they rejoined. His daughter from his first marriage, Helga (also Helge ; * 1926), married the later head of the Ringsdorff works Alexander Werth in May 1950 . His son Hans-Dieter (* 1923) fell as a private in Russia in November 1942 . Ringsdorff had another daughter from his second marriage, Ines (* 1936).

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c d e f Association for Homeland Care and Local History Bad Godesberg eV (Ed.); Horst Heidermann : The development of industry in the seaside resort of Godesberg . Bad Godesberg 2014, ISBN 978-3-9816445-0-0 , p. 159.
  2. ↑ Hans Ringsdorf. In: Steel and Iron. Journal for the German iron and steel industry. Volume 71, 1951, p. 1969.
  3. ↑ a b c Horst Heidermann : The Godesberg entrepreneur Dr. Alexander Werth (1908–1973) . In: Godesberger Heimatblätter: Annual volume of the Association for Home Care and Home History Bad Godesberg eV , ISSN  0436-1024 , Volume 53/2015, Association for Home Care and Home History Bad Godesberg , Bad Godesberg 2016, pp. 117–159 (here: p. 140) .
  4. ↑ a b Helmut Vogt: Entrepreneur under National Socialism. The example of Hans Ringsdorff. P. 179.
  5. ↑ a b c Horst Heidermann : Godesberger Industrial History III . In: Godesberger Heimatblätter: Annual issue of the Association for Home Care and Local History Bad Godesberg eV , ISSN  0436-1024 , Issue 50/2012, Association for Home Care and Local History Bad Godesberg , Bad Godesberg 2013, p. 94–144 (here: p. 121 ff .).
  6. ↑ a b c Helmut Vogt: Entrepreneur under National Socialism. The example of Hans Ringsdorff . Pp. 171-173.
  7. ^ A b Ebba Hagenberg Miliu: The crisis manager of the Ringsdorff works , General-Anzeiger Bonn , February 24, 2016
  8. ↑ a b Helmut Vogt: Entrepreneur under National Socialism. The example of Hans Ringsdorff . P. 175.
  9. ↑ Helmut Vogt: Entrepreneurs in National Socialism. The example of Hans Ringsdorff . P. 176.
  10. ↑ a b Helmut Vogt: Entrepreneur under National Socialism. The example of Hans Ringsdorff . P. 187.
  11. ↑ Helmut Vogt: Entrepreneurs in National Socialism. The example of Hans Ringsdorff . P. 192.
  12. ↑ Helmut Vogt: Entrepreneurs in National Socialism. The example of Hans Ringsdorff . P. 182.
  13. ↑ Helmut Vogt: Entrepreneurs in National Socialism. The example of Hans Ringsdorff . P. 188.
  14. ↑ Helmut Vogt: Entrepreneurs in National Socialism. The example of Hans Ringsdorff . P. 188.
  15. ^ Helmut Vogt : Guardians of the Bonn Republic: The Allied High Commissioners 1949–1955 , Verlag Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn 2004, ISBN 3-506-70139-8 , p. 58/59.
  16. ↑ Helmut Vogt: Entrepreneurs in National Socialism. The example of Hans Ringsdorff . P. 189.
  17. ↑ SGL Group invests in Bonn , General-Anzeiger Bonn , January 17, 2018
  18. ↑ Helmut Vogt: Entrepreneurs in National Socialism. The example of Hans Ringsdorff . P. 184.
personal data
SURNAME Ringsdorff, Hans
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ringsdorff, Hans Friedrich Julius (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German entrepreneur
DATE OF BIRTH November 11, 1887
PLACE OF BIRTH Beeck , today Duisburg
DATE OF DEATH June 7, 1951
Place of death bad Godesberg