Heinrich Büssing

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Bronze bust in the Heinrich-Büssing-Haus

Heinrich Büssing (born June 29, 1843 in Nordsteimke , today Wolfsburg , † October 27, 1929 in Braunschweig ) was a German inventor and entrepreneur . As a designer he was a pioneer in truck and bus construction. He owned almost 250 patents and successfully founded several companies, including what later became Büssing AG .

Life

childhood and education

Heinrich Büssing as a young man

Heinrich Büssing was born as the second child and eldest son of the village blacksmith Johann Heinrich Büssing and his wife. He had eight siblings, five of whom died in childhood. The father ran the village blacksmith's shop in Nordsteimke and came from an old blacksmith family himself, in which this branch of trade could be traced back to the grandfather. Büssing's mother belonged to the von Steimker family branch . The family lived in Nordsteimke as early as the 13th century.

Büssing helped out in his father's forge as a child. After attending a one-class elementary school from 1849 to 1857, he learned the blacksmith's trade from his father in two years. In 1859 he deposited his journeyman's piece, a forged horseshoe , in front of the blacksmiths and locksmiths guild in Vorsfelde . Büssing later described his father's company as the best training facility. A village blacksmith in the country had to cover wide areas of the craft. After completing his apprenticeship, Büssing worked for a master blacksmith in Braunschweig, 30 kilometers away, as a blacksmith's journeyman for 12 to 14 hours (except Sundays). When Heinrich Büssing reached the age of 18, he set out on a journey in 1861 . For a year and a half he moved through Brandenburg, Saxony, Franconia, Bavaria, Württemberg to Switzerland. During his wandering days, Büssing foresaw that the future did not belong to handcraft , but to large-scale industrial production. Since he found his education to be inadequate, he enrolled in 1863 against his father's will and although he had only attended a village school, as a guest student at the Braunschweig Collegium Carolinum (the later Technical University of Braunschweig ) and studied mechanical engineering and construction technology for three years . Like his son Max Büssing later , he was a member of the Corps Teutonia-Hercynia Braunschweig .

family

Heinrich Büssing's grave in the main cemetery in Braunschweig

After completing his studies in 1866, Heinrich Büssing was postponed from military service due to significant breast weakness . Two years later he married Marie Zimmermann, the daughter of the caretaker at the university. The marriage had five children. After the death of his wife in 1900, Büssing married Anna Werners, the daughter of the mayor of Düren , at the age of 67 .

In 1907 Büssing's daughter Hedwig (called Hete ) married the Viennese technician Anton Fross . In 1909 he founded a machine factory in Vienna- Brigittenau , which from 1915 produced trucks under the license of his father-in-law under the name Fross-Büssing .

Büssing lost two of his grandchildren in World War I , both were named Heinrich Büssing like their grandfather and died as soldiers in the air force in 1915 and 1918.

Awards

On November 26, 1909, the Technical University of Braunschweig awarded Heinrich Büssing the honorary doctorate of an honorary doctorate engineer (Dr.-Ing. E. h.), This award was given to his performance in securing rail traffic and the development of trucks. In 1916 he was given the honorary title of Privy Building Councilor . On November 19, 1920 he was made an "honorary citizen" of the Technical University of Braunschweig (shortly afterwards renamed "Honorary Senator"). In 1923 the city of Braunschweig granted him honorary citizenship .

In memory of Heinrich Büssing, the Braunschweigische Hochschulbund awards the Heinrich Büssing Prize annually for outstanding achievements by young scientists.

Ventures

Beginnings

Büssing's first successful company, the Braunschweiger Eisenbahnsignal-Bauanstalt Max Jüdel & Co (around 1900)
Büssing-Rad (1868), postage stamp 1985

In 1869 Büssing founded his first company, a "Velocipedes factory" in Braunschweig . In a small workshop he produced bicycles that he had invented himself. He already employed a few workers. The Franco-Prussian War of 1870/71 destroyed his worldwide business connections. The next company was founded in 1870 as a mechanical engineering company in the old workshop. It only brought him economic difficulties and large debts. The railway signal construction institute Max Jüdel & Co , founded by Büssing in 1873, was successful . The financier was the Jewish businessman Max Jüdel from Braunschweig. Büssing has acquired 92 patents in railway signaling . Thanks to his ingenuity, the English lead in signal construction could be caught up in Germany. The prosperous company has delivered over 1,000 signal boxes in around 30 years .

Commercial vehicle construction

In 1903 there was a radical professional break at Büssing. Instead of enjoying retirement at the age of 60, he withdrew his shares from the "Eisenbahnsignal-Bauanstalt" . With this he founded the "Heinrich Büssing special factory for motor vehicles and motor buses" in Braunschweig . The company produced trucks and buses . In 1908 Büssing founded the world's first motor vehicle company with its trucks in Berlin . 1914 developed Bussing on behalf of the Supreme Command of the Büssing A5P - armored cars .

Heinrich Büssing became a pioneer in vehicle development and acquired over 150 patents in this area . Thanks to his creative power, he contributed to Germany's leading position in global commercial vehicle construction. Büssing omnibuses were used in urban traffic in Berlin and London . After Büssing's death in 1929, his sons continued to run the company, which in 1952 employed around 4,500 people. In the 1960s, the family company was converted into a stock corporation, Büssing AG , which soon slipped into the general sales crisis. Maschinenfabrik Augsburg-Nürnberg ( MAN ) became a major shareholder . This led to the takeover by the MAN group in 1971. Only the old company logo of Büssing AG survived, the Braunschweig lion , which still adorns the radiator grille of MAN commercial vehicles today.

  • First Büssing truck (model)

  • First Büssing bus (model), Wendeburg-Braunschweig route

  • Monument to the first bus line in Wendeburg

  • Monument to the first bus line in Wendeburg, detail

Bus route

With the establishment of the "Automobil-Omnibus-Betriebs-Gesellschaft Braunschweig" in 1904 Büssing set up a bus line. It was used for practical testing of the vehicles he developed. According to the schedule, a bus for 20 people ran at a top speed of 25 km / h on the 15-kilometer route between Wendeburg and Braunschweig . Other bus routes followed (for example in the Harz : Braunlage - Bad Harzburg ).

museum

Heinrich-Büssing-Haus in Nordsteimke

Heinrich Büssing's birthplace, the house with forge in Nordsteimke built by his father in 1842, was converted into a museum in 1988 in connection with the 750th anniversary of the town. The initiative to create the Heinrich-Büssing-Haus came from the MAN group. The former village smithy was reconstructed to be functional again. In addition to the presentation of Büssing's life and work, the museum shows the development from craft to industry .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ 100 years of Weinheim Senior Citizens' Convention. P. 143. Bochum, 1963.
  2. ↑ University archive of the TU Braunschweig: Holdings B2: "Akten der Ehrdoktor" (list of the honorary doctors of the TU Braunschweig who were awarded the title between 1900 and 1986), accessed on April 1, 2019.
  3. ^ The Heinrich Büssing Prize on braunschweigischer-hochschulbund.de.
  4. ^ Wolfgang H. Gebhardt: Büssing trucks and tractors 1903–1971. A documentation . Schrader, Stuttgart 1999, ISBN 3-613-87183-1 , p. 7.
personal data
SURNAME Büssing, Heinrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German designer and company founder
DATE OF BIRTH June 29, 1843
PLACE OF BIRTH Nordsteimke
DATE OF DEATH October 27, 1929
Place of death Braunschweig