Heinrich Köhler (entrepreneur)

Heinrich Köhler, founder of the Westphalian steel works in Bochum

Heinrich Köhler (born November 11, 1836 in Hamm , Westphalia , † January 11, 1907 in Cologne ) was a German engineer and entrepreneur .

After leaving school in 1853 in Bochum and a practical year as a locksmith Heinrich Köhler began in 1854 at the Mining Academy in Berlin , a mechanical engineering degree and was among the founders of the standard work " hut - The engineer Paperback ". After completing his studies, he went to the Prussian State Railways , which he left again in 1861 to take up a job as a production engineer at the Bochumer Verein . In 1868, together with Vital Daelen , he founded the Gesellschaft für Stahlindustrie in Bochum, which he later led after working at the Hagen steelworks Remy & Cie. Returned in 1879.

In 1889 he finally founded the Westfälische Stahlwerke AG in Bochum . The prestigious residential building, the “Villa Nora” on today's Kortumstrasse, which he had built for his family around 1895 in a privileged location near Bochum's city park , also testifies to his entrepreneurial success .

In 1904 he resigned from the management of the Westfälische Stahlwerke AG due to a worsening eye condition and died shortly after an eye operation in 1907 in Cologne. He was buried in the cemetery on Blumenstrasse in Bochum; the grave, which has been preserved to this day, is adorned with a stele with an electroplated portrait bust of Koehler.

literature

• Obituary in steel and iron , Volume 27, No. 12 from March 20, 1907.