Heinz Flessner

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Heinz Flessner in the 1950s

Heinz Flessner , actually Heinrich Bernhard Diedrich Flessner, (born May 25, 1911 in Varel , † March 19, 1998 in Bad Homburg ) was a German mechanical engineer, inventor and entrepreneur. Flessner was an engineer at Auto-Union in Berlin-Spandau , also at the official test center and testing facility for motor vehicles at the TH Berlin and operations manager at ThyssenKrupp Bilstein in Ennepetal - Altenvörde . When the war broke out, he was drafted into the Waffen-SS and, after being wounded, worked on the “Natter” project in the last months of the war. After the collapse, he founded Flessner KG, a production company for potato chips . He is considered a pioneer in this area and was nicknamed "Mister Chips" by the English specialist media.

Life

Youth, school, studies

Heinz Flessner came from a North German Protestant family of civil servants. His father was most recently bailiff at the German Reichsbahn. After graduating from high school in 1930 at Herbartgymnasium in Oldenburg , he began studying physical engineering at the University of Munich , where he passed the pre-examination. With the winter semester of 1932 he studied mechanical engineering at the Technical University of Berlin-Charlottenburg .

Time in National Socialism

Career before the war

Flessner joined the SS in 1933. After completing his studies with distinction as a graduate engineer in 1935, Flessner took a position as a management assistant at Auto-Union AG in Spandau. During this time he and Rudolf Slaby applied for his first patent for a car measuring device. In August 1938 he accepted the position as a test engineer at the official test center and research institute for motor vehicles at the TH-Berlin. In January 1939 he switched to the August Bilstein company in Altenvörde as operations manager. Here he began with the production of his invention, a test stand for wheel alignment on motor vehicles.

War in the West and against the Soviet Union

Heinz Flessner at the time of the war of annihilation against the Soviet Union

As a member of the general SS , Heinz Flessner was drafted into the available troops on September 9, 1939. Bilstein had tried in vain to make Flessner "indispensable". However, this was not possible for SS members. He reached Weimar on September 16 and was immediately transferred to Dachau. Here, from October 11th, after a short training period, Flessner was appointed as a master mechanic and initially as a workshop master of the 2nd workshop company of the SS Totenkopf Division . From this emerged the SS Panzer Grenadier Division in November 1942 and the 3rd SS Panzer Division Totenkopf in October 1943 . The division was initially combined with 6,500 men from the disposition group, to which Flessner also belonged, as well as a further 6,000 men from skull standards of the guards of the German concentration camps . This, motivated by Theodor Eicke in the spirit of National Socialism and characterized by particularly ruthless warfare, was involved in war crimes and rigorously implemented the so-called commissioner order. It is unclear to what extent Flessner was involved as workshop manager.

Three workshop companies took care of the maintenance of the troops' vehicles and stayed at one location for a long time. In the position of master mechanic and later as workshop manager, Flessner took part in the French campaign until June 1941 and in the 1st Russian campaign until November 1942 . After Flessner and his division could only supply Djemjansk with spare parts from the air, the troops managed to break out to the west in order to be supplied with new soldiers in France. The division was reassembled in the Angoulême area and, with 50% untrained recruits, was sent again to the Eastern Front in February 1943, this time to Kharkov . After devastating losses, the division began to withdraw again. On the way from Jassy to Poland he broke his 4th lumbar vertebra in a fall and was only partially fit for military service after a two-month hospital stay.

Special command 600 N "Natter"

After his recovery in the late summer of 1944, he reported back from his handicapped leave to his substitute unit at Office X in the area of ​​the main command office. He received the order, now in the rank of SS-Obersturmführer (Oberleutnant) and project manager, to set up the Waffen-SS special command in Waldsee in Upper Swabia . On September 20, he began his service with the Bachem Works. His diploma thesis from 1935, in which he received his diploma for his thesis "Thermodynamics of Aero Engines and Exhaust Gas Turbines", qualified him for this task. This command was supposed to build the high-flyer Bachem Ba 349 Natter as a so-called miracle weapon .

Flessner headed the Sonderkommando 600 N, which worked with around 120 convalescents (engineers, technicians and skilled workers who were unfit for the front) in aircraft construction in the Bachem works on the vertical take-off rocket aircraft Bachem Ba 349 Natter. His task was to look after this group, to use it professionally and to support all cooperation between the skilled workers, scientists and other departments. “ We had been declared unfit for the front and were supposed to support and strengthen the Natter project with personnel. So we weren't a combat force and just walked around outside in uniform. We were not a guard or carry any weapons. So there were also groups among the much vilified SS that did not agitate, torture or burn people to death, like the terrible guards of the concentration camps. Naturally, it is difficult to get anything good out of something that was carried out under the name of the SS; but one would do these people an injustice if one were to equate them with Himmler's murder henchmen. So no army of prisoners or tortured slaves was forced to work or tortured. No, exactly the opposite was the case, only selected skilled workers and specialists were used ........ At the height of the development work, Heinz Flessner's team had grown to around 500 people .... “Due to the approaching At the front, he considered a combat mission pointless and, on the orders of the fighter pilot generals, withdrew to Imst in Tyrol with a few officers and four model aircraft. Here he and his group were interned by the American armed forces in May 1945.

denazification

From the complaint of the Hessian State Ministry - Department for Political Liberation - one deduces: “The person concerned is to be classified in the group of activists. The detailed files and certificates of exoneration reveal the fact that the person concerned only lived in his engineering profession, hated every military step in the SS, was obliged to join the SS during his studies, and then tried in vain to quit. Drafted into the Waffen SS, the person concerned was given a Dipl.Ing. promoted to Obersturmführer. According to the identification of the documents, the person concerned did not emerge politically, neither as an activist nor as a militarist ...... and can therefore be classified in the probation group. ”In April 1947 Flessner was released from American captivity as a minor offender .

Time as an entrepreneur in the chip industry

Beginnings

After his imprisonment, Flessner worked for an architecture and construction company for American positions. It was through this contact that he got to know potato chips. American GIs had their recreational food sent from home. However, the long shipping makes the supply of the crispy crackers soft. That is why he came up with the idea of ​​offering them to American soldiers as products “Made in Germany”. A gap in the market seemed to be found. He founds the “State Side Potato Chips” as a sole proprietorship and is now working on the production of potato chips in parallel. First he made the chips at home with his wife Ella. Flessner only produced for the US soldiers; the Germans did not initially like the chips. “It was salty. They only knew sweet things, ”remembers Ella Flessner. Then you tried the chips u. a. to market at kiosks. In 1951 Flessner, now living in Neu-Isenburg , received a license for production. The first potato chips for American soldiers were officially made in Germany. Flessner heard that Herman Lay (founder of Frito-Lay ) would visit Germany. According to his story, he went to Frankfurt airport and had Lay called out at the airport when the plane arrived. So the two entrepreneurs got into conversation and Flessner was able to acquire the corresponding licenses. He got a used Ferry roasting machine from the USA and was able to put it into operation in 1959. Industrial production was then started under the name “IBU” and later continued by the company Bahlsen and Lorenz Bahlsen Snack-World . Flessner KG was one of the largest German potato chip producers.

In the mid-1950s he founded the European Potato Chip Association with Harvey Noss (United States), David Sword (United Kingdom) and Hansheinrich Zweifel of the Swiss crisps company Zweifel (Switzerland), from which the European Snack Association emerged in 1956.

Heinz Flessner and Hermann Bahlsen (right) on the occasion of a gift handover for Heinz Flessner's 75th birthday.

In the spring of 1959 IBU paprika chips were offered at the DLG touring exhibition in Frankfurt. Just a few months later, several products were offered to the German public at the Anuga in Cologne. Until then, it was only possible to sell to the US armed forces. The success was so great and encouraging that the first fully automatic chip system was set up in Neu-Isenburg as early as 1960.

Works

The increasing demand and thus sales of potato chips made it necessary to significantly expand production in Neu-Isenburg.

Neu-Isenburg

Here was the nucleus of the potato chip production. Founded in May 1951, all the equipment required for chip production was developed and constructed by Flessner himself. Production stopped in 1969. Since then, only administration, laboratory and research have been located here.

Neuburg on the Danube

The plant in Neuburg an der Donau was founded in January 1961 . The plant was shut down in 1969 due to a lack of opportunities to expand production.

Goldenstedt

The Goldenstedt plant was established in February 1961 . In 1974 the production of chips was given up here and the production of snack specialties from the use of the self-developed extruder was significantly expanded while the factory was enlarged. It emerged u. a. the brands Peng, potato pastries, cheeses and onion rings. In 1976 600 people were employed here. 50,000 tons of potatoes were processed annually. These were supplied by a producer group of 700 farmers.

Neunburg vorm Wald

On September 19, 1969, Flessner started production in Neunburg vorm Wald . The potato growers who got into sales difficulties could now count on the regular decrease in their production. 400 people came here initially in wages and bread. A further 600 farmers were guaranteed the purchase of 23,000 tons of quality potatoes annually. Here he was later made an honorary citizen.

Hankensbüttel
SFA - Cup Circle of Honor

The plant in Hankensbüttel followed in 1972 . Flessner saw considerable potential here. In 1970 70 farmers came together to form the producer association for industrial potato producers in Ost-Heide (IKEGO) and set up appropriate potato stores. In the beginning, IKEGO provided around 15,000 t of potatoes for Flessner KG. This amount increased to around 44,000 t by 1985, when the company was transferred to Bahlsen. From 1993 until the IKEGO's anniversary year in 1995, around 55,000 t of potatoes were purchased annually.

In 1976, after a few years of stagnation on the German chip market, a new production line began producing chips. Flessner founded Snacks GmbH with Dutch, French and Danish partners. The Danes got their Taffel Chipso from here , the French Top d´Or , the Dutch Cheers and the Italians Chips doré .

Further development

On October 1, 1964, the partnership with the Bahlsen company was established. In 1966 Flessner acquired the Kelly company in Austria.

Shortly before his company anniversary in 1976, Flessner started - again as the first in Europe - with its three leading "chippers" in Europe to produce crisps made from dough, which are marketed as "crisps". The industrial company Procter & Gamble had already caused a sensation in the USA with a similar product. The Pringles manufactured by P&G did not find their way to Germany until 1996. From 1981 Flessner sold its patented machines in the field of snack production, u. a. the short screw extruder and the disk extruder. In 1982 Heinz Flessner retired. In 1985 he sold his last shares to the Bahlsen company. In 1999 Heinz Flessner was accepted post mortem into the Circle of Honor of the International Snack Food Association. His daughter Anke received the award in Atlanta .

Honors

  • With a decision of March 31, 1976, Heinz Flessner became an honorary citizen in Neunburg vorm Wald.
  • In 1975 Heinz Flessner was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit on ribbon.
  • In Neunburg vorm Wald, Heinz-Flessner-Strasse was named after him.
  • The former premises in Neu Isenburg is today by Heinz Flessner Flessnerhalle called.
  • In 1999 Heinz Flessner was accepted, post mortem , into the Circle of Honor of the International Snack Food Association .

Private

On June 26, 1948, he married Ella Ohly (born June 14, 1919 in Gießen ; † January 15, 2014 in Bad Homburg ). They have two daughters together: Anke Stark-Flessner (born June 1, 1950) and Hillrike Flessner-Sälzle (born March 23, 1952).

Trivia

In the ZDF info documentation "Project Natter" from 2013, Heinz Flessner's role in the development of the Bachem Ba 349 Natter was discussed.

Ella Flessner reports on the beginnings on a radio broadcast by WDR.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Handelsblatt . Volume 31, No. 95, Issue A, May 28, 1976, personal details,
  2. ↑ Snack Food, Volume 76, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Publications, 1987, p. 31
  3. ↑ Potato Chipper . Potato Chip Institute International, National Potato Chip Institute Volume 33, Issues 1-5, 1973, pp. 41, 44
  4. ↑ Volker Schindler, Immo Sievers: Research for the car of tomorrow . Springer-Verlag, 2007, ISBN 978-3-540-74150-3 , pp. 41 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  5. ↑ Die Welt : The concentration camp commander who came out of psychiatry on August 26, 2013.
  6. ↑ Südwest Presse : "Natter" ends in fiasco of March 4th, 2015.
  7. ↑ Robert Forsyth: Bachem Ba 349 Natter 2018, p. 23
  8. ↑ Project Natter [1]
  9. ↑ Horst Lammel: The manned projectile Ba 349 "Natter" 2000, pp. 58-59
  10. ^ Hessian State Ministry . Application, Darmstadt-Lager, Az .: DLVIII / P972 / 47, Appendix: Affidavits, VIII / Me. / 4777, March 22, 1947,
  11. ↑ FAZ . Personal details, Heinz Flessner 80 years, 1991-05-24
  12. ↑ WDR https://www1.wdr.de/stichtag/stichtag-kartoffelchips-102.html
  13. ↑ Christian Kämmerling : It was just an idea ...: Ingenious ideas that changed our world . Wilhelm Goldmann Verlag, Munich 2018, no p.
  14. ↑ Herman Lay [2]
  15. ^ From undertakings , Die Zeit, September 25, 1964
  16. ^ Potato Crisps - A History [3] .
  17. ↑ Potato chips have an anniversary, Flessner-Werke are celebrating their 25th anniversary. Oldenburger Volkszeitung, 1976-05-26.
  18. ↑ The potato cultivation . 25 Flessner KG, pages 194-196, 1976-06
  19. ↑ 25 years of IKEGO , Festschrift for the 25th anniversary, pages 10 and 48, 1995–11
  20. ↑ IKEGO [4]
  21. ↑ The Flessner Band . CHIPSLETTEN, No. 3/1977 4th year
  22. ^ Frankfurter Zeitung . Looking through the Economy, No. 117, 7, Businesses, June 3, 1976,
  23. ^ Company history , Lorenz, accessed on December 6, 2018
  24. ^ Circle of Honor [5]
  25. ↑ International Snack Food Association [6]
  26. ↑ Honorary Citizen. In: Neunburg vorm Wald. Retrieved December 10, 2018 .
  27. ↑ Offenbach Post . Offenbacher Zeitung since 1773, No. 238, Volume 203, Merits for the Potato Industry, Oct. 14, 1975
  28. ↑ New office complex is built. In: OP-Online. February 3, 2011, accessed December 10, 2018 .
  29. ^ Circle of Honor. SNAC International, accessed December 14, 2018 .
  30. ↑ wedding . Civil registry office Grävenwiesbach, marriage certificate, No. 14/1948, July 3, 1950
  31. ^ Project Natter - Hitler's wonder weapon. In: ZDF Mediathek. Retrieved on December 13, 2018 ((Geotargeting: Medium only available in Germany)).
  32. ↑ Due date - August 24, 1853: Potato chips are produced for the first time in the USA. In: WDR. August 24, 2018, accessed December 13, 2018 .
personal data
SURNAME Flessner, Heinz
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Berhard, Heinrich (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German engineer, inventor and entrepreneur
DATE OF BIRTH May 25, 1911
PLACE OF BIRTH Varel
DATE OF DEATH March 19, 1998
Place of death bad Homburg