Herbert Fox

Herbert Fox as Altmärker (1923/24)

Herbert W. Fox (born July 28, 1903 in Berlin , † July 26, 1993 in Essen ) was a German mining engineer and business leader.

Life

Fox studied mining at the technical universities in Berlin and Halle . On December 15, 1926, he passed the main diploma examination as a mining engineer in Berlin with very good.

He spent part of his legal traineeship at the Oberbergamt Halle (Saale) . Appointed mining assessor in 1930, he returned there at the beginning of the 1930s and revised the manual of German lignite mining, namely the section Prussian State Mining Through the Ages . He then went on to work as a field inspector at the Bleicherode potash plant . In 1934 he became operational director of the Staßfurt potash and salt works and a nearby lignite mine.

soldier

In 1934 he registered for exercises with the growing Reichswehr . With his flak regiment, he took part in the invasion of the Sudetenland on October 1, 1938 , which had been ceded to the Reich by the Munich Agreement . In June 1939 he was called up as a sergeant and reserve officer candidate for the "summer exercise 1939", camouflaged mobilization. As a soldier he took part in the attack on Poland and was made lieutenant d. R. promoted. When the regiment in the Palatinate was prepared to attack France, he was released from the mining industry and discharged from the Wehrmacht .

Upper Silesia

After the “Victory in the West”, Fox was commissioned by Preussag with an expert opinion that was supposed to assess the location and economic importance of the potash works in Alsace . After his handover, Fox was surprisingly appointed director of the largest coal mine in Upper Silesia (near Hindenburg ) with a workforce of 10,000.

Northern Italy

When the Red Army attacked the Upper Silesian industrial area at the beginning of 1945 , Fox sent his wife and children to their parents in Staßfurt , but stayed at the plant himself. When the Soviet troops stood in front of the neighboring city of Gleiwitz , the German factory management relocated to the west. Back with the family in Staßfurt, he was assigned to the German commander as a special representative for coal mining in northern Italy . Re-assigned as an officer there in April 1945, he was taken prisoner of war at the beginning of May , from which he was released to Goslar in autumn "in favor of German agriculture" . There he knew a Preussag liaison office and he brought his family there.

For his service in the war, especially in Upper Silesia, he was awarded the War Merit Cross with Swords, 2nd and 1st Class.

Preussag and Wintershall

At the end of 1945 he was denazified by the British Field Security Service and released for all positions in German mining. He has been active in the mining industry again since the beginning of 1946, and was appointed director of the Obernkirchen / Grafschaft Schaumburg mining office by Preussag .

On January 1, 1953, he joined the Board of Directors of Wintershall AG in Kassel. He retired on December 31, 1968. DIE WELT recognized him as one of the most important business leaders in the Federal Republic of Germany . In 1971, the Federal President awarded him the Grand Cross of Merit of the Federal Order of Merit .

Honorary positions

Fox was a board member of the Hannoversche Knappschaft , later vice chairman of the working group of the miners' associations (the social insurance for miners) and board member of the mining trade association . From 1963 to 1971 he was a judge at the Federal Social Court (including two years in the Grand Senate) and sat on the advisory boards of the Philipps University of Marburg , the TU Clausthal and the TU Berlin for over five years . He was chairman, later honorary chairman of the Reifensteiner Verband (rural women schools) and a member of the large senate of the Christian Youth Village Association .

family

In July 1938 Fox married Ursula Bittkow, daughter of a lawyer in Staßfurt . The honeymoon had to be canceled because of the German-Czech crisis. The world trip promised for this was only possible thirty years later. The couple had two sons and a daughter. The second son died in the first few days of life.

After leaving Wintershall, Fox moved with his family from Kassel to Munich-Straubing in 1969, and a year later to Ticino . In 1987 the couple suffered a serious accident and spent months in hospitals; But even after Fox suffered a stroke, both remained cheerful and confident. Fox died unexpectedly two days before his 90th birthday.

corps

Fox remained lifelong connected to his Corps Marchia Berlin (1923) and Palaiomarchia (WS 1923/24). The old gentlemen's association of Corps Masovia awarded him the ribbon in 1960.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Field inspector was a new term for lower executives in mining companies
2. ↑ Kösener Corpslisten 1930, 5/616; 61/427
3. ^ List of all members of the Corps Masovia 1823 to 2005 . Potsdam 2006
4. ^ Günther Niewerth: Obituary for Herbert Fox . Corpszeitung der Altmärker-Masuren, No. 90, Kiel 1993, pp. 123–127.