Hermann Aron

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Hermann Aron (born October 1, 1845 in Kempen , Posen Province ; † August 29, 1913 in Bad Homburg ) was a German physicist and industrialist. His specialty was electrical engineering .

Life

First electrical energy meter from Hermann Aron

Hermann Aron was born in a shtetl as the son of a wholesale merchant and chasan . He wanted to train him to be a Jewish scribe. However, wealthy relatives made it possible for him to attend the Köllnisches Realgymnasium from 1862 and, after graduating from high school, to study at the University of Berlin in 1867 .

Aron began studying medicine there, but in the third semester he turned to the mathematics and science faculty. He heard u. a. with Karl Weierstrass , Heinrich Wilhelm Dove and August Wilhelm von Hofmann . In 1870 he moved to the University of Heidelberg , where he a. a. was taught by Hermann Helmholtz and Gustav Kirchhoff . After graduating in 1872, Aron went back to Berlin and became an assistant in the physics laboratory of the trade academy .

Aron received his doctorate in 1873 at the Berlin University and then taught physics at the trade academy and the artillery and engineering school of the Prussian Army . In 1876 he became a private lecturer and in 1880 a professor at Berlin University. Scientifically, he mainly dealt with problems in the then new field of electrical engineering. He published theoretical papers on capacitors, microphones, accumulators, cables and crystals. He invented wireless telegraphy 10 years before Guglielmo Marconi began his research and presented his method at the International Electricity Exhibition in Vienna in 1883. However, there was no technical exploitation because the knowledge-based prerequisites were still missing.

In 1884 Aron invented a usable electricity meter based on the principle of a so-called clock counter, the Aron pendulum counter . Since at that time more and more electrical energy was being produced and sold and it was necessary to measure the amount of energy, the meter was very popular. Aron also received the patent for it. Some time later, Aron also invented a meter for alternating current. (See also Aron circuit .) Aron's inventions were important for the expansion of the alternating and three-phase network and thus of electricity as a whole. Aron left the university to start his own business and to exploit his inventions. In 1885 he founded an electricity meter factory.

As a well-known designer and successful entrepreneur, Aron has received numerous awards. In 1894 Aron was appointed a secret councilor because he had designed a gun with a reverse barrel during his time at the artillery and engineering school.

Hermann Aron was married to Betty, nee Landsberger.

Grave of Herman Aron in the Jewish cemetery in Berlin-Weißensee

He died in 1913 and was buried in the WT field in the Berlin-Weißensee Jewish cemetery .

The Aron Works

Hermann Aron's workshop became an international company, H. Aron Elektrizitätszähler Fabrik GmbH. It produced electricity meters, electrical clocks and time switches. In 1908 the company had 32 offices and representatives in all major European countries. In 1906 Aron founded Elektra-Apparatenbau Gesellschaft mbH in Vienna. In 1908, 1,000 people were employed.

A year before his father's death, Manfred Aron became director of the company, in which he inherited large shares in 1913. Manfred Aron was also very successful. After the introduction of radio, Aron managed to bring a successful brand of tube radio receivers to the market under the name "Nora-Radio", which were produced in the subsidiary Nora-Radio GmbH. In 1931 the Aron company had around 3000 employees and was a stock corporation.

Immediately after the National Socialist seizure of power , the fight against “the Jews” began . Factory owners and “Jewish” holders of higher positions were particularly targeted by the National Socialists. The leadership of the Nazi Party in Berlin, the already conformist trade association "Association of Radio Industry" and in a cell in the Aron works organized Nazi party members rushed to the company's management and higher "Jewish" employees. As a first step, they forced the company to be renamed Heliowatt AG. In 1935 Manfred Aron was arrested several times by the Gestapo and sent to a concentration camp , where he was mistreated. The background was that Aron and his co-shareholders were forced to sell the company to Deutsche Bank at a price that was far below its value . In addition to Deutsche Bank, which sold the company to Siemens-Schuckert at a profit, Siemens and its subsidiary at the time, Elektro Licht und Kraftanlagen AG, benefited from this campaign. Aron-Werke's house bank, Commerzbank , was also involved in this process . The Aron family then emigrated to the USA.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Harm G. Schröter: Jewish entrepreneurs in the German chemical and electrical industry. In Werner Mosse; Hans Pohl Ed .: Jewish entrepreneurs in Germany in the 19th and 20th centuries. Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart 1992, ISBN 3-515-05869-9 . Supplement 64 of the magazine for company history. P. 166.
  2. ↑ a b Conrad Matschoss : Men of Technology. A biographical manual . VDI Verlag, Berlin 1925, p. 8.
  3. ↑ Irene Harand : His fight. Answer to Hitler . Vienna 1935. ( 1935, 2nd A. 5th-10th thousand. Online as PDF)
  4. ^ District lexicon Berlin Charlottenburg / Wilmersdorf of the Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein , online edition. Entry Aron Electricity Meter Factory
  5. ^ Robert Volz: Reich manual of the German society. The handbook of personalities in words and pictures. Volume 1: A-K. Deutscher Wirtschaftsverlag, Berlin 1930, DNB 453960286 , p. 37f.
  6. ^ Kilian JL Steiner: The "Aryanization" of the radio stock company DS Loewe in Berlin-Steglitz . In: Christof Biggeleben u. a .: "Aryanization" in Berlin . Metropol Verlag, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-938690-55-0 , p. 229.
  7. ^ Kilian JL Steiner: The "Aryanization" of the radio stock company DS Loewe in Berlin-Steglitz . In: Christof Biggeleben u. a .: "Aryanization" ... Berlin 2007, p. 229.
  8. ↑ Harold James: The Deutsche Bank and the Aryanization . CH Beck, Munich 2001, ISBN 3-406-47192-7 , p. 50f.
personal data
SURNAME Aron, Hermann
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German electrical engineer
DATE OF BIRTH October 1, 1845
PLACE OF BIRTH Kempen
DATE OF DEATH August 29, 1913
Place of death bad Homburg