Hermann Kummler

Hermann Kummler (born June 27, 1863 in Aarau ; † February 5, 1949 there ) was a Swiss businessman , industrialist , inventor and pioneer in pipeline construction during the electrification of Switzerland.

youth

Hermann Kummler's father was Paul Casimir Emil Kummler from Münchenstein , Canton Basel-Landschaft , who owned a trading business. His mother was Auguste Frey from Aarau , the niece of the Swiss Federal Council Friedrich Frey-Herosé . When his father died in Muritiba , Brazil , in 1866 , the business was taken over by Hermann Kummler's uncle and guardian, Conrad Cramer-Frey , a Swiss national councilor .

Hermann Kummler spent his school days in Aarau and from 1881 completed a banking apprenticeship at the Aargauische Creditanstalt . In 1884 he moved to Marseille , where he worked in the import business with French colonies. He improved his French and learned Arabic. Because his supervisor left the city in the summer because of the cholera epidemic that was prevailing at the time , Kummler rose to become an authorized officer , where he was very successful and increased profit and sales.

In 1885 he returned to Switzerland and then spent a stay in London to improve his English. From mid-1886 to 1887 he worked in the accounting department of the Swiss warehouses.

Merchant in Brazil

In 1887, Kummler then decided to travel to Brazil and enter the business of his former guardian and thus against a position at the Aargauische Bank and against a cooperation agreement with his cousin Robert Frey , the chocolatier . In 1888 he traveled from Bordeaux to Recife , where, according to his own statements, he quickly became enthusiastic about the rich business activities, raw materials , fauna and flora of the area. In that year Kummler saw the abolition of slavery , in 1889 the revolution and the abdication of Emperor Dom Pedro II. The result was a loss of stability, inflation and high tax burdens.

Switzerland

In 1891, when he went on a vacation trip to Switzerland to recover from a serious illness, he was offered a partnership in Brazil in Aarau. Kummler thought a fundamental reorganization was necessary, something the younger partners of all people wanted nothing to do with. Kummler was subsequently proved right. Finally, his doctor urgently advised against returning to the tropics, whereupon he stayed in Aarau.

Entry into the electricity business

In 1892 Hermann Kummler became a partner in Hermann Bäurlin's electrical company in Aarau , which from then on was called Elektricitätswerk Aarau Bäurlin & Kummler . The balance sheet at the time was 39,000 francs . On April 28, 1892, the city of Aarau gave them a concession for a test company that wanted to supply the 12 hp electricity from its own power generation  in the form of electric light to private individuals and, for this purpose, to run electrical lines over public property. On August 5, 1882, they were also granted a concession in Brugg .

In 1894, Kummler separated from Hermann Bäurlin. Bäurlin led his old operating parts on alone, the newly developed parts led Kummler under the name H. Kummler & Co. on. The Bäurlins company subsequently had a changeable existence for a few years and finally merged into the Sprecher & Schuh company .

Kummler's company had meanwhile also gained a foothold in the hotel industry through acquisitions, and successfully produced and installed bell systems and telephone systems . Line selection and control systems were Kummler's specialty, and heating and cooking systems were also tried out. In 1896, as a result of the flourishing line and apparatus construction, he expanded his business and moved to Bleichmatt in Aarau, where a large area could be bought for 20 cents per square meter. In addition to production, own stables and a trucking operation could be set up there. The old workshop on Färbergässchen was sold.

In the same year Hermann Kummler made the acquaintance of Emil Rathenau and Dr. Walther Rathenau .

Electrification and expansion

Kummler's company set up the first high-voltage distribution system from Ruppoldingen to Olten , Schönenwerd and Gösgen , to Erlinsbach , Zofingen , Kölliken , Uerkheim via Safenwil and to Rothrist . The main network was 65 kilometers long with 335 kilometers of copper wire that weighed 85 tons. On November 15, 1896, the first river flowed to Olten.

In 1897 he married Elsa Sauerländer , two years later he expanded to Central Switzerland , in 1901 to Zurich . In 1899 he was a participant in standardization negotiations in Berlin , especially for fuses , where he also met Carl Friedrich Benz . He then built cables, among others for Siemens & Halske in the high-voltage and secondary areas. As early as 1900, electricity from various plants on the Rhine was flowing into Kummler's electricity network.

As a founding partner of the Swiss Automobile Company Aarau , Hermann Kummler invested in experiments with electric buses from 1900 . He entered with a capital of 100,000 francs, but had to give up the project in 1906 and liquidate it.

In 1906, Kummler became the first state senior expert “for testing automobiles and motorcycles and driving them.” In this role, he led training courses for the police on speed control, which had become necessary due to “increasing frenzy”. In 1920 Kummler gave up this expert function due to excessive workload.

In 1903, limited partner Emil Wassmer , Kummler's brother-in-law, left the company. At the same time, Edwin Matter from Kölliken entered the business as a full partner and took over the commercial management, so that Kummler could concentrate on the technical. From then on the company was called Kummler & Matter . In 1906 the company received an order for a high-voltage line from Borgomanero to Novara in Italy , as well as major line construction projects in Madulain and Wohlen . In the same year he founded Elektra Domleschg for the construction of the power plant in Trin , Graubünden . His company built the network up to Fläsch .

In addition to several companies such as Elcalor for electrical kitchen appliances, Hermann Kummler and Kummler & Matter subsequently concentrated on cable construction as an essential business area. He applied for numerous patents, especially in the field of electrical engineering . His company electrified, among other things, the Simplon line , a large part of the Rhaetian Railway , as well as numerous other railway lines worldwide. Between 1909 and 1910, Kummler & Matter entered German pipeline construction with the establishment of a branch in Stuttgart . Among other things, the island of Rügen was electrified by his company.

Rhaetian Railway (RhB)

In 1910 the Board of Directors of the Rhaetian Railway decided to electrify the newly built line from Bever to Scuol as a trial operation, at the same time as the existing lines to Samedan / St.Moritz and Pontresina . The Bever - Filisur - Thusis routes followed in 1918/19, Thusis - Chur - Landquart in 1920/21 and Reichenau - Disentis in 1921/22.

On the Thusis - Bever route, 16 km of tunnel sections had to be provided with contact wire, including the 5865 m long Albula tunnel . The contact wires were re-tensioned according to the RhB patent using freely hanging weights at a distance of 750 m. Temperature fluctuations and the resulting changes in the contact wires could be compensated for in a self-regulating manner.

The feed lines were inserted into the catenary in such a way that each section of the route between the stations could be switched on or off as a block, which could be handled flexibly in the event of fallen trees or other repair work. Kummler used a hand-held trolley to inspect the work .

Of the total costs of around 19 million francs for electrification, around 12 million went to the construction of the line, plus 5.3 million for the purchase of eleven electric locomotives, supplied by Brown, Boveri & Cie. BBC , Baden and Swiss Locomotive and Machine Factory SLM , Winterthur.

Swiss Federal Railways (SBB)

After a lot of hesitation, the electrification efforts of the SBB came to a dynamic acceleration in 1922 with the entry of District Director Schrafl, u. a. In 1923 an accelerator loan of 60 million francs was approved by parliament, which enabled the network to be completed by 1928 instead of 1933.

Kummler & Matter built the Arth-Goldau-Zug, Lausanne-Sion, Thun, Aarau-Brugg, Olten, Olten-Aarburg, Bern, Daillens-Yverdon, Langenthal-Burgdorf, La Conversion-Grandvaux, Solothurn-Grenchen, Chur station and parts of the Zurich-Lucerne line. There were also various power transmission lines.

By 1926, Kummler & Matter had pulled 445 kilometers of overhead contact line for the SBB out of a total of 900 kilometers of overhead contact lines throughout Switzerland, plus 5,500 kilometers of high-voltage lines in Switzerland and 11,800 kilometers abroad. In addition, there were numerous low-voltage and low-voltage distribution networks with 30,000 masts, 800 tons of copper wire, and around 6,000 kilometers of other underground cable strands.

Hermann Kummler died on February 5, 1949 in Aarau.

Works

• As a merchant in Pernambuco 1888 - 1891: a travel report with pictures from Brazil. Zurich: Chronos 2001 ISBN 3-0340-0522-9

literature

• Beat Kleiner: Hermann Kummler-Sauerländer 1863-1949 - A life for line construction and for the railways . Swiss Pioneers of Business and Technology, Volume 71, Association for Economic History Studies, Zurich, 3rd, expanded edition 2009. ISBN 978-3-909059-36-2 .
• Beat Kleiner: Swiss Automobile Society . Aarau 1900/01. In: Aarauer Neujahrsblätter 78 (2004), pp. 8-16. (Also as a special print, among others: Baden: Ortsbürgergemeinde Aarau, 2003)
• Beat Kleiner: Trackless tram connection Weggis-Brunnen - Probably the first Swiss project for a public trolleybus line from 1900/1902 that is ready for a concession . Tram, illustrated trade magazine for public transport in Switzerland, No. 78 / 06-08. 2004.
• Beat Kleiner: 100 years of the Simplon Tunnel 1906-2006: The great risk of electrification . Swiss Railway Review 5/2006, pp. 259–267.
• Beat Kleiner: Switzerland's first lattice mast line . Bulletin VSE / electrosuisse 20, 2007.
• Beat Kleiner: A Swiss electricity pioneer in Germany - origin of the GAH Heidelberg - Hermann Kummler-Sauerländer . Special publication series Swiss pioneers in business and technology, Zurich 2008. ISBN 978-3-909059-41-6 .
• Beat Kleiner: Departure into the age of electricity - Hermann Kummler and the Ruppoldingen power plant, Olten-Aarburg electricity plant . Bulletin VSE / electrosuisse 20, 2008.
• Beat Kleiner: Simplon Tunnel 1906 - Electrification Risk - Hermann Kummler's Line Construction . Special publication series Swiss pioneers in business and technology, Zurich 2010. ISBN 978-3-909059-47-8 .

Web links

• Literature by and about Hermann Kummler in the catalog of the German National Library
• Sarah Brian Scherer: Kummler, Hermann. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
• Pictures of Hermann Kummler's life and work