Horst Saalbach

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Horst K. Saalbach in Leipzig (Nov. 2013)

Horst Kurt Saalbach (born March 16, 1938 in Leipzig ) is a German-American engineer , top manager and holder of the Federal Cross of Merit and the Order of Merit of the Free State of Saxony . He is one of the pioneers of the German automation industry in the USA and was a co-founder of Festo-USA , as well as its long-time president .

Life

Saalbach was born in Leipzig in 1938 , where he grew up and went to school. At the age of 17 he fled to West Germany in 1955. In Stuttgart he met his future wife Elfriede. Together with her he went to the USA in 1959. There Saalbach first worked in the construction department of a company in the construction industry in New York to finance his studies at Medgar Evers College. He completed his studies as a civil engineer specializing in architectural design. He also earned a degree in marketing from Long Island University . Further studies followed at New York University , where he was qualified to teach. He studied higher management at Yale University and the Wharton School .

Horst Saalbach is married to Elfriede Saalbach. The couple has four daughters and three grandchildren and lives in Palm Beach ( Florida ).

Work as an engineer in the USA industry

After receiving US citizenship in 1964, Saalbach worked for a number of years in the engineering field for several consulting companies, gaining extensive industrial experience in the American and international market.

At the same time, he systematically created the tools to take on the role of President of Festo Corporation at the age of 40 . Festo is a large Swabian automation company from Esslingen near Stuttgart , which at the time wanted to advance its further growth in the direction of world market leader and stock corporation on the American market.

Acting as President of Festo-USA

Horst Saalbach proved to be a suitable personality for this Festo objective, who knew how to use his newly gained freedom actively and creatively and innovatively. With his initiative he developed the company Festo-USA from a modest original size to a company for the entire area of ​​North and Central America (USA, Canada, Mexico). He was able to increase the number of employees to more than 70 times and the turnover to over 160 times.

Under his leadership since 1978, Festo-USA has risen to become the company's largest foreign agency and has achieved market leadership for special components and systems in pneumatics and electronics for automation in the US market and throughout North America. This expansion also includes the construction of a new headquarters in New York / Long Island as well as more than ten regional offices. Saalbach served as President of Festo-USA for a total of 23 years and has had a lasting impact on this foreign agency.

Since taking over the presidency, Saalbach has cultivated its close contacts in Europe particularly intensively. This includes both West and East Germany, especially its home region and the states of Eastern Europe. He was a board member of the German-American Chamber of Commerce and at the same time of the USA-USSR Trade Council . He was also a member of the German Economic Roundtable and the board of directors of the German Association.

In his later professional development, Saalbach expanded its focus in particular to academic training and further education, value development and adherence to principles. These activities for the sustainable generation of top specialists and practice-relevant research results were integrated into the Festo-Didactic division. It was therefore obvious that he would support the neighboring Farmingdale University New York / Long Island in a variety of ways with regard to their industry-related training through his own teaching activities as a visiting professor and with regard to their research with appropriate equipment.

In this context, it is typical of the USA that Saalbach has set up two foundations to support students in need. Students at Farmingdale University and Hofstra University (also Long Island) benefit from these enduring foundations.

At the same time, Saalbach was a board member and president of the Farmingdale Foundation. His formative influence on Farmingdale University and the quality of its practical research and student education was recognized with the Ram's Horn Recognition Award and ultimately with an honorary doctorate from the university.

Saalbach has always been very proud of its German origins and especially of its hometown Leipzig. He therefore also became a co-founder and member of the supervisory board of the German-American Hall of Fame (GAMHOF), which recognizes the influence of German immigrants on success stories in the USA. Living and deceased personalities with German roots are regularly included in a virtual memorial hall: 2012 Donald J. Trump (real estate investor, Trump Tower NY, incumbent President of the USA) and John Augustus Roebling (Brooklyn Bridge as a landmark of NY).

The NACFAM Washington (National Council for Advanced Manufacturing) advises the government, in particular it supports the Senate through analyzes of current and future education and training from the perspective of the manufacturing industry and its competitiveness. Saalbach is also active here as a member of the supervisory board.

Saalbach also worked as a board member in the Herbert Quandt Foundation of BMW America, which is committed to lifelong learning. As a board member of the Carl Duisberg Society , which promotes the exchange of students between Germany and the USA, he has long internships in the USA and especially for students of the University of Technology, Economics and Culture (HTWK) Leipzig and the private Leipzig Commercial College (HHL) thus making it possible to get to know the industrial and economic activity there.

For its extensive activities in business and at the interface to education and science, Saalbach was named "Businessman of the Year 1995" by the Governor of New York State Pataki .

Special activities after German reunification

Saalbach never let the contacts with his family and friends in Leipzig and Saxony be severed. During the GDR era, he visited the traditional Leipzig trade fair every year . At the time of the fall of the Wall on November 9, 1989, he was in the Festo headquarters in Esslingen, the next day drove towards Leipzig via the Hof border crossing, which was opened for the first time, and witnessed the line of cars moving in the opposite direction - for him one of the most emotional moments of his life as well as a spontaneous invitation to actively support the reunification process that is now expected.

Through his old school friend, he immediately established a connection with the Technical University of Leipzig , Automation Systems Section, Director Werner Richter . He sent his deputy section director for research, Werner Kriesel, to Esslingen, and there, in January 1990, Saalbach established contact with the managing partner Wilfried Stoll and other members of the Festo management team, based on longstanding professional contacts with Heinz Töpfer in Dresden.

At that time, the Kriesel team from Leipzig had innovative research results to show for a new type of system for linking controls with the associated sensors and actuators, which, however, could not be implemented in the GDR due to insufficient microelectronics. With the support of Saalbach, these new ideas gradually found more and more interest at Festo and other companies and were then purposefully linked to the performance of these modern companies.

At the same time, in 1990 the Federal Ministry for Research and Technology (BMFT) initiated a joint project in which a consortium of 11 companies including Festo together with the TH Leipzig (Werner Kriesel) and the University of Karlsruhe (Klaus Bender) from 1991 to 1994 implemented such ideas. Saalbach supported this system in particular at Festo from its specific USA perspective. The result is a world first, an automation system suitable for industrial use for the highly effective linking of controls with machines and systems under the name ASI actuator-sensor interface or AS-Interface . This system is now the world market leader in the field of automation / communication on the sensor-actuator level.

One consequence of the accession of the GDR to the FRG was the transfer of all universities to state responsibility, so that Saxony now had eight technical universities. Five of them were closed and replaced by technical colleges. The TH Leipzig was closed gradually in a time window from 1992 to 1996, after the University of Technology, Economics and Culture (HTWK) was re-established in 1992 ( founding rector : Klaus Steinbock ). With its diverse support, Saalbach has contributed to the fact that the HTWK was able to continuously continue this applied research of the TH Leipzig on industrial communication (networking) for the AS-Interface system with several projects and many student work and to include it in the teaching. Such research has also resulted in numerous publications at congresses and in specialist journals, as well as several specialist books (German and English) that have made a lasting contribution to strengthening the reputation of this outstanding pan-German research, development and production achievement. Saalbach has always kept an eye on the further development of this internationally extremely successful system and, with its weighty discussions from the USA perspective, has contributed to the targeted initiation of the necessary preparatory work for the long-term development of innovative intelligent components.

Saalbach has been imparting its extensive international industry and management experience in regular lectures since the early 2000s. At the private Leipzig Graduate School of Management (HHL, Graduate School of Management) he holds this position for the next generation of managers. At the same time he does away with clichés and draws a realistic and optimistic picture of America. He also holds lectures at the HTWK for engineering students from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology (former Dean : Günter Stein ) in the sense of a visiting professorship . In particular, Saalbach places qualified students in master’s programs that are financed by the Gottlieb Stoll Foundation in Esslingen.

Particularly noteworthy are the extensive sponsoring activities of Saalbach in the cultural and scientific area. Immediately after the opening of the border, he noticeably supported the world-famous St. Thomas Church in Leipzig (Thomaner Choir, long-standing place of activity of Johann Sebastian Bach ) with new church windows. He also promoted the modernization of laboratory equipment at the TH and HTWK Leipzig in order to quickly achieve the West German standard in the training of automation engineers.

With its activities, Saalbach has also advanced the work of the HTWK's development association under the chairmen Siegfried Altmann , Klaus-Peter Schulze and Markus Krabbes . His support made a significant contribution to making the academic events for the 125th anniversary of electrical engineering training in Leipzig in the year 2000 worthy. After his much-noticed celebratory speech in the Old Town Hall, he presented artistic pictures of New York as a souvenir, as well as a rare fossilization of ammonites with an age of several million years - symbolic of a permanent bond between the regions of Stuttgart and Esslingen as well as Saxony and Leipzig with the USA.

Horst K. Saalbach giving a speech in the New Gewandhaus in Leipzig (2005)

Since then, Saalbach has also started to work closely with the mayor of Leipzig, which is particularly beneficial for establishing contacts between the city and regional businesses and relevant partners in the USA. At the same time, Saalbach increasingly developed as a strategic advisor for the fields of business and science. Through his mediation, it was possible to persuade well-known business representatives and representatives such as the former US ambassador John Kornblum to participate in the exhibition opening of the well-known Leipzig painter Neo Rauch ( New Leipzig School ) in New York.

Another outstanding success of Saalbach's commitment to Saxony and Leipzig is that he successfully campaigned for the establishment of the Fraunhofer Institute for Cell Therapy and Immunology . His extensive contacts in this promising field enabled him to bring the world-famous biochemist and DNA explorer Nobel Prize winner James Watson from New York to Leipzig as a keynote speaker for the inauguration of Biocity Leipzig . At the same time, Saalbach conveyed Watson's know-how as a paid software license for the establishment of a DNA learning center in Leipzig. The extensive commitment of Horst Saalbach for Germany has found high recognition, so that he was honored with the Federal Cross of Merit on ribbon, presented on February 6, 2007 at the consulate in New York by the Consul General Hans-Jürgen Heimsöth on behalf of Federal President Horst Köhler .

As a sponsor, Saalbach annually organizes a charity golf tournament in Leipzig with well-known personalities, in which he actively participates and the proceeds of which are donated to support student activities. After all, he was a Master of Long Island in golf during his time as Festo President . As a nature lover, Saalbach also supports the game population in the Leipzig Wildlife Park , and as a passionate hunter he finds ample opportunity in Saxony and beyond to use the hunting weapon he has acquired in a traditional armory in Suhl ( Thuringia ).

As a patron from America, Saalbach is a relevant factor for Saxony and Leipzig, with its extremely extensive experience and wide-ranging activities, as well as its extensive international network of contacts. His work results and experiences are also reflected in numerous lectures at conferences, in industrial companies, in associations and in universities, in particular on the influence of microcomputers and bus technology on actuators and sensors, on the educational situation and on the international division of labor in a globalized world economy the management changes required for this. In his diverse activities he relies in particular on his extensive cooperation network.

Saalbach also brought its international industrial experience in the fields of automation technology and top management , in particular from the founding of the company and very successful company development during its 23-year presidency, to university teaching and research in a variety of ways . In doing so, he supported, for example, the endeavors of the private commercial college Leipzig (HHL) to establish modern experience of top management and thus also to expand the international image of the traditional HHL with its more than 120-year history as the oldest business university in Germany. In addition, he has carried out relevant events in teaching and research for engineering training in the field of automation at the University of Technology, Economics and Culture Leipzig (HTWK). In general, through his many years of lecturing and teaching as a visiting professor in Leipzig , he conveyed an attractive, credible and modern image of America to the younger generation . The support provided by Saalbach in establishing collaborations and in student exchanges with well-known universities in the USA such as MIT , Harvard University and others contributed to this.

Honors (selection)

Award of the Order of Merit of the Free State of Saxony 2015 by Prime Minister Stanislaw Tillich (top row, 3rd from left; Saalbach to the left of Tillich)
Horst Saalbach (2nd from left) at the award of the Order of
Merit of the Free State of Saxony , together with Winfried Pinninghoff (left), Georg Milbradt (3rd from left) and Werner Kriesel , right. ( Dresden 2015)
  • 1995 Named Businessman of the Year 1995 by the Governor of New York State
  • 1996 Ram's Horn Recognition Award from Farmingdale University New York / Long Island
  • 1997 Honorary Doctorate from Farmingdale University
  • 2004 Ellis Island Congressional Medal of Honor (honoring those whose struggle, sacrifice, and success helped build and strengthen America)
  • 2007 Federal Cross of Merit (Cross of Merit on Ribbon of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany)
  • 2015 Order of Merit of the Free State of Saxony .

literature

  • D. Werner, D. Herrmann: msr introduces: Technical University of Leipzig - Automation Systems Section. In: measure, control, regulate, Berlin. Vol. 26, No. 9, 1983, pp. 527-531.
  • The way to the whole. An essay on the 50th birthday of Dr. Wilfried Stoll. Festo Didactic, Esslingen 1987.
  • H. Töpfer , W. Kriesel : Functional units of automation technology - electrical, pneumatic, hydraulic. Verlag Technik, Berlin, VDI Verlag, Düsseldorf 1977, 5th edition 1988.
  • W. Richter , H. Töpfer .: Key technology automation: yesterday – today – tomorrow. In: measure, control, regulate, Berlin. Vol. 32, No. 10, 1989, pp. 434-438.
  • W. Kriesel, O. Madelung (Ed.): ASI - The actuator-sensor interface for automation. Hanser Verlag, Munich, Vienna 1994, ISBN 3-446-17825-2 , 2nd edition 1999, ISBN 3-446-21064-4 .
  • WR Kriesel, OW Madelung (Eds.): ASI - The Actuator-Sensor-Interface for Automation. Hanser Verlag, Munich, Vienna 1995, ISBN 3-446-18265-9 , 2nd edition 1999, ISBN 3-446-21065-2 .
  • W. Kriesel, H. Rohr, A. Koch: History and future of measurement and automation technology. VDI-Verlag, Düsseldorf 1995, ISBN 3-18-150047-X .
  • W. Kriesel, T. Heimbold , D. Telschow: Bus technologies for automation - networking, selection and application of communication systems. Hüthig Verlag, Heidelberg 1998, 2nd edition 2000 ISBN 3-7785-2778-9 .
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  • W. Wahlster: (R) Evolution 4.0 - Interview. In: trends in automation. The Festo customer magazine. No. 2, 2012, pp. 9-11.
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  • P. Post: Intelligent products and processes - things learn to think. In: trends in automation. The Festo customer magazine. No. 2, 2012, pp. 22-27.
  • W. Weller: Automation technology through the ages - development history of a fascinating subject. Verlag epubli GmbH, Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-8442-5487-7 and online
  • W. Kriesel : Future models for computer science, automation and communication. In: Fuchs-Kittowski, Frank ; Kriesel, Werner (ed.): Computer science and society. Festschrift for the 80th birthday of Klaus Fuchs-Kittowski . Frankfurt a. M., Bern, Bruxelles, New York, Oxford, Warszawa, Vienna: Peter Lang Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften, PL Academic Research 2016, ISBN 978-3-631-66719-4 (print), E- ISBN 978-3-653 -06277-9 (e-book).