Ignaz Bing
Ignaz Bing (born January 29, 1840 in Memmelsdorf in Lower Franconia ; died March 24, 1918 in Nuremberg ) was a German industrialist , secret councilor and cave explorer of Jewish origin.
Life and commercial work
The Bing family originally came from Bingen am Rhein . Ignaz Bing was the second child of master dyer Salomon Bing and his wife Babette, nee. Teichmann, born in Memmelsdorf. He had three siblings: Ida (born 1838), Adolf (born 1842) and Berthold (born 1844). His mother died when Ignaz was seven years old. After remarrying, Salomon Bing and his family moved to Gunzenhausen , where he started a new job in the hop trade . His father's second marriage resulted in seven other (half) siblings.
Ignaz Bing left the town at the age of fourteen and began training at the local commercial training institute in Ansbach . A year later he left the school with a brilliant certificate from the city of Ansbach as a merchant's assistant ("Commis"). He began a traineeship at a bank, expanded his commercial experience in the B. Berneis shoe factory in Fürth and in shops in Aschaffenburg, Wallerstein and finally Fürth again.
After the badly paid training period, which was to shape his character in the long term, he temporarily worked in his father's shop. At the age of 24 he went into business for himself in 1864 and founded a wholesale business for textile haberdashery with his brother Adolf in Gunzenhausen . As a Jew, his application to join the local casino company was refused. The following year he moved the company to the Franconian economic metropolis of Nuremberg . In the middle of the 19th century, the city was the largest trading and trading center in the Kingdom of Bavaria .
In a small shop on Karolinenstrasse, the brothers successfully sold metal and haberdashery goods . Their upswing was favored by the new freedom of trade , which brought Bing's small goods store advantages over the monostructure of the other shops. In addition, numerous Prussian and Mecklenburg soldiers were billeted in 1866 , who spent a not inconsiderable part of their wages with the Bing brothers. After three years, a larger shop had to be rented, which now specialized in metal goods.
In 1869 Ignaz Bing married Ida Ottenstein, the daughter of a Jewish teacher. With her he had the six children Anna, Bertha, Frieda, Marie, Siegmund and Stephan.
The fact that his brother Adolf entered into an economically advantageous marriage helped the business to generate capital and further growth. After the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/71, the company participated in the general upswing. It also expanded in the economic crisis that followed in 1873 . Bing had the newly introduced standard dimensions and weights manufactured for his company by DIY enthusiasts in Nuremberg until 1882.
Ignaz Bing was a member of the supervisory board of the Nuremberg Trade Museum , which prepared the state exhibition for trade and industry there in 1882. As an exhibitor with the largest assortment, his company received the gold state medal of the Kingdom of Bavaria. In that year he and his brother Adolf founded the Nuremberg Brothers Bing metal goods factory in Scheurlstrasse. 220 workers produced household and kitchen items as well as tin toys there . Soon more works were created in Blumenstrasse, in Gleißhammer and in Grünhain in Saxony . In addition, the company continued to sell toys from other manufacturers from Nuremberg and Fürth. While Adolf gradually limited himself to the role of partner, Ignaz took over the management of the company. On the occasion of the 25th business anniversary, he was appointed to the royal Bavarian council of commerce .
Soon, articles from the Bing company were being delivered to many regions of the world beyond the German borders. The mass-produced articles for daily use also found good sales in North and South America, South Africa and the British colonies . Catalogs with color images were also published in English, French and Italian. The extensive collections were presented at the Chicago World's Fair in 1893 , and four years later they caused a sensation at the Paris World's Fair . The company now took first place in the world in toy manufacturing and contributed to the fact that Nuremberg was Bavaria's most important trading city at the turn of the century.
During the First World War , the overseas sales areas were suddenly and completely lost, and the branches abroad were confiscated. Bing now produced steel helmets and military cookware , but also hand grenades and other weapons. Shortly before the end of the war, production was switched over again. Kitchen goods and office supplies were popular, and bath stoves and ice boxes were also built.
Ignaz Bing died on March 24, 1918. The companies of the entrepreneur, who was open to social issues, were not hit for a day. The sales staff he trained, known as "Bing salespeople", had a high degree of freedom of action. He allowed senior executives to take equity stakes and was considered fair on wage issues. His ability to delegate brilliantly gave him time for personal inclinations. As a member of the National Liberal Party , he was a member of the city council of Nuremberg. In 1917 he dictated his memoirs to his secretary, which appeared as a book under the title From My Life . His youngest son Stephan took over the management of Bing Werke AG after his death in 1919.
Streitberg and the Bing Cave
The health resort Streitberg in Wiesent valley visited Bing probably the first time in the 1860s, as a result, he returned again and again in the Franconian Switzerland back. Shortly before the turn of the century, he acquired a plot of land on the edge of the Streitberg village square and had the building there, which he called "Villa Marie", expanded. Streitberg became a second home for him, and every Christmas he gave their children gifts with biscuits and toys. He had a water pipe laid for his property and a well built in return for drawing water in the village. In a similar way, Streitberg received electric street lighting in 1903. In 1904 he donated a round pavilion above the entrance to the Schauertal ( Prinz-Rupprecht-Pavillon ), twelve years later a fire brigade ladder.
In search of prehistoric artefacts , he discovered a stalactite cave in 1905 . He bought the property at the cave entrance, had the cave explored and developed for tourism. In February 1906 he had his first brochure and postcards printed with cave motifs. In that year the Bing Cave was visited by more than 7000 people. At the beginning of January 1908 the electrical lighting went into operation, in February Bing became an honorary member of the Franconian Switzerland Association .
Web links
- Bing Brothers, Nuremberg in: Historical Lexicon of Bavaria
literature
- Toni Eckert: Ignaz Bing - his life in Streitberg . 1st edition. Forchheimer series F. Streit, Forchheim 1995, ISBN 3-922716-11-3 .
- Ignaz Bing: From my life . Wellhausen & Marquardt Medien, 2004, ISBN 978-3-921844-72-4 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Gebrüder Bing, Nuremberg in: Historisches Lexikon Bayerns, accessed on March 6, 2016
- ↑ a b c d e f Familie Salomon Bernhard Bing from: Jüdisches Leben in Gunzenhausen, accessed on March 6, 2016
- ^ Toni Eckert: Ignaz Bing - his life in Streitberg , p. 9.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Bing, Ignaz |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German industrialist and cave explorer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | January 29, 1840 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Memmelsdorf in Lower Franconia |
| DATE OF DEATH | March 24, 1918 |
| Place of death | Nuremberg |