Kate Ahlmann

Katharina ("Käte") Aline Ahlmann , née Braun (born December 5, 1890 in Andernach , † June 15, 1963 in Innsbruck ) was a German entrepreneur. She was the manager of the largest steelworks in northern Germany and a major employer in Schleswig-Holstein .

Life

Käte Ahlmann was the daughter of the Cologne Senate President Josef Braun and his wife. After completing school, she initially trained as a gardener . On May 27, 1914, she married Julius Hans Ahlmann in Cologne , the then authorized signatory of Carlshütte in Büdelsdorf . With him she had two daughters and two sons, including Josef-Severin Ahlmann , founder and partner of ACO Severin Ahlmann GmbH & Co. KG ( ACO Group ). One of her daughters died of appendicitis when she was seven . After the accidental death of her eldest son in 1951, the entrepreneur split up the subsidiaries, with the exception of Carlshütte and Transatlanta Reederei, between her two remaining children.

Act

After the untimely death of her husband in 1931, she took over the management of Carlshütte , which was founded in 1827, as a general representative, in accordance with the agreement of the couple . As a member of the supervisory board, she received support from two long-time authorized signatories at Carlshütte.

In 1937, Ahlmann - contrary to the advice of her brother-in-law Carl Wuppermann , then head of Deutsche Bank in Düsseldorf - converted the company into a limited partnership . From 1941 onwards, the hut operated under the name of Ahlmann-Carlshütte KG. During the Second World War , the hut employed up to 3,500 people, around 1,000 of whom were forced laborers. These, mostly women, were busy with the production of aluminum wings for the fighter planes and high explosive shells. Käte Ahlmann set up her own maternity ward for these women.

The failure to dismantle the machines after the end of the war was not least due to the move to "move" the company to Canada, where the ADANAC company was founded. The Ahlmann-Carlshütte was closed for three days between war and peace and resumed work with around 300 employees.

In the first post-war years, the entrepreneur pushed the product range (resumption of bathtub production "CIMBRIA") and went on an expansion course (household and kitchen appliances). Against the background of the ongoing diversification , the business areas were expanded to include mechanical engineering, the manufacture of ceramics (1947) and enamel (1948). A forwarding company (1950) and a shipping company (1951) were also added in the logistics sector.

In addition to her work as an entrepreneur, she was involved in a large number of economic, social and cultural-political bodies. Käte Ahlmann was the first woman on the board of the working group for self-employed entrepreneurs . She also worked as a co-founder of the study group for economics in Schleswig-Holstein and as a founding member of the VdU - Association of German Women Entrepreneurs , of which she was first president from 1954 to 1962. From 1960 to 1963 she was a member of the Advisory Board of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation . Käthe Ahlmann had a trained voice. It is said that she sang at her daughter's funeral.

Shortly before her death in 1963, she founded the Iron Art Casting Museum in Büdelsdorf . Käte Ahlmann handed over the Carlshütte art collection to the museum.

After the death of Käte Ahlmann, family disputes began about the distribution of inheritance. The recession in building construction, but also the shortage of oil, led to bankruptcy in 1974.

Awards

Ahlmann was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit in 1960 and had been an honorary citizen of her hometown Büdelsdorf since 1961 .

literature

• Felicitas Glade: Käte Ahlmann. A biography , Wachholtz Verlag, Neumünster 2006, ISBN 978-3-529-06138-7 .

Web links

• Official website of the Käte Ahlmann Foundation
• Iron art casting museum
• Kerstin Bund: Fully woman, fully boss. In: The time . 23rd January 2014 . 

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Honorary Citizenship. In: www.buedelsdorf.de. Retrieved March 26, 2020 .