Kaletsch plastic works

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Kaletsch plastic works
legal form
founding 1959
resolution 1972
Seat pour
management Reinhold Kaletsch
industry boat building

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Kaletsch-Kunststoffwerke (also known as Mopres -Kunststoffwerke ) in Gießen was the first company in Germany to produce leisure boats in large numbers from glass fiber reinforced plastic (GRP). The company existed from 1959 to 1972.

story

The founder of the company was the doctor, inventor and entrepreneur Reinhold Kaletsch (1929-1996). Little is known about his career, but some of his inventions have survived. He recognized the potential of glass fiber reinforced plastic in boat building early on and was the first to start series production of plastic boats in Germany, benefiting from the booming leisure market. In 1959 the Kaletsch plastic works was founded in Giessen. With the GRP boats, Kaletsch was able to offer inexpensive alternatives to the traditional wooden boats , especially since they could be driven without a license. The company's headquarters were in Gießen, and production took place in Lollar .

Around a dozen different models were on offer under the Mopres-Boote brand name. First and foremost, the company produced several types of open motor boats of different sizes. The boats were designed in length for road transport with a trailer and were between 3.7 and 5.1 meters long. After the purchase, the owners could equip their boats with engines of their own choice and with different power ratings. By 1965, the company had sold around 800 boats of the Mopres 508 type alone and, according to its own statements, was the largest supplier of plastic boats in Germany. The model range was rounded off by rowing and sailing boats. The little information and the absence of these models in the used boat markets indicate low sales figures for these products.

In addition to private customers, the boats were also bought by the water police of individual federal states. Models of the Kaletsch boats of the Mopres type were in use in Hesse (Hesse 12 waterway police) and in Lower Saxony (32 waterway police) .

There is no information about the end of the company. The information on the years of construction of the used boats for sale is indicative. Accordingly, the company must have stopped production in the early 1970s. This fits a company database entry, according to which the there as Dr. Reinhold Kaletsch Sport- und Autozubehörteile was deleted from the commercial register at the Gießen district court on July 3, 1972.

Reinhold Kaletsch moved to Canada in 1980. He rose to prominence there when he suffered an accident during a month-long wilderness camping trip that left him with a broken spine and survived with the help of his dogs. Kaletsch died in Canada in April 1996.

models

model Type Dimensions Prize 1967
Mopres rowing boat rowing boat 598 DM
Mopres Sporting I rowing boat 648 DM
Mopres Sporting II rowing boat 815 DM
Mopres Sailing I sailing boat 698 DM
Mopres Sailing II sailing boat 1098 DM
Mopres Q1 motorboat
Mopres Q2 motorboat
Mopres Touring II motorboat 1198 DM
Mopres Topuring III motorboat 3198 DM
Mopres 508 motorboat 4.03 meters long, 1.45 meters wide 3350 DM
Mopres 608 motorboat 3900 DM
Mopres 708 motorboat 4300 DM
Mopres 808 motorboat 6450 DM

literature

  • Adventures on Board , In: Der Spiegel No. 32, 1965 of 3 August 1965 ( online version ).
  • Günther Meyer: Ships and boats of the German water police and their predecessors (1830-2000) , Nora Verlagsgemeinschaft Dyck & Westerheide, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-936735-29-8 .

web links

itemizations

  1. ↑ Mopres boats (advertisement from 1965) , source unknown, at sokrates-digital.de
  2. ↑ a b Adventures on board , In: Der Spiegel No. 32, 1965 of August 3, 1965
  3. ↑ boote-forum.de - The forum about boats. Retrieved January 23, 2022 .
  4. ↑ Mopres boats (advertisement) , In: auto motor und sport No. 12, 1965, p. 51
  5. ↑ Mopres competition: Mopres boats: You can win this boat , In: auto motor und sport No. 15, 1967, p. 1
  6. ↑ Meyer, p. 127, p. 132
  7. ↑ Entry: Dr. Reinhold Kaletsch Sports and Car Accessories, Lollar at northdata.de
  8. ↑ See Wayne Tefs, Be Wolf: A True Account of the Survival of Reinhold Kaletsch , Turnstone Press, Winnipeg 2007
  9. ↑ Achmed Khammas - The Book of Synergy. Retrieved January 23, 2022 .

Coordinates: 50°35′29.1″  N , 8°40′48.8″  E