Karl Schmidt (wagon builder)

Karl Schmidt (* 1834 in Wintersweiler , Baden , † 1909 in Bad Kissingen ) was a German entrepreneur and motor vehicle manufacturer .

Life

Schmidt lived with his family in Paris until 1870 and had a managerial position ("civil servant") in a car factory with 600 employees. Because of the Franco-Prussian War , he fled to London via Dieppe . In 1871 he came to Bad Kissingen and worked in Christian Behlert's "Lutz'sche Wagenfabrik" .

In 1875 he founded his own factory, which made Phaetons , a light four-wheeled carriage, chaise , landau and the like. The production was successfully exported to India , England , Russia and South Africa . For example, a thanksgiving from Guty near Karkow in Russia from 1900 reads:

“.... I already drove the landing aulette .... 4-horse horse and I am pleased with the flawless execution. .... I don't regret having ordered the same from abroad, as they surpass the Russian brands in terms of elegance, lightness and yet stability .... "

By that year 1900, the factory had just made the first Landau mounted on rubber wheels.

Schmidt owned a large bathroom scale with a chair mounted on it, which was set up for public use by Bad Kissingen's spa guests on the saltworks promenade on the way between the city center and the saltworks outside . Even Otto von Bismarck , this scale like used during his frequent visits to the spa town. The scale is now an exhibit in the Bad Kissinger Bismarck Museum .

literature

• Gerhard Wulz: The chapel cemetery in Bad Kissingen. A guide with short biographies , Bad Kissingen 2001, ISBN 3-934912-04-4