Kurt A. Koerber
Kurt Adolf Körber (born September 7, 1909 in Berlin ; † August 10, 1992 in Hamburg ) was a German entrepreneur in the field of mechanical and plant engineering . In 1946 he founded the Hauni Maschinenfabrik in Hamburg-Bergedorf (now: Hauni Maschinenbau GmbH ), which is best known for the manufacture of machines for the manufacture of filter cigarettes. Today the company is part of Körber AG , an international mechanical engineering group. Körber is considered to be one of the great entrepreneurial personalities of the post-war period in the Federal Republic of Germany and, with the Körber Foundation, transferred his entrepreneurial will to shape society. Because of his work in the war economy in the »Third Reich« as (from February 1944) technical director of Universelle-Werke JC Müller & Co. , one of the most important arms factories in Dresden, and his membership in the NSDAP , which he denied until the end of his life , today for historians Körber belongs to the group of people polluted by the Nazi regime.
Life
Kurt A. Körber was born in Berlin on September 7, 1909. Until 1923 he attended elementary school in Berlin and, after the family moved to Chemnitz, the local secondary and higher commercial school. He became interested in radio technology at an early age. At the age of 15 Kurt Körber tinkered a transmitter reading scale for radios, which in 1924 also became his first patent application. In the course of his life, Körber has registered over 200 further patents. From 1928 to 1929 he studied electrical engineering at the Mittweida technical center . In 1935 he joined Universelle-Werke JC Müller & Co. in Dresden. The Universelle began as an important military operation with the production of armaments, using up to 3000 foreign and forced laborers. On July 1, 1940, six days after the occupation of France by German troops, Kurt A. Körber joined the NSDAP . In the Florastraße in Dresden, the Universelle also built a satellite camp of the Flossenbürg concentration camp, in which at least 700 female concentration camp prisoners were used. Kurt Körber was actively involved in setting up this plant. In 1945 he remained in office under the Soviet occupation forces and promoted the civilian reconstruction of the company.
Regarding his role in the period from 1933 to 1945, historians emphasize Körber's "deep involvement in the Nazi war economy" and his "affinity with the Nazi regime".
After the war, Körber started repairing cigarette machines and manufacturing hand tobacco cutters in Hamburg in July 1946. In Hamburg-Bergedorf he built the company Hauni Maschinenfabrik Körber & Co. KG (Hanseatische Universelle). In 1970 the company ECH Will in Hamburg, a renowned manufacturer of paper processing machines, was taken over, thus laying the foundation for diversification in the paper and tissue sector . In 1978, the takeover of the grinding machine manufacturer Blohm in Hamburg took place and the entry into the machine tool sector began.
On June 1, 1956, Körber founded the Tabak Technikum Hamburg in Hamburg-Bergedorf on the Hauni premises . Training courses for employees in the tobacco processing industry began there in March 1957. A year later, the first engineering students began their studies in process engineering / tobacco technology. In view of the international orientation of the tobacco industry, English was introduced as a compulsory subject, and French and Spanish were offered as optional subjects.
As early as 1957, Körber established his first patronage foundation in Hamburg to support the reconstruction of the Thalia Theater . In the years that followed, he repeatedly supported foundations in the field of culture and the promotion of young technical talent. In the early 1970s, Körber made a generous donation to build the University of Applied Sciences for Production and Process Engineering in Bergedorf on Lohbrügger Kirchstrasse (today: Hamburg University of Applied Sciences ). Since the city of Hamburg also had to contribute a not inconsiderable financial part (otherwise the donation from Körber would have expired), there were major upsets, which resulted in the fact that the city of Hamburg had not invited Kurt A. Körber to the inauguration in 1972. In addition, he made it possible to renovate the old flower wholesale market and the Deichtorhallen in Hamburg into an exhibition building.
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In 1961 he founded the "Bergedorf Round Table" to discuss social issues.
In 1987 all Körbers companies were merged and the Hauni-Werke were converted into Körber AG. By 1992, Körber developed his company into an international group with almost 6,800 employees and sales of 1.5 billion D-Marks. Today Körber AG is the holding company of a technology group with around 12,000 employees worldwide. The group unites technologically leading companies with over 100 production, service and sales companies. The Körber Group achieved sales of 2.6 billion euros in the 2017 financial year.
Körber's grave is located in the Bergedorf cemetery .
Körber Foundation
In 1957, Körber established the Foundation for the Reconstruction of the Hamburg Thalia Theater, and in 1959 the Kurt A. Körber Foundation with the aim of establishing a technical academy for the training of managers for industrial practice. The Hauni Foundation was established in 1969. These two foundations were merged in 1981 to form the Körber Foundation , which is now also the sole owner of Körber AG . Between 1959 and 1992, Körber made over 200 million marks available for the promotion of culture and science.
Honors
In 1960 the University of Erlangen and in 1989 the Technical University of Dresden awarded him an honorary doctorate.
In 1965, the Diesel Medal in gold from the German Inventors' Association followed.
In 1969 the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg awarded him the Medal for Art and Science .
In 1983, Federal President Karl Carstens awarded Kurt A. Körber the medal for services to the foundation system of the Federal Association of German Foundations .
In 1991 he became an honorary citizen of Hamburg after the city's senate had awarded him the Mayor Stolten Medal in 1980. In 1987 he was also honored as an honor lock keeper.
In 2007, the Billstedt high school in Hamburg was renamed the Kurt-Körber-Gymnasium . In Hamburg's Bergedorf is Kurt A. Körber-Chaussee named after him.
Movie
- 1974: Kurt A. Körber. In the series of patrons. Production: Saarländischer Rundfunk, 15 minutes, script and direction: Klaus Peter Dencker
literature
- Jan-Peter Domschke, Sabine Dorn, Hansgeorg Hofmann, Rosemarie Poch, Marion Stascheit: Mittweida's engineers all over the world. Hochschule Mittweida (ed.), Mittweida 2014, p. 60 f.
- Josef Schmid, Frank Bajohr: Ordinary entrepreneurial opportunism? Kurt A. Körber and the Dresden »Universelle« under National Socialism. In: Contemporary History in Hamburg 2011, Research Center for Contemporary History in Hamburg (ed.), Hamburg 2012, pp. 73–101.
- Josef Schmid, Dirk Wegner: Kurt A. Körber. Approaches to a founder. With a foreword by Helmut Schmidt. edition Körber Foundation, Hamburg 2002.
- Kurt A. Körber: The Profit Program. An entrepreneur makes a donation. Hoffmann and Campe, Hamburg 1992.
- Martin Beheim-Schwarzbach: Bergedorfer Offensive - a biography during his lifetime. Hans Christians Verlag, Hamburg 1966
- Hermann Schreiber: Capitalist with a sense of community. An essay on Kurt A. Körber. edition Körber Foundation, Hamburg 2009.
Web links
- Literature by and about Kurt A. Körber in the catalog of the German National Library
- Körber Foundation
- Koerber AG
- Kurt A. Körber - The Unknown Pages of the Patron - accessed on October 4, 2016
Individual evidence
- ↑ The founder . In: Körber Foundation . ( koerber-stiftung.de [accessed on November 8, 2018]).
- ^ Josef Schmid, Frank Bajohr: Ordinary entrepreneurial opportunism? Kurt A. Körber and the Dresden »Universelle« under National Socialism. In: Research Center for Contemporary History in Hamburg (Hrsg.): Contemporary History in Hamburg . tape 2011 . Hamburg 2012, p. 100 .
- ↑ The Bergedorfer Kreis . In: The time . No. 49/1986 ( online ).
- ↑ Federal Association of German Foundations: Medal for Services to Foundations: Previous Prize Winners ( Memento of September 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) November 30, 2005
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Koerber, Kurt A. |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Körber, Kurt Adolf (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German entrepreneur and patron |
| DATE OF BIRTH | September 7, 1909 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Berlin |
| DATE OF DEATH | August 10, 1992 |
| Place of death | Hamburg |