Max Maag

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Max Maag (born February 7, 1883 in Dorf am Irchel ; † February 16, 1960 in Zurich ) was a Swiss mechanical engineer and organ builder.

Maag was mainly active in the field of gearbox construction. He developed a gear system by 1908, but its productive evaluation required high accuracy. At the same time, he also had a planing machine for the production of toothed spur gears patented in 14 countries. He also signed a license building contract with the USA for Maag machines.

The process developed by Maag made it possible to manufacture gears of the highest quality and precision. The core was the hobbing process, through which production was made possible on the basis of mathematically calculated and carefully designed individual gears. Maag used a toothed rack with a cutting edge on which the wheel to be machined rolled just like when it was engaged with another wheel. In order to correct the gearwheels that have warped after hardening, Maag also developed a new grinding process. The “Maag toothing” became the term for an optimally designed toothing geometry.

In 1913 he took over the halls of the liquidated Safir automobile factory in Zurich Aussersihl on Hardstrasse and founded the Max Maag Zahnradfabrik (later Maag-Zahnräder AG ). The good economic situation during the First World War allowed the company, initially with 24 employees, to grow into a large company with 1,500 workers by 1918. Maag manufactured pumps for the first time in 1928. In 1991 the company was split up. Today Maag Pump Systems AG is still active as a manufacturer of gear pumps and FLSmidth MAAG Gear AG as a manufacturer of gearboxes.

In 1915, Maag founded the Friedrichshafen gear factory together with Luftschiffbau Zeppelin GmbH .

After a financial crisis of the Maag group of companies, Max Maag left the management in 1923. At the end of 1926 he left the company he had built. From then on he led the existence of an inventor and "occasional entrepreneur" and always had to struggle with financial worries. Although the Maag company supported him financially, he was denied another entrepreneurial success. In 1928 he developed and built a razor blade grinding machine. The Maag razor blade was sold for years, but no large company took over a license and Maag had to withdraw from this business.

Maag organ in Densbüren

Then Maag started building organs. Financially supported by the Zurich businessman and friend Bernhard R. Garbade. In 1935 the first Maag organ was inaugurated. In Zurich you can find his organs in the church Sankt Jakob, in the parish hall Enge , church Letten Wipkingen and in conversions with other organ builders like Theodor Kuhn in the large church Fluntern and the Zwinglikirche Sihlfeld as well as in Densbüren . His son-in-law, the Zurich composer Alfred Baum , often played concerts on Maag instruments in Zurich.

He was also unsuccessful with the “Micro-Maag”, an internal measuring device for bores between 5 and 200 mm.

In 1955, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich awarded him an honorary doctorate in technical sciences.

In September 2017, the Tonhalle Maag was opened on the Maag area, which the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra will use as an interim venue for the next three years.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The Maag gears and their significance for the machine industry
  2. ↑ [url = http://peter-fasler.magix.net/public/ZHProfile8/zh_zhaussersihl_jakob_maag.htm Church of St. Jakob, side room Zurich-Aussersihl ZH. ] In: Organ directory Switzerland-Liechtenstein , accessed on August 25, 2019.
  3. ↑ Maag organ St. Jakob side room. On organs Zurich accessed on August 25 of 2019.
  4. ↑ Maag organ church Letten Wipkingen. On organs Zurich accessed on August 25 of 2019.
  5. ^ Portal of the parishes of Zurich. Retrieved April 18, 2018 .
  6. ↑ Hello Zurich-West: The Tonhalle Maag celebrates its opening! In: Credit Suisse . ( credit-suisse.com [accessed April 18, 2018]).

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Commons : Max Maag  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Maag, Max
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss entrepreneur
DATE OF BIRTH February 7, 1883
PLACE OF BIRTH Village on the Irchel
DATE OF DEATH February 16, 1960
Place of death Zurich