Max Schmidheiny

Max Schmidheiny (born April 3, 1908 in Heerbrugg , municipality of Balgach ; † August 19, 1991 in Altstätten ) was a Swiss entrepreneur , politician and founder of the Max Schmidheiny Foundation . He obtained an ETH diploma in mechanical engineering . Schmidheiny was married to Adda Schmidheiny-Scherrer († 1997). He was one of the most influential captains of industry in Switzerland in the 20th century.

family

Max Schmidheiny was born at Heerbrugg Castle as the son of Ernst Schmidheiny and attended the Trogen Cantonal School . He is the father of Thomas Schmidheiny (* 1945), Stephan Schmidheiny (* 1947), Alexander Schmidheiny (1951–1992) and a daughter named Adda-Marietta Schmidheiny-Amit (* 1944). Marietta Schmidheiny-Amit is a trained singer, lived in Israel for a long time, speaks fluent Hebrew, and later acquired American citizenship. Max Schmidheiny's brother is Ernst Schmidheiny II.

economy

• 1935 Head of Eternit AG Niederurnen
• 1934–1974 Chairman of the Board of Hiag
• 1954–1983 Chairman of the Board of Wild Heerbrugg AG
• 1959 initiator of Swisspetrol AG for oil research in Switzerland
• 1974–1984 Chairman of the Board of Directors of Holderbank Financière Glarus AG
• 1978 founder of the Sarganserland power plants
• from 1952 board member of Brown, Boveri & Cie. , 1966–1970 Chairman of the Board of Directors
• 1978 Establishment of the Max Schmidheiny Foundation
• 1984 Division of the company divisions to his sons Thomas and Stephan

politics

• 1939–1948 City Council of Balgach
• 1948–1954 Cantonal Council (FDP)
• 1959–1963 National Councilor

Awards

In Heerbrugg , Max-Schmidheiny-Strasse was named after him.

• 1952 Honorary doctorate from the University of Basel
• 1967 Honorary doctorate from the University of St. Gallen
• 1980 Receipt of the Ernst Reuter badge

literature

• Walter de Gruyter: German Biographical Encyclopedia . tape 9 . KG Saur Verlag GmbH & Company, 2008, ISBN 978-3-11-096502-5 , p. 924 .
• Hans O Staub: From Schmidheiny to Schmidheiny . In: Swiss pioneers in business and technology . tape 61 . Miles: Association for Economic History Studies, 1994, ISBN 978-3-909059-07-2 , p. 208 .
• François Höpflinger: The uncanny empire: economic integration in Switzerland . Eco-Verlag, 1980, ISBN 978-3-85637-026-8 , pp. 270 .
• Marcel Baumgartner; University (Sankt Gallen): Ferdinand Hodler: Max Schmidheiny Collection . In: Catalogs of Swiss museums and collections . tape 11 . Swiss Institute for Art Research, Zurich 1989, p. 120 .

Web links

• Peter Müller: Max Schmidheiny. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
• Homepage

Individual evidence

1. ↑ HISTORY / Schmidheiny and the castle. (No longer available online.) Peter von Rotz, archived from the original on January 3, 2014 ; accessed on January 2, 2014 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
2. ↑ From Wild to Leica 70 years of company history 1921-1991. (PDF) Rudolf Simmen, accessed on December 23, 2013 .