Oskar Sembach
Oskar Sembach , (born July 3, 1856 in Gräfenthal / Thuringia , † March 22, 1943 in Lauf an der Pegnitz ) was a porcelain technician, developer of the dry pressing molding technology for the ceramic raw material steatite and entrepreneur.
Together with his operations manager Peter Molzberger, he founded the company "Speckstein Steatit GmbH" in Lauf ad Pegnitz on March 4, 1904. The company developed from a small manufacturer of components made of steatite to an international supplier of technical ceramics .
Life
Oskar Sembach was born on July 3, 1856 in Graefenthal / Thuringia. His parents owned a tanner there. After finishing secondary school in Saalfeld / Saale , Oskar Sembach learned the tanner's trade in his parents' business.
In 1882 he decided to retrain and switched to the porcelain industry. In the following ten years he worked for various porcelain companies, both in development and in production, most recently at the Krug company in Lauf ad Pegnitz.
In 1902 Oskar Sembach joined the Stadelmann company in Nuremberg. His area of responsibility included the improvement of the wet pressing technique for steatite masses, as their quality did not meet the requirements at the time.
In 1903 Oskar Sembach succeeded in attempting to produce an acceptable product with dried steatite mass. When processing a mass that had almost become dry, it was found that this could also be pressed well. The firing tests resulted in a smooth product that met the requirements. Oskar Sembach is considered to be the pioneer of the dry pressing process for steatite.
On March 4, 1904, Oskar Sembach and Peter Molzberger founded the company "Speckstein Steatit Gesellschaft mb H." in Lauf ad Pegnitz. He already knew the porcelain technician Peter Molzberger from his previous employer, Stadelmann.
The first building on the Speckstein Steatit GmbH premises was a one-story building eight meters wide and 16 meters long. The first kiln had a capacity of about half a cubic meter. It was burned once a day. Just one year after it was founded, the existing kiln reached its limits and Sembach had a larger kiln with a capacity of 1.3 cubic meters built. Production was initially limited to simple articles made from pure soapstone powder without any mineral additives and used primarily in the gas incandescent light industry.
The expansion of the electrotechnical branch of industry in Germany made new sales markets possible for Sembach. To do this, the company had to switch completely to steatite and expand its manufacturing facilities in 1905.
In 1907 his partner Peter Molzberger left the company and founded a new company in Lauf together with the businessman Bernhard Döbrich: the company Döbrich & Molzberger. This new establishment was one of many that emerged from the Speckstein Steatit GmbH and ultimately led to the fact that numerous ceramic manufacturers can still be found at the Lauf location.
In 1926 his son Erhard Sembach joined the company. In 1936 the company was converted into a limited partnership: Sembach GmbH & Co. KG. During the Second World War , Erhard Sembach fell into Soviet captivity in Stalingrad in February 1943 and officially died a heroic death. He died on March 22, 1943 at the age of 86. He headed the company for a total of 39 years.
When Erhard Sembach returned to Lauf on September 1, 1949, he again took over the business of the Sembach company, which was placed under the supervision of a trustee until the currency reform in 1948. Hartmut Sembach joined the company in 1957 and Erdmann Sembach and Joachim Krentler three years later. In 1989 Erhard Sembach left the company after 63 years and died a year later at the age of 91. Today's Sembach Technical Ceramics is run by Martin and Anna Sembach.
Services
Shaping process
The advance of electrical engineering at the beginning of the last century brought a completely new branch of manufacture for ceramic manufacturers: the manufacture of insulating parts. To shape the insulating parts, they had to use the wet pressing of steel matrices that is common in the porcelain industry. But the quality of the wet-pressed steatite did not meet the requirements of the industry. The surface was quite rough and uneven and the dimensional accuracy was poor. Oskar Sembach saw his main task in eliminating these deficiencies. During days of attempts to process steatite mass that had become almost dry, he discovered that it can also be pressed when dry. The firing tests resulted in a nice, smooth product that largely met the requirements and was in no way inferior to the competition. In 1903, Oskar Sembach was the first porcelain expert to use dry pressing to manufacture ceramic parts - a fundamental shaping process for technical ceramics from today's perspective.
Urban development
What began on 128 square meters with a capital of 20,000 marks is not only the story of the Sembach family, but also marks the beginning of the entire technical-ceramic industry in Lauf ad Pegnitz.
As early as the Middle Ages, the water power of the Pegnitz was used to operate numerous water wheels. Mills and hammer mills have been handed down from 1275. These companies already showed pre-industrial forms. Numerous workers found profitable employment here.
During the industrialization, Lauf had a decisive location advantage due to the existing workforce. This led, among other things, to the settlement of the Georg Bankel stove factory and the Fritz Krug porcelain factory. Porcelain specialists were already working in Lauf when Oskar Sembach founded his company and other companies from the branch were added. In 1907 Oskar Sembach's partner Peter Molzberger founded a new company in Lauf. This new establishment was one of many that emerged from the Speckstein Steatit GmbH.
The city developed into a small industrial town over the years and became the center of the West German steatite industry in the 1960s. Even today, there is a nationwide unique concentration of companies in Lauf that deal with the production of technical ceramics. Today around 1,000 people are employed in four Laufer ceramic companies.
Namesake
Streets in Lauf ad Pegnitz
In recognition of his services to the city of Lauf, Oskar Sembach was named after a street for the first time in 1958: Dehm-Straße was given the new name Oskar-Sembach-Straße. Sembach GmbH & Co. KG is also based there.
In 2009 the city of Lauf decided to give a street the name of its honorable citizen. The Oskar-Sembach-Ring is one of the two main roads leading through the newly created industrial area on the western edge of the city.
Oskar Sembach secondary school
During the celebrations for the 50th anniversary of the secondary school on April 25, 2005, the state secondary school in Lauf was given the name Oskar-Sembach-Realschule . With the name, the school wanted to emphasize its ties to the economy and the city of Lauf and decided on the Sembach company.
literature
Individual evidence
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Sembach, Oskar |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German porcelain technician, developer and entrepreneur |
| DATE OF BIRTH | July 3, 1856 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Graefenthal / Thuringia |
| DATE OF DEATH | March 22, 1943 |
| Place of death | Lauf ad Pegnitz |