Otto Heinrich Count von Hagenburg

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Otto Heinrich Graf von Hagenburg (born October 13, 1901 in Longeville near Metz, † December 21, 1993 in Altenmünster ) was a German entrepreneur , inventor and pilot. He was world aerobatics champion on Bücker planes , later a manufacturer of car accessories, a submarine and owner of a special plastic factory with a wide range of products.

Life

Otto Heinrich Graf von Hagenburg came from the morganatic marriage of Prince Otto Heinrich zu Schaumburg-Lippe and Countess Anna Luise Elise von Hagenburg, née. von Köppen (1860–1932). The maternal family only belonged to the postal aristocracy and his mother was raised to Countess von Hagenburg for marrying into the high aristocracy . Therefore, mother and children did not use the father's family name. In 1908 the family moved to Darmstadt and after the renovation they moved into the prestigious Hagenburg House (today's Georg-Christoph-Lichtenberg-House ), which did justice to the noble rank of the father. Hagenburg attended a grammar school in Darmstadt.

From April 12, 1922, he acted as a deputy to businessman Emil Zimmer on the board of the Fahrzeugfabrik AG Darmstadt (FAFAG) . The company was founded by the two of them as well as his mother, the banker Lehmann, the manufacturer Wilhelm Goebel and the engineer Georg Hoffmann. In the workshop on the property at Eschollbrücker Straße 18, the company manufactured small cars that were developed by Hoffmann. The vehicles proved to be practical, but in no case did they achieve large numbers. A total of only about 120 vehicles were produced. After FAFAG closed in September 1924 due to insolvency, Otto Heinrich Graf von Hagenburg founded a driving school . From 1927 he headed a branch of Daimler-Benz AG on Elisabethenstrasse in Darmstadt.

In 1929 aviation aroused his interest and he acquired the license in Darmstadt on the Lichtwiese . As a member of the Hessenflieger , he also trained as a flight instructor. In 1936 he won the occasion of the 1936 Summer Olympics ausgelobten international aerobatic competition and belonged to the beginning of World War II, the world's best.

From 1938 he was a test pilot at the Rechlin test center and from 1939 at the Arado aircraft works in Braunschweig. In 1942 he founded a supplier company for the aircraft industry in Sonthofen. He also drove successfully car races and developed a new type of rotary piston engine together with Felix Wankel .

In the Nazi regime he was also a military economic leader and was interned by the US occupiers in Göggingen near Augsburg until 1947 .

After the Second World War he founded the company Hagenburg Fiberglas KG in Geretsried near Wolfratshausen in 1948 and settled there on Breslauer Weg. Fiberglass , brand new on the market at the time, was the starting material for the fishing rods , railway barriers , catamarans (for example the Mustang 450 ; length 4.5 m, with cable steering, 1970s; only suitable for inland waters) and greenhouses . The products were sold well, the motor boats were sold through Quelle-Versand in the 1960s .

The Hagenburg submarine, developed in 1964 on behalf of the organizers of the International Boat Show in London, with a total weight of 820  kg and a price of around DM 17,000  , was powered by a battery-powered electric motor and patented by Hagenburg. A London journalist described the pleasure boat as "green bean with mounted turrets" (a Plexiglas - dome ). The designer and his operations manager emphasized that it is “easy to ride like a bicycle”. This boat has been preserved and has been privately owned by Tassilo Kraus in Berlin since 1970. Kraus made the unique item available to the museum association as a permanent loan for the opening of the local history museum in Geretsried in summer 2012.

Due to financial problems, Hagenburg sold his company in 1971. Tinkering and handicrafts remained his passion, but he could not find any investors for the inventions that resulted from it.

Heinrich Graf von Hagenburg died at the age of 92 in Altenmünster. His first marriage was to Gertrude Carnier (* 1909). The marriage ended in divorce in 1959. In his second marriage, he was married to Renate Pauline Wackwitz (1927–1981) from 1959. From this marriage the children Hans Heinrich (* 1959), Sybille (* 1961), Pamina (* 1966) and Andreas (* 1967) emerged.

literature

  • Otto Heinrich Count Hagenburg. In: Stadtlexikon Darmstadt. Stuttgart 2006, p. 342 f.

Web links and sources

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Otto Zaretzky:  Adolf Georg, Prince of Schaumburg-Lippe . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 55, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1910, pp. 361-663.
  2. ↑ [1]
  3. ↑ a b U-boat anchors in Geretsried. , on www.merkur-online.de; accessed on August 30, 2014.
  4. ↑ Drive device for underwater boats, especially small submarines. Patent for the submarine from 1964; No. DE 1895486 U on www.google.com; accessed on August 30, 2014.
  5. ↑ quoted from Spiegel 1964
  6. ↑ Süddeutsche Zeitung , 2010.
personal data
SURNAME Hagenburg, Otto Heinrich Graf von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hagenburg, Otto Heinrich Graf
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German aerobatic pilot, car and submarine manufacturer, company owner
DATE OF BIRTH October 13, 1901
PLACE OF BIRTH Longeville
DATE OF DEATH December 21, 1993
Place of death Altenmünster