Alfred Gauthier Calmbach
| Alfred Gauthier Calmbach
|
|
|---|---|
 |
|
| legal form | GmbH |
| founding | 1902 |
| Seat |
Calmbach , Germany
|
| Branch | photographic shutters for cameras , optical devices for manufacturing semiconductors |
The company Alfred Gauthier, Feinmechanische Werkstatt, Calmbach was founded in 1902 by the mechanic Alfred Gauthier and his brother Gustav Gauthier in Calmbach in the Black Forest . Gauthier acquired a plot of land with hydropower rights here and moved with five employees and some machines from Pforzheim to Calmbach in the Enztal.
The company produced camera shutters under the brand names Ibsor, Vario, Pronto (Italian for fast) and Prontor . Around 1932 AGC supplied the rotating disc shutter for the Robot series camera .
The company logo shows a half-open shutter with three louvres and the letters AGC for A lfred G Authier C Almbach.
Today the company still exists at the same location under the name “ Prontor GmbH” and produces assemblies and subsystems for precision mechanics and medical technology. Today the place Calmbach belongs to Bad Wildbad .
Company history (abbreviated)
The brothers Alfred and Gustav Gauthier founded a workshop for precision mechanics in Calmbach in 1902. In 1909, special machines for precision engineering were offered from in-house production. The company "Alfred Gauthier GmbH" was founded in 1910 with share capital of 250,000 marks . The Carl Zeiss Foundation becomes a silent partner through a minority stake. Alfred Gauthier retains his decisive influence. In 1910, Gauthier and Zeiss take a stake in the competitor Friedrich Deckel . Alfred Gauthier retired from the business in 1931 for reasons of age. Carl Zeiss takes over the majority in the Alfred Gauthier company. During the Second World War, the company played a key role in the millions of automated production of grenade detonators. After the procurement of production machines from Switzerland had become increasingly difficult, Helmut Junghans , Chairman of the Special Committee IX of the Armaments Advisory Council of the Wehrmacht, named Alfred Gauthier GmbH first in the list of replacement suppliers. The technical operations manager Karl Rentschler was awarded the Fritz Todt needle by the Nazi state for services in the fuse sector . The company employed Russian forced laborers who had to live in far worse hygienic and nutritional conditions than the French forced laborers. After the Second World War , the company was confiscated by the military government of the French zone of occupation in Germany and the production facilities were dismantled. In 1948 the company was able to continue the production of camera shutters and special machines independently. In 1959, 3,200 employees produce up to 10,000 closures a day. The company name was changed in 1964 to "Prontorwerk Alfred Gauthier GmbH". In 1964, the production of machines for the production of optical devices and for grinding optical glasses began. In 1976, the West German Zeiss Group handed over the entire production of closures to Gauthier.
In 1999, the development of optical devices for the production of microchips, especially diaphragms for semiconductor lithography, began. A year later there was a restructuring and reorganization of the production areas, investments and other things in a CNC high-performance machining center with linear storage linkage. In 2002 the company celebrates its 100th anniversary: The company has been in accordance with DIN ISO EN 14001 and OHSAS 18001 since 2006 . In 2006, VTC Industrieholding acquired Prontor GmbH from Carl Zeiss. Prontor and Zeiss are expanding the system partnership in the areas of development, production and assembly. In 2014, VTC Industrieholding surrendered all shares to the Dutch medical technology company Hittech Group as part of an exit.
In 2020, the bankruptcy was announced in personal responsibility. 300 employees are affected.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ RoBoT Historie robot-camera.de, September 9, 2017, accessed on March 10, 2018.
- ^ Denazification file Spruchkammer Rottweil; Junghans Helmut, b. 2.3.1891; State Archive Sigmaringen; Signature Wü 13 T2 1780/022
- ↑ Barth, Fritz: Hope War Not . Self-published by Fritz Barth, Steinmeier Deiningen printing company 1995, p. 118-119 .
- ↑ VTC separates from Prontor
- ↑ Schwarzwälder Bote, Oberndorf Germany: Bad Wildbad: Hittech Prontor: Application for insolvency in self-administration - Schwarzwälder Bote. Retrieved May 4, 2020 .