Richard Lindenberg

Richard Lindenberg (born November 12, 1869 in Remscheid , † July 22, 1925 in Switzerland ) was a German entrepreneur in the steel industry .

In 1906 he built the world's first electric steel furnace to work according to the Héroult- Lindenberg system, his company Edelstahlwerke Lindenberg , the world's first industrially used electric steel furnace . This can be viewed today in the German Tool Museum in Remscheid . The system used industrially by Lindenberg for the first time is still the basis of almost all modern electric steel furnaces. It allows the production of much higher quality and chemically more resistant types of steel than the crucible cast steel that was mostly produced until then .

Lindenberg took over the parental company Julius Lindenberg sen. In 1890 together with his brother Julius (1861–1929) . , in which steel was cast, a hammer mill and a grinding shop were operated with steam boilers, and which was located in Hammesberg in the Remscheid district of Hasten since 1864 after a fire . The "Glockenstahlstraße" industrial estate is now located on the former factory site and is home to a number of companies. In the neighborhood there was a sports field called "Glockenstahl-Kampfbahn" until the end of the 20th century.

Lindenberg monument on Hasten

A bell in the company signet also earned the company the name Glockenstahlwerk . In 1899 Julius set up his own stainless steel factory on the newly opened Remscheid Hbf - Hasten railway line . In 1904 Richard Lindenberg acquired the patent from Paul Héroult . He shut down the crucible cast steel plant and on February 16, 1906, he was able to produce electrical steel on an industrial scale for the first time in the electric arc furnace that worked according to the French process . The high demand made extensive enhancements necessary, so the company was in the following year under the company AG steelworks Richard Lindenberg for Aktiengesellschaft converted. During the First World War , the company employed around 1,500 people. After two failed attempts to improve the supply of materials ( Barmer Bergbahn , Ronsdorf-Müngstener Railway via Morsbachtal, Remscheid tram to Hasten station), the company was able to put its own narrow-gauge railway into operation to Remscheid-Hasten station during the First World War in November 1917.

Richard Lindenberg died in a plane crash in Switzerland in 1925. His company was merged with Deutsche Edelstahlwerke AG in 1927 and dissolved in 1929 for economic reasons.

In the Hasten district of Remscheid, Richard-Lindenberg-Platz was named after the entrepreneur. There has been a memorial there since 1928, which was located on the former factory premises until 2012. With the support of a Remscheid entrepreneur, this monument could finally be moved in August 2012 on Richard-Lindenberg-Platz in Remscheid Hasten, where it is now generally accessible to the population.

literature

• Hans Jürgen Roth: History of our city. Remscheid with Lennep and Lüttringhausen. RGA-Buchverlag, Remscheid 2008, ISBN 978-3-940491-01-5 , pp. 158, 306.
• Zeno Pillmann, Armin Schürings: From Remscheid Hbf to Hasten. The branch line to the branch. Verlag A. Kaiß, Leverkusen 2009, ISBN 978-3-9809357-5-3 , pp. 73-80. (= Rheinisch-Bergische Eisenbahngeschichte , booklet 7.)
• Hans Christoph Graf von Seherr-Thoss:  Lindenberg, Richard. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 14, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1985, ISBN 3-428-00195-8 , p. 595 f. ( Digitized version ).