Robert Czerweny from Arland

Robert Czerweny von Arland (born August 28, 1878 in Deutschlandsberg ; † May 3, 1962 ) was an Austrian industrialist and inventor . He did outstanding research work in the development of the Czerweny automatic match machine and acquired numerous other patents relating to the manufacture of matches .

childhood and education

Robert Czerweny was born on August 28, 1878, the second son of Franz and Marianne Czerweny in Deutschlandsberg. Like his older brother Viktor, he graduated from the Landesoberrealschule in Graz and after completing his military service he studied at the Technical University of Graz for two years . In addition, he completed a high school graduate course at the Graz Commercial Academy.

Professional background

After Carl Franz left his father's company, he was appointed to the factory on September 2, 1898, where he initially familiarized himself with bookkeeping, payroll accounting, forwarding and sales. He was granted power of attorney on October 30, 1899.

In 1900 Czerweny represented the match company at the World Exhibition in Paris , where he received the gold medal. There he also had the opportunity to inspect a match machine designed by the French engineers Sevène and Cahen. This was particularly important because in Deutschlandsberg serious research was being carried out on such a construction. He also brought a recipe for the non-toxic sesquisulfide mass from the French capital , which was supposed to replace the toxic white phosphorus used until then . So that the company could Florian Pojatzi and Company bring Sesquisulfidzündhölzer on the market as the first company in Central Europe.

After founding a match cartel for the Mediterranean countries on July 1, 1901, the company was forced to find new sales markets. Robert Czerweny was given the task of opening up new markets in the East Indies. In order to keep the transport as inexpensive as possible, he successfully negotiated with the Austrian Lloyd in Trieste about freight discounts. After he had created the framework for exporting India, he began a month-long trip to India in January 1902. With this he showed some courage and pioneering spirit, since the plague was rampant there at that time .

By the end of May 1902, Czerweny visited all the important cities in India and was able to send orders for 5,000 boxes of matches to the local company. His groundbreaking journey made this year a landmark for Austria's match industry. By 1913, Deutschlandsberg's match factory and the resulting Solo AG exported around 40,000 boxes of matches to India.

Robert Czerweny played a leading role in the merger negotiations that ultimately led to the establishment of the " SOLO " ignition goods group . The name of the new company also arose from his efforts. On July 1, 1903, he went to Vienna as a senior official at the headquarters. However, he returned to Deutschlandsberg in December to take over the management of the Deutschlandsberg and Stainz plants instead of his brother Viktor, who was on leave due to illness .

After his brother had recovered, he stayed in Deutschlandsberg to support him until January 1, 1913, where he took part in all modernizations and expansions of the factory. In 1908 the "SOLO" entrusted him with the supervision of the factories in Temesvár and Győr (Raab). In 1910 he also took over the supervision of the factory in Szeged .

At the beginning of 1913, the group appointed him as director of the headquarters in Vienna . He helped found the joint stock company for ignition goods sales in Budapest before he was drafted for military service in Pola and Vienna from 1914 to 1915 . After the end of the war he took part in the reorganization work caused by the war, but resigned his post as director of the headquarters as early as 1920 in order to pursue other fields of activity together with his brother Viktor. However, he remained loyal to SOLO as 2nd Vice President of the Board of Directors until 1938.

In 1929 Robert Czerweny acquired together with his daughter Elfriede and her husband Dr. Peter Engelhart founded the ignition goods factory Johann Hubloher A.-G. in Grafenwiesen in the Bavarian Forest. He gave it the new company name "Allemann", which at the same time represented an appeal to the workforce: "All hands on!" The family owned at that time also included the company Robert Schuster GmbH, based in Olbernhau / Saxony. With this, Robert Czerweny von Arland secured the monopoly right for the manufacture and sale of Allemann matches for the Engelhart line.

Inventions

Robert Czerweny played a key role in the construction of the Czerweny automatic match machine, which made the entire family world famous. In 1946, meanwhile he was allowed to call himself Kommerzialrat, he started again with the development of the most modern machines for the match production. In connection with match production, he acquired numerous patents, including for a grinding drum, a wooden wire cleaning machine, an impregnation machine, a box making and labeling machine and a filling machine.

literature

• L. Reichenwallner: Chronicle of the Deutschlandsberg factory, the "SOLO" Zündwaren u. chem. Factories A.-G. Vienna. D. Landsberg 1930.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ L. Reichenwallner: Chronicle of the Deutschlandsberg factory, p. 71
2. ↑ L. Reichenwallner: Chronicle of the Deutschlandsberg factory, p. 71 ff
3. ^ Family history on line Robert
4. ↑ www.forschungsatlas.at ( Memento of the original dated February 7, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) 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.