Walter Zumtobel

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Walter Zumtobel (born February 19, 1907 in Dornbirn ; † December 28, 1990 there ) was an Austrian engineer and founder of the electrical appliances and synthetic resin press works W. Zumtobel KG .

Life

Walter Zumtobel came from an old family who owned farms near Dornbirn around 1400 and produced entrepreneurs in the 19th century. As a son of the entrepreneur Otto Zumtobel, he grew up safe and after his high school diploma in 1924 and an apprenticeship as a speed locksmith at Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft in Untertürkheim, he subsequently began internships at the companies Vereinigte Maschinenfabriken Ruesch-Ganahl in Dornbirn, the Austrian weapons company in Steyr and one Employment as an auxiliary fitter in the Humboldt mechanical engineering institute .

In 1929 he finished studying mechanical engineering at the Technical University in Munich as a graduate engineer . After further studies there, he was promoted to Dr. in technical sciences is doing his doctorate with his thesis Meaningfulness of the Nationalization of Motor Vehicle Transport in Austria . During his studies in Munich, Walter Zumtobel met his future wife, Gertrude Kappeler from Frauenfeld . From this marriage came the children Jürg, Ingrid, Fritz and Dagmar, who were born between 1936 and 1941.

In July 1934, Zumtobel took over as manager of the operations of Drägerwerk GmbH in Vienna, a subsidiary of Lübeck Drägerwerke . At the time, around 70 employees in the Vienna branch were producing gas masks and filters for the Austrian Armed Forces as well as welding equipment and accessories. Under Zumtobel's Rigide , the company expanded in Southeastern Europe and built, among other things, new gas mask factories in Bulgaria, Romania and Spain. In the following years, the Vienna branch developed into the Southeastern European headquarters of Drägerwerke with over 1,500 employees. Heinrich Dräger officially appointed Walter Zumtobel as deputy operator in Vienna.

In addition to his managerial role, Zumtobel developed the window design for gas mask 38 . This model became the standard gas mask of the Wehrmacht from 1937 . In addition, he played a key role in the development of a so-called high-altitude breathing apparatus for fighter planes with automatic oxygen regulation from an altitude of 4000 meters. After the outbreak of the Second World War he was placed " UK " due to his activity . Walter Zumtobel joined the NSDAP as a party candidate , which involved wearing the party badge and all duties, in particular the obligation to contribute and register. In 1938 he bought a house in Vienna, which the previous Jewish owners had to sell.

At the beginning of February 1943, Zumtobel moved to the Aktiengesellschaft für Feinmechanik J. Petravic & Co. Vienna as deputy technical director . The armaments company , which is growing rapidly under the leadership of Eugen Petravic (former member of the Viennese citizenship ) , was able to produce technically sophisticated custom-made products for the Wehrmacht on the basis of existing exclusive contracts. These included, among other things, aiming devices for anti-aircraft guns , storage devices for aircraft armament and aiming gyroscopes for V2 rockets . As a result of increasing air raids on Vienna , he left the company at the end of March 1945 and moved to Vorarlberg with his family .

In the post-war period, Zumtobel participated significantly in the seizure and compulsory administration of German companies in Vorarlberg. Walter Zumtobel was one of almost 300 so-called sequesters who administered formerly German property in occupied post-war Austria , initially on behalf of the French military government and then on the basis of an administrative law of the Austrian federal government. After paying a “atonement” as a former party candidate of the NSDAP and submitting a “ Persilschein ”, which stated that Walter Zumtobel “had a negative attitude towards National Socialism during the war”, he was removed from the list of those “incriminated” and put down With his new job as an administrator, he laid the foundation for setting up his own company.

As early as November 1945, the French military governor for Vorarlberg gave him the sequestration of the confiscated branches of the Michel works in Bregenz and Hard , which were deemed to be German property and transferred, along with extensive machinery that was still in existence. This included, among other things, a state-of-the-art Bakelite pressing plant for the production of plastic parts for electrical appliances. Six months later, Zumtobel was given the formerly German toolmaking operations, Arbeitsgemeinschaft Lustenau in Lustenau and the Josef Maurer precision engineering workshop in Wolfurt . After the end of the compulsory administration, Zumtobel initially took over the company as a tenant before it officially passed into his ownership in the early 1950s. He then integrated the three companies into the Elektrogeräte und Kunstharzpresswerk W. Zumtobel KG , founded in 1950 , which is considered the original company of today's Zumtobel Group .

Awards

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Christian Feurstein: From family business to corporate family. The Zumtobel Group from 1950–2000. LIT Verlag Münster, 2009, p. 16 f.
  2. ^ Christian Feurstein: From family business to corporate family. The Zumtobel Group from 1950–2000. LIT Verlag Münster, 2009, p. 47 f.
  3. ^ Christian Feurstein: From family business to corporate family. The Zumtobel Group from 1950–2000. LIT Verlag Münster, 2009, p. 24.
  4. ^ Christian Feurstein: From family business to corporate family. The Zumtobel Group from 1950–2000. LIT Verlag Münster, 2009, p. 22 f.
  5. ^ Christian Feurstein: From family business to corporate family. The Zumtobel Group from 1950–2000. LIT Verlag Münster, 2009, p. 11, p. 38, p. 47.
  6. ^ Christian Feurstein: From family business to corporate family. The Zumtobel Group from 1950–2000. LIT Verlag Münster, 2009, p. 24 f.
personal data
SURNAME Zumtobel, Walter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian engineer
DATE OF BIRTH February 19, 1907
PLACE OF BIRTH Dornbirn
DATE OF DEATH December 28, 1990
Place of death Dornbirn