Werner Oswald

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Werner Oswald (born March 16, 1904 in Lucerne ; † February 23, 1979 in Zurich ) was a Swiss chemist and entrepreneur .

Life

Werner Oswald was the son of the Lucerne lawyer and Governing Arthur Oswald . He attended secondary school in Gais and then the Trogen Cantonal School . After graduating from the agricultural school in Langenthal , he trained as an agricultural engineer at the ETH Zurich . He did his doctorate there and also at the University of Zurich .

Oswald owned the patent for the production of alcohol from wood waste. In 1936 he founded Holzverzuckerungs AG ( Hovag for short ) in Zurich , which opened a production site in Domat / Ems in 1942 with federal help . During the Second World War, Oswald guaranteed that Switzerland would be supplied with fuel by processing local wood into ethanol . In 1956, a referendum vote rejected any further subsidization of Hovag. Hovag then specialized in the production of synthetic fibers , and in 1960 it was renamed Emser Werke AG . In 1978 Ems-Chemie emerged from it.

Werner Oswald died on February 23, 1979 during a meeting.

literature

  • Hans Ulrich Rentsch : Werner Oswald: (1904–1979); Guarantor of the fuel supply of Switzerland in the Second World War (= Swiss pioneers of economy and technology , Volume 43). Association for Economic History Studies, Zurich 1985, OCLC 611070585

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Federal decree on measures to strengthen the economy of the canton of Graubünden by granting aid to the Holzverzuckerungs-AG. Chronology. In: admin.ch. Swiss Federal Chancellery, accessed on December 21, 2011 .
  2. ↑ Referendum of May 13, 1956. In: admin.ch. Swiss Federal Chancellery, accessed on December 21, 2011 .
personal data
SURNAME Oswald, Werner
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss chemist and entrepreneur
DATE OF BIRTH March 16, 1904
PLACE OF BIRTH Lucerne
DATE OF DEATH February 23, 1979
Place of death Zurich