Wilhelm Kraut (father)

Wilhelm Kraut (born May 9, 1875 in Enzweihingen ; † September 26, 1957 in Balingen ) was a German entrepreneur. He was the owner of the Bizerba scale factory .

Career

Kraut was born as the son of the bottle maker Adam Kraut and Maria Margaretha Friederike Kraut. He was first trained as a plumber by his father, who lived in Vaihingen. He took courses in geometry, drawing and bookkeeping and worked as a draftsman in Vaihingen for a year. He then trained as an electrical engineer at Siemens & Halske , was employed in the construction of a power station in Vaihingen and became its provisional manager at the age of 18. In 1898 he was given the technical management of an electricity company in Nürtingen. The position of the manager of a power company finally led him to Balingen, where from then on his life remained center.

There he met Anna Bizer (1881–1934), daughter of the scale maker Andreas Bizer . Both married in 1905, and the marriage resulted in three sons and a daughter. In 1906, Kraut acquired his father-in-law's workshop for 26,000 marks. In the following years he expanded the production of scales and also worked with his company in the field of electrical assembly. After the end of the First World War, he specialized in weighing scales. After a serious illness in early 1923, he brought his 17-year-old son Wilhelm into the management of the company. With innovative new developments, both led the company to become the largest manufacturer of scales in the German Empire by 1928. After the Second World War, Bizerba also developed into a leading international company.

In addition to his entrepreneurial activity, Kraut amassed an important collection of historical scales, which are now on display in the scale museum in the Zollern Castle in Balingen .

Honors

• 1952: Cross of Merit (Steckkreuz) of the Federal Republic of Germany
• 1952: Honorary citizen of the city of Meßkirch
• Honorary citizen of the city of Balingen
• 1955: Award of the title of professor by the Baden-Württemberg state government
• 1955: Great Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany

literature

• Paul Albert: Wilhelm Kraut . From flask boy to professor. Baden-Württemberg publishing house Banholzer & Co, Stuttgart, Rottweil 1956.
• Hans Jaeger:  Kraut, Wilhelm. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 12, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1980, ISBN 3-428-00193-1 , p. 722 f. ( Digitized version ).