Wilhelm Lorenz
Wilhelm Lorenz (born October 15, 1842 in Geseke , Westphalia , † August 29, 1926 in Karlsruhe ) was a German designer and entrepreneur in the armaments industry .
Life
After the early death of both parents, Lorenz had to break off attending grammar school. After his blacksmith apprenticeship , he first worked in Hagen in the screw factory and drop forge of Funcke & Hueck , later in Berlin, then in a Bielefeld spinning mill and finally from 1870 in the Linden primer and pottery factory of Georg Egestorff in the rural community of Linden, a suburb of Hanover . Here he got to know the machines and tools in an ammunition factory .
In 1875 he initially worked as an engineer at the cartridge factory Henry Ehrmann & Co. in Karlsruhe, soon he became managing director and authorized signatory , in 1878 he took over the company as owner - with the support of the Karlsruhe banker Robert Koelle . He changed his company to Deutsche Metallpatronenfabrik Lorenz and expanded it into an industry leader in terms of operational organization and manufacturing technology. The mechanical engineering department became independent as the Lorenz Karlsruhe machine factory before 1883 .
In 1889, when his company already had 400 to 500 employees, Lorenz decided to sell all parts of the company, including all patents and rights, to a consortium headed by Isidor Loewe and mainly backed by powder manufacturer Max Duttenhofer . The purchase price was 6 million marks . The company was converted into a stock corporation under the name Metallpatronen AG , and Lorenz was a member of the supervisory board without participating in capital of his own until, after differences, he withdrew completely before the end of 1889.
From then on, his main interest was construction. In 1888 he met Gottlieb Daimler, and Lorenz was the largest shareholder after Daimler in the Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft (DMG) founded in 1890 . From 1890 to 1926 he was a member of the supervisory board of DMG, its deputy chairman from 1899 to 1903 and then chairman until 1909.
Honors
- 1910 awarded him the Technical University of Karlsruhe , the honorary doctorate as a Dr.-Ing. E. h.
- In 1919 he became an honorary citizen of Ettlingen .
literature
- Frey: Wilhelm Lorenz †. In: Journal of the Association of German Engineers , Volume 71, 1927, No. 26 (from June 25, 1927), p. 932.
- Hermann Schäfer: Lorenz, Wilhelm. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 15, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1987, ISBN 3-428-00196-6 , p. 179 f. ( Digitized version ).
Individual evidence
- ↑ Maschinenfabrik Lorenz, Karlsruhe, Baden In: Anzeiger zum Centralblatt der Bauverwaltung , 2nd year 1882, No. 44A (from November 8, 1882), p. 3.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Lorenz, Wilhelm |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German designer and entrepreneur in the arms industry |
| DATE OF BIRTH | October 15, 1842 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Geseke , Province of Westphalia |
| DATE OF DEATH | August 29, 1926 |
| Place of death | Karlsruhe , Baden |