Michael Flürscheim

Michael Flürscheim ( born January 27, 1844 in Frankfurt am Main, † April 26, 1912 in Berlin) was a German industrialist and economist, known primarily for his theories on land reform.

Flürscheim, son of a wealthy Frankfurt family founded in 1874 after the takeover of the Gaggenau hammer mill, the nail and wrought iron as well as agricultural products such as plows and harrows produced until then, a general steel processing company, the Michael Flürscheim iron plant in Gaggenau. Under his leadership, the ironworks were expanded and Gaggenau already had a few years later than four lines of production: to continue the agricultural machinery factory, hardware factory, the machine tool factory and sawmill. In addition to the economic success of his interest was in social services. So he created a workers ' health insurance, workers' cottages and a heated dining room for the workers were constructed. He was also active in the local council of the village until he moved to Baden -Baden in 1880.

1884 published Flürscheim " Auffriedlichem ways. A proposal to solve the social question "in which he strongly argued for land reform. Flürscheim, in a sense, trailers Henry George, considered the entire floor should be nationalized in exchange for compensation and was subsequently lease for private use. With that he turned against Adolf Damaschkestraße and whose views on land reform. Damaschkestraße said that the income from the slope of the land value tax should you skim off and send to the public.

1888 rose Flürscheim out of his company, which was converted into a public limited company. This was now mainly known for their advertising billboards for large companies such as Stollwerck, Maggi or Odol. He founded under the land reform movement of the German Confederation of land ownership reform.

Flürscheim tried world to promote his views and toured France, Italy, England, Switzerland, California and New Zealand. After his experiments with colonies, was tried in which to realize his ideas had failed, he returned in 1909 embittered and sick back to Germany.

Flürscheim had six children by two women. His son Bernhard Flurscheim, as a chemist in the UK, and his grandson, Dr. Charles Flurscheim, as an engineer, obtained respectively during his lifetime also a certain fame.

A Gaggenau in the city center, newly built in the late 20th century pedestrian bridge was named in honor of Michael Flürscheim Flürscheimbrücke.