August Borsig

Johann Friedrich August Borsig ( born June 23, 1804 in Breslau, † July 6, 1854 in Berlin) was a German entrepreneur and the founder of the Borsig works.

Youth

Borsig was the son of the Knight-Captain ( Regiment of Dolffs ) and carpenter foreman Johann George Borsig.

Apprenticeship

Borsig completed an apprenticeship as a carpenter and learned while at the Arts and Crafts School in Wroclaw. He then attended the Royal Commercial Institute in Berlin under the direction of Peter Christian Wilhelm Beuth. The training there he broke off after one and half years. In September 1825 he applied for a mechanical engineering training at the New Berlin foundry of Franz Anton Egells. Egells put him in spite of his bad testimonies which he certified that he had failed in chemistry, is to use as little technician and his withdrawal from the military, a. One of his first assignments was the assembly of a steam engine in Waldenburg in Silesia. Borsig carried out the task of successfully acquired and thus the employment ( service contract on July 1, 1827) as a factor ( superintendent ) for eight years to for that time very favorable conditions with an annual salary of 300 thalers. In 1828 he married Louise Pahl that their only son Albert gave birth to a year later.

Building a Business

1836 put Borsig his savings in land to the highway road before the Oranienburger Tor and founded on his old company adjacent terrain own Maschinenbauanstalt (Approval by Royal police headquarters for the construction of a hut building on the acquired parcel on Oranienburger Tor on October 7 1836). The founding date is set on 22 July 1837 - the day on which the first cast succeeded ( cast iron rail chairs for the construction of the railway Berlin- Potsdam) in the foundry.

In the early days Borsig built steam engines for their own needs and machines for other companies, along with art and Baugussteile, but soon the focus began to shift to the locomotive. In 1842, eight in 1843 and ordered ten steam locomotives completed after American models for the Prussian railways and Borsig In 1844 at the Berlin Industrial Exhibition already his 24th locomotive Beuth, which was the first independently developed in Germany locomotive.

Borsig company grew quickly, as everywhere in Germany new rail lines were laid. In 1847 started the construction of the ironworks Moabit, which went into operation in 1849. 1850, the engineering works and iron foundry was bought in the plains of Moab Church Street. The three Berlin businesses already employed 1,800 men, which was a large company at that time.

Borsig had already made the late 1840s a name, so that the economic crisis from 1848 to 1852 the company could not do much harm. By 1854 the 500th steam locomotive built by his company, on the occasion of the celebration this Borsig was appointed a Privy Councillor of Commerce. Borsig cemented its monopoly in 1854 and built 67 of the 68 new Prussian locomotives.

Borsig as a human

With the increasing number of orders became larger the wealth Borsig and so quickly in the Breslau soldiers of fortune from rather poor families a rich entrepreneur who is not averse to pomp, at the same time, however, was patron of many artists. August Borsig was a strict but fair boss who owned a boundless zest. For his workers, he set up a health insurance, a death benefit fund and a savings bank. There was a classroom, a dining room and a bathroom with swimming pool.

A few years earlier was his villa in Berlin- Moabit, called the Villa Borsig, completed. This magnificent building is Borsig fulfilled a dream. However, he did not enjoy much his wealth. At the height of his power, he died on July 6, 1854.

After his son August Julius Albert Borsig, the Borsigplatz was named in Dortmund, where the football club Borussia Dortmund was founded in 1909.