Otto Kässbohrer

Otto Kässbohrer ( born January 26, 1904 in Ulm, † June 20, 1989 ) was a German entrepreneur and vehicle designer. In 1951 he built one of the first self-supporting coaches.

Life

Kässbohrer completed his apprenticeship as Wagner in 1919 in the " car factory Kässbohrer ", founded by his father in 1893. In 1922, he joined this with the journeyman's certificate. When the father died on 26 December of the same year, he took with his brother Karl, the management of the company with 20 employees. His older brother graduated at the time an engineering degree. At this time, the company was already dedicated to public transport. In 1928 Kässbohrer bought the troubled Ulmer Karosseriefabrik Neuner & Thieme. Kässbohrer decided to specialize in buses, trailers and bodies. Twenty years later, Otto Kässbohrer married his wife, Kathi Kemnitz. In the same year he was appointed to the board of the Association of the Automotive Industry.

In 1951, he succeeded under the brand name Setra ( self -supporting ) to build one of the first coaches who had no more construction on a truck frame, but is - similar to the trend in passenger car construction - wore itself. At the International Motor Show in Frankfurt, Kässbohrer on the premises of a Kässbohrer general agent the first bus with self-supporting body, the Setra S8 ago. 1953 was followed by the presentation of the first articulated bus in Europe for urban regular service, in which 170 people found place. A year later Kässbohrer delivered the first three-axis high-decker buses " Silver Eagle " and " Golden Eagle" in the United States.

In 1973 died the co-owner Karl Kässbohrer, Otto Kässbohrer took over sole management of the company. Four years later Kässbohrer donated a window for the Ulmer Münster, the window of accomplishment. In 1978 he got from his hometown of Ulm in recognition of its commitment to the needs of the city awarded the Public Service Medal.

1982 Otto Kässbohrer handed the presidency of the management of the company to his nephew. In 1984 he founded called the Otto Kässbohrer Foundation in the Foundation supports, among others in distress through no fault of company employees. In 1989, Otto Kässbohrer the occasion of his 85th birthday, the Albrecht- Berblinger Medal, on 20 June of the same year he died.

Reception

To commemorate the " Setra inventor" put EvoBus 2004 centenary Kässbohrer the special series "100 Years of Otto Kässbohrer " on.