Reinhold Würth
Reinhold Würth ( born April 20, 1935 in Öhringen ) is a German businessman and art patron. He built the screw - Würth trading company which now has some 66,000 employees to the international market leader in fastening and assembly technology on. Würth from 1999 to 2003 Honorary Professor at the Interdisciplinary Institute of Entrepreneurship at the University of Karlsruhe (TH) and has been awarded several honorary doctorates.
Life
Youth
Reinhold Würth is the son of Alma Würth and Adolf Würth, who founded a wholesale screw for the carpentry and metal craft in the Hohenlohe Künzelsau in July 1945. He received instruction in violin. When Reinhold Würth was 14 years old, his father enrolled him from the secondary school and introduced him in 1949 as an apprentice and second employee in his wholesale operation for screws in a Künzelsau.
Professional life
When his father died, Würth was 19 years old. Upon reaching adulthood (then 21 ) Two years later he took over the management. In the following decades succeeded Würth, to make the regional trading company a global company. Its customers come from the commercial and industrial sectors to this day. Only gradually Würth went on to buy and screw manufacturer. As the domestic market for Fastening Technology has always been very fragmented and susceptible to economic trends, Würth extended its trade to other countries. 1962 saw the establishment of the first foreign sales company in the Netherlands.
In 2013, the Würth Group has worked with over 400 companies in over 80 countries. It achieved a turnover of 9.7 billion euros, 56 % of the total turnover is generated abroad in 2013. In 1994, Reinhold Würth withdrew from operative business of the Würth Group and took over until 2006 the chair of the Advisory Board. From 1999 to 2003 he was Managing Director of the newly founded Institute for Entrepreneurship at the University of Karlsruhe. His fortune estimated by Forbes magazine in 2010 to 5.3 billion U.S. dollars; Würth is thus ranked 8th in the list of richest people in Germany, and ranked 132 worldwide. Würth has his assets introduced into the Würth Foundation Künzelsau, which will continue to run the company after his death. Together with his wife Carmen Würth he led the 1987 family share in a foundation that he has been the Chairman of the Supervisory Board, as the highest body of the Würth Group.
Tax investigations
End of March 2008 were allegations of Reinhold Würth had guilty of tax evasion. The news magazine Der Spiegel published of him leaked documents that had investigated Würth and five other people in the environment of the Group, the Stuttgart public prosecutor since fall 2006. End of May 2008 it was announced that Würth agreed to the termination of the proceedings against a fine. The District Court Heilbronn imposed Würth an order of punishment of 700 daily rates. The entrepreneur is therefore considered a criminal record. Against two other officials of the Würth Group fines were also fixed. The control process is now complete, since all participants have accepted the penalty orders.
After finding the prosecutor had all the accused " not have their own advantages " obtained. Dispute rather the allocation of costs between domestic and foreign parts of the group were. The tax legality of the tax-reducing reimbursement through the German parent company was the core of the dispute between Würth and the tax authority. Since the clarification of the legality would have taken several years and would have been so to expect a loss of reputation of the life's work of Würth inevitably, he took the lesser evil of tax payments, fines and criminal record approvingly. In an interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung Würth said: " If I had been younger, I would have defended myself in court. "
Family
Würth has been married to his wife Carmen since 1956 and has been with her three grown children. One of the two daughters, Bettina Würth, is the five members of the Advisory Board of the Würth Group and has held the presidency since 2006. Reinhold Würth and Carmen live since 1974 in Hermersberg castle in Lower Hall; the building erected in 1540 he had, as well as other historical buildings renovate Hohenlohe, with a high effort. Reinhold Würth has since 2009, the motor yacht Vibrant Curiosity.
Promoter of culture and science
In addition to his business activities, Reinhold Würth has stepped down as patron of the arts and culture in appearance. In 1985 he founded in Künzelsau the world's first combination of an administration building with an art gallery. Würth is convinced of the motivation of its employees through art. By 2008, he founded and was thirteen museums. Among the Würth Museum and the Museum of screws and threads in Künzelsau and the Kunsthalle Würth in Schwäbisch Hall are decorated with modern art. In addition to the respective regional offices of the Würth Group now houses art museums in Denmark, Austria, Holland, Norway, Italy, Belgium, the Forum Würth Arlesheim in Switzerland and the Museo Würth La Rioja in Spain. The Würth Collection, shown alternately in the museums, one of Europe's most important private collections. It includes today (2010) 12,500 paintings, drawings and sculptures by well-known artists of the 20th and 21st centuries.
The Musée Würth France Erstein Erstein originated in Strasbourg in addition to the French branch of Würth France, which is one of the main foreign sales companies of the group. The museum covers about 3000 square meters and was opened on 27 January 2008 works by Emil Nolde, Max Ernst, René Magritte, Georg Baselitz and Jörg Work of Art from the Würth Collection.
Caused a stir in 2011 its purchase of the important early Renaissance painting " Darmstadt Madonna " by Hans Holbein the Younger, which is exhibited in the St. John in Schwäbisch Hall since January 2012.
With its set up in 1987 Würth Foundation supports the work culture of the company, among other things, by awarding prestigious prizes. After a generous donation from the Würth Künzelsauer branch of the Heilbronn University was renamed in April 2005 Reinhold Würth University.
Würth is also one of the sponsors of the New Apostolic Church.
Awards
Memberships
- Chairman of the citizens' initiative per region Heilbronn -Franken
- Friends of the Württemberg State Museum