Theodor Bergmann

Commerce Theodor Bergmann ( born May 21, 1850 in Sailauf, † March 23, 1931 in Gaggenau ) was a German inventor and factory owners.

Biography

Theodor Bergmann was born the son of the innkeeper and brewer Johann Adam Bergmann in Sailauf. After visiting the Sailaufer elementary school and the vocational school in Aschaffenburg he sought new challenges. Thanks to his technical ability and his commercial smelling abilities he managed soon to establish itself in a time of technological progress and industrial upheaval. After he had established himself as a designer and inventor in industry circles a name, he soon became director and part-owner, and finally self-employed factory owner.

In its industrial plant in Ottenau / Gaggenau (later South German automobile factory in Gaggenau ), he began by manufactures household products, ovens and vending machines. A famous vending machine was the model of "Mercury ," which he produced in 1888 together with the Berlin inventor Max Sielaff for the Cologne Chocolate producer Ludwig Stollwerck. This was one of the first vending machines were installed in Germany. Theodor Bergmann founded in 1895 together with Ludwig Stollwerck and Max Sielaff the " German machine society" in Cologne.

Later he produced bicycles and eventually built automobiles. Two of his models are particularly noteworthy and indeed the force as a feudal

• " Orient Express " and the so-called
• " Lilliput ", which should be a kind of car for the people.

Finally, from the market for economic reasons, he built almost exclusively trucks. In Gaggenau he is considered one of the most important economic pioneers of " the impulse for new industries of this city " was and is called with Benz, Daimler and Lutz man as "the fourth pioneer of the German automotive industry," and " also the most important Gaggenau industry pioneer ".

In 1910 he sold his car factory at Benz & Cie.. and devoted himself only the production and improvement of machine and hand guns in his factory in Suhl. For his services in this industry, he received the title of Commerce. The town Gaggenau, in which he still resides, made him the occasion of his seventieth birthday to her an honorary citizen. Despite work and prosperity Theodor Bergmann never lost his relationship with his native village. So he came, for example, 1900 in his " Orient Express " Sailauf to here with his relatives and friends to celebrate his fiftieth birthday. In 1930 he visited his hometown as octogenarian for the last time. As with all of his visits before and lived he celebrated at the inn " Zum Grünen Baum " ( Päffche ), his parents and birthplace. Theodor Bergmann died on March 23, 1931 and was buried in the family vault in Gaggenau. In Gaggenau a street is named after him.