Tomáš Baťa

Tomáš Bata ( born April 3, 1876 in Zlín, † July 12, 1932 in Baťov ) was a Czech entrepreneur and founder of the Bata Group, now the world's largest manufacturer of shoes.

Life

On August 24, 1894, he founded a shoe factory in Zlín. The company was new, but the family had a three hundred year old tradition in shoemaking; Tomáš Bata who was in the eighth generation, which exercised this profession. With the introduction of factory production and the initial supply to retail Bata modernized the footwear industry.

Bata was the flight sports enthusiastic and supported founded in 1923 by Czech President Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk Masaryk Air League ( Masaryk Letecká league ). In 1924 the construction of gliders was driven in provided by the Bata Group premises. 1935 arose from the still existing aircraft companies Zlín.

The Bata Group rose to 1930 on the world market leader. 1931 published the Russian writer Ilya Ehrenburg, a critical report from Zlín, which earned him an action on the part of the shoe king and a blocking of the achieved with this text book and film fees.

On the morning of July 12, 1932 Bata wanted to start around 5:00 clock from the airfield Baťov with his private plane to an airport in the Swiss city of Basel, where he had transferred his 18- year-old son the construction management for a new factory in Möhlin. After his private pilot Jindřich Brouček the launch would not risk because of heavy fog, Bata finally ordered yet at the departure. The F 13 D 1608 crashed eight minutes after launch at 5:58 clock on a " Na bahňáku " said location near the paper mill, died as Bata and his pilot. They were side by side buried on 14 July 1932 on the New Forest Cemetery Zlín. The company passed to his son John Tomáš Bata, who came from the marriage Tomáš Bata with the daughter of the imperial court physician Joseph of Kerzl ( 1841-1919 ).

Bata office in the shoe factory was set up in an elevator, so that the manager could act on different floors from.

Urban development in Zlín

Bata was also temporarily mayor of Zlín and also acted as a patron of his hometown. He sat there large urban changes in motion. Under his guidance, Zlín was designed by renowned architects in the style of functionalism, which especially created for the factory workers housing developments are significant. Zlín is now regarded as the first functionalist city in the world.

Named after Bata are:

• The main street in Zlín
• Founded in 2000, Tomas Bata University in Zlín ( Univerzita Tomáše Bati ve zline ).
• The airport in Zlín
• A channel in the region of South Moravia ( BATUV kanál )
• A medal ( Bata price)

Other buildings of the Bata company worldwide

• The Built in 1932 and now a listed Bata Möhlin Park in Switzerland
• Since 1933, originated in East Tilbury in the English county of Essex a Bata factory town, in which, however, since 2005, no more shoes are produced.
• Starting in 1934, the factory town Batanagar was built in today's Indian state of West Bengal.

Exhibition

• 2011: City Inc.; Bata Cities - Corporate Towns, Bauhaus Dessau