Robert Bosch (23 September 1861 – 12 March 1942) was a German

business magnate A business magnate, also known as an industrialist or tycoon, is a person who is a powerful entrepreneur and investor who controls, through personal enterprise ownership or a dominant shareholding position, a firm or industry whose goods or ser ...

, engineer and inventor, founder of Bosch.

Biography

Bosch was born in Albeck, in the Swabian Highlands near Ulm. He was one of twelve children born to Servatius Bosch and Maria Margarita Dölle. Servatius ran a large progressive farm that included a brewery. Robert Bosch's nephew was future Nobel laureate Carl Bosch. Robert Bosch attended the 'Realanstalt' in Ulm until 1879, that included an apprenticeship as a "precision-instrument maker." Amongst Bosch's various employments after graduating was that as a

journeyman A journeyman is a worker, skilled in a given building trade or craft, who has successfully completed an official apprenticeship qualification. Journeymen are considered competent and authorized to work in that field as a fully qualified employee ...

at C. & E. Fein. In 1881 he fulfilled his year of military service in Ulm, followed by employment with Schuckert & Co. until 1883. In 1883-84, Bosch studied under Professor Wilhelm Dietrich at the Stuttgart Technical University. Robert Bosch mit Hut 1888 - 10031

On 24 May 1884, Bosch sailed for the United States, becoming an engineer under

Thomas Edison Thomas Alva Edison (February11, 1847October18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. These inventions, ...

and Sigmund Bergmann in New York. On 13 May 1885, Bosch sailed for London, where he found employment with Siemens Brothers. On 15 November 1886, he opened his own "Workshop for Precision Mechanics and Electrical Engineering" in

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; ; Swabian German, Swabian: ; Alemannic German, Alemannic: ; Italian language, Italian: ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, largest city of the States of Germany, German state of ...

. In 1887,

Gottlieb Daimler Gottlieb Wilhelm Daimler (; 17 March 1834 – 6 March 1900) was a German engineer, industrial designer and industrialist. He was a pioneer of internal-combustion engines and automobile development. He invented the high-speed liquid petroleum-fue ...

asked Bosch if he could build a device similar to the low-voltage magneto device with firing points the Gasoline Engine Factory Deutz was using in their

four-stroke A four-stroke (also four-cycle) engine is an internal combustion (IC) engine in which the piston completes four separate strokes while turning the crankshaft. A stroke refers to the full travel of the piston along the cylinder, in either directio ...

engine. Deutz claimed no patents protected the device, so Bosch made four devices. The purpose of the device was to generate an

electric spark An electric spark is an abrupt electrical discharge that occurs when a sufficiently high electric field creates an Ionization, ionized, Electric current, electrically conductive channel through a normally-insulating medium, often air or other ga ...

to ignite the air–fuel mixture in the cylinder at maximum compression. Over the next few years Bosch built a few hundred for factories making gas engines. In 1893, Frederick Richard Simms met with Bosch, with the goal of adapting the stationary engine magnetos Bosch was building could be adapted to motor vehicles. In particular, a

Jules-Albert de Dion Marquis Jules Félix Philippe Albert de Dion de Wandonne (; 9 March 185619 August 1946) was a French pioneer of the automobile industry. He invented a steam-powered car and used it to win the world's first auto race, but his vehicle was ...

tricycle was the test case. Arnold Zähringer, and Gottlob Honold, modified the Bosch device so that it had increased power and a faster sequence of sparks necessary, from 250 rpm up to 1800 rpm. Young Rall also modified the electrode, swapping enamel for the asbestos insulator. The complete device was patented. In January 1898, the new magneto was demonstrated on the tricycle and orders soon followed from

. In 1900, in addition to using the device on motor vehicles, the Bosch magneto ignition was used in the Daimler engines on the

Zeppelin A Zeppelin is a type of rigid airship named after the German inventor Ferdinand von Zeppelin () who pioneered rigid airship development at the beginning of the 20th century. Zeppelin's notions were first formulated in 1874Eckener 1938, pp. 155� ...

Simms introduced the Bosch ignition device to the English market as Simms-Bosch. In 1899, they entered the French market as the Automatic Magneto Electric Ignition Company, Ltd. The first sales office and the first factory in the U.S. were opened in 1906 and 1910 respectively. By 1913, the company had branch operations in America, Asia, Africa, and Australia, and was generating 88% of its sales outside Germany. In rapid succession in the years following the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, Bosch launched innovations for the motor vehicle, including diesel

fuel injection Fuel injection is the introduction of fuel in an internal combustion engine, most commonly automotive engines, by the means of a fuel injector. This article focuses on fuel injection in reciprocating piston and Wankel rotary engines. All c ...

in 1927. In the 1920s the global economic crisis caused Bosch to begin a rigorous program of modernization and diversification in his company. In only a few years' time, he succeeded in turning his company from a small automotive supplier into a multinational electronics group. From the beginning, Bosch was greatly concerned about promoting occupational training. Prompted by his awareness of social responsibility, he was one of the first industrialists in Germany to introduce the eight-hour work day, followed by other social benefits for his associates. Robert Bosch did not wish to profit from the armaments contracts awarded to his company during WWI. Instead, he donated several million German marks to charitable causes, including to the establishment of Stuttgart's Robert Bosch Hospital in 1940. In the 1920s and 1930s, Robert Bosch was politically active. As a liberal businessman, he sat on a number of economic committees. He devoted a great deal of energy and money to the cause of bringing about reconciliation between Germany and France. He hoped this reconciliation would bring about lasting peace in Europe and lead to the creation of a European economic area.

Third Reich

The

Nazi Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

regime in Germany brought Bosch's peacemaking efforts to an abrupt end. The Bosch company accepted armaments contracts and employed an estimated 20,000 slaves (including some 1200 concentration camp inmates who were "brutally abused at the Langenbielau plant") during the war. Meanwhile, Bosch secretly supported the resistance against

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...

, and together with his closest associates saved victims of Nazi persecution from deportation. On his eightieth birthday, Bosch was awarded the title "Pionier der Arbeit" (Pioneer of Labor) by Hitler and when he died a year later, he was afforded a state funeral by the Third Reich. Bosch was keenly interested in agricultural issues and owned a farm south of

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

. He was also a passionate hunter. When he died, he was survived by four children from two marriages. A son from his first marriage died in 1921 following a protracted illness. In 1937, Bosch had restructured his company as a

private limited company A private limited company is any type of business entity in Privately held company, "private" ownership used in many jurisdictions, in contrast to a Public company, publicly listed company, with some differences from country to country. Example ...

(close corporation). He had established his last will and testament in which he stipulated that the earnings of the company should be allocated to charitable causes. Also, his will sketched the outlines of the corporate constitution, which was formulated by his successors in 1964 and is still valid today. He was inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame in 1984.

References

Bibliography

* Robert Bosch: ''The prevention of future crises in the world economic system''. London, Constable, 1937 (German edition 1932) *

Theodor Heuss Theodor Heuss (; 31 January 1884 – 12 December 1963) was a German liberal politician who served as the first president of West Germany from 1949 to 1959. His civil demeanour and his cordial nature – something of a contrast to German nati ...

: ''Robert Bosch – his life and achievements''. Transl. by Susan Gillespie. New York, Holt, 1994. * Hans-Erhard Lessing: ''Robert Bosch''. Reinbek 2007 (in German).

External links

*
Robert Bosch at the Automotive Hall of Fame
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bosch, Robert 1861 births 1942 deaths People from Langenau People from the Kingdom of Württemberg German automotive pioneers German company founders 19th-century German businesspeople 20th-century German businesspeople 19th-century German inventors German industrialists Bosch (company) people

Biography

Third Reich

See also

References

Bibliography

External links