Robert Bosch

Robert Bosch (23 September 1861 – 12 March 1942) was a German business magnate, engineer and inventor. He was the 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 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.

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

Sources claim a complex but ultimately oppositional relationship between Bosch and Nazism. Bosch accepted armaments contracts for all of wartime during World War 1 and World War 2. As much as 60% of Bosch’s revenue came from Wehrmacht contracts in the 1940s. He also maintained close contact with the head of the SS Main Office, Gottlob Berger. According to a New York Herald Tribune article, Hitler awarded Bosch a “Pioneer of Labor” award upon his 80th birthday. Bosch also “declined many public honors, but accepted the Eagle Shield of the Reich from President Von Hindenburg”.

However, at the same time, he used his company and foreign connections to foster anti-Hitler activism. Bosch worked particularly with Carl Friedrich Goerdeler, a figure who was central to the 20 July plot to assassinate Hitler. Goerdeler served as his business advisor, and even after Bosch's death, Goerdeler continued the resistance movement. Bosch's managing staff also joined the Nazi party to prevent external, committed Nazi officials from attaining employment in the company.

Bosch was keenly interested in agricultural issues and owned a farm south of Munich. 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 (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.