Hermann Johann Gottlieb Paucksch (13 April 1816, Landsberg an der Warthe - 5 March 1899, Landsberg an der Warthe) was a German mechanical engineering contractor and manufacturer.

Biography

He was born to Johann Gottlieb Paucksch, a Master Turner, and his wife Dorothea, née Jabelt. As he grew up, he learned the trade of a brass worker. While still young, he married and had a large family. In 1843, he and his father started a mechanical engineering workshop. In 1863, he took a partner (Johann Heinrich Freund, otherwise unknown), becoming "Paucksch & Freund" and producing

steam boiler Steam is a substance containing water in the gas phase, and sometimes also an aerosol of liquid water droplets, or air. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization. ...

s. In 1874, anticipating passage of the "" (social legislation) proposed by

Otto von Bismarck Otto, Prince of Bismarck, Count of Bismarck-Schönhausen, Duke of Lauenburg (, ; 1 April 1815 – 30 July 1898), born Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck, was a conservative German statesman and diplomat. From his origins in the upper class of J ...

, he set up a pension and disability fund for his employees and provided it with an initial fund of 5,000

Thaler A thaler (; also taler, from german: Taler) is one of the large silver coins minted in the states and territories of the Holy Roman Empire and the Habsburg monarchy during the Early Modern period. A ''thaler'' size silver coin has a diameter of ...

s. Each employee then made an annual contribution of two Thalers. Three years later, he had a small castle built just outside Landsberg, known as the "Villa Paucksch". It later served briefly as a hospital, then was home to the "Grodzki House of Culture" until 2014. It has been named an "object of cultural heritage" by the Polish government. In 1884, his eldest son became Technical Director. Four years later, the company was converted to a

stock corporation A joint-stock company is a business entity in which shares of the company's stock In finance, stock (also capital stock) consists of all the shares by which ownership of a corporation or company is divided.Longman Business English Dicti ...

. In 1893, there was a major fire at the factory and he retired, leaving the company's operation to his sons. At its height, it produced steam boilers,

steam engine A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. The steam engine uses the force produced by steam pressure to push a piston back and forth inside a cylinder. This pushing force can be trans ...

s, ship steam engines, gas engines,

diesel engines The diesel engine, named after Rudolf Diesel, is an internal combustion engine in which ignition of the fuel is caused by the elevated temperature of the air in the cylinder due to mechanical compression; thus, the diesel engine is a so-calle ...

, turbines, transmissions, mash and water pumps, steam

cutting mill Cutter mills are mills commonly used in laboratories for the preliminary size reduction of soft, medium-hard, fibrous and tough materials. A rotor inside the mill revolves at high speed. The rotor is equipped with special cutting plates which commi ...

s, complete alcohol distilleries and drying systems. He was a member of the Landsberg City Parliament, under the Prussian three-class franchise, and was made an honorary citizen. In 1896 he showed his gratitude to the city by donating a fountain, created by

Cuno von Uechtritz-Steinkirch Cuno von Uechtritz-Steinkirch (3 July 1856, Breslau - 29 July 1908, Berlin) was a German sculptor. Life Since his youth he had pursued art as a hobby, but did not decide to become a sculptor until he was twenty-one. The occasion was a figure ...

, one of the sculptors working on the

Siegesallee The Siegesallee (, ''Victory Avenue'') was a broad boulevard in Berlin, Germany. In 1895, Kaiser Wilhelm II ordered and financed the expansion of an existing avenue, to be adorned with a variety of marble statues. Work was completed in 1901. A ...

who, in 1901, would also create a monument to Paucksch on the main city bridge. Both works were melted down for use as war materiel during World War II. In 1997, a replica of the fountain was created, with donations from former German residents. The recreation was carried out by the Polish sculptor, .

Sources

''Hermann Paucksch''
biography @ Gorzów Wielkopolski
''H. Paucksch A.G., Maschinenbauanstalt, Eisengießerei und Dampfkesselfabrik''
timeline by Albert Gieseler @ Kraft- und Dampfmaschinen

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Paucksch, Hermann 1816 births 1899 deaths German businesspeople German industrialists People from Gorzów Wielkopolski Engineers from the Kingdom of Prussia