Charles "Carl" Diebold (October 24, 1824 – March 5, 1894) was a

German-American German Americans (german: Deutschamerikaner, ) are Americans who have full or partial German ancestry. With an estimated size of approximately 43 million in 2019, German Americans are the largest of the self-reported ancestry groups by the Unite ...

industrialist who was the founder of

Diebold Diebold Nixdorf is an American multinational financial and retail technology company that specializes in the sale, manufacture, installation and service of self-service transaction systems (such as ATMs and currency processing systems), point ...

. Carl Diebold was also a safe maker and a locksmith.

Life

Charles Diebold (Carl "Charles" Diebold) was born in Rosenberg,

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...

, Germany on October 24, 1824 to Bernhardt Diebold and Mary Diebold. Nothing is known about his early life or his education. At the 1893 fourth of July Celebration at Meyer's Lake Canton, Ohio Carl entered his Mule "Dick" into a race and finished in third place.

Diebold

Diebold founded Diebold Bahmann in 1859 as a manufacturer of safes and vaults in

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...

, Ohio. Charles gave his company a good reputation after The Great Chicago Fire in 1871 which leveled most of the city. Rumors went about that the 878 safes in the area had the items in them intact. In 1872, needing more room for his expanding company, moved to Canton, Ohio where most of the post-fire orders were from. Two years later, in 1874,

Wells Fargo Wells Fargo & Company is an American multinational financial services company with corporate headquarters in San Francisco, California; operational headquarters in Manhattan; and managerial offices throughout the United States and intern ...

asked Diebold to make the world's largest vault at the time: a 32-foot-long, 27-foot-wide, 12-foot high vault that was moved to

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

on a 47 car long train. In 1876 Diebold was incorporated by The State of Ohio as Diebold Safe & Lock Co. Its first international shipment in Diebold's lifetime was to the

President of Mexico The president of Mexico ( es, link=no, Presidente de México), officially the president of the United Mexican States ( es, link=no, Presidente de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos), is the head of state and head of government of Mexico. Under the Co ...

Manuel González Flores Manuel del Refugio González Flores (18 June 1833 – 8 May 1893) was a Mexican military general and liberal politician who served as the 35th President of Mexico from 1880 to 1884. Before initiating his presidential career, González played ...

in 1881. The final major event for the company in his lifetime was the introduction of magnesium steel doors which were billed as TNT-proof which was becoming a new way for thieves to break into banks.

Positions at Diebold

Death

Carl Diebold died on March 5, 1894 in North Canton,

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

after having a stroke and being paralyzed.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Diebold, Charles 1824 births 1894 deaths Businesspeople from Ohio Gilded Age German emigrants to the United States American industrialists People from Amberg-Sulzbach People from Stark County, Ohio