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The Child<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Carl Johann was just nine years old when he lost his father Georg Wilhelm. For a time, George Wilhelm ran \u201cZum L\u00f6wen,\u201d an inn in Hachenburg, a town between Cologne and Frankfurt. But times were tough in the dawning industrial era, and business suffered. In early 1829, the inn was closed, and the onetime innkeeper had to make a radical career change. He accepted a position at the customs house in Weilburg an der Lahn, but died there a short time later, on March 9, 1829. His son, Carl \u00adJohann, had accompanied him from Hachenburg and was the only one with him when he died. His family mourned and struggled for financial survival. His mother took him and his five siblings to Neuwied, where relatives made sure they would not starve. At 14, Carl Johann had to fend for himself. He began an apprenticeship in his uncle\u2019s leather shop 200 kilometers (about 124 miles) from Mannheim, a long way to travel at the time. \u201cThe family\u2019s poverty no doubt triggered something in Carl Johann and gave him the urge to make something of himself,\u201d Schneider says. \u201cWe see this in his later years when he rose to \u00adbecome a kind of self-made man thanks to ambition, industriousness and thrift.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Up-And-Comer<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Carl Johann was on his own. But he soon found himself and identified his strengths. He supported himself as an apprentice to his uncle, Johan Baptist Sammet, and partner \u00adHeinrich Christian Heintze in Mannheim, a vibrant, large city and quite a contrast to his hometown. \u201cAt this time, he sees the positive impact of his achievements and his personal capabilities on his life. He gains self-confidence to pursue the goal of making something of himself,\u201d Schneider says. His industriousness and ambition drove him on. The young man not only served customers from behind the trading house\u2019s counter and made deliveries \u2013 with the help of earnings from the leather business, he was able to run a cigar store on the side, improving his finances. Freudenberg, who never attended secondary school, learned French and English, attended the Mannheim National Theater, and moved with growing confidence in respected and international circles. He also continued to excel in his uncle\u2019s company. In 1844, he acquired 20\u2009% of its shares as a silent partner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Husband<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
That year, Carl Johann married Sophie \u00adMartenstein, whom he had met at a choral event, a so-called singing circle, during the spring of the previous year. Martenstein came from a wealthy Worms family. Her father, a spice merchant and respected businessman, approved the match, but he no doubt looked beyond young Freudenberg\u2019s heart, character and grooming in making the decision. There were economic realities to consider, including the suitor\u2019s net worth and his business success. In her memoirs, Sophie wrote: \u201cThe conviction that he was gaining a good, capable son-in-law who had already saved up 5,000 guilders [the equivalent of about 100,000 euros today], led my father to entrust his only daughter to him.\u201d Children came along over the next few years: The first arrivals were two daughters, Elise and Luise, although the latter died young. When son Friedrich Carl was born in 1848 in Mannheim, Baden was in the throes of a revolution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What was happening on Carl Johann\u2019s doorstep in Mannheim? At stake was nothing less than press freedom, trial by jury and a German national state with a freely elected parliament. Until that point, the country was a patchwork of independent territories, including the Grand Duchy of Baden, where Mannheim was located. The revolutionaries were divided into two camps, one liberal-constitutional and the other radical-democratic. Unrest reigned in Mannheim. There were calls for an insurrection. Thousands attended revolutionary people\u2019s assemblies. Countless more of them sprang up across the country. There were pitched battles. \u201cBusinesspeople who generally want stable political conditions viewed the events anxiously. That was certainly true of our founder,\u201d Schneider says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Political storms were buffeting the country. In their midst, the bank whose bills of exchange had financed the company collapsed. The firm fell into economic difficulties and had to be dissolved in 1848. \u201cFreudenberg has the good fortune to be able to turn the crisis into an opportunity,\u201d Schneider says. \u201cHe now has a strong family behind him who can give him seed money.\u201d The father-in-law, who had high regard for Carl Johann, made the capital available to his daughter Sophie so she could help her husband with his plan to acquire part of the company. At the time, it was a progressive idea to involve a daughter in a business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Friedrich Carl, the son born during the year of revolution, wrote in his memoirs nine decades later: \u201cSince the liquidation required the departure of the two owners, my father was able to choose between them. He chose Mr. Heintze. The firm of Heintze & Freudenberg ended up in Weinheim, taking over a small, calf leather tannery in 1849.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Why did he buy into a leather factory with Heintze and not into a leather shop with his uncle? For an entrepreneur, the leather factory offered far broader opportunities for designs and growth than \u201cjust\u201d a leather shop. \u201cThis shows Carl Johann\u2019s entrepreneurial vision,\u201d says Schneider. And there was something else: \u201cThe conviction that he could pull this off in turbulent times is based on the fact that he had extricated himself from a financial crisis as a young man. His personal qualities had made him a success. In a sense, it was something that he had already done. This time, he was determined to use his experience and strengths to his advantage.\u201d Thus, in the middle of a revolution, he charted a course that would lead to a global company. On Friday, Feb. 9, 1849, the partners officially founded the firm of Heintze & Freudenberg with an entry in the commercial registry. The revolution was put down just a few months later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Over the next three years, revenues quadrupled, and the staff grew from 50 to 170. \u201cThree aspects play an important role here,\u201d Schneider says. The first is quality. \u201cIn Germany alone, there were about 10,000 companies making leather products. Freudenberg knows that he and Heintze can only set themselves apart with quality products.\u201d Secondly, it was clear to him that he had to internationalize the business quickly to buy hides and sell leather. It was either \u201cgo big or go down,\u201d as the saying goes. The two businessmen built up relationships in the United States, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, France and Turkey (still the Ottoman Empire at the time.) And last but not least, Freudenberg recognized the importance of innovation early on, picking up on the patent leather trend from France and gearing his production to it. He had to win his partner Heintze over. \u201cIf you make patent leather, you get to ride in the carriage. If you make regular leather, you walk,\u201d he once said, demonstrating his vision once again. The product from Weinheim was a prize winner at the Great \u00adExhibition in London in 1851 and ensured the company\u2019s success for many years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After he bought out the Heintze family and he took over the company as a sole proprietorship in 1874 \u2013 once again with financial help from his wife\u2019s family \u2013 he was able to show his caring side as an entrepreneur. \u00adHeintze had emphasized cost-efficiency and had presumably stood in the way of Carl Johann\u2019s other interests. That same year, Freudenberg founded a health insurance association for his employees, the forerunner to the health insurance fund that the company later established. A general aid fund followed for the families of Freudenberg employees in need. \u201cYou can see a connection to his experience as a child,\u201d Schneider said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Freudenberg eventually brought his sons Friedrich Carl and Hermann Ernst into the company to help him, making it a family operation. In 1887, he made them partners, giving each one-third of the company. It had more than 500 employees by then. With the transition to the next generation and with the size of the company in mind, Carl Johann wrote down his business principles by hand. He considered humility, honesty, a solid financial foundation, and the ability to adapt to change to be the most important principles for successful entrepreneurialism. The theme of trust \u2013 not just in oneself but in one\u2019s family, partners and employees \u2013 played a major A summary: After misfortune, Carl Johann Freudenberg always endeavored \u201cto make the best of any situation,\u201d (as he put it in his Business Principles) with diligence, thrift, ambition, self-confidence and adherence to principles. He became a successful entrepreneur thanks to his business vision, an openness to change and the innovations associated with it, and a culture of trust that he modeled personally. His legacy has shaped the company culture down to the present.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Even today, the principles that he formulated at that time are the basis of the Freudenberg Group\u2019s Business Principles, which are applied worldwide.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/sw.fst.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/47_08_Gemaelde-Weinheim-Kirchner_1857-1160x730.jpg\")
His Contemporaries<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The Entrepreneur<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The Company Executive<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The Mentor<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
role. \u201cIt is better to trust a hundred times at risk of being taken in than to mistrust unjustly even once.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n