At almost 60, the entrepreneur Büssing from Nordsteimke switched to truck and bus construction. In 1904 he opened a bus line.
by Simone Rastelli
After a long entrepreneurial success story, more than 90 registered patents in the vita and a fortune in the account, the railway signal system and interlocking builder Heinrich Büssing realized his dream in 1903:He shifted his enthusiasm for technology from the rails to the road and reported a trade for the "manufacture of internal combustion engines and motor vehicles". After two years full of design tests, not only the first truck and the first bus were built - Büssing also organized the traffic and opened the first bus line between Braunschweig and Wendeburg in 1904.
Happiness forged by itself
The success story begins in a small forge in Nordsteimke. Heinrich Büssing was born on June 29, 1843 in what is now a district of Wolfsburg, which had around 300 inhabitants at the time. His father runs the village smithy. Even as a child, Heinrich helped in his father's smithy and, after attending the village school, did a two-year apprenticeship there, his journeyman's piece being a horseshoe. During his apprenticeship, he acquires the skills that will later make him a successful entrepreneur:craftsmanship, creativity and dealing with money. For two years, Büssing worked for the master blacksmith Müller in Braunschweig - 13 to 14 hours a day for one thaler a week.
A look at the up-and-coming industry
At the age of 18, Büssing went on a journey. His journey leads through all of Germany and to Switzerland. The technical and industrial innovations he encountered gave him an early idea that large-scale industrial production would replace small-scale handicrafts. That's why Büssing's craft skills are no longer sufficient. He wants more than "just" forging and enrolls as a guest student for lectures in mechanical engineering and construction technology at the Collegium Carolinum in Braunschweig - against the will of his father, who would have preferred his son to take over the forge.
1869:Heinrich Büssing founds his first company
Heinrich Büssing (second from right) opened the first bus line between Braunschweig and Wendeburg in 1904.Büssing's personal notes are peppered with technical notes early on, including considerations on the velocipedes. He recognizes mobility as a prerequisite for large-scale industrial production. Büssing is now married to Marie Zimmermann and has two children. In 1869 he founded his first company, the Velocipedes factory. In a small workshop with a few workers, he builds two- and three-wheeled bicycles with iron tires that he has designed himself. However, a lack of working capital and international business relationships destroyed by the Franco-Prussian War caused this company to fail.
Jüdel &Co:Büssing's breakthrough in the railway sector
Büssing quickly reorients itself and founds a mechanical engineering company in 1870, but this company also brings only difficulties. From 1873, Büssing was more successful in the railway sector. He recruited the Jewish merchant Max Jüdel as a financier and founded the Eisenbahnsignal-Bauanstalt Max Jüdel &Co. with him. Büssing's inventive talent hits the right note here:He registers more than 90 patents for signaling, and in 1879 the company manufactures the 1,000th. signal box. In 1928, Jüdel &Co was taken over by Siemens &Halske AG, today's Siemens factory in Braunschweig.
The "My Lord" as an object of study
In 1900, the year his first wife Marie died, Büssing, now the father of four children, reached deep into his well-filled pocket. He buys a "Mylord" Benz and uses the car to carry out technical studies and tests on it before it goes into truck production. Two years later, five special employees worked tirelessly on the "Grey Cat" test car until the first truck was ready on October 22, 1903.
Local transport and rolling mailbox
Bus travel at the beginning of the 20th century:model construction of the Büssing bus on the Wendeburg-Brunswick route.In 1904 the first bus was ready for operation in Braunschweig. A little later, the Büssing bus brings up to 20 people from Wendeburg to Braunschweig and back three times a day, nine stops are served on the route. If you don't want to sit on the rear wooden benches, you can buy a "luxury" ticket from the driver for one of the front leather upholstered seats. Further lines were added a little later:Büssing operated four routes in the Harz Mountains with the Braunschweig truck company. The company later became today's KVG, the Kraftverkehrsgesellschaft Braunschweig.
A very special box is built into the wooden structure of the bus:According to the contract with the Oberpostdirektion Braunschweig, Büssing is not only allowed to transport people with his line, but also letters and parcels. This makes the Wendeburg bus the first motorized postal bus in the world.
"Globalization" in the early 20th century
This is what it looked like - model construction of a Büssing truck.With its truck and bus companies, Büssing quickly built up an international business network. In 1904, just as the buses in the Harz Mountains were running regularly, Büssing delivered chassis to London and thus the substructure for the first London double-decker buses. In Berlin in 1909 he founded the "transport company for the transport of goods and goods", the world's first freight forwarding company, and with the truck operating company Braunschweig GmbH he set up branches in St. Petersburg, Moscow, Kyiv, Odessa, Riga and Warsaw. Nevertheless, there is time for private life:In 1910, Büssing married a second time:Anne Werners, the daughter of the mayor of Düren.
Philosophy round table with Raabe &Co.
As an entrepreneur, Büssing also sees social responsibility for his employees. This awareness is possibly strengthened by his membership in the philosophical circle "Clothes Sellers". Among the regulars are the writer Wilhelm Raabe and the piano maker Theodor Steinweg.
From craft to industry - piece work and social benefits
Although Büssing introduces social benefits, it also fires striking employees.Numerous social benefits within the company are intended to make life easier for Büssing's employees. In the Büssing houses in Braunlage and Oberwiesenthal, for example, physically demanding employees can take two weeks of cheap vacation a year with their families. Holiday pocket money and the journey with a weekly bus are part of it. Büssing also set up a library, a canteen and company medical services for its workforce.
But despite social responsibility, Büssing is under economic pressure and is looking for ways to remain competitive. When he introduces piecework, the workforce protests and calls for resistance. But Büssing remained firm and fired the entire workforce in 1919, and an arbitration committee also considered piecework to be necessary. A short time later, he hired those willing to work who agreed in writing to Büssing's conditions.
In the mid-1920s he sent two of his best people to America to scout out production conditions there. After her return, the entire production at Büssing with around 2,400 employees switches to the assembly line.
Descent and Takeover
Heinrich Büssing died in Braunschweig on October 27, 1929 at the age of 86. Büssing's sons initially continued the company of the Braunschweig honorary citizen, secret building officer and medal bearer, but several factors slowly brought it to its knees:After the Second World War, a large part of the production lay idle, with the exception of the Braunschweig plant, which was 80 percent destroyed, all production facilities are in use East completely destroyed. An initiative by the Ministry of Transport at the time also wanted to shift traffic from road to rail:with a limit on axle car loads, the company lost the market for heavy-duty trucks. The Büssing philosophy of wanting to do everything yourself is also outdated and leads to inefficiency in production. Büssing AG, founded in the 1960s, was taken over by Salzgitter AG in 1968 and finally by the major shareholder MAN in 1971.