Kristian Rademacher-Dubbick, former managing director and owner of Krohne, passed away peacefully at his home in Duisburg on April 7, 2014 at the age of 92 years.
Kristian was the grandson of founder Ludwig Krohne. In 1949 at the age of 28, he was approached to take over the management of Krohne by his grandmother Anna, who was running the company after Ludwig and their son Karl had died.
Being a passionate painter and artist, Kristian struggled to take over the post of running the measuring instruments company at first, but decided to accept the challenge. He soon realised that the company had to grow if it wanted to survive the ups and downs of the economy in the post-war years. He also saw that a measuring instruments company had to have a solid technical basis and decided to employ a physicist.
Kristian developed four pillars that determined Krohne’s course into the ranks of the leading measuring instrument suppliers:
* Preservation of its independence.
* Continual growth of its measurement programme.
* Loyalty to its customers.
* Extension of its activities beyond Germany’s borders. The company was one of the first measuring instrument suppliers to have a presence on all continents. It was also his achievement that Krohne was the second German company after Volkswagen to establish a joint venture in Shanghai in 1986.
Besides his achievements in the expansion of trade relations, the influence Kristian had on the development of the company’s products was also immense. Although he never had any technical education, it was Kristian who insisted on developing a ceramic measuring tube for electromagnetic flowmeters as well as straight tube Coriolis mass flowmeters, even though the industry thought that it would be technically impossible. To convince his employees, he tested prototypes of ceramic measuring tubes in his kitchen at home: he threw the frozen tubes into boiling water to test their ability to withstand temperature shocks as they appear in steam-cleaning applications in the food and beverage industry.
After he handed over management responsibilities in 1979, he could still be seen regularly in many Krohne facilities and he gladly followed the outstanding development of his company in the recent years. Kristian was known for asking every employee he met on the floor how his/her family and children were. He also attended the Krohne Christmas party in Duisburg every year.
Although Kristian stopped working as a painter and artist on entering the company, he remained an admirer and supporter of art throughout his life. Besides collecting art, he maintained long-term friendships with many artists and followed their work and development.
Despite the fast progress the company made since he took over responsibility, Kristian always liked the image of Krohne as a family with the employees as its members. He had five children himself and was a proud grandfather of 12 grandchildren and a great grandfather of one boy.
Kristian will be missed greatly by all members of his personal family and the entire Krohne family.
For more information on Krohne SA http://www.instrumentation.co.za/48911n
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