At first glance, the connection between Markus Gierschmann and Weidmüller is not immediately apparent. The passionate golfer from Bad Honnef, Germany, manages a retirement home in Dortmund. And yet the connection to our company is a very special one: Markus Gierschmann is the grandson of Wilhelm Staffel – the inventor of Weidmüller's first plastic-insulated terminal block in 1948.
In conversation with our CEO Sebastian Durst, Mr Gierschmann shared anecdotes off his family history – and gained a personal impression of the future of Weidmüller at our new electronics plant. Amidst machines, equipment and memories, a conversation arose about values, change and pioneering spirit.
"I grew up in the house where my grandfather developed the first plastic-insulated terminal block for Weidmüller," says Markus Gierschmann in response to Sebastian Durst's question about his earliest memory of his grandfather. The two are looking at old SAK terminal blocks from the early 1950s. A series of terminal blocks that marked the beginning of a new successful chapter for Weidmüller: Gottfried Gläsel and Gierschmann's grandfather Wilhelm Staffel led our company off out of the world of textiles and into that of electrical connection technology after the Second World War.
A successful duo
"My grandfather was clearly the technician in this duo – Gottfried Gläsel was the businessman," says Gierschmann. A good combination: Together, the two tapped into the market for electrical connectivity with new products.
Sebastian Durst asks what exactly this division of labour between the two looked like. "The engineering office was actually not in Detmold at the time, but in Bad Honnef. Today, one would say that my grandfather worked as a kind of freelancer, developing new technology for Mr Gläsel and Weidmüller," reports Gierschmann, adding: "I believe that the two complemented each other perfectly in many ways. The two families also had a very friendly connection on a personal level."
From the past to the future
Wilhelm Staffel's pioneering spirit had a sustainable influence on Weidmüller's history: "We still produce SAK terminals in small quantities today," says Sebastian Durst. "But of course, our technologies have developed rapidly over time. For example, in the form of our SNAP IN connection technology or with our modular remote-I/O system u-remote, which we produce here in the new electronics factory."
While Weidmüller's history continued to run with full innovative strength in the areas of electrification, automation and digitalisation even after Wilhelm Staffel's time, things were somewhat different in the inventor's family: "My mother still worked for Weidmüller as an interpreter – for example, at the Hannover Messe trade fair. However, the engineering gene was not passed on – later generations of our family tend to be active in other fields. For example, my cousin, who is a pharmacist. My cousin is a solicitor. And I run a retirement home."
But even though the present and the future could hardly be more different, Sebastian Durst recognises one major similarity between Mr Gierschmann and his retirement home and Weidmüller with its technological focus areas: "Both your services and ours will certainly continue to be in demand in the future – the market demand is secure for both of us!"
A visit that shows that innovation always begins with a great idea – and lives on in the production plants and personalities of the future.