The second generation: Heinrich Neumayer – from blacksmith to industrial company
In 1906, Heinrich Neumayer (1873-1963) takes over the family business from his 72-year-old father Richard Neumayer Sr, the founder of the company. In the same year, he marries Karoline Haas (1879-1950) from Mühlenbach. The couple had five children: Heinrich (born 1907), Hilda (born 1908), Richard (born 1909), Erich (born 1916) and Ernst (born 1918). However, Heinrich tragically drowned in the nearby industrial canal at the age of six.
Under the management of Heinrich Neumayer, the Gutach forge is an open-die forge until 1925, where blanks for large gear wheels are produced. The Grand Ducal Baden District Office of Wolfach grants him the right to train apprentices in the blacksmith’s trade. The business also includes a household goods store and a hardware store.
However, even the small family business was not unaffected by the political developments of the 1930s. During the Third Reich, the eldest son Richard was given the status of “ua” (“indispensable”) so that he could continue to work in wartime production – like many other companies in Hausach, NEUMAYER was involved in armaments production. The brothers Erich and Ernst, on the other hand, are drafted into military service.
Richard Neumayer began manufacturing turned parts in 1938. His brothers, who had both returned from the war, supported him in the company. One of the main customers is the Weisser company in St. Georgen in the Black Forest. Among other things, so-called “revolvers” (tool holders for lathes), pendulum heads for foot pendulum presses and blanks for large-format fastening nuts are produced.
In 1940, Richard Neumayer takes over the management of the forge and the newly established turned parts production from his father Heinrich. Two years later, his younger brothers Erich and Ernst follow the pioneering spirit of their grandfather “Mede” and found their own company. They take over the company, which had previously been run under the name “Erich Neumayer, Mutternfabrik Gutach”, and from then on trade as “Erich Neumayer & Cie, Metallwarenfabrik Gutach”. The company is entered in the commercial register on July 13, 1943.
Albert Neumayer (born in 1946) is also born at this time and continues the history of the Neumayer family as a representative of the next generation. Heinrich Neumayer remained loyal to his forge into old age and worked in his son Richard’s now much larger hammer forge in Hausach until his death in 1963.
