The Genius of Stihl, an Amazing Story

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Andreas Stihl is released from internment on March 9,1948, but he is not yet in possession of his company. He returns to Neustadt and devotes his time to his employees in particular. He proposes that employees who have health complaints or who are suffering from mal-nutrition should recieve additional provisions. Groceries are still rationed in Germany. Anyone who wants to buy bread, potatoes, and other items needs ration cards that are issued by the administration. These cards were due to food shortages throughtout Germany.

{more to come}

The monetary reform in June 1948 presents Germany and Stihl the company with a completely new situation. Trustee Emil Gaiser announces some of the measures management intends to take in connection with the reform. The company is to introduce efficiency wages as quickly as possible. The works council is to be informed accordingly so that the piecework commision can take up its work. Savings are gone. People once again are dependent on pay day. They must be given the opportunity to earn an income so that they can take advantage of the purchasing power of the new money. We must move towards a just and decent wage for piecework. The company does not yet know whether the current prices will remain stable, how many orders will be cancelled, whether supplies will improve and thus enable bottlenecks to be overcome. However management will cut rates only if falling prices makes this unavoidable. The works council will be kept informed about the results of the market, the pricing policy of the competition.

Gaiser further stresses to the works counsil that people must be persuaded that there is nothing to the assumtion that piecework kills you. It is not the foreman who chases the piecework, but the exact opposite. In piecework, the man at the bench chases the foreman, who chases the manager, who chases the buyer, who chases the sales department and so on. In other other words the pieceworker determines the pace, he brings the place to life. Piecework primarily provides security for the honest, loyal woker, who always does his share, it gives him the opportunity to earn more and protects him from rebels, who shy away from any work, or those who have learned how to work again after the currency reform.

A consequence of the monetary reform for the company as well as others is the lack of liquid funds. One of the major reasons is that wages and salaries, which had been paid in Reichsmarks, now have to be paid in DM. On the other hand, the supply bottlenecks come to a end. Production materials are once again available at short notice. The terms are: Goods for cash.

The prices of raw materails rise. Customers demand discounts. There are heated discussions over wage increases and piecework bonuses demanded by the workforce and management's efforts to extend working time from 40 to 48 hours a week. Management introduces the londer working time in August.

Gasier says: In the course of general ecomony measures, we intend to carry out an examination of fixed costs, including salaries. It is probably understandable that one cannot simultaneously announce wage increases and salary cuts. One must not forget to point out that the workforce participates in the company's profit. A dividend payout at the present time is more than welcome. The assets of the Welfare Fund have also melted away as a result of the monetary reform. At all events we must plan in such a way the the diminished assets remain intact and that we can look out after our elderly.

Despite all the uncertainties about the futrure and even though the trusteeship has not yet ended, Andreas Stihl, who is becoming more and more active, plans to further expand the company, which now has a workforce of 260. This is documented by the records of the Neustadt counsil, where it states, Maschinenfabrik Andreas Stihl is in the process of extending its production line. It is currently carrying out building work. It will widen the road in the valley and build a railway to stop in Kleinhegnach. This will result in a considerable increase in the number of employees. It is well known fact the the company simultaneously plans to arrange for its master craftsman and regular workers to stettle here permanently and promotes the construction of apartments. All this will greatly benefit the community.

There are, however, talks between the company and the counsil on the subject of commercail tax. Stihl expects a concession on this point, not without good reason, as the parish counsil notes. The commercail tax assessment rate in Neustadt is 300 precent, while it is 280 percent in Stuttgart. According to the counsil, the rate come from the tax conditions under the old provisions of state law prior to 1937. The counsil takes up the wishes of the Stihl company kindly and decides to be accommodating as far as legally permissible and possible in budget terms.

On September 11, 1948, the trustee at that time, Emil Gaiser, informs the staff: As of today the assets of Mr. Stihl have been released by the Property Control Office, Stuttgart, and the company discharged from control. I have handed over to Mr.Stihl the company administered by me up to now. My position as trustee is thus terminated. I thank all of you who have supported me during my term of office for your cooperation. Andreas Stihl is once again the boss of his company.

{more to come}
 
One of the first actions of the reinstated owner is on behalf of the employees. In their interests he joins the new Waiblingen District Building Society on September 24. Its objective is to creat living space by converting lofts and completing discontinued, half-finished buildings. In addition, a non-profit housing society is founded somewhat later. Only company employees can become members. With the assistance of the company, the housing society builds two-family houses at the lowest possible cost. The charges on capital for a home, at an interest rate of six percent, are estimated at about DM 50 per month.

But it is only living space that is a problem. Many workers are worried about the expenditure involved in stocking up with potatoes, vegetables, fruit, etc. for winter. Andreas Stihl would like, as the works council reports, to lend everyone a helping in the form a small contribution that is to be set off against possible dividend for the current year. A sum of DM 20 is envisaged for those workers who have earned less than DM 400 in September 1948. Unfortunately, a higher sum cannot be granted because circumstances force the company to plan cautiously.

The work council then plans an evening of entertainment in October in order to give everyone a few hours of enjoyment and relaxations. The boss is prepared to support the project with DM 10 per participant. However, he expresses his doubts as to whether the evening should be staged in view of the general economic situation, or whether one should not instead increase the sum of DM 20 planned as autumn assistance to DM 30 and do without the evening. In a vote held department-by-department the staff decides almost unamiously for the payment of the DM 10 per head, reports the work council. It thanks Mr. Stihl for the donation in the name of the workforce and requests that arrangements for the payouts be made soon. A Christmas bonus is then paid in December: 8.35 for every month worked in 1948, plus DM 7 for every year of service with the company. On top of that, every Stihler receives a bottle of wine as a Christmas gift.
 
A new product: Farm Tractor

Times are difficult. The chainsaw business is going badly. Saws from earlier army inventories built during the war by Maschinenfabrik Stihl or by rivals – to Stihl drawings – are competing with new products. The company is working on new developments. Stihl looks for ways to better utilize capacities. He plans to build a small, lightweight farm tractor which is easy to use, inexpensive and versatile – also as a tool carrier. Development progresses well. It is pushed ahead by Stihl’s great enthusiasm and skill in the area of engine development. However, he is disturbed in his work when he hears that information about the new development is circulating outside the factory.

On November 24, 1948 he hangs the following notice on the board: I have heard that employees are talking in public about the current developments and tests, especially about diesel and tractor issues. We are ahead of the competition in our developments. Anyone who talks in public, in the bus, on the tram, etc. about ongoing trials and plans at the factory is disclosing trade secrets, and will damage the company and himself in the end. It is irresponsible to publish details of our new designs through idle chatter, bragging, etc. This could make all the effort, work and costs for trials meaningless. All employees are requested to maintain strict silence on everything they see and hear with regard to new plans and designs in the factory, and keep our business secrets under all circumstances. The management would regret having to respond to breaches of these instructions with instant dismissal.

In the spring of 1949, the first ever technical support base for the maintenance and repair of chainsaws opens as a Stihl service in Freudenstadt in the Black Forest. Its task is to provide customers with technical support – to keep saws they bought running. The idea behind this is to offer service as closely to the customer as possible to create a confidence building relationship with the users of the products.

The planned lightweight tractor is finished in the same year. It is an all purpose tractor. The model designation is 140. It weighs a mere 750 kg. One particularly interesting feature is the air-cooled single cylinder two stroke diesel engine. It is a small powerhouse that delivers 12 HP, later 15 HP, at a maximum speed of 2,000 revolutions per minute. However, the development costs as well as jigs and tools for production of the tractor put an extraordinary load on the company. Appeals to economize are necessary. Construction of the new three-storey building to accommodate tractor production also costs money.

On August 15, 1949, Stihl writes to all department managers, engineers and foreman and the work council that he has noticed that spending has reached a level which is untenable for a healthy company, not on in the very strained financial situation we have at the moment, but even in normal times. Some extraordinary spending is necessary for the start of tractor production, in jigs and tools in particular. But we are now at a point where, with careful consideration, we can look at further purchases. However, especially the wear and tear on tools must be reduced to the required minimum through good order in the tool room and repeated reminders to handle them with care.
 
The second crisis

And he adds another appeal: As tractor production has started and involves additional purchases, the expenditure for advertising, mail, freight, travel, the ever-increasing expenditures for office equipment, office maintenance as well as orders for office materials and paper have to be reduced to an absolute minimum. He then orders: With immediate effect, no order may be placed verbally, by telephone or in writing without my written consent. This measure also applies to the orders below DM 1.

All effors to save are not sufficient – the company slides into a dangerous crisis. By then the slump in orders for chainsaws has reached catastrophic dimensions. As a result, the turnover from saw sales no longer cover costs. At the same time, sales of tractors stagnate because of complaints: The engines are causing problems. It is quickly established that the oil pumps are the culprits. It takes two months to solve the problem. Not a single new tractor leaves the factory during this period. At the works meeting in November Andreas Stihl says: Had there been no complaints, there would now be 100 more tractors out there and the money received for them would be available. Payment for the Christmas bonus – which has become a normalcy over the years – is suspended. Wages and salaries cannot be paid in full for the time being. It is necessary to work short hours – 27 instead of the usual 40 hours a week. Employees work only three days a week, Monday to Wednesday. The short-time allowance for employees goes some way towards alleviating the loss of wages. Only the toolmaking shop and the testing department are excluded from working short hours.

{more to come}
 
Conciliation proceedings

These measures do not, however, produce any fundamental improvement. Even the sale of the company property in Stuggart-Bad Cannstatt does not really help matters. The sales problems with saws, the break in tractor production, and the high charges from the development of the tractors result in the company, although otherwise sound, as Andreas stresses, becoming insolvent. On February 24, Stihl files a petition for institution of conciliation proceedings to avoid bankruptcy. They are opened on April 20, 1950. Working short hours is no longer enough, dismissals unavoidable. They are announced to the Department of Labor on March 4, 1950. The number of employees, which was 420 in April 1949, drops to 215 – its lowest level in the post-war years.

Then the wind changes. Tractor production and sales pick up. In addition, export proves to be increasingly successful. This impresses the creditors and prevents the conversion of conciliation proceedings into bankruptcy proceedings. At the meeting of creditors on May 19, the proposal for a settlement is accepted with an overwhelming majority. The obligations assumed with the settlement proposal are to be fulfilled in six three-monthly installments of DM 68,000 each. The first installment is already due on August 19. In this context, Andreas Stihl writes to the work council: If we are up to the tasks lying ahead, the total disintegration of the company is a possibility that cannot be ignored.

Three month during the conciliation proceedings are a particularly difficult time for the family. On the one hand, Andreas Stihl does not exclude himself or his family from the economy measures. Whenever possible, every Mark goes toward maintaining the company. On the other hand, he seperates from his wife and moves to a small apartment a few houses away on the company grounds.

Mia Stihl reacts to the changes in an enterprising manner. She starts breeding chickens in order to be able to provide adequately for her children. The youngest, Gerhild and Rudiger, were born in 1941 and 1943, Eva and Hans Peter in 1935 and 1932. Three of the children are fully integrated in the chicken breeding enterprise. Breeding starts on a small scale, but over the years the stock grows to about 2,000 chickens. The boys, especially the older son, Hans Peter, have to feed, water and clean out the pens. The younger daughter, Gerhild, is primarily responsible for the eggs, which Hans Peter, after counting, has to transport to Stuttgart. That is something he enjoys doing because he is allowed to use his mother’s car for the purpose.

All departments are back to working full time in October. The order situation has improved. One reason is a large order from abroad. Another is a one-man saw with gasoline engine that has been going through tests since 1949. It is the BL, the first one-man gasoline chainsaw. It weighs 16 kg, has a power output of 4.5 HP and is officially launched on the market in 1952. Furthermore, the company starts production of the Type 131 air-cooled two stroke diesel. Full employment is ensured for the coming months. The dismissed workers can be hired again. Things are looking up.
 
The recovery of the company, which in 1950 produced a turnover of 1.4 million DM with about 370 employees, continues in 1951. In spring, however, there are difficulties during the pay negotiations between the employers’ association and the union. The union demands a 20 pfennig increase in hourly wages. That is equivalent to 15.5 percent relative to the agreed basic wage of DM 1.29 per hour for skilled workers. The agreed hourly wages of women workers would go up more than 21 percent. Employers are only prepared to offer an increase of 10 pfennings per hours. Neither side wants to give way. There is a threat of industrial action. After a strike ballot, the trade unions are ready to strike. The employers announce they will lock out workers if need be.

In order to avoid trouble in his own factory, Andreas decides to pay the increase recommended by the association as of April 1, 1951, which must be taken in account later when an agreement is reached. However, as he points out to his employees: This pay increase necessitates a monthly sum of about DM 3,577.50 for which there is no security. I do not know how to raise it without endangering the company with a price increase.

In spite of all the difficulties the wage agreement causes the company, which is still burdened by the conciliation proceedings, it succeeds tin coping with the pay increases. Furthermore, the settlement payments from the conciliation proceedings are made on time.

The preconditions for this are created by an interesting deal to export to the United States: The Maschinenfabrik in Neustadt not only manufacturers scratcher tooth chains for its own requirements. It also supplies the punched parts for such chains to the Mall Tool Company in the US Considering the exchange rate of DM 4.20 for a dollar at that time, the company makes good money.

On November 22, 1951, the Stuggart-Bad Cannstatt municipal court fules: Following fulfillment of the settlement, the conciliation proceedings against Andreas Stihl, manufacturer in Neustadt, sole owner of Andreas Stihl Maschinenfabrik, Stgt.-Bad-Cannstatt, Rosenaustr. 30 to 32, are set aside. Nevertheless, the company’s position remains difficult due to the after-effects of the reconciliation proceedings. Furthermore, competition is tough. All manufacturers are still struggling with the problem of old army saws clogging the m arket and hindering sales of new saws.

The part of the company in Stuggart-Bad Cannstatt which had been sold in 1950, is closed in November. This is entirely in the interests of the concentrating efforts, since the two locations generate higher costs than one. The sole seat of the Maschinenfabrik Andreas Stihl is now Neustadt, District of Waiblingen, Badstrasse 169.

The BL one-man chainsaw mentioned above is launched in 1952. It allows new cutting techniques, such as plunge cutting, using the nose of the guide bar. Furthermore, production of the Type 131 / air-cooled two-stroke diesel engine commences. With a continuous output of 16 HP and a displacement of 760 cc, it weighs 95 kg and powers the Stihl-built lightweight tractor.

A gearbox for sawing ice is designed for the powerhead of the KS 43 developed and built for the German army. Such saws are used to cut ice from Riesser Lake for the Bobsleigh Worl Championships. A few years later, however, the production of the ice saw is stopped because it is unprofitable.

{more to come}
 
Wheres the beef???s

Ok Tom it has been a month since you have posted anything on the story that you promised us. I hate to be demanding, but you started this and now that you have us hooked you are holding out. I have no first hand knowledge, but I think this is how crack dealers work. Although I don't currently own a Stihl saw I am interested in the story of how they came about, and why they are arguably the best chain saw. Now if Demi has left that Ashton guy and taken up residence with you, then of course you are forgiven, and of course if you have had recent injury, especially to you hands, forgiveness goes without saying. Baring those conditions you are in the deep do-do if you don't continue the story forthwith. JR
 
Ok Tom it has been a month since you have posted anything on the story that you promised us. I hate to be demanding, but you started this and now that you have us hooked you are holding out. I have no first hand knowledge, but I think this is how crack dealers work. Although I don't currently own a Stihl saw I am interested in the story of how they came about, and why they are arguably the best chain saw. Now if Demi has left that Ashton guy and taken up residence with you, then of course you are forgiven, and of course if you have had recent injury, especially to you hands, forgiveness goes without saying. Baring those conditions you are in the deep do-do if you don't continue the story forthwith. JR

Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhh Jr what happened was , uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, well ya see it seems that uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, anyway, it happened and I couldn't do anything about it. Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh it was awful but I survived so uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh if it don't happen again I can get back to the book. I'm not in the clear just yet, it uhhhhhhhhhhhhh may happen again, I'm on the look out for it and if it uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh happens I'll be ready this time, if not I can get back to the book. So no fear, uhhhhhhhhhhhh I'll be back to the book ASAP soon as I uhhhhhhhhhhh get past the uhhhhhhhhhhh,LOL

(your correct, I do need to get back on the book)
 
Bright spot

Tom: I don't know you at all, but you are one of the bright spots of my day when I read your posts. There are others to be sure, and I am not going to start naming them, but you rank at or near the top. I know how much time this must take to copy the book, and am thankful that you are doing it, and all of those who know you personally sure think a lot of you, that is obvious. Just wanted you to know that someone who has only met you on-line is a fan also. Best regards JR
 
Tom: I don't know you at all, but you are one of the bright spots of my day when I read your posts. There are others to be sure, and I am not going to start naming them, but you rank at or near the top. I know how much time this must take to copy the book, and am thankful that you are doing it, and all of those who know you personally sure think a lot of you, that is obvious. Just wanted you to know that someone who has only met you on-line is a fan also. Best regards JR

Well Jr if you like reading some of my non-sense thats cool with me. I admit I try to have alittle fun on here. Some think I'm a meanie when I go to bat for Stihl but to them I say they deserve it,LOLOL, just kidding.

I'll get back to the book hopefully this week-end, you are correct, I have been getting lazy. Course now with all this beauty I have, the doo, the soft southern sexy voice, and ample supple of luv muscle its hard for a man such as myself to stay focused on one thing, ok, I admit it, I'm a ho,LOLOL, gotcha.

I'll get back to the book this week end if it kills me JR. For those nice comments of yours its the least I can do..
 
Well Jr if you like reading some of my non-sense thats cool with me. I admit I try to have alittle fun on here. Some think I'm a meanie when I go to bat for Stihl but to them I say they deserve it,LOLOL, just kidding.

I'll get back to the book hopefully this week-end, you are correct, I have been getting lazy. Course now with all this beauty I have, the doo, the soft southern sexy voice, and ample supple of luv muscle its hard for a man such as myself to stay focused on one thing, ok, I admit it, I'm a ho,LOLOL, gotcha.

I'll get back to the book this week end if it kills me JR. For those nice comments of yours its the least I can do..

O no not back to the book. Im sending you more dvd's:clap:
 
O no not back to the book. Im sending you more dvd's:clap:

Hey Jr wants more of the book so by Joe he's getting more of the book. Besides he speaks more highly of me than you so deal with it. Jr knows class when he see's it. He spots high moral fiber and realizes I'm no Bookerdog,LOLOLOLOL

(wanna cut a deal Booker, send that Lost set ya got,hehe)
 
Hey Jr wants more of the book so by Joe he's getting more of the book. Besides he speaks more highly of me than you so deal with it. Jr knows class when he see's it. He spots high moral fiber and realizes I'm no Bookerdog,LOLOLOLOL

(wanna cut a deal Booker, send that Lost set ya got,hehe)

We might be able to arrange that. Of coarse you might have to talk highly about me. LOLOLOL

PM me you add. again I'll see what I can find.
 
We might be able to arrange that. Of coarse you might have to talk highly about me. LOLOLOL

PM me you add. again I'll see what I can find.

Whattttttttttttttt, I gotta talk highly of ya, grrrr. Now Booker you know I'm a man of high moral fiber, it wouldn't be like me to bare false wittness and talk highly of a cat such as you, I got my reputation to uphold man,:hmm3grin2orange: :hmm3grin2orange: :hmm3grin2orange:


( I know your still watching that series so I won't bug ya till your done watching the whole series)
 

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