Ceremony in the Duderstadt city hall on January 13
For Otto Bock HealthCare, a ceremony in the historical Duderstadt city hall will kick off its anniversary year. On Tuesday, January 13, 2009 – 90 years to the day after Orthopädische Industrie GmbH was founded by eponym Otto Bock – around 300 guests of honour including premier Christian Wulff (Lower Saxony) and minister Gerold Wucherpfennig as a representative of premier Dieter Althaus (Thuringia) are expected at 1:00 pm. The musical highlight will be provided by Peter Maffay, who will perform unplugged versions of his hits.
The representatives of both federal states will give opening speeches to express how Otto Bock has been a special German-German company in the nearly 20 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall. In many ways, the national turning points are reflected in the company and family history.
In 1919, Otto Bock not only founded a company with Orthopädische Industrie GmbH in Berlin but also fundamentally changed the industry. It was the component manufacturing process he introduced that made it possible to supply with sufficient speed the large number of injured returning from World War I.
That very same year, political unrest in Berlin contributed to the relocation of the new company to Königsee in the Thuringian Forest. The company grew to employ more than 600 people. Under Soviet occupation, a plan was initially developed to establish another branch as close to Königsee as possible but in the British zone in order to secure subsequent deliveries to customers by bartering products for materials. Dr. Max Näder, the son-in-law of Otto Bock, founded this Duderstadt branch in 1947 from practically nothing and developed it with his wife Maria Näder.
When the family company in Königsee was expropriated without compensation in 1948, Dr. Max Näder and a group of dedicated employees began establishing production in Duderstadt on the Euzenberg under extremely difficult conditions and starting with nothing. In Duderstadt, the search for alternative materials to poplar wood used up to that point led to the development of a synthetic material by Dr. Max Näder. In addition to orthopaedics technology applications, this material also proved to be extremely well suited for industries such as furniture production and automobile suppliers. Thus 1953 marked the birth of Otto Bock Kunststoff Holding, which is now a global company. Otto Bock himself did not live to see this day; he passed away that same year and was buried in Duderstadt.
In the critical times of the Cold War, the early internationalisation of Otto Bock meant that the future of the family company was protected by establishing several branches around the globe. After the construction of the Berlin Wall, the border to the GDR increasingly became a death zone.
The unexpected opening of the border on November 9-10, 1989 also abruptly changed the situation for Otto Bock. After buying back the former property in Königsee, the entrepreneurial family built a highly modern production facility for wheelchairs and mobility aids there starting in 1992.
But this is not the only reason Otto Bock, with its head office in South Lower Saxony, has also once again become a Thuringian company. Nearly half of the employees in Duderstadt now come from the new federal states, mainly from Obereichsfeld.
In 1990, Dr. Max Näder handed over management to his son Professor Hans Georg Näder. He rapidly expanded the global network and promoted research and development as well as sales and marketing. The company now owns subsidiaries in 40 countries around the world. With the help of this global distribution network, leading Otto Bock technology is being exported to over 140 countries.
In conjunction with internationalisation, the German branches and especially the head office in Duderstadt were continuously expanded. This includes investments into the logistics centres for HealthCare and Kunststoff and the conversion and expansion of the entire company complex as well as energy management, which also includes biogas since 2007. For the next five years, a plethora of new products and services as well as a continuous increase in the number of employees are part of planned further growth. Otto Bock is a company that stands for entrepreneurial success, and Professor Hans Georg Näder stands for a clear commitment to Germany. The company exports products, not jobs.
“In 2009, we are celebrating 90 years of Otto Bock and 20 years since the opening of the border. I am also looking forward to another return to our roots with a vision of the future: The return to Berlin. That is where we will inaugurate the Otto Bock Science Center for Medical Technology in June,” explains Professor Hans Georg Näder.
On three exhibition levels, a technology showcase is being created that is consciously aimed at the interested layperson. State-of-the-art presentations allow visitors to explore biomechanical phenomena in a world of experiences.
Interactive exhibits invite playful discoveries and illustrate the performance of modern high-end products. With every new development, we are getting closer to the natural human body and helping people regain their mobility and therefore their quality of life.
Thus the Otto Bock Science Center for Medical Technology also presents a vision of the future which, at Otto Bock, has only just begun with the prototype of the first mind-controlled arm prosthesis in the world. Practical applications of medical technology innovations can be presented to an international audience of specialists in seminar facilities located in the upper section of the Otto Bock Science Center for Medical Technology and in the orthopaedics workshop in the penthouse. For this target group, Berlin is ideal as a rapidly growing global hub and a metropolis with special medical technology capacities.
The ceremony in Duderstadt on January 13 will also address another key Otto Bock topic: The company’s commitment to the Paralympics. Not only will Heinrich Popow and Mathias Mester, medal winners of the games in Beijing, talk about sports but they will also address the connection between performance and acceptance in life with a disability in general. With his social involvement, Peter Maffay is connected both to the Otto Bock Foundation and to sports for the disabled. His current song “In dir ist immer noch ein Licht” (“In you there is still light”) was introduced as a limited single release at the tribute to the Paralympics athletes of the year in Berlin and is considered the anthem of disabled sports.
