Modernity on two wheels
Robert Bosch goes mobile
Robert Bosch’s first business card is intriguing. His address is on the back of the vertically printed card, while on the front, Bosch is seen in a wide-brimmed hat and a dark, high-necked suit.
On the back of the portrait format is his address, on the front Bosch with a wide-brimmed hat in a dark, high-necked suit, almost like an itinerant preacher.
His suit
The suit is well-made, but above all, it is made of wool. This ensures good ventilation between the body and its environment, as touted by Gustav Jäger, a well-known physician at the time who sparked Robert Bosch’s interest in homeopathy.
Robert Bosch heard several of his lectures at the Stuttgart University of Applied Sciences, and the “Jäger normal suit” became for him an important part of a healthy and long life.
His bicycle
In 1890, “safety bikes” with low frames developed in England were very new. In continental Europe, high bikes were still in fashion: the rider sat perched above a huge front wheel with pedals and a tiny rear wheel at the back to stabilize the daring construction.
The new low-built bicycles were called “safety bikes” because on bumpy surfaces, high bikes could throw off their rider in a high arc – often with fatal consequences of a “head crash,” as they were called back then.
In Germany, people did not like the bicycles known as “low-wheelers,” which became the model for today’s bicycles. The high bicycle offered a regal view of the surroundings. Some said that when a rider got on a low bike, they looked like a dog relieving itself on a tree.
But Robert Bosch was undaunted. Around four years after founding his small company in 1886, he bought the modern bicycle for the price of a small car today.
His business card
On the card, the viewer sees a young entrepreneur who stands for innovation. At the same time, it is an early document of Robert Bosch’s sense for good public relations.
There was also an economic side to everything he did. He used his bicycle to significantly reduce his travel time to construction sites in Stuttgart and the surrounding area, where he inspected the work of his employees.
And he saved money on local public transportation – street cars that were still horse-drawn at the time. So his first business vehicle was a smart move in two respects.
Life stages and anecdotes
Look forward to further exciting insights into the life of Robert Bosch.
As an employer, benefactor, nature lover, family man and man of the world.