Dr. Rudolf Hell is 100 years old today
The major German inventor Dr. Rudolf Hell is celebrating his
100th birthday today. To commemorate this great event, the City of
Kiel and Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG (Heidelberg) are honoring
Dr. Hell at a ceremony in Kiel City Hall.
Dr. Rudolf Hell is one of the greatest inventors of the
modern era. Born in Bavaria, Dr. Hell has worked in both Berlin and
Kiel as a scientist, engineer and entrepreneur. His technical
achievements and inventions have played a major role in shaping the
face of today's media world. He is the inventor of fax
technology and a pioneer in the field of telecommunications. He put
in place the key pillars needed for mechanizing, rationalizing and
enhancing the quality of modern media technology.
Dr. Hell was made a freeman of the City of Kiel in 1981. He
has received numerous awards such as the Knight Commander's
Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, the
Gutenberg Prize awarded by the City of Mainz and the Werner von
Siemens Ring. In May 2001, the City of Kiel named a street in his
honor - the former Siemenswall leading to the Heidelberg plant now
being known as Dr.-Hell-Strasse.
Dr. Rudolf Hell founded his own company in the Babelsberg
district of Berlin in 1929. In 1981 Dr.-Ing. Rudolf Hell GmbH was
taken over by Siemens and in 1990 was merged into Linotype AG to
become Linotype-Hell AG. Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG took over
Linotype-Hell AG in Kiel in 1996 in order to extend its core skills
in the prepress sector. The Kiel plant therefore has a key role to
play in Heidelberg's repositioning as a solutions provider in
the print and media industry. Today, a 1,500-strong workforce in
Kiel produces scanners, imaging systems and software for supporting
the print process. The development and production of the NexPress
2100, a digital color press launched onto the market in September
2001, has further reinforced the plant's operations.
For further information:
Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG
Corporate Communications
Christiane Creutzberg
Tel.: +49 (0)6221 92 50 48
Fax: +49 (0)6221 92 50 58
E-mail:
christiane.creutzberg@heidelberg.com