‘Just a master bricklayer’ – Hans Liebherr’s description of himself[1]
Hans Liebherr was born on 1st April 1915 in Kaufbeuren, Bavaria, one of three children (one boy and two girls) of Wilhelm Liebherr (1883-1916) and Matilda Arnold (1890-1969). His father was killed in the First World War and his mother remarried in 1922 to master mason, Johann B Sailer. There were three children (two boys and one girl) from this union.
Hans left school at age thirteen with ambitions to be a pastry chef. However, he was apprenticed in the construction business in which industry his stepfather was involved. He graduated in 1938 and took over the family building business in Kirchdorf (Austria) but was conscripted into military service the following year.
After the Second World War, in which Hans was twice wounded, he resumed work with the family construction business. He married Maria Goeppel and they had Hans (1945) Willi (1947) Markus (1948) Isolde (1949) and Hubert (1950).[2]
Hans was an innovative man, and many of the ideas he would later bring to fruition were formed during ‘long, lonely days on the Russian Front.’[3] He identified inefficient practice in construction and in particular, the need for a mobile crane to speed up building progress. He invented his own and filed his prototype on 19 August 1949 with the West German Patents Office. His mobile crane would be easy to transport, erected in less than three hours, and effortlessly repositioned.
His invention was not well received at the 1950 Frankfurt Industrial Fair and he later said, ‘I could have brought my production to an end at that time.’ However, self-belief and dogged determination prevailed and in due course, he received an order for a crane used to rebuild Wiesbaden Town Hall. It created a sensation and was regarded as a new ‘magic machine.’
His business prospered and diversified rapidly.[4] In 1956, he transferred the business from Kirchdorf to Biberach an der Riß, Baden Württemberg, and by 1958, he was well established as a manufacturer in Germany, employing 2,400.
However, he was keen to develop his business further afield, to build his first factory outside of Germany.
‘Ich fühle mich hier zu Hause’ (I feel at home here) – Hans Liebherr at Aghadoe, 1957
Irish neutrality in the Second World War meant its relationship with Germany at the conclusion of the war was not affected in the same way as other European countries. Ireland at this period was economically stagnant – ‘bereft of hope’ – after years of failed economic policies.
William Joseph Norton, Minister for Industry and Commerce (1954-1957), held the view that encouraging foreign exporting companies to set up in Ireland was the key to Irish prosperity. Accordingly, he sent a team from the newly formed IDA to Germany in 1955.[5] Among the companies who showed interest in investing in Ireland was the firm of Hans Liebherr.
Hans visited Ireland at least twice after the IDA mission but it was during his trip in 1957 that the fortunes of both countries changed. Hans met a group of hastily assembled Killarney businessmen at the Great Southern Hotel, Killarney and was taken on a tour of the district.[6] ‘If there was a single defining moment in regard to his decision to invest in Killarney, it must have been as he was standing on the heights of Aghadoe, looking down on the lakes for the first time.’[7]
‘A Country Boy at Heart’[8]
Word soon spread that the Germans were coming to Kerry to build a crane factory and Killarney was flooded with rumour. Not all properly understood the concept, one person saw no need for a factory to make heavy pot hangers for the hearth, and, in the short years after World War Two, another was convinced of an ulterior motive: ‘Mark my words, you’ll see tanks and planes coming out of that place.’[9] The commercial logic of an inland location and practicality of building a factory in a tourist belt far from the nearest Port of Fenit was the subject on everyone’s lips,[10]
Rumour soon gave way to fact. A sixty-one acre site at Gortroe was purchased from Brian D and Maria Kelly for £6,893.[11] On 10 February 1958, Hans launched his Irish venture with a small ceremony using a spade to open a gap in the fence, Work was immediately got underway, and ‘a continual stream of local workmen’ began arriving looking for employment. The following year, a total of 22 cranes had been manufactured and invoiced.[12]
Hans turned his attention to the need for lodgings for his crane workers and for his customers, and inadvertently stepped into the tourist market. He built – controversially – lakeshore bungalows, and his plan to accommodate his customers evolved into the five-storey Hotel Europe which opened in March 1961. Hans subsequently purchased Ard na Sidhe, Lady Gordon’s former residence near Killorglin, for about €25,000[13] and built Dunloe Castle Hotel which opened in 1965 on an 80-acre site he had purchased in about 1960, complete with castle, for €19,000.[14]
‘Be on time, work hard, and the Germans will be happy’ – Frank Switzer’s ‘Rosary’[15]
Tom Foley is the author of The Liebherr Story, a lavishly illustrated history of the company in Killarney, its presentation interspersed with humorous caricatures – the work of Mark Heng – and inspiring literary quotations. Tom is able to tell the story from the inside for he started work at Liebherr in 1963, which delighted the 17-year-old for it meant he did not have to face the prospect of emigration.
Tom could not wait to see ‘what these Germans looked like’ and felt like a millionaire on a wage of today’s equivalent of €5.71 for a 54-hour week. He recalls the joy of working in an environment that was then much less focussed on individual output and quality:
We were all so young in those days. The vast majority of the workforce was either in their teens or early twenties. There was great humour, levity, and many practical jokes, nobody was spared.[16]
It is with humour and anecdote that Tom covers over sixty years of the Liebherr workplace including the first German workers and how they learned to embrace Irish ways. He explores the cultural divide in works relations, understanding that ‘too much discipline was anathema to an Irishman’ but ‘a convergence of attitudes’ lead to transformation. As he puts it, ‘language and culture differences were no barriers to friendship.’[17]
‘No long discussions just do it’ – Hans Liebherr[18]
‘The older generation will remember,’ writes Tom, ‘the major problems getting Fenit-bound loads over the old Ballydowney Bridge and through the junction at the Lewis Road Grotto’:
The truck driver’s nightmare continued in Tralee with Kelleher’s Bridge … he had to negotiate a gauntlet of narrow roads, bends, protruding walls and buildings, and low-lying telephone and power lines … a very stiff challenge indeed.[19]
Raymond Coffey travelled all over the world repairing and servicing Liebherr cranes. He recalls how on one of the assignments to Yemen, his tools were stolen from his car but the thief was later apprehended. The police escorted Raymond to the town square where the culprit was tied to a pole, and Raymond was handed an axe to sever the thumb of the thief.
The Liebherr Story records the first Irish workers – including a list of those who gave more than 40 years of service to the company – and the appointment of the first Irish Executive Director, Pat O’Leary in 2002. A lot of ground is covered between those years in this wonderful book, leaving no evident stone unturned – no mean task considering in excess of 10,000 people are estimated to have worked for Liebherr since 1958.[20]
The result is a book that reads more in the soft light of Killarney’s social history, where young men and farmers’ sons flooded to Fossa to find work, than its steely subject matter.[21]
‘He loathed boastful, self-important people who believed they were a cut above others’[22]
The above anecdote about the reticent Hans Liebherr suggests a man of the people who by his enterprise was able to aid prosperity in the community.
On 7 October 1993, Hans passed away at La Tour-de-Peilz in Switzerland. Five days before, knowing he was dying from cancer, he had chartered a 10-seater Citation jet in Geneva and set off with his daughter, three of his four sons and some of his grandchildren. His destination was Killarney, and one final look at his adopted home.[23]
He was laid to rest in Kirchdorf with his wife.[24]
Hans Liebherr was described by Matt McNulty, Director General of Bord Failte as ‘a visionary entrepreneur on a grand scale with a deep affection for Ireland.’[25] Patsy Cronin, branch secretary of SIPTU Killarney, commented, ‘Dr Liebherr made a bigger contribution than anybody else to industry and employment in Killarney and his companies provide quality, well-paid jobs to this day.’[26] Tom Foley remembers Hans as a trailblazer who showed vision and courage by dipping his toes in the uncertain waters of Ireland.
Killarney honoured Dr Hans Liebherr in the year 2000 when the new northern relief road was named after him.
Castleisland District Heritage
Most of the information in this article is taken from The Liebherr Story, a copy of which was donated to Castleisland District Heritage by Jerry Flynn, Vice Chairman of Castleisland District Heritage and former Chief Mechanical Engineer and Senior Training Consultant at Liebherr.[27]
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[1] The Liebherr Story (2022) by Tom Foley. Character assessment, pp255-263. [2] The Liebherr Story contains profiles of this second generation of the Liebherr family, pp264-269. [3] Ibid. [4] In 1955, in a report about the official opening of the new West Upper Stand at Lansdowne Road, it was remarked that the lofty work of fitting the new roof of corrugated asbestos sheeting was aided by the use of ‘one of the biggest of the forty Liebherr tower building cranes in Ireland supplied by Messrs Vonck’s Engineering Co Ltd, Clonskeagh, Dublin’ (Irish Press, 31 December 1955). [5] IDA (Industrial Development Agency) Ireland was formed in 1949. https://www.idaireland.com/our-history [6] The Liebherr Story, p45. The delegation consisted of Dan Kavanagh (1921-2008), Kerry County Council engineer; Teddy Clifford (RIP 1994) Chairman Killarney Urban District Council; Fr Bobby Murphy (RIP 1982); Michael Tim O’Sullivan (1917-2004) and Michael D ‘Mackey’ O’Shea (1899-1989), both of Killarney Tourist Development Co and solicitor Donal J Courtney (1930-1991). Translation was provided by Ravensburg native, Franz Knoblauch (RIP 2006), who was working as a chef in the Great Southern Hotel at the time of the German visit. Franz later established Linden House Hotel and Restaurant, New Road, Killarney. [7] Ibid, p229. [8] Ibid, p257. [9] Ibid, p72. [10] Hans held that the contentment of his key men (who are documented in the book) and their families he would bring over from Germany was more important than proximity to a seaport. He pointed out that his German factories were hundreds of kilometres from the sea. ‘He would build his crane in Killarney and the port of Fenit would be his gateway to the world’ (The Liebherr Story, pp210). [11] This land incorporated Courtney’s Home Farm Hotel. The hotel is mentioned in this article http://www.odonohoearchive.com/john-twiss-blood-of-gentlemen/. [12] Ibid, p81. [13] Ard na Sidhe, formerly Caragh Lodge, is mentioned at this link: http://www.odonohoearchive.com/nineteenth-century-castleisland-the-heart-of-the-collection/ [14] In relation to Hans Liebherr’s building projects, Tom Foley presents both sides of the environmental argument with editorials and statements. Hans had a reputation for insisting on the very highest standards for his hotels and the three venues continue to enjoy ‘an unrivalled reputation for standards of luxury, facilities and hospitality second to none in Ireland’ (The Liebherr Story, p236). [15] Ibid, p114. [16] Ibid, pp112-114. [17] Ibid, pp126-127. [18] One of Hans’s expressions (ibid, pp257). In business, Hans was never one for long reports, calculations, or surveys. He trusted his instincts (p17). [19] Ibid, p215. In 2022, Liebherr had more than 90% of Fenit Port’s business. [20] Subjects include German personnel, industrial relations, sourcing skills and apprenticing, products, work related accidents, a chapter on the crane for the mechanically minded, the role of women in the male dominated environment. It gives space to interactions with and contributions to the local community and to local businesses who have worked with Liebherr for many years. [21] John Radley of ‘Dublin Spire’ fame applied to the factory in 1959 at the age of 15 concealing his age in the process. [22] Ibid, p256. [23] Obituary Kerryman, 15 October 1993. [24] Maria Liebherr passed away on 12 May 1989. A photograph of the headstone appears on p283. [25] Irish Independent, 12 October 1993. [26] Irish Examiner, 20 October 1993. [27] The Liebherr Story (2022), subtitled ‘One of the first and most enduring foreign investments in an Irish rural community’ is held in CDH Collection Reference IE CDH 174. 281 pages. The following links to articles on this website contain references to Liebherr and Liebherr hotels: http://www.odonohoearchive.com/happy-days-reminiscences-of-a-kerryman/ Happy Days: Reminiscences of a Kerryman (Eugene O’Keeffe) http://www.odonohoearchive.com/a-sketch-of-coolclogher-house-killarney/ http://www.odonohoearchive.com/puedes-creerlo-campamento-memoir-finds-home-in-castleisland/
