2024 Weinheim
On 22 February 2024, we had the opportunity to get to know Freudenberg SE in Weinheim. Freudenberg was a successful tannery in the mid-19th century. Today, the company is a global enterprise with over 50,000 employees and sales of almost €12 billion (2022). Freudenberg’s business areas are (1) sealing and vibration technology (e.g. the Simmerring®), (2) technical textiles and filtration (nonwovens), (3) cleaning technologies and products (e.g. the Vileda cloth) and (4) specialities.
Following an introduction to the company (company exhibition), we had the opportunity to get to know two operations: the production of gas diffusion layers for fuel cells (nonwovens) and the production and testing of seals (Simmerringe®).
The tour began as early as 9:00 am on 22 February 2024. For this reason, the excursion participants met for a communal dinner the previous evening. For the first time, the senior members had also invited five young chemists from Heidelberg, Mainz and Gießen to join the excursion. The chemical trade press was also represented: Nachrichten aus der Chemie (Christian Remenyi), Chemistry Views (Vera Köster), Chemie in unserer Zeit (Doris Fischer-Henningsen) and CheManager (Michael Reubold).
Weinheim, the ‘town of two castles’ (Windeck Castle ruins and Wachenburg), has around 45,000 inhabitants. Weinheim lies along the Bergstrasse at the edge of the Odenwald and is approximately 20 km from Heidelberg and Mannheim; Frankfurt is about 75 km north of Weinheim.
Following the excursion to Freudenberg, Eva Wille organised a guided tour of the town with the historian Dr. Alexander Boguslawski, focusing on the period of the Baden Revolution of 1848/49 in Weinheim.