Famous Czech Industrialist Kolben Family Story

17 March 2007, 09:59 - History
The life story of famous Czech electrotechnician, inventor, industrialist Emil Kolben and his family is shown at the exhibition in Prague's Jewish Museum. Emil Kolben (1862–1943) was the founder of what became the engineering company Českomoravská-Kolben-Daněk in Prague (later seized by communists and renamed to CKD). The company belonged to one of the largest Czechoslovakian industrial concerns.

Kolben spend part of his life in the United States where he participated on the research in the labs of Thomas Edison and he ended up as his chief engineer and the head of the technical offices and the laboratory of the Edison General Electric Company in Schenectady, New York. He also participated on the research of electric motors for three-phase alternating current conducted by Nikola Tesla.

After his return from USA, in 1896, he set up the electrotechnical factory in Prague's quarter Vysočany. After several mergers, the name of the company became known in Czechoslovakia and abroad. But after the Nazi occupation of the Czech lands in March 1939, Emil Kolben had to give up all his posts at ČKD and he was forced to sell several family run companies.

On 9 June 1943, at the age of 81, Emil Kolben (with some family members) was deported to the Terezín ghetto, where he died just three weeks later.

Robert Guttmann Gallery is an own exhibition venue for the presentation of temporary exhibitions in Prague's Jewish Museum. It covers the area of around 80 square metres an is located on the ground floor in the north-east section of the new Jewish Museum complex in Prague's Jewish Town.

WHERE: The Jewish Museum in Prague, Robert Guttmann Gallery, U Staré školy 3, Prague 1

WHEN: until 15 April 2007 | open daily 9am to 4.30pm except Saturdays and Jewish holidays

MORE INFO: About the exhibition