March 



1904.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



193 



DEATH OF CARL MARET. 



Harburg (Elbe), January 23, 1904. 



Gentlemen : 

 Herewith we discharge the sad duty of informing you of 

 the sad death of 



Herr Director CARL MARET, 



Imperial Prussian Councillor of Commerce and Senator of 



the City of Harburg. 



The honored deceased was a member of our company 



since its foundation, in 1856, and earned the highest merit 



in furthering its development. 



We beg you to retain the deceased in kind remembrance. 

 Very respectfully, 

 VEREINIGTE GUMMIWAAREN-KABRIKEN 

 HARBURG-WIEN, 

 VORMALS MENIER — J. N. RK1THOFFER. 

 L. Hoff. 



THE German rubber industry has sustained a great loss by 

 the death of its Nestor, Director Carl Maret, who died 

 on January 22, after a brief illness, in his seventy- 

 fourth year. Carl Maret was born in Berlin, July 31, 

 1829. He chose the profession of mechanical engineer, and af- 

 ter devoting several years to that pro- 

 fession at home, he came to the United 

 States to gain further experience. We 

 are without details regarding his life in 

 America, though an early number of 

 The India Rubber World mentions 

 him as being employed at one time in 

 the state of New Jersey, and as the In- 

 dia rubber industry had already become 

 important in that state, it is possible 

 that his attention was first directed 

 there to this business. 



He returned to Germany in 1856, at 

 which time a new rubber factory was 

 being planned by Albert and Louis 

 Cohn, at Harburg a/d Elbe. Mr. Maret 

 joined in the preparation of the plans, 

 and later he entered the employment 

 of the firm as engineer. Through his 

 untiring devotion to his duties, and his 

 inventive genius, he rose to the position 

 of director of the works, when the com- 

 pany had developed into a rubber man- 

 ufacturing enterprise of the first magnitude. 



The Harburg works originally were equipped for the manu- 

 facture of rubber shoes only, but Carl Maret soon took up, with 

 the initial owners of the works, the manufacture of all the new 

 articles which helped to bring the rubber industry to its present 

 importance. Moreover, he was among the first to take an in- 

 terest in rubber substitutes based on oils, and developed their 

 production in a high degree. 



In the early " sixties " the Harburg plant passed from the 

 possession of Aubert Gerard et Cie. to that of Menier, the 

 great Parisian chocolate manufacturer, whose name was a 

 household word all over the world. Menier became a senator 

 soon after the disastrous war of 1870, and the French people, 

 failing to understand how one of their countrymen, and a sena- 

 tor at that, could find employment for a host of their then 

 deadly enemies, such an adverse public opinion was created 



among them that he felt obliged to part with his German ven- 

 ture. In 1872, therefore, a syndicate was formed which pur- 

 chased the Harburg rubber works and also the rubber factory 

 of J. N. Reithoffer— said to be the oldest in the world — at 

 Wimpassing, near Vienna, Austria, the consolidated business 

 taking the name Vereinigte Gummiwaaren-Fabriken, Harburg- 

 Wien, vormals Menier— J. N. Reithoffer, Actiengesellschaft. 



On the consummation of the new arrangement, June 1, 1872, 

 Carl Maret entered, as mechanical director, into the board of 

 management, where he remained until the end of his life, con- 

 tributing very greatly to the continued growth of the company 

 and the high renown which it enjoys. Both of the factories 

 have been directed from Harburg, the Austrian establishment 

 being entirely subordinate to the German. Herr Maret was 

 held in the highest esteem by all the employes, in whose wel- 

 fare he always displayed the warmest interest. For many years 

 the management of the business has been shared by Louis 

 Hoff, in charge of the commercial department, and likewise a 

 capable and successful business administrator. 



Carl Maret found time also for an active part in public life. 

 For 27 years he was connected with the municipal government 

 of the city of Harburg and for 18 years 

 was senator of that city. The most 

 beautiful section of Harburg and the 

 Maretstrasse bear witness of his energy 

 in seeking to improve the city. In leg- 

 islative matters he rendered valuable 

 services to the government. In all 

 things relating to the rubber industry 

 his opinion was always sought in mat- 

 ters of importance and accepted as 

 final. As an organizer he was excep- 

 tionally gifted, and his influence in the 

 Centralverein Deutscher Kautschuk- 

 waaren-Fabriken (Association of Ger- 

 man Rubber Goods Factories) proved 

 most helpful to the industry. In this 

 connection may be mentioned the work 

 accomplished in relation to the customs 

 tariff, and the action taken in recent 

 years in relation to prices. Only a few 

 weeks ago he was honored by the Em- 

 peror with the appointment as Imperial 

 the late carl maret. Prussian Councillor of Commerce. 



Carl Maret worked unceasingly, in his public and private ca- 

 pacities, until the last days of his ripe old age, leaving a record 

 to be remembered gratefully by the whole German rubber in- 

 dustry. 



The funeral of Councillor Maret, on January 26, was a typical 

 illustration of the high esteem and honor in which the deceased 

 was held as well as of the general s;rrow caused by his death. 

 The residents of Harburg, the municipal council, and officers 

 and employes of the company were his funeral escort. The in- 

 terment was in the old cemetery of Harburg, where the Maret 

 family have a burial plot. Harburg buried its best and most 

 honored citizen, and a funeral procession like this was never 

 seen within its walls. 



Besides the countless tributes of condolence sent from near 

 and far, many personal friends of the deceased and the firm, the 

 representatives of the principal rubber factories of Germany, 



