A famous Robert Bosch quote goes: “I don’t pay good wages because I have a lot of money; I have a lot of money because I pay good wages.”
The famous inventor Robert Bosch died on this day in 1942, aged 80. He died in the German city of Stuttgart. Of course, in 1942 Stuttgart was in the midst of Hitler’s Third Reich, just at a time when the German Army (Wehrmacht) was on the battlefields of Russia, as well as in North Africa (Rommel’s Africa Corps).
Robert Bosch was born not far from the German city of Ulm in 1862 (somewhat later, Albert Einstein was also born in Ulm). About the same age as Bosch were a significant number of famous inventors in the field of technology. For example, Rudolf Diesel was only about 3 years older, and Henry Ford only 2 years younger.
Bosch was one of the first industrialists in Germany to introduce the eight-hour work day for his workers. Although by convictions he was mostly a philanthropist and a peacemaker, it is interesting that during the Nazi period his company worked for the German arms industry, and allegedly even employed forced laborers. However, in his last will and testament Bosch stipulated the allocation of funds to charitable causes. A famous Robert Bosch quote goes: “I don’t pay good wages because I have a lot of money; I have a lot of money because I pay good wages” (German: Ich nicht gute Löhne Zahle, weil ich habe viel Geld, sondern ich habe viel Geld, weilichguteLöhnebezahle).
