Ludwig Schunk

German manufacturer and cofounder of the firm of Schunk und Ebe oHG. He expanded and shored up his company through diversification into related fields of technology.

Schunk und Ebe oHG was founded in 1913 as a factory for production of carbon brushes for dynamos and electric motors in Fulda in Hesse and moved in 1918 to Heuchelheim near Giessen. By now the company has developed into being the Schunk Group, a technology concern with worldwide operations.

Ludwig Schunk did not have any children. His wife, who had collaborated very energetically in building up the company, had died early. The heirs of his deceased business partner Karl Ebe had been compensated so that he was sole owner of the corporate assets. As early as 1938 he decided in his will that those assets would be made available to the employees. He clarified this in a supplemental testament in 1942 and made the providential fund he had founded his sole heir.

Ludwig Schunk died from heart failure on 10 May 1947, aged 63, in Heuchelheim, near Giessen. As he had arranged, the providential fund became upon his death heir to the assets of the firm of Schunk & Ebe.