As the daughter of company founder Heinrich Vollmer she steered the fortunes of the company for decades and played a key role in shaping it – first as managing director, then later as a long-standing member of the supervisory board and as a trustee of the Sieglinde Vollmer Foundation. In an industry dominated by men, she had a powerful impact and became an inspiring personality in mechanical engineering. With her death, VOLLMER has lost a true trailblazer, Biberach a deserving honorary citizen, and the region an outstanding entrepreneur and benefactor. Her legacy will be felt far beyond the boundaries of the company.
A look at the life of Sieglinde Vollmer – affectionately known in Biberach as “Fräulein Vollmer” – is also a look at the history of VOLLMER Werke. The mechanical engineering company was founded in 1909 by her father Heinrich Vollmer. Sieglinde Vollmer was born 15 years later November 30, 1924 in Stuttgart. A career in the company was out of the question for a long time: It was neither her life plan nor her father’s intention that she would one day determine the fate of the family business. Heinrich Vollmer first sent her to a secondary school for girls and prepared her to run a larger household as a wife and mother. However, the Second World War interrupted her school career. Sieglinde was sent to Slovenia for military service in 1942. After the war she initially helped her mother with the housework and later discovered a passion for equestrian sports. She achieved several successes in show jumping, but had to give up her beloved sport due to an injury in 1954. The 30-year-old then completed her studies in interpreting in Munich. She learned to speak English and Spanish fluently, as well as French, Italian and Russian – and discovered her love for travelling.
An entrepreneur with sense and compassion – a heart for the company
She bore the title “Fräulein” (“Miss” in English) proudly her entire life and, instead of becoming a wife and mother, things turned out differently than originally planned. The company was to become her second family, today employing around 800 “descendants”. In 1962, one year after the death of her father, Sieglinde Vollmer began undertaking duties in the company. Thanks to her excellent foreign language skills, she found her place at VOLLMER in the export department. As early as 1964 she assumed the role of managing director alongside her brother Udo Vollmer, and has played a crucial role in leading this medium-sized mechanical engineering company to success since 1987. She came to know and love the VOLLMER Werke company, which was her father’s life’s work. Her multilingualism opened doors, her warmth was often the start of long-standing business relationships, and her expertise formed a solid foundation for those relationships. As a strong woman in the engineering industry, Sieglinde Vollmer developed the traditional company into a technological leader for grinding and eroding machines.
The company became her family. And the feeling was mutual among the employees of VOLLMER Werke. With her humour, warmth, open-mindedness, curiosity and expertise, Sieglinde Vollmer looked after her company and its employees. 2003 she handed over the operational management of the company to the subsequent managing directors, but remained closely associated with the company as a member of the supervisory board. She was, is and will forever be the heart and soul of the VOLLMER company. Her legacy will live on – something for which she already made provision in 2013. The establishment of the Sieglinde Vollmer Foundation ensured that the company would be continued in her spirit and that of company founder Heinrich Vollmer. The foundation provides the framework for the continued existence of the mechanical engineering company and ensures its economic independence.
“It is with great sadness that we say goodbye to Sieglinde Vollmer, whose courage and vision made VOLLMER a technology leader”, writes Martin Kapp, chairman of the supervisory board of the VOLLMER Group: “Our beloved Fräulein was an entrepreneur through and through, a veritable virtuoso, whose excellence was unmatched. We will continue her life’s work.”
