Arthur Müller
Arthur Müller was a German entrepreneur and inventor. He became known as the founder and director of the "Deutsche Flugplatz Gesellschaft", which instigated, built and then operated the "Motorflugplatz Johannisthal-Adlershof", Germany's first commercial airfield.
Life and business
Provenance and early years
Aron Cohn was born into a Jewish family in Stuhm, in West Prussia, a short distance to the south of Danzig. The little town had become something of a backwater at the heart of a region in which the principal source of wealth was the cultivation of grain, potatoes and sugar beet: the Cohns were among a handful of practicing Jews in what was - slightly unusually in this part of Germany - a predominantly Catholic town. He was the third son of Jeanette and Max Müller: there were also three sisters. Little is known of his childhood: sources speculate that the family was associated with a pharmacy shown in an old photograph of the town, which carries on its frontage the name "Cohn". According to an otherwise uncorroborated mention in a condolence book from the time of his death, his father died at a relatively young age, leaving his widowed mother to bring up the family on her own. Nor is it clear whether it was the entire family that at some stage switched their name from Cohn to Müller, or whether it was solely the aviation pioneer Arthur Müller who took that step, possibly applying it retrospectively also to his parents.In 1885 Aron/Arthur enrolled at the Lutheran gymnasium further to the south, in Schweidnitz, indicating that the family was not completely destitute. Sources speculate that in order to attend the school he will have needed to stay with relatives in the area or else - more unusually - to attend the school as a "boarder". Subsequently, he undertook a business oriented training in Posen, which he completed in 1895, before embarking on a career in the animal-feed business. By 1895 Aron Cohn had unambiguously become known as Arthur Müller, although the name change would not be officially implemented till 1912: it was not unusual for Jewish families to adopt mainstream non-Jewish names during this period. Müller worked as a sales representative for three major fertilizer and feed companies, based respectively in Hamburg, Hanover and New York. It was also during or very shortly after 1895, aged just 24, that he started his own business, devising and commercialising the feed formulation "Müllers Mais-Melasse", which incorporated molasses and a corn-glucose based ingredient imported from America. This product received an important endorsement from the influential Agriculture Faculty at the University of Bonn. It had also made Arthur Müller usefully rich.
Berlin and marriage
In or before 1898 Arthur Müller relocated to Berlin from where, till 1902, he continued to run his animal feed business. He was living in the German capital when he married Thekla Sara Benari, the daughter of a well-placed Jewish family from Coburg. The marriage was followed by the births of the couple's two sons, Max and Ludwig.Lightweight commercial buildings
1902 saw an abrupt change of direction, as Müller's entrepreneurial ambition and inventiveness continued to burn brightly. Contacts with the rapidly mechanising and consolidating agriculture sector made him acutely aware of the growing shortage of warehouse space for newly harvested farm crops. Hay was often stored out of doors and crops often deteriorated due to poor storage. He therefore teamed up with a technical expert to develop a new type of storage barn, using inexpensive lightweight techniques employing a timber skeleton frame that could be covered with timber or simply with tarpaulin sheeting. He patented his invention appropriately. The business flourished, benefitting from a campaign being run by the Prussian government, backed by a budget of 4.2 million marks, to encourage the construction of barns for crops and livestock.In order to expand the business he took on two friends as investors and co-shareholders, and in 1908 the lightweight construction business was relaunched as the "Arthur Müller Land- und Industriebauten AG" company. His new partners in the business were Karl Frank, a dealer in agricultural land from Pomerania who specialised in the break-up and resale of the huge Prussian landed estates, and Karl Haerms, a timber wholesaler who would play an important role in Müller subsequent business dealings. Müller's lightweight storage barns quickly found applications beyond the agriculture sector, notably in the emerging aerospace sector, first as hangars for airships and air balloons, and soon also for winged aircraft. For the first International Air Transport Exhibition, held at Frankfurt in 1909, Arthur Müller constructed all the airship hangars at his own risk, and rented them out to the organisers.
Der Motorflugplatz Johannisthal-Adlershof
It was from Georg von Tschudi, the director of the Frankfurt exhibition, that Müller learned of plans to build an airfield at Berlin. Von Tschudi was a member of the original German Aero-Club founded in 1907, and a former member of the Prussian airship corps who had returned from a two-year assignment with the Moroccan government the previous year, also told fellow aviation enthusiasts about Müller who now became an enthusiastic member of Germany's small band of active aviation pioneers, albeit a member without a pilot's license. Early in 1909 the "fantastic air project" - or at least a fantastically embellished version of it - became public knowledge as result of an article appearing in the Berliner Tagesblatt on 8 March 1909. The previous day, Müller had held an informal meeting in the second class waiting room at Niederschöneweide–Johannisthal station, close to the intended airfield site. His interlocutors were two senior members of the local forestry department and his purposes was to discuss practical details of how the project might unfold. From the subsequent press report, it would appear that an employee of the station catering staff was listening. High levels of media interest would become an on-going aspect of the airfield project.Up till now Zeppelin landings and the first trials with winged aircraft at Berlin had taken place on military training areas such as the Tempelhofer Feld: it was becoming apparent that the development of civil air travel was being held back by the absence of any more suitable facilities than these. Through contacts from his time in the agriculture sector, Müller was in a position to ensure that the "German Airfield Company", which was in the process of being set up in order to manage the airfield project, would be able to acquire rights to use the land for the future airfield inexpensively from the Prussian Forestry Administration. Such favourable financial terms would not be available directly to the already heavily indebted "German Airfield Company", however. Müller became a key investor and in many respects the de facto business leader of the airfield project team.
It was envisaged that the running of the airfield would be financed by entry fees from visitors making use of the anticipated daily passenger flights or attending special events. Most of the necessary airfield infrastructure, such as the wooden sheds and the aircraft hangars, audience barriers, ticket kiosks and the spectator stands were constructed by Müller's own company, "Arthur Müller Land- und Industriebauten AG". Despite delays involving the leased part of the site, meaning that a start could only be made on felling the trees on it on 1 September 1909, by 26 September 1909 it was possible to use the site for the opening of Germany's first-ever "flight week". The Minister for War, Karl von Einem, took a close interest, but was slow to provide practical support. However, during September 1909 the minister agreed to make soldiers available for tree felling duties which, under the circumstances, was a valuable and timely intervention. The "Motorflugplatz Johannisthal-Adlershof" opened with a competitive flying display on 26 September 1909 followed by a week long celebration and exhibition. In total, the organiser and organisers were provided with 7 beer tents, 9 large toilets, 3 small toilets and a large car park. The event was a great public success, but in strictly financial terms results were disappointing: expenses and fees paid to the "flying stars" and other celebrities for their participation were not matched by revenue from ticket sales. Not for the last time, Müller was invited to fund the shortfall.
A separate company was formed by Arthur Müller on 30 October 1910 with a share capital of 2.2 million marks. The name of the company was "Terrain-Aktien-Gesellschaft am Flugplatz Johannisthal/Adlershof", but it is more usually identified in sources by its initials as "Tagafia". The defining objective of the company was to derive benefit from land to be acquired by it, whether through purchase, lease or other commercial involvement, and to participate in other land and construction related business. The background was the position of the "Forstfiskus", the government agency responsible for making available the leased part of the land. The Forstfiskus would be prepared grant a lease for the airfield site to the successful and eminently solvent businessman Arthur Müller. However, such an option could not be granted to the existing "German Airfield Company". The agency's position was the one laid down earlier that year in a Cabinet Order" dated 21 March 1910 and the ensuing Ministerial Decree dated 9 April 1910, both of which expressly endorsed Müller's involvement. The "Tagafia" finally acquired the site for the Johannisthal Airfield: according to one source, 31% of the land came from the municipalities of Johannisthal and Adlershof at nil cost, in recognition that the project was a "community objective". Also included in the deal was a stipulation that Müller personally should have a right of first refusal in respect of the 300 hectare airfield site acquired for a "substantial price" by the "Tagafia" company. The creation of the "Tagafia" was only one of a number of company formations that Müller undertook around this time in connection with the airfield project, which presumably protected the airfield project, but which also gave rise to a complex and inscrutable network of commercial relationships, over all of which he presided. The years from 1910 till 1912 saw much development and construction at the "Motorflugplatz Johannisthal-Adlershof" which also had their impact in the surrounding districts of Berlin.