New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-04-02
MAX MANNESMANN DIES;
FRIEND OF THE SOLDIER
German Business Man Was the Originator Of APP
paratus That Makes Wounded in the Field
Bless His Name.
Nv JAMES O'DONNELL BENNETT.

nrSt time.
Max Mannesmann died carly this
morning at the Luisen Hospital after
an illness of less than ten days.
Remembering, as they will, with pro
found affection and respect that vital
buoyant, eager personality, 1t VIII DC
with as much amazement as grief tnat
McCutcheon, Hansen, Cobb, Thompson
and the rest of us Americans. to whom
Max Mannesmann was so klnd' VIII
learn that he is no more. lie was es-
pecially fond of McCutcheon, and only
week before last was asking me
whether | had recent news OF him;
Max Mannesmann was CIVILIAN put
no man who has fallen IN the battle
line more surely died patriots death
than did this captain OF lndustriai
Germany. He had worn himself out
for the Fatherland, and when, as re-
suit of exposure in Belgium, he was
stricken with pneumonia, he had not
the strength TO conquer the disease.
The highest tribute that can be paid
his busy, noble life is that amid
dreadful war the last months of that
life were devoted not to the infliction
but to the relief of human suffering.
Invented Autos for Wounded.
The little Mannesmann auto cars
which he invented for the transport OF
wounded soldiers are his best monu-
ment, and every broken and bleeding
man who rides in them has cause TO
bless his name.
BY an ingenious placing Of the
wheels, disposition of weights and ap-
plication Of pneumatics they run on
rough highways almost as smoothly as
a baby carriage does on n sidewalk, ana
the Earring which is such torture to
the wounded ia reduced to a minimum.
Their lightness and compactness OF
structure enable them TO be taken over
n battlefield, and thus the weary and
painful work with sctretchers is obvi-
ated whenever a Mannesmann car Is at
hand.
The cars can also be heated by cleo
tricitv, and at least a dozen of them
can be swiftly drawn by an automobile
of ordinary power.
The imperial government was quick
to recognize the value Of the invention
and began to order the cars IN large
numbers as soon as the models were
submitted.
1t was to make further demonstra-
tons with the cars that Mr.. Names
mann took several of them to Belgium
and Northern France last month:
On such trips he never spared him
self. travelling long hours and far into
the night in an open auto. ! have
known him to go nine hours without
food and then grudgingly spare the
time for n hurried snack, because,
he would say, 1--WE must waste none OF
the minutes Of these earnest days
TO- C0Idiara
His solicitude for the soldie. which
had become a passion OF his he,
prompted him TO 60 TO them IN the
trenches when he was in the western
theatre Of war The exposure to cold
and damp which he had to face there
could not have oeen good for him, es-
Iecially as il came on top OF the long
rides across a bleak countryside.
A week ago last Sunday he said he
did not feel well. and took to his bed,
averring. though, that at was nothing"
He hated to show weakness, always
saying that in these times nobody had
az right TO think of ailments.
Two days later his cond.t on became
so serious that he was removed from
his bachelor quarters in the Hotel
Grand Monarque to the Luisen Hospi-
tai. SO late as last evening his broth
ers and sisters, who had come from
other parts of the Rhineland to his
bedside in Aachen, believed the crisis
was past and that he would recover
Only yesterday the American vice
consul at Aachen, Henri Quadfieg, said
to me, "Did you know your friend Max
Mannesmann was ill.,"
Being much occupied Of late, / had
not seen Mr.. Mannesmann for several
d. IS, nor had heard that he was ILL.,
"But the crisis is thought to past"
added the vice-consul, who is a Ger
man, "and that is good, for we could
not afford to lose Herr Max"
A Representative German.
Germany could not, INDEED, afford 20
lose him. He was one Of her represent
alive men, representative especially Of
that efficiency cult which i, the religion
of the German industrial world and
which more than her army and navy
has made Germany great world
power.
He stood for the highest type of
German industrial leader, and it } be-
cause he was of that type that he COM
bined the idealist and the shrewd man
of business. 1t was the idCdlist in n
that made his patriotism so fine and
lofty, and it was the man Of business
in Linn that made the workings of his
patriotism so practical.
His mind was always teeming with
the details of new inventions, and since
the war came all he discovered an de-
vised was consecrated to his country.
He thought of nothing else.
Just before he fell i'll he had in hand
plans for the building of new machines
and new factories which would email
him to hasten the completion of orders
which the government had placed with
him and his brothers.
He looked, too, beyond the period Of
war, and he was shaping plans for the
care and education of orphaned chill
dren after the declaration of peace.
1--WE must think of these matters" he
used to say, "and now is not too soon
to begin to think of them. Nothing can
ever repay our soldiers for the sacri-
fees they are making for us. The most
gifted Of the children OF the men who
fall must be given the highest echnical
education.
Planned for the Fatherless.
"Those who are not qualified TO profit
bv the highest training must Rave a
future of the fatherless children our
less exacting future opened to them.
We business men must rails great
funds for these purposes and give the
best thought"
Then he said sometime that stuck in
my memory. 1t was this:
I'VE would not be gentlemen if We
did not"
was with Mr.. Mannesmann on the
last trip but one that he ever made. 1t
was when he took to Berlin the first
four cars for the wounded which his
fnn.nrinr LID tnrnnd out His nurnOSe