Unimog pioneer Manfred Florus would have been 100 years old

Manfred Floruson the occasion of his 90th birthday in 2014 – Manfred Florus on the occasion of his 90th birthday in 2014. photo: Michael Wessel

Unimog pioneer Manfred Florus would have been 100 years old

By a stroke of luck, Manfred Florus passed by the former Boehringer brothers’ machine tool factory in 1949 after a disappointing job interview at the Württembergische Warenzentrale in Göppingen and read a sign: “Labour wanted for the UNIMOG!” – He later recalled: “I looked at the sign and thought: Boehringer was well known in Göppingen at the time and, with around 900 employees, was quite a large company – so what was wrong with stepping into the yard at least once? – Mr Dietrich and Mr Sturm welcomed me there, and I soon got to know their secretary, Mrs Fetzner. – Now everything happened very quickly. I was hired as a labourer for the assembly department and, as was customary at the time, I started work the very next day.” This was the start of a storybook career.

But let’s take a look further back:

Manfred Florus was born on 4 May 1924. After an agricultural apprenticeship with Graf von Rechberg near Göppingen, he studied agricultural engineering at the agricultural college in Hohenheim from 1947. It was there in 1948 that the young student saw a Unimog for the first time. He also recalled this in Volume 1 of “Stories about the Unimog”: “There was no question of love at first sight.

If someone had told me back then that I would dedicate my entire professional life to this vehicle, I would have laughed out loud.” This was probably also due to the fact that the plough deformed during the planned demonstration because it could not withstand the forces of the Unimog.”

His colleague Roland Feix, who had already helped assemble Unimog No. 23, recommended that he also switch to testing. And during the first field trials, Florus succeeded in selling a Unimog to several farmers. His talent was recognised and he was commissioned to carry out demonstrations in northern Germany and win over dealers for the Unimog. A huge success!

“Demonstrate, demonstrate and demonstrate again” continued to be Manfred Florus’ task when he moved with the Unimog and many colleagues from Göppingen to Gaggenau in 1951. He again succeeded in landing many large orders, especially abroad. in 1959, he became Head of Sales Promotion and finally Head of Unimog Export in 1966. In this role, he maintained very friendly contacts all over the world – even after his retirement in 1989. He was also highly valued as a consultant.

Florus was particularly proud of a gold medal he received on the occasion of the 1964 Olympic Games in Innsbruck, as many Unimog and Mercedes lorries saved the Winter Games with their snow transports under his direction in that snow-poor year.

Manfred Florus and his son Christof Florus, then Lord Mayor of Gaggenau, at the presentation of the Federal Cross of Merit to Stefan Schwaab (centre), Chairman of the Unimog Museum Association, in 2012 – Manfred Florus and his son Christof Florus, then Lord Mayor of Gaggenau, at the presentation of the Federal Cross of Merit to Stefan Schwaab, Chairman of the Unimog Museum Association, in 2012 – Photo: Michael Wessel

He always felt connected to the University of Hohenheim. From 1988 to 2003, he was the 1st Chairman of the Friends of the German Agricultural Museum (DLM) and subsequently Chairman of the Board of Trustees until 2012. Manfred Florus received the Max Eyth Society’s commemorative medal in 2004 “in honour of his successful activities to promote the global image of the Unimog and in recognition of his extraordinary services to the preservation and further development of the German Agricultural Museum in Stuttgart-Hohenheim”.

We at the Unimog Club Gaggenau were able to benefit from his experience with the Unimog and in the management of the DLM support organisation from its foundation in 1993, as he took on the role of Second Chairman until 2008. He had already experienced many things in Hohenheim that were uncharted territory for other board colleagues and was therefore able to contribute this experience.

Florus and his fellow board members Hans-Jürgen Schöpfer and Edwin Westermann then took on the task of identifying and evaluating possible locations in a working group for the idea of realising a Unimog museum, which had arisen in the Gaggenau Unimog Club. However, when Stefan Schwaab favoured a relatively large new building instead, Florus could not quite get to grips with this new idea. However, his wealth of experience subsequently flowed into the design of the Unimog Museum and the organisation of many special exhibitions. He was able to draw on a wealth of experience and therefore rarely failed to provide an answer. It is a pity that he was no longer able to witness the exemplary positive development of the museum up to its expansion in 2023.

Manfred Florus was also a “stand-up man”: in 2009, he was briefly considered clinically dead after suffering a cardiac arrest in the Gaggenau forest cemetery. But he also repeatedly survived numerous operations on his knee, hip and even his aorta.

Manfred Florus died on 15 April 2018 at the age of 93. He would have been 100 years old now. He remains unforgotten.

Michael Wessel

Honorary Chairman of the Unimog Club Gaggenau e. V.

A few photos as a reminder