Owner and CEO of Bitzer, Peter Schaufler, has passed away at the age of 74.
Schaufler took charge of the company in 1979 and has managed it for 36 years.
During this time Schaufler gave the company an international focus turning Bitzer into the world’s largest independent manufacturer of refrigeration compressors. Today, Bitzer has 3,400 employees in more than 90 countries.
In a formal statement the company said:“The Peter Schaufler era was characterized by values such as hard work, ingenuity, and quality, which are now firmly rooted in the Bitzer corporate culture. His forward-looking business policy and his willingness to rise to challenges allowed him to conquer new markets, and to successfully introduce compressor technologies to the market, such as screw compressors in 1983 and scroll compressors in 2002.”
Schaufler has left a lasting legacy including the Schaufler Foundation which was set up in 2005 and is the main sponsor of the Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences’ Valerius Füner Prize, which recognizes the outstanding achievements of mechanical engineering students in the areas of refrigeration, air conditioning, and environmental technology.
The foundation also supports dedicated students at the University of Dresden, the University of Stuttgart, and the Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences via the German government’s Deutschlandstipendium (Germany Scholarship).
Schaufler was also keen to see the advancement of scientific research in the field of refrigeration and air conditioning technology.
In 2007 he created the Bitzer Chair of Refrigeration, Cryogenics and Compressor Technology at the Dresden University of Technology.
In 2010 Schaufler was awarded the Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany for his contributions to the fields of culture and science. It was just one of many awards he received during his lifetime.