KBA Mourns Loss of Dr. Bolza-Schünemann, 84

WÜRZBURG, GERMANY—Dr. Hans-Bernhard Bolza-Schünemann, former longtime president of Koenig & Bauer AG (KBA), died on July 23 at the age of 84. Dr. Bolza-Schünemann left his mark as a popular senior executive and a respected figure in the German engineering industry.

Dr. Bolza-Schünemann joined Koenig & Bauer as a design engineer in 1951. He ascended through several engineering-based positions and in 1964 became a full member of the company's board. He was named president in 1971, a post he held until 1995. Along the way, Dr. Bolza-Schünemann initiated innovations in press technology and acquisitions of other press manufacturers: Albert-Frankenthal in West Germany; Maschinenfabrik Mödling in Austria; and Planeta Druckmaschinenwerke in East Germany.

More than 250 patents bear Dr. Bolza-Schünemann’s signature, and he played a role in numerous technological advances. Among them are the development of a multicolor sheetfed gravure press, the Rembrandt MT III, in the 1950s; a high-speed letterpress machine, the Rotafolio, in the 1960s; the world’s widest newspaper press, the Jumbo-Courier, in the 1970s; and the first Rapida sheetfed offset press, also in the 1970s.

In the 1980s and ’90s, he actively promoted KBA’s role in keyless inking systems for multicolor newspaper and sheetfed presses. His achievements as an engineer were acknowledged in 1960 with the awarding of a Ring of Honour by the VDI (The Association of German Engineers) and in 2003 with the Leonardo da Vinci Prize by the AIPI (Association of Italian Industrial Engineers).