Josef Schneider, Sr.

Who was Josef Schneider, Sr.?

Josef Schneider Sr. was the first producer of electricity in Germany and founded the Elektrizitätswerk Horb. He was born in Bühlertann and died at the age of 87 in his hometown Horb am Neckar, Baden-Württemberg.

In 1890 Josef Schneider was granted a patent by royal warrant from the King of Württemberg to become the first German electricity producer. The next year, together with Ernst Werner von Siemens, he made significant improvements to the dynamo. In 1892 Germany saw its first electric light with the help of a steam turbine developed by Josef Schneider Sr. The first electricity was sold to the Hohenzollern royal family. Two years later, a fire destroyed the original generating plant, motivating construction of the first private hydro-electric power plant in Horb am Neckar. By 1912, he and Oskar von Miller were the first to connect eleven cities in the Stuttgart-Munich region to an electric grid using high-voltage lines. In 1922, he assisted in the development of the Voith-Francis Turbine.