The 4th SEC Technology Tour took a group of senior chemists (GDCh Senior Expert Chemists and VAA Wolfgang Industrial Park Group) to Erbach in the Odenwald on 26 Aug 2011. Despite the long journey and a bad weather forecast, the tour was almost fully booked with 32 participants.

Einhard

Einhard belonged to the great circle of Europe's intellectual elite at Charlemagne's court in Aachen. He was particularly close to Charlemagne and was his biographer. After Charlemagne's death, he was given a considerable part of the district of Muhlinheim, now Seligenstadt, and built a church in Steinbach near Michelstadt "of a not inglorious kind" as his burial place. It is still preserved today and, together with the basilica in Seligenstadt and the Königshalle in Lorsch, is one of the last remaining Carolingian buildings north of the Alps. Together with the tour guide, the senior citizens were able to admire the fine Carolingian masonry, the original nave and even the remains of Carolingian frescoes. The fact that Einhard's burial place turned out differently is another interesting story.

Erbach

The pensioners met up with the same guide a little later in the district town of Erbach for a tour of the town. In front of the castle, a statue of the most important of the Erbach counts, Franz I, dressed in a Roman toga welcomes his subjects. Franz owes this somewhat unusual garment in the Odenwald to his passion for antiquity. He excavated Roman remains along the nearby Limes and "collected" numerous Roman antiquities in Italy, today an important collection in the castle. He also introduced compulsory education, reformed agriculture and established ivory carving, thus creating jobs in the structurally weak region. The baroque castle now belongs to the state of Hesse, but Hereditary Count Eberhard von Erbach-Erbach now lives on the second floor - a baroque penthouse of almost 1000 square metres. While it is correct to address the count as "Erlaucht", it is more appropriate to address the Erbacher as "Ei gurre wie", which in the practical language of the Odenwald means "Guten Tag, wie geht es Ihnen". Opposite the castle is the Erbacher Brauhaus directly on the Mümling. On brewing days, a horseman used to be sent upstream to prevent the discharge of any waste water beforehand. The senior chemists nevertheless enjoyed a cool beer, as the temperature had climbed to well over 30° in the meantime. After the break, the group split up into "a tour of the castle" and "the German Ivory Museum".

Eipott

The excursion ended with a tour of the company Koziol, now one of Erbach's largest employers. The exciting thing about Koziol is not so much the technology, but its origins. This company also began by carving ivory. After 1945, however, cheap mass products were in demand and Bernhard Koziol produced souvenir items. The big hit was the snow globe, which Mr Koziol was supposedly inspired to make by looking out of the pretzel window of his VW Beetle into the snow-covered Odenwald. By consistently restructuring its product range, Koziol now plays in the concert of the really big product designers: "Designed in Odenwald." The list of international design awards is impressive.
After a look around Koziol's modern injection moulding hall, visitors to the "Koziol Outlet" were able to see for themselves the many witty ideas of the Koziol designers. An egg cup in the shape of an iPod from the company with the apple became particularly famous. In August 2010, Apple successfully took legal action against the use of the name. The egg stand is now sold under the name "Pott 2.0"; the accompanying cardboard box is adorned with a decapitated egg - not remotely resembling a bitten apple.

SEC Technology tours are currently organised by Wolfgang Gerhartz, Tel 06251-938558. Suggestions for the organisation of future excursions are welcome.