Three volumes for three decades
A company chronicle is being created:
The KYBURZ history will soon be available in book form.
In spring 2019, Laurence Nève, our administrative manager in the eRod project, contacted me: she had met a motor journalist at the Geneva Motor Show who also writes books. If I ever thought of writing a company chronicle, he was the right man for the job...
A book about the KYBURZ company? That didn't seem necessary to me at first; even for the 25th anniversary, we had done very well without one in 2016! So the proposal lay dormant until early 2020, when first the Geneva Motor Show and then many other trade fairs important to us were cancelled because of the pandemic. As a result, we freed up some marketing budget, looked for new communication channels in parallel, and the book author Laurence introduced in September as Matthias Pfannmüller was very sympathetic to me. He brought along some of his previous titles, of which I particularly liked the one on the history of Tempo tricycles, which had once been developed and built in Hamburg. I had already seen these vehicles in India without being aware of their origin. But similar literature to my company? On what basis and in general - was there enough to report? But the idea kept me busy, which is why there were further discussions with the author-to-be.
Matthias first listened carefully before asking many questions in order to understand and correctly classify everything - and to suggest a three-part book: The first volume would reflect my personal and professional development, including the founding years. The second volume could depict today's company and its products, while the third part would be dedicated exclusively to the symposia that have taken place since 2020 and their visionary speakers. This approach was convincing and at the end of June I gave Matthias the assignment. For me, this was also the start of this column in our in-house newspaper, in which I have since recounted the most important experiences of the last three decades. I increasingly enjoyed writing it. Matthias and I agreed to use the weekly reports as the basis for the chronicle, which would concentrate on the most important milestones in KYBURZ's company history - as an entertainingly readable, pointedly illustrated document of the times.
Since then, I had to deliver a new article every Monday. Our polygrapher Jasmin Giger helped me to add the appropriate photos to my text and to layout the whole thing. Her feedback on the content was also very valuable, because what was of course completely clear to me also had to be comprehensible to the reader. For me, the task gave me the opportunity to look back at my own past and to reassess some of it, even to put it into perspective. In the process, I also became aware of patterns that run like a red thread through my life. Again and again I had intense encounters with people and other cultures. And time, and again, I have also had a lot of luck - be it in getting out of difficult situations or being able to trust that the right path will open up in front of me at the right time. Looking back also made it clear how intense, how eventful the last three decades have been - and that they definitely offer enough material for an exciting book!
With my columns alone, however, it was far from written. At the same time, Matthias dug through our entire photo archive, read numerous contemporary media reports that had been published about us, kept asking questions, but often also did his own research when something was missing - and finally put all the anecdotes and events in the chronologically correct order. He had a precise idea of how the chronicle should ultimately look, while I formed my own picture, which occasionally led to intensive discussions. These took time, but they also allowed our joint book to mature. Again and again I read Matthias' manuscripts and made corrections. During this process, colleagues or friends also contributed their own chapters, one of which unfortunately completely missed the point and therefore met with neither my nor Matthias' approval. When we informed the protagonist of this, he summarily terminated my friendship - very sad for me, but apparently unchangeable.
At the same time as the texts were being written, a suitable format with appropriate fonts had to be found - a job for Felix Bittmann and his company Layoutdeluxe, who have already realised many book projects with Matthias and also did a great job this time: The chronicle is not only successful in terms of content, but the paper quality, binding and packaging will also go well with it. From the first book structure to the finished work, not a year has passed, despite sometimes difficult research, demanding material procurement or my numerous other pending tasks. Now I have to wait until all the books are printed: In addition to the German edition, an English edition is also being produced; it should be ready by the end of May. Everyone who worked on the book can hardly wait to hold the first copies in their hands! But most of all I am looking forward to a fourth volume, which currently still has empty pages: The future takes place in it!
During the writing of our chronicle, I learned:
- Writing books is a hard piece of work.
- Looking back can be a way of coming to terms with the past and expanding one's consciousness at the same time.
- Even friendships can break apart over differences of opinion.
- The best KYBURZ chronicle is yet to come - the one about the next 30 years!
The printing press is running at full speed. Here you can see how the KYBURZ Chronicle is printed: