From Small Beginnings To Steep Ascent The Fraunhofer Society

The Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft (FhG) was founded by the Secretary of the Baverian Ministry of Economics, Hugo Geiger. He intended to create a research organisation that should unite science and economics to foster applied research. The new institution was named after Joseph von Fraunhofer, a hint to its intended orientation as Fraunhofer was both an ingenious scientist and a successful businessman. His inventions were developed into products which were sold all over the word. The FhG as new organisation would become the third pillar of German Research next to the Max-Planck-Society (MPG) and the German Research Foundation (DFG), but initially, the MPG and the DFG caused some problems for the newly founded FhG. However, when the German Ministry for Research guaranteed funding, the FhG quickly rose to international recognition.