Eckhart Grohmann
Eckhart G. Grohmann | |
|---|---|
| Born | June 29, 1936[1] |
| Education | University of Mannheim |
| Occupations | Businessman, Art collector |
| Known for | Grohmann Museum |
Eckhart Georg Grohmann (born June 29, 1936) is a German-American businessman and art collector. After emigrating to the United States in 1962, he acquired the Milwaukee-based Aluminum Casting & Engineering Company in 1965 and expanded its manufacturing operations. He has served on the Milwaukee School of Engineering's board of regents since 1990.
Grohmann is known for assembling a collection of European and American artwork depicting labor and industry. In 2001, he donated approximately 700 works to MSOE and later acquired a building in downtown Milwaukee to house the collection. The resulting Grohmann Museum opened in 2007 and was named in his honor.
Early life and education
Grohmann was born in 1936 in Breslau, then part of Lower Silesia, where his maternal family owned several quarries.[2] Known as the Thust Company, the business was founded in 1819 in Gnadenfrei (now Piława Górna, Poland) by Grohmann’s great-great-grandfather Carl Christian Thust (1804–1877) and specialized in marble extraction and stonemasonry, in particular for gravestones.[3][4] At the time of Gorhmann’s birth, the firm was managed by his grandfather Willibald Thust (1875–1946).[4] In the wake of WWII, and as a result of the Silesian offensives led by the Soviet Union in 1945, the family was forced out of the region and relocated their quarrying operations in Balduinstein, Rhineland-Palatinate.[1]
After obtaining a Master’s degree in Business Administration from the University of Mannheim, Grohmann emigrated to the United States in 1962, where he settled in Milwaukee and married Carole Weisel (1926–2013), heir to the meat producer Weisel and Co., a competitor to the better-known local sausage maker Usinger's.[1][5]
Career
In 1965, he purchased the small Aluminum Casting & Engineering Co. With production growing, a second foundry in South Milwaukee was added to the business in 1974. Eckhart and Carole Grohmann divorced in 1982, and Grohmann later remarried.[1] In the 1980s, Grohmann also operated an alarm company, which was eventually sold to Ameritech in 1997.[5]
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Grohmann has served on the board of regents of the Milwaukee School of Engineering (MSOE) since 1990, and the school awarded him an honorary Ph.D. degree in Engineering in 1999.[6] In 2001, he gifted MSOE his collection of about 700 European and American paintings, sculpture, and works on paper dealing with human labor, which he had started assembling in the 1960s.[7] In addition, he purchased a former Cadillac dealership and Federal Reserve Bank office near campus in 2005 with the goal of converting it into a space to display the collections.[8][9] The building reopened in October 2007 under the name of Grohmann Museum, which, on top of exhibition galleries, includes classrooms, faculty offices, and a library.
References
- 1 2 3 4 Walzer, Joe (August 22, 2018). "Eckhart G. Grohmann". Immigrant Entrepreneurship. Milwaukee, WI: German Historical Institute. Retrieved 2025-07-20.
- ↑ Schumacher, Mary Louise (October 25, 2007). "A Working Tribute". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Milwaukee, WI: Gannett. p. 39. Retrieved 2025-07-20.
- ↑ Gößling, Melissa (June 13, 2019). "Jubiläumsfeier zu 200 Jahre Firma Thust" [Anniversary Celebration for the 200 Years of the Thust Company]. Naturstein (in German). Ulm, Germany: Ebner Media Group. Retrieved 2025-07-21.
- 1 2 Belz, Ulrich (January 31, 2010). "Lahn Marmor Tag am 18.10.2009 in Balduinstein" [Lahn Marble Day on October 18, 2009 in Balduinstein] (PDF). Lahn-Marmor-Nachrichten (in German) (20). Villmar, Germany: Lahn-Marmor-Museum: 25–28. Retrieved 2025-07-21.
- 1 2 Evans Draper, Elizabeth (2026). "People of Action: Eckhart Grohmann" (PDF). Rotary Club of Milwaukee. Milwaukee. Retrieved June 22, 2026.
- ↑ "The Collection". Grohmann Museum. Milwaukee, WI. Retrieved 2025-07-21.
- ↑ Hufford, Amy (October 30, 2007). "New Grohmann Museum celebrates "Man at Work"". OnMilwaukee. Milwaukee, WI: Andy Tarnoff. Retrieved 2025-07-21.
- ↑ Nowakowski, Audrey (March 31, 2023). "The History of MSOE's Grohmann Museum & The Bronze Statues That Turn". WUWM. Milwaukee, WI: University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. Retrieved 2025-07-21.
- ↑ Dobrzynski, Judith H. (January 3, 2008). "Love of Labor, Labor of Love". The Wall Street Journal. New York: Dow Jones & Company. Retrieved 2025-07-20.