Freddy Hannig
At Christmas, I was digging through old photos, and Freddy Hannig peeked out at me. He was one of the personalities who accompanied me at the beginning of my business, and whose opinions influenced me a lot. For those who don’t know who he is, Freddy was a lifelong salesman for the now defunct SAFED company from Delémont, Switzerland (SAFED = S.A. Fours Électrique de Delémont).
When I decided to take the step of my life, to privatize the thermal processing laboratories in Liberec at Hanychov, which belonged to the ZEZ Prague, I knew from the beginning that if we wanted to be a top-class heat treater, we probably wouldn’t be able to do it financially ourselves. And since I knew SAFED from pre-revolutionary times, and since I could only speak French, and SAFED is from a French-speaking canton, I went to them.
Even though I knew Freddy Hannig from an earlier time, he regularly participated in the fair in Brno already in deep socialism, by the fact that SAFED finally became our partner in HT-PROGRES, our relations deepened significantly. And in addition to work, mountains became our common theme, especially skiing.
And so it happened that Freddy came to me and offered to rent me a studio apartment in Crans-Montana, right on the slopes in Aminona sur Sierre. Let me try real skiing. It was beautiful, since then I am convinced that Crans-Montana is a skiing paradise. I’ve been there many times over the years at HT-PROGRES, and subsequently at Bodycote. The photos show Freddy, who was not only a good companion, but also a good ski instructor. In addition to me, he also improved the skiing style of other tour participants. Here in the photo, he is with my son Martin in 2004. SAFED left us in the company sometime around 1998, but relations with Freddy remained until sometime in 2010, when my daughter Mia Marli was born. Then there was no time ….
But since I love rock climbing in addition to skiing, almost ten years after our last contact, in 2020, I decided to try the limestone rocks in Jura Suisse as well. It was a good choice, and even though the rocks are scattered around the landscape and sometimes really hard to find, the sport climbing here is really nice.
And since it’s not far to Delémont, I thought it would be worth visiting Freddy. But the time when we were no longer in contact was long, so I had no idea how to look for him. I finally tried Google, and it pointed me to a village that was not far from where we were rock climbing.
After a short search, we were at the right address. When I rang the bell, I still wasn’t sure if it was just a mix-up of names. Was not. Freddy peeked out and the tension dissipated.
Freddy lives his idyllic retired life, partly here, partly in Crans-Montana, and he still looks the same, even though he already has almost eight crosses on his neck. Only his Nordic dog named Plume (in translation Plumule) has already left him, his wife, a few years younger, but still takes care of him carefully.
And so, we chatted over coffee about the present, but above all about the past. When the owners of SAFED sold the company to Aichelin in 2007, everything changed for the worse. All production was transferred to Austria, spare parts and services to France, and only the offices remained in Delémont. The hall was split and rented to various entities. That was the end of the history of SAFED in this location. Freddy showed his displeasure, but he could not influence anything. But he was always so proud of the company that I understand that the end of the dream that he helped build all his life upset him for the rest of his life.
And so, I was glad that I decided to visit. After all, Freddy meant a lot to me, not only for his “wisdom” as a heat treatment expert, but also for his humanity. He remains in my memories not only as a friend, but also as a Nestor of thermal processing, who would deserve a place in the hall of fame, certainly in mine.
December 28, 2022
Jiří Stanislav
