Biography
Fritz Gegauf was born 5 April, 1893 at Steckborn, Switzerland. From 1910 till 1914 he made a mechanics apprenticeship in his fathers sewingmachine factory at Steckborn. He was awarded a patent for a hemstitch sewingmachine. In 1920 he got married to Hermine Meienhofer, daughter of the baker Hermann Meienhofer. From then until 1923 he worked for the sewingmachine factory Athos in Paris. After the death of his father in 1926 he ran the family business together with his brother Gustav as Fritz Gegauf's Söhne. The factory moved with its 35 employees to newly built premises in 1929. When sales of the industrial hemstitch sewingmachines dropped in the early 1930s, he formed in 1932—in cooperation with Wilhelm Brütsch—the Bernina Sewing Machine Factory which produced sewing machines for the home. Technical innovations brought about the rapid growth of the company in the post-war years. Until 1975 Gegauf was on the board of directors, becoming honorary president thereafter.
Fritz Gegauf died 24 February, 1980 at Steckborn.
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