Helmut Claas was born in 1926 in Harsewinkel, Germany. His parents, August and Paula Claas, managed a small agricultural machinery firm with a workforce of around 100. He completed an apprenticeship as a machine fitter after graduating from school.
His early career followed in metalworking firms and further practical training in casting. After studying agriculture in Paris, he took over the planning and establishment of a CLAAS distributor in France, which now operates as CLAAS France SAS. He joined his parents' firm in Harsewinkel in 1958. Here he applied himself to his particular area of expertise, which was engineering.
In 1962, he was made managing director. Helmut Claas accepted the position of personally liable partner when the company was reconstituted as a general partnership in 1978. In 1996, as part of the restructuring of the firm into a joint-stock company, he changed from the role of managing director to chairman of both the Supervisory Board and the Shareholders’ Committee.
His special focus was always on developing pioneering products and mass-producing them economically. During his era, following the success of the DOMINATOR combine, came the completely new development of the LEXION, which is today the most efficient combine harvester in the world. The JAGUAR forage harvester and the large tractor XERION were also developed under Helmut Claas.
In 2003, he succeeded in taking an important step towards the company’s future: CLAAS took over the tractor business from Renault Agriculture in France. In other respects, too, internationalization continued to progress with the establishment and expansion of production sites in Russia, the USA and China.
Four internationally renowned universities in Hungary, the United Kingdom, Bulgaria and Germany awarded honorary doctorates (Dr. h. c.) to Helmut Claas. In the year 2000 he received the honorary title of “Doctor of Agricultural Science” from the University of Stuttgart-Hohenheim. This university also made him an honorary senator in 2004.
In June 2009, the Goryachkin University in Moscow bestowed an honorary professorship upon him, and he was made a knight of the French Legion of Honour in recognition of his pioneering efforts on Franco-German cooperation. In November 2013, Helmut Claas was inducted into the Hall of Fame of American Equipment Manufacturers (AEM). An important highlight was the awarding of the Diesel medal by the German Institute of Inventions in 2017.
Personal awards, such as honorary citizenship of his hometown of Harsewinkel, Germany, the Medal of Merit of the German state of Baden-Württemberg, as well as the Order of Merit of the French Agriculture Minister, round off his life’s work.
Helmut Claas was first and foremost a farmer. He ran a farm in East Anglia in Great Britain and often stayed there with his wife, Erika. He enjoyed keeping in touch with farmers in the neighborhood and took a keen interest in issues concerning agricultural firms. He also had a passion for hunting.
And he had long since taken care of the ongoing development of the family business, as the next generation has already taken over the running of the CLAAS Group. Today his daughter, Cathrina Claas-Mühlhäuser, manages the decision-making and development of the successful group of companies.
The death of Helmut Claas leaves behind a space in the world of agricultural technology that cannot be filled. His family, all the shareholders, the Group Executive Board, and the staff mourn the passing of a great personality and will continue to develop the CLAAS Group as he would have wished.
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Caption:
- 417014: A 75-year-old mower-thresher-binder restored in 2014. The task force with Helmut Claas, from left: Ernst Reineke, Helmut Claas, Ludger Weber, Bernhard Laumann and Martin Beckmann.
- 277421: Helmut Claas celebrating his 90th birthday in 2016.
- 417015: Helmut Claas visiting the "Greenhouse." CLAAS has created a space there to promote digitalization projects.
About CLAAS:
CLAAS (www.claas.com) is a family business founded in 1913 and one of the world’s leading manufacturers of agricultural machinery. The company, with corporate headquarters in Harsewinkel, Germany, is the European market leader in combine harvesters. CLAAS is the world leader in another large product group, self-propelled forage harvesters. CLAAS is also a top performer in agricultural technology worldwide, with its tractors, agricultural balers and green harvesting machinery. The CLAAS product portfolio also includes state-of-the-art farming information technology. CLAAS employs around 11,400 workers worldwide and had a reported a turnover of 4.0 billion euros in the 2020 financial year.
About CLAAS of America Inc.:
CLAAS of America Inc. offers a wide variety of technologically innovative tractor, combine, forage harvester, baler and hay tool products to provide growers optimum performance in the field. These premium equipment lines are designed by a dedicated engineering staff located at numerous factories worldwide and focused on the production and design of harvesting equipment. The design, performance and reliability of this equipment have made CLAAS an international market leader. For more information, visit www.claas.com.
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