Heinrich Ehrhardt

He tended to conduct R&D at a small factory in Zella fully controlled by him, personally own the patents and license them to public companies he managed/co-owned, and the firms he was affiliated with made a very loose conglomerate; this fact negated the consequences of a hostile takeover of Rheinmetall by Krupp in 1913.

[2] In 1895, he was contacted former Krupp engineer Konrad Haussner, who patented the idea of an innovative quick-firing gun and wanted to continue designing a real one.

Despite the fact that the 1896 prototype was turned down by the German Artillery Testing Commission as not yet usable in the war (a simpler 7.7 cm FK 96 was adopted instead),[3] in 1900 Great Britain adopted Haussner's design as the QF 15-pounder gun (even though just as a stopgap measure), to be followed by Norway a year later with a gun which will participate in WWII.

in 1904[4] with the only difference that Ehrhardt gave the patents for free in return for "favorable consideration when placing orders" for manufacturing the guns.

Ehrhardt initially had 31.2 percent ownership in the joint-stock company vehicle factory Eisenach (FFE).

In order to convince the public and shareholders of the quality of the "Wartburg"-Motorwagens, Heinrich Ehrhardt and a companion drove up a steep road to show that the car could handle the climb.

He founded Ehrhardt Automobil AG, making luxury cars, such as the "Emperor class" limousine.