Robert Stock (businessman)

Carl Christian Robert Stock (4 April 1858, Hagenow - 13 July 1912, Landkreis Kolberg-Körlin) was a German entrepreneur and telecommunications pioneer.

In 1882, he moved to Berlin and found a job as a lathe operator at the machine tool factory owned by Ludwig Loewe.

He also maintained a close relationship with the Director of the Imperial Post Office, Heinrich von Stephan.

In 1896, he set up a booth in a pavilion at the Great Industrial Exposition of Berlin, to introduce visitors to the potentials of telephony.

Three years later, he converted DeTeWe into a "Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung" (GmbH, roughly the equivalent of an LLC); becoming a member of the supervisory board.

By 1900, he had left the company, retiring to his private estate, "Gut Sophienwalde" (named after his wife), in Kolberg.