Ingelfingen-based technology company GEMÜ has announced that its company founder has passed away peacefully in his sleep on 1st December 2021 after a long illness.

The GEMÜ GROUP mourns the loss of Fritz Müller.
After training to become a precision mechanic and successfully completing his studies at the Feintechnikerschule in Schwenningen – an institute for precision technology – in 1961, Fritz Müller's first step in his career took him to the testing department of Herion Werke KG in Stuttgart. Just a few years later, the visionary inventor Fritz Müller founded GEMÜ.

In its infancy, the company's development focussed on questioning the status quo. At a time when valves were exclusively made of metal, he led the way with his idea to manufacture valves made of plastic – a true paradigm shift in the world of valve production. Fritz Müller's success was proof he was right. The company's first premises opened in Ingelfingen-Criesbach in 1965 and this site was expanded in a number of further steps as GEMÜ continued to grow over the following years, both nationally and internationally. Nowadays, the GEMÜ Group employs more than 2100 workers around the world, around 1200 of whom are based in Germany at the Criesbach, Waldzimmern and Hohenlohe industrial park sites.
With his ideas and energy, driven by the desire to change the shape of what everyone thought they knew, Fritz Müller had a huge impact on GEMÜ and paved the way for what was to come. He was an "old-school" boss who took the time to personally get to know many of his employees. Even when Fritz Müller passed his life's work on to the next generation in 2013, stepping down from operational business, he maintained close ties to GEMÜ.

Fritz Müller has left behind a legacy that has also touched his home town of Ingelfingen. The vineyards and the Ingelfinger Fass viticulture museum, as well as a number of buildings, are testament to his deep-rooted love for his homeland. For instance, Fritz Müller acquired unique structures with centuries of history in the form of the gate watchman's house in Ingelfingen and the Schüssler villa in Künzelsau. Fritz Müller also donated a very special monument – the salt boiler fountain – to the town of Niedernhall in 2012.

Fritz Müller was honoured many times for his entrepreneurial and community spirit; he was awarded the ribbon Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, the Enterprise Medal of the State of Baden-Württemberg and the title of honorary citizen of the town of Ingelfingen.

Fritz Müller passed away on 1st December 2021. The GEMÜ Group and all its members of staff will forever remember and honour his legacy.