Conrad Freytag meets Gustav Adolf Wayss
Gustav Adolf Wayss was born in Mühlhausen an der Enz on October 16, 1851. He was the son of a building contractor and consequently studied civil engineering at the Technische Hochschule (Technical University) in Stuttgart. After working for the railway in Württemberg and as site manager during the construction of the Gotthard tunnel, he established the company Diss & Wayss in Frankfurt am Main together with the concrete contractor Diss.
In 1885, Wayss had a meeting with Conrad Freytag and Carl Heidschuch in the restaurant „Pfälzer Hof“ in Ludwigshafen and they gave him the Monier patent for the north of Germany free of charge. In order to market the patent, Wayss moved to Berlin and established the „G. A. Wayss & Cie“ construction company, which he managed alone after Diss left the company in 1889, as “Aktiengesellschaft für Monierbau” (Joint stock company for Monier construction). On February 1, 1890 Wayss acquired the Freytag & Heidschuch oHG, which Conrad Freytag re-acquired on February 1, 1893. Wayss stayed in the company until 1903 when he withdrew from the company and moved to Austria.
During all his life G. A. Wayss had been a restless spirit who was permanently looking for new technical solutions and business areas. Organizational skills were his strength and, although he was a civil engineer, he had a clear vision for commercial success. Reinforced concrete construction in Germany owes a great deal to his restlessness and activity. Wayss died in Waidhofen an der Ybbs in Lower Austria on August 19, 1917.