Laurence Grech writes:
On Tuesday, March 22, I received a call informing me of the death of Professor Viktor Dulger, the distinguished German engineer, inventor, entrepreneur and philanthropist, founder of the family-run ProMinent Group.
As it happens, that day was observed as World Water Day, which was most appropriate in Viktor Dulger’s case, since his business – which today has over 2,500 employees in nearly 70 countries, including Malta – is concerned mainly with water purification and distribution.
Viktor Dulger founded ProMinent Dosiertechnik GmbH in Heidelberg, Germany, in 1960. A qualified engineer and a man of great vision, he started his business to meet a vital human need – the need for safe, drinkable water. His company produces a wide range of products designed to enhance the quality of water: water pumps, purifiers, irrigation equipment, metering and dosing systems, and products for the treatment of other liquids.
ProMinent systems, including measuring and controlling equipment, dosing/metering pumps, etc., are used in the production of potable water, and to treat/disinfect water (e.g. in swimming pools, fountains, ponds), but also in the preparation of medicine, food, drinks, in agriculture, aquaculture, the production of paints, detergents, and so on – wherever it is important to move/mix liquids/gases in precise quantities to manufacture a product.
What the chemist used to do by weighing and measuring is now done automatically, in much larger quantities, much faster with more precise results, using ProMinent equipment. The company’s basic motto is “As much as necessary, as little as possible”, for example when treating swimming pool water with chlorine or another disinfectant.
Viktor Dulger came to Malta for the first time in 1985 and opened ProMinent's Malta plant, ProMinent Fluid Controls Ltd, in 1988, and the company – since 1996 run by his two sons, Andreas and Rainer – has continued to invest here, the latest being a multi-million euro expansion at the Bulebel factory just a few weeks ago.
As editor of The Sunday Times, I was introduced to Viktor Dulger some years ago by Albert Friggieri, now Malta’s ambassador in Berlin, who had studied for six years in Heidelberg, where ProMinent has its headquarters and its main plant, employing 600 people. Dr Friggieri had encouraged the enterprising German businessman to set up shop here. The Bulebel factory, which Dr Friggieri managed for 25 years, now has 110 employees, having started on a modest scale.
Viktor Dulger always made it a point of inviting me and my wife Lilian to meet him whenever he visited Malta, which was fairly frequent, often in the company of his charming wife Sigrid. He struck me as a kind-hearted, generous man who treated his employees like family and who supported various community initiatives, especially in his beloved Heidelberg.
He loved Malta dearly and willingly served as its honorary consul-general in the state of Baden-Württemberg; Malta loved him in return and awarded him membership of the National Order of Merit in December 2001, one of several honours he received, including being made senator of Heidelberg University and an honorary citizen of Dalian, China, where he had set up a factory. Undoubtedly he was instrumental in persuading other German entrepreneurs to invest in Malta.
Surely a highlight of our friendship was his invitation for me and Lilian to spend a week in Heidelberg as his guests in August 2002. His hospitality was outstanding and he arranged sightseeing trips, a meeting with the mayor of Heidelberg and an interview with the local newspaper, and personally showed us round the ProMinent plant. He was grateful for the feature which I wrote about the visit.
We met in Malta several times after that visit, so I was disappointed when I was told by his son Rainer, at the inauguration of the Bulebel factory extension last February, that Viktor Dulger was too ill to travel. I knew his health had been failing for some time, but he was a man of incredible stamina.
Viktor Dulger’s death is a great loss to Germany, to Malta and indeed – thanks to his inventions – to the world, but he will always be remembered for his great entrepreneurial achievements, his various philanthropic deeds, and his humanity.