A Pioneer for the future: Oskar Lapp turns 100

By OEM Update Editorial March 22, 2021 5:45 pm IST

Oskar LAPP invented a flexible cable made of coloured cores. ÖLFLEX® was the first industrially manufactured power and control cable – an invention that revolutionised connection technology. 

Oskar Lapp was a great inventor and a passionate entrepreneur. Together with his wife Ursula Ida Lapp, he has created a company with a global reputation. The LAPP Group founder would have turned 100 on 20 March 2021. His inventions have shaped connection technology worldwide to this day. The Lapp family and employees all over the world honoured this great entrepreneurial personality by laying a wreath at the old cemetery in Stuttgart-Vaihingen and by holding various commemorative events. “Our father is still a major role model today. The LAPP company would not exist without Oskar Lapp. We continue his life’s work with the deepest gratitude. The fact that the third generation has now taken over the running of LAPP would definitely make him very proud”, says Andreas Lapp, Chairman of the Board of LAPP Holding AG.

“My husband was brave and God gave him a lot of talents”, says Ursula Ida Lapp (90) of her husband, who died on 25 April 1987. He was born on 20 March 1921 in Benshausen in the eastern part of Germany, one of four children from a craftsman’s family. From an early age, he showed an impressive talent for technical things and an inventive spirit. After being a prisoner of war and subsequent fleeing across the “green border” to escape the former Communist GDR, in the mid-1950s he began a new life with his family in West Germany.

Starting again was tough, as he had left behind everything he owned when he fled to the west. Oskar Lapp initially worked for Harting, where he was responsible for the Southern Germany region. And his innovative ideas also started to attract attention. For example, he developed the first rectangular connector for the industry for the company. Thanks to his many meetings with customers, Oskar Lapp knew exactly what users needed. The electrical connection in particular was very laborious: The cores were all black or grey and the electrical engineers had difficulty assigning the cores to the correct ends when connecting. This required a complex process, known as continuity testing. Oskar LAPP invented a flexible cable made of coloured cores. ÖLFLEX® was born. It was the first industrially manufactured power and control cable – an invention that revolutionised connection technology. It was innovative in another way too: Oskar Lapp was the first entrepreneur ever to give an industrial product a brand name. Today, the ÖLFLEX brand still stands for exceptionally oil-resistant and flexible control cables across the world.

In 1959, the Lapps founded their company with the assistance of a 50,000 Mark bank loan. As Oskar Lapp was still employed at Harting, Ursula Ida Lapp was entered in the commercial register as the company’s founder. The company name was created at the kitchen table: U.I. LAPP KG – U.I. Stands for Ursula Ida. As with so many start-ups today, the Lapps’ business began from the garage of their house in Stuttgart-Vaihingen. Oskar Lapp took care of sales while Ursula Ida Lapp looked after the accounts, orders and logistics from home while taking care of their young children.

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