(Interview from 2018, with 2021 update)

Heiko Weckbrodt

Xenon co-owner Hartmut Freitag still benefits to this day from his engineering studies at TU Dresden – and the company draws on the university's pool of young talent.

Ask about business success stories in Dresden beyond the large corporates that moved in post-reunification, and one name will come up again and again: Xenon. Founded in 1990 by former Robotron engineers Dr. Eberhard Reißmann and Dr. Hartmut Freitag, the special-purpose machinery manufacturer is now a key player in factory automation. It began as a small firm operating out of a basement but is now a medium-sized enterprise with annual sales of 55 million euros and around 300 employees in Germany, China, and Mexico. And when Hartmut Freitag walks through the assembly halls and design offices today with his partner – and co-founder's son – Tobias Reißmann, he says to himself that the company owes its success in part to TU Dresden. "My TUD engineering training was and is extremely useful," he says.
 

A popular literary genre in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) played its part in Freitag's route first to the renowned Dresden university and later to an executive post at an international automation company. Born in 1957 to a family of teachers and raised in the sleepy town of Peitz near Cottbus, Hartmut Freitag got into technology and science at an early age. "I devoured utopian fiction," he tells us. "I loved the visionary aspect." The then 19-year-old faced his first test as an engineer and a leader after high school as "Second Lieutenant Freitag" in an NVA (National People’s Army, the armed forces of the GDR) armored forces pioneer unit. "As a young Offizier auf Zeit [temporary-career officer], you learn how to lead a team that includes people who are older than you."

Studying with the king of precision instruments

Freitag returned to civilian life in 1978 and started a degree in precision instrument engineering with Professor Werner Krause at 'Section 10', TU Dresden. "Krause was the king of precision instruments engineering. He had written reference works that were also read in the West." The program was demanding, time-consuming, and wide-ranging: mechanics, measurement technology, control engineering, circuits, manufacturing processes in the semiconductor industry... What with intensive study, classes, and an internship, he didn't have much free time. "I lived in university accommodation in Nöthnitzer Straße. The good thing? We could shuffle over to the nearby lecture theater in our slippers. However, I started off in a six-man dorm – living and studying conditions were not exactly easy.

Yet Freitag did find some time for activities what were termed "community involvement". For dance, for example. "I became a group leader in the student folk dance ensemble," the engineer says. "We performed folk dances at the Dresdner Kulturpalast (House of Culture), and occasionally even gave guest performances in the Soviet Union, Poland and Bulgaria. We also won a number of prizes. Since then, I've never found it difficult to talk in front of hundreds of people." Freitag is silent for a few seconds as he thinks back to that time. "I really liked 'Die Pfälzer' – a dance with wine glasses on your head and acrobatic parts," he recalls. "But my favorite dance was the 'Auerhahn', a Bavarian dance with 'plattler'-style elements."

And it was possibly the 'Auerhahn' that cleared the last obstacles between Freitag and a doctorate. "TU was considered pretty 'red' back then, and we were constantly pushed to toe the party line," explains Freitag. "The political agitation really got on my nerves." Freitag adamantly refused to join the GDR’s ruling party, the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED). When, after his Diplom degree, his 'section' withheld a scholarship from him, even though he was the second-best student in the seminar group, his patience ran out. "I complained to the professor, and pointed to my community involvement in the dance group." That helped: Freitag became a "research student" – as doctoral positions were called in those days – and he obtained his doctorate on state control of elastic DC drives.

The dawn of the digital age

That may sound very niche, but DC drives were in fact a sign of the dawning digital age. "Analog approaches could not have dealt with the control algorithms," says Freitag, outlining the problem. "It was only possible with digital technology, and that is why I had picked the topic and worked on a 'K 1520', one of the first GDR microcomputers with a U880 processor."

The new doctor of engineering started his career at the largest GDR electronics manufacturer, Robotron, in Dresden in 1986. He worked in "electronic measuring equipment" in the special-purpose equipment department. His manager was Dr. Eberhard Reißmann – and Reißmann knew how to motivate his staff. "He inspired me as a person," Freitag says. "He had a vision, and an aura as a leader. Reißmann picked out the most interesting tasks, and brought them to a successful conclusion despite the difficulties posed by the GDR economy." 

The first project the young engineer worked on was an automatic cable assembly machine. It was to be more widely useable than the corresponding West German devices, which people could not afford anyway. "Our design was ingenious," Freitag still thinks. "Unfortunately, the machine was unreliable in practice because the pneumatic systems available in the GDR kept breaking down." But you learn from mistakes. The second project Freitag worked on was an automatic assembly machine for electrical contact pins. And that project resulted in a patent application. Further designs for East German computer and measuring equipment production followed.

We felt like the A-Team

Then came 1989. The world was turned upside down for people living in the GDR. Soon, no one wanted to buy East German computers or measuring equipment. The "Treuhand" agency began to liquidate Robotron. Suddenly, everyone was talking about management buy-outs (MBO). All over the country, senior executives were gathering their best staff together and creating small companies out of the ashes of the GDR enterprises to avoid imminent unemployment. Even before the German currency union and reunification, Reißmann asked his engineer if he wanted to be part of an MBO. Freitag was just 33 years old and in the middle of building a house. However, he did not hesitate for a moment, joining as a shareholder and chief designer. "I was convinced we were like the A-Team from the TV," he recalls. "Eleven outstanding engineers and skilled workers who could do simply anything." June 1990 saw the establishment of "Xenon", a special-purpose equipment company, in a basement in Fetscherstrasse. "One of our first major orders was an automated system for minidisc production. We had to assemble it in a fire department garage because there wasn't enough room in the basement."

By 1993, Xenon had expanded so much that the company could and had to move to dedicated headquarters in Heidelberger Straße – as one of the first businesses to set up shop in the new Coschütz-Gittersee industrial park. Since then, the business has grown rapidly, designing and delivering over 1500 machines around the world.

The company’s strength is thanks not least to the creative engineering spirit that drives and inspires the workforce from the assembly shop to the boardroom. "We recently had Chinese visitors who were amazed at just how much technical expertise we have here, right up to the management level," says Freitag, who believes that expertise is fueled by experience – and excellent training at TU Dresden. "The only thing we didn't really learn at university in the GDR was economics: How do you make money from your ideas? How do you find and retain customers? We had to learn that side of things." Freitag firmly believes that excellent training in the field still speaks for itself, and tells us that Xenon still collaborates closely with TUD, and with HTW Dresden University of Applied Sciences. For example, the company mentors final-year students, scouting out fresh talent. "That is how we are building our next generation of engineers."

2021 update:
In March of this year, I celebrated my 64^th birthday. As is common at this stage of life, I have been thinking about how best to manage my move into retirement – staying active in the firm but gradually reducing my workload.

Last year, the shareholders of XENON Automatisierungstechnik GmbH reached an agreement that I would relinquish my duties as director in October 2020 after 16 years. Since then, I have continued at XENON in a position of responsibility, but with a different focus. As senior vice president, I now focus on the exciting task of developing a new business segment at XENON: the production of fuel cells and electrolyzers. XENON is seeking to help drive the scaling-up of production through automation, whilst significantly reducing costs for hydrogen use and hydrogen production. This is key to the implementation of the national hydrogen strategy, and XENON wants to become a market leader in stack production automation.

In my new role, I can make excellent use of the networks I have developed over the past 30 years with research institutions, development partners, manufacturing companies that are also focusing on hydrogen, and regional organizations.
...And in my free time and on vacation, I like to be out of doors, on the water, or in the mountains. It clears my head for new ideas and keeps me fit and healthy.

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