Max Brose

Brose completed his education in business administration at age 24 in 1908, after which he established his own trading business for automotive accessories and aircraft materials. Brose was drafted into the German army during World War I. At the end of the war, Lieutenant Brose, who had fought in Germany's motorized forces on the Western Front, was sent to East Prussia to help take down a truck depot. There he met chemist Ernst Jühling, who would become his business partner.

In late spring 1919 they acquired a former metal parts factory in Coburg, a small town in northern Bavaria, and founded Metallwerk Max Brose & Co. OHG, known informally as Max Brose Metal Works. In 1928, following a suggestion by Opel founder Wilhelm von Opel, Brose acquired a manufacturing license for spring-wound brakes, a major component of window regulators, from an American firm. Within a few years, the company evolved as a major supplier of window regulators to German automakers Daimler-Benz, Volkswagen, Borgward, and Lloyd.

In the early 1920s, Brose was a member of the liberal German People's Party as a city council member in Coburg. He later became a member of the national-conservative German National People's Party, which espoused antisemitic views.

During the Great Depression, Brose's company launched the standardized 20-liter gasoline canister.

In 1935, Brose purchased the villa of a Jewish resident of Coburg named Abraham Friedmann that had been auctioned off as part of Aryanization, the Nazi seizure of property from Jews and its transfer to non-Jews.

Brose's grandson Michael Stoschek became CEO of Brose Fahrzeugteile in 1971. Stoschek's daughter Julia Stoschek, Brose's great-granddaughter, is a prominent German socialite and art collector.

Coburg

In 2004, Brose's grandson Michael Stoschek, the CEO of Brose Fahrzeugteile, first tried to have his grandfather honoured with a street name in Coburg. After the city refused, Brose Fahrzeugteile allegedly ceased charitable donations to the city, but the city denied that it had been put under financial pressure.

After the Brose-financed study of Brose was released, Stoschek renewed his effort in 2015. The city, citing the research voted to "rehabilitate" Brose and honour him with a "Max-Brose-Straße," despite protests from the Central Council of Jews in Germany, the country's largest Jewish organization. Brose Fahrzeugteile is one of the city's largest employers.

Other cities

In the 21st century, Stoschek and the Brose company have campaigned to rename streets near the company factories throughout Europe after Max Brose. Brose has streets named after him in Hallstadt and Weil im Schönbuch, Germany, in London, Ontario, Canada, and in Prievidza, Slovakia.