M.Dusing German Aviation Industry in WWI. Volume 1 (A Centennial Perspective on Great War Airplanes 84)

August Euler Flugzeugwerke, Darmstadt and Frankfurt a.M. (Eul)

Foundation:

  August Euler initially founded his own automotive parts company in 1903. By founding his “Handelshaus fur Automobilkonstruktionsmaterial”, he successfully monopolized the sale of products from German, French, English and Belgian companies. From 1903 to 1908, Euler had great success selling ignition systems made by Bosch in Stuttgart, which helped him to become wealthy in a short time.
  The passion for the automobile was decisive for Euler’s further development. The constant exposure to the rapidly developing automotive technology and the associated financial success formed the basis for his real life’s work, aviation. August Euler was not only an industrialist, but remained a sportsman, now, however, no longer as a bicycle racer, but as an automobile driver. Through his active participation in various automobile races, including in France, where he won the long-distance automobile race Barcelona-Paris in 1906, contact was made with French aviation pioneers who were also initially addicted to automobile racing. Among them were the future pilots Bleriot, Delagrange and Farman.
  In 1908, Euler visited the aeronautical exhibitions in Paris. During this visit, August Euler and the Voisin brothers agreed on the basic elements of a license agreement, which included “the exclusive right of sale and the exclusive right of reproduction” of the Voisin apparatuses, including applicable patents in Germany. The contract, which was concluded on January 18, 1908, provided for the delivery of an airworthy apparatus of the latest design by mid-December 1908.
  In anticipation of prompt delivery, August Euler intended to set up his factory at his home in Frankfurt am Main. Without being able to designate a specific location for his new company, Euler registered a trade for a flying machine factory with the city of Frankfurt in October 1908. The foundation stone for the oldest German aircraft factory had been laid. The city administration itself had the greatest reservations and was rather “outweighed by the fear of being put in the wrong light with this new-fangled business idea.”