At the start of the 1990s, Dr. Günter von Alberti (1920–1996) decided to document the first twenty years of the Steinbeis Foundation. A former undersecretary in the Baden-Württemberg State Ministry of Science, von Alberti took a thoroughly researched, highly detailed and objective look at the early days of our work in technology transfer. The political and economic challenges, the hurdles which had to be overcome, and the first shoots of success which soon blossomed. Von Alberti first began working with Steinbeis when he was a member of the State Ministry for Science. After his retirement, he continued to work with Steinbeis on a freelance basis until his death. Von Alberti was highly valued by all of us at Steinbeis. Full of insightful advice, he was an engaging conversational partner and an almost inexhaustible source of knowledge.
Now, in a new millennium, and almost twenty years after the book was first published, you are holding in your hands the second edition of "Steinbeis 1971–1991" – unchanged apart from minor corrections. In this time, Steinbeis has continued to grow. At the start of the 1980s, the Steinbeis Foundation had a small number of dedicated staff, eagerly implementing Steinbeis’s "transfer center" concept at universities of applied sciences throughout Baden-Württemberg. This concept was originally developed by Johann Löhn, based on his own method. Today, Steinbeis is a global company with over 700 centers and around 5000 full-time employees and freelancers – all dedicated to the transfer of knowledge and Technology.
We have also documented the history of this period in the publication "Steinbeis 1983–2008". Written by Sigrid Friedrichs, the book presents a comprehensive, detailed history of the Steinbeis Foundation’s journey from the early 1980s to the present day.