In 1971 Dr Bolza-Schünemann was appointed president of KBA, and was to remain in office for 24 years, until 1995. KBA outlines that with the persistence he typically demonstrated in pursuit of his goals he positioned the company among the topmost players in the international printing press industry.

In the process he initiated some spectacular innovations in press technology and diverse acquisitions of other press manufacturers whose roots could also be traced back to the cradle of press engineering in Würzburg.

In 1995, at the age of 69, the architect of the KBA group’s expansion retired as president and joined the supervisory board, where he served as deputy chairman until 2006. Even in retirement Dr Bolza-Schünemann continued to place his strategic perspectives and engineering skills at the company’s disposal.

More than 250 patents bear Dr Hans-Bernhard Bolza-Schünemann’s signature, and he played a decisive role in major technological advances, according to KBA. These included the development of a multicolour sheetfed gravure press, the Rembrandt MT III, in the 1950s; a high-speed letterpress machine, the Rotafolio, in the 1960s; the world’s widest newspaper press, the Jumbo-Courier, in the 1970s, and the first Rapida sheetfed offset press, whose 15,000sph output was way ahead of its time.

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