Ferenc Gebauer

Gebauer was born as Franz Gebauer on 25 June 1888 in Velké Heraltice | (Groß Herrlitz in German) in Austria-Hungary to Wawra Józefa.^[1][2] From 1901 to 1911 he worked as a plant manager for a car factory in Germany,^[1] then went to work for the Puch motorcycle factory in Graz, Austria from 1911 to 1914.^[3] He served in World War I in the Austro-Hungarian Air Force (KuK Luftfahrtruppen) as a car courier officer of the army headquarters (August 21, 1914 to March 1915),^[1] a field pilot on the Italian front from May 25, 1916 to September 3, 1917,^[1] a factory pilot at the Aspern Phönix Flugzeugwerke aircraft factory from September 3, 1917 to September 1918^[1] and finally served as a gunsmith at the Fischamend Air Base in 1918 until the war ended.^[3]

In 1920 he worked, in an unofficial capacity, for the Technical Experimental Weapon Division of the Royal Hungarian Honvéd, tasked with developing weapons in secret from the Allied forces. In 1924, Gebauer went to work for Danuvia until 1936. He became a citizen of Hungary and changed his name from the German Franz to the Hungarian Ferenc on February 17, 1930.^[1] He worked for the József Nádor University of Technology and Economics (now Budapest University of Technology and Economics) starting in 1939, but was forced to flee from Austria during the German occupation of Hungary. In March 1944, with the invasion of Hungary by the USSR, Gebauer fled to Sweden to work for Bofors, where he worked as the chief designer of the Bofors arms factory until his death in 1958.^[2]

He was awarded the following medals during his lifetime:^[1]

• Knight's Cross of the Hungarian Order of Merit
• Hungarian Crown Bronze Medal on an emerald green ribbon
• Silver Medal of Valor, First Class
• Silver Valor Medal, Second Class (Awarded twice)
• Károly Team Cross
• Camp Pilot Badge
• Knight's Cross of the Order of the Italian Crown