Hart Ostheimer Berg (1865–1941) was an American-born engineer and businessman. Celebrated for his transatlantic promotion of innovative industrial products in the early twentieth century, he is best known for having represented the Wright Brothers’ aviation interests in Europe.
Birth, family and early life
Berg was born in Franklin Street above Girard Avenue, Philadelphia, on 23 March 1865 to Joseph and Louisa Berg, native-born Pennsylvanians of German Jewish descent. His father was a garment manufacturer and his mother was a sister of Alfred, William and George Ostheimer, principals of an extensive import-export business with offices in Paris, Vienna, Berlin and London. His cousins included Dr Maurice Ostheimer who, with his wife Martha McIlvain, owned the Martha and Maurice Ostheimer Estate.
After attendance at private schools, Berg was sent to Europe in his teens to complete his education and qualified as an engineer at Liège in Belgium. In the late 1880s he several times sailed between France and the United States, declaring he was of “no occupation”, but by 1891 he described himself as “merchant”, was based in New York, and visited Egypt and India.
Weapons manufacture
Around 1893 he settled at Hartford, Connecticut, where he obtained a managerial appointment with Colt’s Patent Fire Arms Manufacturing Company. His arrival at Colt coincided with the company bringing into production its M1889 revolver and developing the M1895 machine-gun under licence from John M. Browning. Berg is said to have been associated with both projects.
By 1896 he had renewed his links with Liège, joining the Belgian manufacturer Fabrique Nationale d'Armes de Guerre (FN) in a senior capacity. FN made not only munitions but also bicycles and motorcycles, and in 1897 Berg returned to Hartford to investigate advances in bicycle design introduced by the Pope Manufacturing Company. In the course of his visit he negotiated manufacturing rights for FN in respect of the new “chainless bicycle” and also met John Browning. Browning had recently licensed pistols of his design for production and sale by Colt within America. From these Colt had selected the prototype of the M1911 pistol for development.
Browning had created a lighter model of this gun and intended to produce it for the European market himself. Berg persuaded him that FN was a prime candidate to undertake its manufacture, and in July 1897 an agreement was concluded granting FN the European rights for what became the M1900. In the following year Berg was unsuccessful in attempting to persuade Browning to supervise the pistol’s production in Belgium, but its manufacture by FN transformed the fortunes of that company and laid the foundation for its long-term relationship with Browning (who died on FN’s premises in 1924).
Automobile business
In 1897 Berg was engaged by Pope Manufacturing Company to sell the foreign manufacturing rights for its Columbia cars. The engagement resulted in licences being granted to French, German and Belgian fabricators, and Berg himself became Director-General for Europe of Pope’s associate, Electric Vehicle Company, briefly America’s largest maker of automobiles.
In France he set up Société l’Électromotion to build and service two-seater motor carriages and phaetons mounted on Columbia running gear. These were assembled at Levallois-Perret, where he also supervised the construction for Clement-Bayard of the first major automobile factory to be built near Paris. He was at that time described as Clement-Bayard’s “chief engineer”, but this was only one of the several capacities in which he operated. In July 1899, in a test of vehicle endurance, he took the wheel of a Columbia electric two-seater while Gustave Philippart (creator of the modern diabolo) drove a Columbia electric phaeton over a distance of 76 km at Longchamp.
During 1902 he alternated between France and America, establishing Berg Automobile Company at Cleveland, Ohio, to produce a European-styled car (copied from a contemporary Panhard model) for the American market. Called the Berg, this was initially powered by a 2-cylinder engine but was upgraded to become a 4-cylinder 24 brake horsepower tourer - one of the first such automobiles built in America. It was assembled at the Cleveland Machine Screw Factory (“separated by a passage” from the Electric Vehicle Company’s premises) with parts sourced from other manufacturers, and was first shown at the New York Auto Show in 1903. The company designed another model, the Euclid, but this was never put into production and in 1904 Berg sold the business to Worthington Automobile Company of New York.