Berthold Leibinger was born in Stuttgart on November 26, 1930, to a family with a deep appreciation for the arts. Upon graduating from secondary school in 1950, he began an apprenticeship as a mechanic at Trumpf & Co., a medium-sized manufacturing company for machine tools. He then went on to receive a degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Technology in Stuttgart.

‍

In 1958, soon after their marriage, he and his wife Doris Leibinger moved to the United States. During their three-year stay, Berthold Leibinger worked as a development engineer at Cincinnati Milling Machines in Ohio. Upon returning to Germany, he was made head of the engineering division at Trumpf & Co. and was promoted to technical managing director of the company and shareholder in 1966. He was president of the managing board from 1978 to 2005. As early as the late 1970s, Berthold Leibinger decided to integrate laser technology into sheet metal processing. Today, TRUMPF SE + Co. KG, headquartered in Ditzingen near Stuttgart, is at the top of its market and remains at the leading edge of technology for machine tools and lasers for industrial production.

Throughout his life, Berthold Leibinger was driven by a thirst for knowledge. Over the course of his professional career, he filed numerous patents and in 2014, at the age of 84, received a doctorate from the Vienna University of Technology.

‍

Patronage was another constant in his life. He established the non-profit foundation Berthold Leibinger Stiftung GmbH in 1992, choosing four areas of support that were in line with his personal interests: science, culture, church projects and social commitment.

‍

Berthold Leibinger passed away on October 16, 2018.