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.U.S. Air Services, Vol. XXVII, No. 1 (January 1942), p. 40; United States Census of 1870, enumeration for State of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia County, 64th District, 29th Ward, 1 June 1870. 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.United States Census of 1850, enumeration for State of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia County, District of Spring Garden, 1st Ward, 29 July 1850; “Ostheimer Brothers”, Philadelphia and Popular Philadelphians, The North American, Philadelphia, 1891, p. 210; Philadelphia Inquirer, 10 October 1953, p. 10.
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.New York Times, 10 December 1941, p. 25. 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.Homeward Mail for India, China and the East, 9 February 1891, p. 26.
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,New York Times, 10 December 1941, p. 25. and Browning later remembered they quickly got well acquainted.
Retaining influential contacts in Belgium from his earlier residence in Belgium allowed him to renew his links with Liège by 1896, joining the Belgian manufacturer Fabrique Nationale d'Armes de Guerre (FN) in a senior capacity.U.S. Air Services, p. 40. Despite state-of-the-art manufacturing capabilities by the end of 1895 FN was in poor financial shape due to lack of orders on their M1889 rifles and a lost legal battle with Mauser over the rights to produce improved M1893s. In 1896, most of their primary shareholders left and a major competitor DWM took over a controlling stake, excluding the company from the export market for military firearms.
This forced it to diversify into commercial firearms, their parts but also bicycles, so in April 1897 Berg returned to Hartford to investigate advances in bicycle design introduced by the Pope Manufacturing Company.John Browning and Curt Gentry, John M. Browning, American Gunmaker, An Illustrated Biography of the Man and His Guns, Doubleday & Co., Garden City, NY, 1964, p. 181; Anthony Vanderlinden, “1899: Year of the Browning Pistol”, American Rifleman, Vol. 168, No. 9 (October 2020), p. 40. In the course of his visit he negotiated manufacturing rights for FN in respect of the new “chainless bicycle” (which went into serial production in 1898 and was made until 1920s) and also met John Browning. Browning filed four handgun patent application in 1895-1896, of which two later became Colt M1900 and le pistolet Browning. He licensed pistols of his design for production and sale by Colt within US and Canada in July 1896, but it's believed at the time Colt was mainly protecting its revolver market.
Browning had intended to produce the smallest gun for the European market himself, but Berg persuaded him that FN was a prime candidate to undertake its manufacture, returned to Liège with a license proposal, presented it to FN board in June 1897, and in July 1897 an agreement was concluded granting FN the European rights for what became the M1899. 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).Browning and Gentry, p. 183.
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.Bruce D. Epperson, Peddling Bicycles to America: The Rise of an Industry, McFarland, 2014, p. 136; Electrical World and Engineer, Vol. XXXV (1900), p. 1062.
In France he set up Société l’Électromotion to build and service two-seater motor carriages and phaetons mounted on Columbia running gear.Electrical Review, Vol. 42, No. 7 (1903); Electrical World and Engineer, Vol. XXXV (1900), p. 1062. 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.New York Times, 10 December 1941, p. 25; The Motor Car Journal, Vol. I (1899), Cordingley & Company, London, p. 351. 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.La Vie au Grand Air, Year 2, No. 48 (August 1899), Pierre Lafitte & Cie, p. 572; Le Sport Universel Illustré, Paris, No. 159 (August 1899), p. 493.
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.History of Early American Automobile Industry 1891-1929, Chapter 12, at earlyamericanautomobiles.com.
Paris Exposition Although he operated independently from his Ostheimer relatives, both he and his uncle George Ostheimer (the first Secretary of the American Chamber of Commerce in Paris) were among ninety-five American-nominated members of the international awards jury at the Paris Exposition of 1900, Berg being a juror in the machine tool class.Report of the Commissioner-General of the United States to the International Universal Exposition, Paris, 1900, Vol. V, Government Printing Office, Washington DC, 1901, p. 15. For their services in this connection both men were made Knights of the French Legion of Honour.American Register and Morning News, London, 9 February 1901, p. 1. A United States Government Report referred to Berg’s “hearty cooperation” with the U.S. Department of Machinery and Electricity in achieving the Department’s aims at the Exposition.Report of the Commissioner-General, Vol. III, p. 141.
Association with Charles R. Flint From 1904 onwards Berg was associated in commerce with Charles R. Flint. Their business initially consisted of munitions supply to Russia during the Russo-Japan War, and in 1904-6 Berg’s office base alternated between St Petersburg and Berlin.New York Times, 10 December 1941, p. 25.
Both Russians and Japanese were interested in the Osetr-class submarine which had been designed by Simon Lake but which the United States Navy had declined to buy. Charles Flint called Lake to a breakfast meeting during which he claimed Berg could negotiate a sale in Russia later the same day. Berg duly performed, and within hours Lake received a cable ordering one submarine for trials and a further five if the trials proved successful.Submarine, The Autobiography of Simon Lake, As Told to Herbert Corey, D. Appleton-Century Company Inc., New York, 1938, p. 174. Over the next three years Berg was involved in supervising the building within Russia of these six submarines and of a further four which were the first to mount large calibre guns for surface fighting. He was also instrumental in the sale and construction, at Pola, of two Lake submarines for Austria-Hungary.New York Times, 10 December 1941, p. 25.
Details of the financial relationship between Flint and Berg are elusive. In 1908 hearings before a House of Representatives Select Committee, Flint stated “Mr Berg is my associate and agent” and “when he acts for Mr Lake he is also an associate of mine”. Lake’s evidence to the same committee was scarcely more revealing: “Our relations are not with Mr Flint directly. Our direct relations are with Mr Berg, and Mr Flint is identified with him in some way. One does business on one side of the ocean and one on the other”.House of Representatives, United States Select committee, Hearings Beginning March 9, 1908, Part 3 - Testimony, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1908, pp. 1095, 1455.
It was while Berg was working in Russia that Flint became aware of the Wright Brothers’ progress in the field of powered flight and initiated discussions to obtain an exclusive agency to sell their “flyer” outside America. He reported details of the Wrights’ progress to Berg for his commercial evaluation. Simon Lake, who was at that time based in Berg’s office, commented favourably on the report but came to regret one of the consequences of what followed, recalling “Flint and the Wright Brothers cost me the best agent a man ever had, for Berg grew so interested in the flying-machine that he almost forgot my contraptions”.Submarine, pp. 202-203.
Representation of the Wright Brothers Berg was initially lukewarm in his assessment of the Wrights’ invention. In May 1907 Wilbur Wright travelled to Europe to persuade him of its reality and importance.Fred C. Kelly, The Wright Brothers, Harcourt, Brace & Co., New York, 1943, pp. 196-7. Quickly convinced of Wright’s engineering brilliance and the reliability of his narrative, Berg introduced him to Henri Deutsch de la Meurthe and other influential figures in Paris. Wilbur reciprocated Berg’s esteem, describing him to his brother Orville as “a pretty slick hand... very practical... about as enthusiastic as a man could be and he really has a remarkable facility for reaching people”.Arthur George Renstrom, Wilbur & Orville Wright, A Reissue of A Chronology Commemorating the Hundredth Anniversary of the Birth of Orville Wright, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Washington, DC, 2003, p. 13 ; David McCullough, The Wright Brothers, The Dramatic Story Behind the Legend, Simon & Schuster, London, 2015, Chapter 7, II.