They love culture and promote it. But this is not the only area in which they are active. They are also successful entrepreneurs: Egon Evertz, Hans-Werner Gabriel and Thomas Busch. For their services, they will be awarded the city's Ring of Honor. The politicians agreed on this yesterday in a non-public session of the city council. When the awards will be presented is not yet clear.

While Busch and Evertz are party-politically unattached, Gabriel belongs to the CDU, he is honorary chairman of the union in forest. This circumstance briefly led political opponents to consider whether they should actually support the award to Gabriel; however, they have discarded this idea. Last year, there had been only a narrow majority in the council for the award of the Ring of Honor to the CDU Honorary Chairman Bernd Wilz. Not all politicians were convinced of his services to the city.

The future three Ring of Honor recipients are above these doubts. Thomas Busch (74), shareholder of Walbusch, is the founding benefactor of the "Dorper Kirche Citizens' Foundation", he has established a youth foundation and founded the Busch Foundation "Senior Citizens' Aid".

Egon Evertz (76) has been a patron of the arts since the 1960s. He helped found the Association for Children's Families and has been supporting orphans ever since. The head of the Evertz Group is the main sponsor of the music school, which is located in a former manufacturing hall of his company on Flustraße.

Hans-Werner Gabriel (83) is a sponsoring member of the monument foundation Walder Kirche, and has also been chairman of the municipal choir for many years. From the very beginning, he has been a member of the Bergische Symphoniker's shareholders' meeting and is active in its circle of friends.

Solinger Tageblatt from 22.02.2013

Ring of honor for entrepreneurs and patrons

By Bernd Bussang

Solingen (RP). It is not official yet, but there is a broad political consensus about three new ring of honor bearers of Solingen: The entrepreneurs Hans-Werner Gabriel, Thomas Busch and Egon Evertz are honored for their great social commitment.
Their special achievements as company founders and managers have brought them prestige and wealth. The fact that they did not keep this money for themselves alone, but always spent it on a wide range of social and cultural causes in their home town, is now to be honored with one of Solingen's highest awards. There is apparently a broad consensus on this in the city council. As the Morgenpost learned, the council factions agreed in the non-public part of the main committee to award Hans-Werner Gabriel, Thomas Busch and Egon Evertz with the city's ring of honor. Thus the politicians want to follow a suggestion of mayor Norbert Feith. The decision is to be officially confirmed today by the city council. Whereas up to now it was mainly politicians who were honored, now it is three important business personalities and patrons of the city.
Hans-Werner Gabriel (83) retired at 65 from the helm of the Ernst-Ludwig Emde company, which at that time still manufactured umbrella accessories. Gabriel took over the company in 1953 after marrying the founder's daughter. Today, his son Horst manages the company, which manufactures precision stamped parts for the automotive industry, among other things. But Hans-Werner Gabriel did not retire. On the contrary. As district chairman in Wald (1999-2004), the CDU member embarked on a political career, in an honorary capacity of course. In addition to his extensive stamp collection, culture is especially close to his heart: for many years, he was chairman of the municipal choir, was instrumental in the merger of the Solingen and Remscheid orchestras, and is an important supporter of the Walingen Theater Days and the art museum.

Thomas Busch (74) took over the Solingen-based Walbusch company, which employs more than 900 people, from his father Walter and ran it for 32 years before stepping down as CEO in 2008. As a supporter of his hometown, Busch is involved in many ways. Together with his wife Beate, he founded the Busch Foundation for Senior Citizens, he is the founder of the Citizens' Foundation for Ostracized Art, and he is the "savior" of the Dorper Church. He contributed two million euros to the youth foundation "Zukunft durch Bildung" (Future through Education) alone, which he founded on the occasion of his 70th birthday.

Egon Evertz (76) capital was creativity and inventiveness, and still is today. This is also true in the areas of social and cultural affairs. As a 19-year-old, the self-made man founded his first trade. Today, the steel service provider Egon Everts KG has more than 600 employees. The passionate violinist intensively promotes music and art. He made his own company premises available for the music school, and in 2008 he brought a widely acclaimed Dali show to the Klingenstadt.

Thanks and recognition from the city in pure gold

With the Ring of Honor, the city honors "particularly deserving personalities."
 
The ring weighs 27.8 grams and is made of 750 gold. It has been awarded irregularly for more than 50 years, for the first time in 1964. Since then, there have been 68 bearers, mainly politicians, but also artists and mayors of twin towns, such as most recently in 2012 Yossi Shvo from Ness Ziona

Solinger Morgenpost from 21.02.2013