The jury of the initiative "Mutmacher der Nation" has praised the positive development of J. Schmalz GmbH as particularly inspirational. The initiator of the competition is the German telephone-directory company "DasÖrtliche", in cooperation with the "Bürgschaftsbanken in Deutschland"(Association of German Surety Banks) and the manager magazine "Impulse". In 2004, far more than 600 small and medium companies who had mastered major crises entered the competition.

The objective of the initiative is to present small and medium-sized companies (up to 500 employees) as inspirational examples in today's critical economic situation, in the hope that their success stories can initiate a change of mood in our country.

The success story of J. Schmalz GmbH is particularly impressive. In 1984, managing director Dr. Kurt Schmalz took over the company and led it from one success to the next with his clever idea "moving with vacuum". It all started with a visit to a local joiner, who asked Kurt Schmalz if he could perhaps invent something with which his heavy workpieces could be lifted and moved more easily and with less damage. Kurt Schmalz smelt a good opportunity and developed a vacuum lifting device with which, for example, heavy sheets of wood could be gripped with vacuum. Today, the Schmalz company employs more than 300 people, of which more than 50 work abroad. International sales are supported by nine foreign subsidiaries and by agents in China, Poland and Russia. In 1990, Wolfgang Schmalz joined the company management.

Dr. Kurt Schmalz and Wolfgang Schmalz were thus very pleased to be nominated for the competition in the state of Baden-Württemberg and received a certificate from the publisher of "DasÖrtliche", Karin Abt-Straubinger. At the end of September, Schmalz or one of the other two nominated companies will be declared the winner in Baden-Württemberg and will participate in the national final in Berlin in the middle of October, when a jury will pick the national winner.

Members of the jury include Christian Wulff, Prime Minister of Lower Saxony; Prof. Dr. Gertrud Höhler, economic and political advisor and publisher; and Gerd Kühlhorn, deputy editor-in-chief of the magazine "Impulse", to name only a few.