Hessian entrepreneur Friedhelm Loh, owner and chairman of the Friedhelm Loh Group, has been honoured for his social commitment. At a ceremony in Bad Klosterlausnitz on 30th June, the German welfare organisation Arbeiter-Samariter-Bund presented him the Samaritan Cross in gold, its highest award.

Friedhelm Loh is known not only as a successful entrepreneur, but also for his exemplary social commitment and generosity. The German welfare organisation Arbeiter-Samariter-Bund (ASB) has been a beneficiary of this generosity for many years, and has now thanked Friedhelm Loh with its highest award, the Samaritan Cross in gold.

For almost 15 years, Friedhelm Loh has been supporting the ASB Holzland Workshops in Bad Klosterlausnitz near Gera, where 175 people with the most varied disabilities are today offered vocational training and employment. The donations made by Friedhelm Loh have helped the association to set up a new complex with workshops, two residential homes and a promotional welfare centre for the disabled. In addition, the workshops receive regular orders from member companies of the Friedhelm Loh Group.

The award was presented by ASB national executive director Wilhelm Müller, in the presence of guests representing local and regional politics and the economy. In his laudation, he emphasised: "We need more people like Friedhelm Loh, who supports the work of the ASB so selflessly and charitably."

Friedhelm Loh thanked the ASB for the award, but went on to add: "I haven't really done anything special to deserve it. I am just giving back what life has given me." As a committed Christian, he simply tries to live by those principles.

As an entrepreneur, too, Friedhelm Loh is very closely attached to the region. With Neef, Stahlo, Rittal and Eplan, four subsidiaries of the Friedhelm Loh Group have facilities in Gera and count around 240 employees. Rittal also opened a new sales and logistics centre in Gera in 2008.

Together with the group's more than 10,500 employees worldwide, Friedhelm Loh makes considerable donations to social and charitable projects each year, for example in connection with a Christmas fund-raising campaign.