Karl Elsener (inventor) his grandson Carl Elsener senior (1922-2013) and his great-grandson Carl Elsener Jr. (born 1958) led the Victorinox company. Karl Elsener (inventor) Karl Elsener (9 October 1860 - 26 December 1918) was a Swiss cutler, inventor and entrepreneur. Karl Elsener completed an apprenticeship as a knife maker in Zug. After some journeyman years he opened a factory in Ibach, Switzerland in 1884 for the manufacture of knives and surgical instruments. He invented the Swiss army knife in 1891 and developed his knife manufacturing company into what has become Victorinox. From 1912 to 1918 Elsener was a member of the cantonal parliament
Karl Herxheimer Karl Herxheimer Karl Herxheimer (June 26, 1861 – December 6, 1942) was a German-Jewish dermatologist who was a native of Wiesbaden. He studied medicine at the universities of Freiburg, Strasbourg and Würzburg, receiving his doctorate in 1885 with a thesis on cerebral syphilis. Following graduation he worked as an assistant to Karl Weigert at the Institute of Pathology in Frankfurt am Main, and to Albert Neisser at the university skin clinic in Breslau. He later worked with his older brother, Salomon Herxheimer (1841-1899) in Frankfurt, where in 1894, he became director of the municipal dermatology clinic. Along with Paul Ehrlich,