In order to promote this continuing education program beyond disciplines, Max Näder founded the independent Otto Bock Foundation in 1987. Some of our conferences on gait analysis and CAD/CAM systems have received international recognition.
The expansion of the foundation’s mandate to include “activities in the charitable sector” allowed rapid assistance in the summer of 2002 when the “flood of the century” hit Eastern Germany and caused a lot of damage and suffering. Antje and Prof. Hans Georg Näder mobilized the entire company network to quickly organize relief. They solicited company partners, clients and subsidiaries all over the whole world to give donations for “Giving hope – living hope”. In Duderstadt, Otto Bock employees enthusiastically organized a big fundraising festival that ultimately obtained support from the whole town. Within no time, the campaign collected some 500,000 euros for disabled flood victims.
Because social responsibility of a global company does not end at national borders, Otto Bock also gets involved
in international relief projects. When a Tsunami took over 300,000 human lives on December 26, 2004, ravaging big parts of the coastal regions of South East Asia, we spontaneously began our relief action for Khao Lak in Thailand. Only two days after the disaster, employees from Otto Bock South East Asia were fitting the first victims.
Also after the hostage-taking of an entire school on September 1, 2004 in Beslan, Prof. Hans Georg and Antje Näder spontaneously started a relief campaign of the Otto Bock Foundation. Four particularly severely injured children could thus be transported to Germany with the ADAC ambulance service and receive subsequent medical care.
