Bernhard Kugelmann is regarded as one of the pioneers of the technical development of the telephone that enabled people to arrange a connection by means of a dial without needing the help of an operator at the telephone exchange. 

He came from a very reputable Kissingen family. His father David Kugelmann was married to Johanna, née Wormser from Oberlauringen; the couple had seven children.

Bernd Kugelmann was born in Bad Kissingen on May 9, 1877 as the fourth child. He lived with his parents, whose art and antiquities shop was situated at Rosengarten, where the family also lived.

After attending “Humanistisches Gymnasium” (humanistic high school) in Würzburg, he graduated from “Technische Hochschule” (technical college) in Munich, which he finished as a “Diplomingenieur” (graduate technician). A bad accident during military maneuvers prevented him from working in industry. Therefore, the young technician committed himself to private studies, the result of which was his invention of a “Selbsttätiges-Fernsprechvermittlungs-System” (self-activated telephone exchange system). In 1903, Kugelmann had claimed a patent at “Reichspatentamt” (Reich patent office) and also claimed patents for his technical improvements of the system in the following years. He offered his invention to “Reichspostamt” (Reich post office) that asked him to come to Berlin and explain his ideas. During the meeting in “Kaiserliche Telegraphenapparat-Werkstätten” (Workshop for telegraph apparatuses) he got to know that they had been working on the problems of automatic connections for years, as they had rejected the system A. B. Strowger had developed in the USA in 1889 as being too complex and expensive. Kugelmann’s solution, on the contrary, needed much fewer switching points and buildings and, therefore, could work at much lower costs for the customer. 

After 1903, the Kissingen engineer worked together with the now Berlin-based Loewe group (Deutsche Waffen- und Munitionsfabriken) that produced weapons and ammunition but also machine tools. He was looking for a practicable implementation of “Dial-Telephonie” (dial telephones) and combined his invention with Strowger’s system. “Siemens & Halske”, the biggest telephone company in Europe in those days regarded that as a dangerous competition. “That was the reason why from 1903 to 1907 “Siemens und H.” fought against any patents by Kugelmann by means of lawsuits, but without the slightest success” (handwritten report “Frühzeit der Dial-Telephonie, Pionier- Arbeit des Dipl. Ing. Bernd Kugelmann”, in: Leo Baeck Institute, Center for Jewish History, New York, Bernhard Kugelmann Collection). After an agreement between the two combatants, Kugelmann continued to work on developing the system together with “Siemens & Halske”. For two of his inventions he also claimed patents in the USA and sold licenses to telephone companies there. On the occasion of the World Exhibition of Milan in 1906, Kugelmann’s invention was shown to the public for the first time, a model set was acquired by Deutsches Museum in Munich. The first German “Dial-Telephon-Amt” (dial phone office) was built in Hildesheim in 1908. At the time being, skepticism of the new way of phoning remained to be big because customers were very slow in getting used to the dials.

That was why Bernd Kugelmann went to Berlin University to study the law and take his exam as a patent attorney. He opened a patent attorney chancellery which developed quickly and successfully. World War I interrupted the rise of dial telephones. Immediately after the war, the chances of success for the new technology were scarce in an impoverished world. In 1915, Bernd Kugelmann was drafted for military service in Breslau (Wroclaw) for a short time but soon detached to Berlin as the chief engineer of “Signalabteilung” (signal department). After the war, he was appointed head of the department “Iron” in Reichsverwertungsamt (Reich exploitation office), before he returned to his occupation as a patent attorney in 1919. In the 1920s, the construction of “Dial-Anlagen” (dial systems) started everywhere and Kugelmann could earn money from a five-years’ extension of his patents. What was important to him throughout his life, was “the satisfaction that his ideas had made the victory of dialing telephones possible.” (handwritten report “Frühzeit der Dial-Telephonie, Pionier-Arbeit des Dipl. Ing. Bernd Kugelmann).

What is very significant, is the fact that no records on the very beginnings of dial telephones could be found in the company archives of “Siemens & Halske” because the Nazi Government had destroyed everything in “Wernerwerk” (headquarter of Siemens factory) in Berlin that could be traced back to a Jewish inventor. 

Since 1938 Bernd Kugelmann was married to Else Bernstein, whose father Max Bernstein was the co-owner of a big shipping company. 

In 1938, Bernd Kugelmann had emigrated to New York and died on February 2, 1969 in Miami/ Florida at the very old age of 92. His wife died there in December 1980. Obviously, Bernd Kugelmann came back to Bad Kissingen for a short time in the 1950s as a letter to him from ‘Deutsches Museum’ in 1953 bears the address “Herrn Dipl.-Ing. Bernhard Kugelmann z.Zt. Bad Kissingen Balling-Haus”.