Together with her husband Oskar, she has shaped Lapp into a leading company for integrated connection systems.

"My mother is still the heart of our company today. She has shaped us with her immense drive and passion for the company and its employees. She is our great role model," emphasizes her son Andreas Lapp, CEO of Lapp Holding AG.

A big birthday party in her honor was canceled due to the corona crisis. "Unfortunately, we can only celebrate our mother in a small family circle - but of course with a birthday cake and a serenade," regrets Andreas Lapp.

The Lapp success story began at the end of the 1950s. Ursula Ida Lapp's husband Oskar Lapp (1921-1987) was an inventor and tinkerer. He developed the first industrially manufactured connection and control cable, which revolutionized connection technology. Previously, all the wires in the cables were black or gray and the electricians had a hard time correctly assigning the wires to the respective ends when connecting them. This required a laborious process known as ringing through. The cables also had very large cross-sections and were not very flexible. Oskar Lapp invented a cable with colored wires with significantly smaller diameters. The corresponding brand name Ölflex still stands for oil-resistant and flexible control cables today.

In 1959, the Lapp couple founded their company with the help of a bank loan of 50,000 marks. Because Oskar Lapp was still employed by another company, Ursula Ida Lapp was entered in the commercial register as the founder of the company. The company U.I. Lapp is named after her.

As early as 1963, the company opened its first factory to manufacture its own cables. In 1965, the company headquarters were moved from the family home in Stuttgart-Vaihingen to Schulze-Delitzsch-Straße - still the company headquarters today. When Oskar Lapp died in 1987, Ursula Ida Lapp and her sons Siegbert and Andreas took over the management of the company.

Ursula Ida Lapp is still passionately committed to the company today. She is Honorary Chairwoman of the Supervisory Board and is present at important company events. At the end of the 1990s, she handed over day-to-day operations to her sons Siegbert and Andreas Lapp. Today, Andreas is Chairman of the Management Board of the parent company Lapp Holding AG, while his brother Siegbert is Chairman of the Supervisory Board.