Willibald Nöthen was born on December 14th, 1928 as the third son of the music teacher and organist Jakob Nöthen and his wife Isabella in their own home built in 1927 in Haan, on Schillerstreet.

After primary school, he studied Catholic church music at the Rheinische music school in Cologne. After the currency reform in 1948 he received a commercial training from a gentleman‘s outfitter in Düsseldorf. Out of love for design, he also took an exam as a shop window dresser.

But his passion was always music. Even at the age of 14 during the war there was no weekend without visiting the holy mass, playing the organ. In Hilden he founded a church choir and after the new building of the Haaner hospital he took over the organ part whenever he could until the end of the official church services in 2018.

In 1954 he switched full-time as a commercial clerk to one of the largest European drop forges Walter Gott GmbH. Solingen. He worked there for almost 20 years, finally as sales manager for „tool technology“.

On November 6th, 1973, Willibald Nöthen founded his own business in his home town Haan. He rented a production hall an started the business. In 1974 the company moved to Solingen in 1991 the operating units in Steinbach-Hallenberg, Thuringia followed. In 2008 the plant in Schwarza, since June 2020 the NWS Haan plant. Until a few days before his death, Mr. Nöthen was in the company every day and always kept a wakeful eye on what was going on. His almost 70 years of work, 48 of them with his NWS, he shaped with humanity, economic understanding and a special feeling for the special and valuable. Respect and trust were parts of his principles, as well as healthy ambition and looking ahead.

Willibald Nöthen passed away on March 13, 2021 after a short and serious illness.

The entire NWS team will miss his shoulder.