Andreas Stihl (10 November 1896 in Zürich, Switzerland – 14 January 1973 in Rohrbronn, Baden-Württemberg, Germany) was a Swiss-born German engineer and important inventor in the area of chainsaws, and the founder of Andreas Stihl AG & Company KG. He is often hailed as the "Father of the chainsaw". Since 1971, Stihl is the biggest chainsaw manufacturing company in the world. Andreas Stihl had four children with his first wife, among them Hans Peter Stihl (born 1932) and Eva Mayr-Stihl (born 1935), who succeeded her father in managing the company and remaining Vorstand until 2002.