Ernst Wilhelm Conrad Gössel

Portrait of Ernst Wilhelm Conrad Gössel

Ernst Wilhelm Conrad Gössel (* 1761 in Gildern ; † October 15, 1843 in Plauen ) was a merchant and textile entrepreneur from Plauen. He played a major role in the development of a textile industry in Vogtland .

Life

Early years

Gössel came to Plauen in the 1780s to take up a position as a commercial clerk in the calico printing factory Facilides & Co. The manufactory was founded in 1755 by Johann August Neumeister as the first Saxon calico printing company and was later expanded to include a new castle-like factory ( Weisbachsches Haus ). In addition to Neumeister as director, the owner and operator of the manufactory was a partnership made up of eight Plauen cotton merchants. Thanks to his commercial skills, Gössel soon gained trust among the members of the firm. Two events determined the rise of Gössel to an important entrepreneur of his time: After the death of Johann Christian Facilides, he married his widow Marie Magdalene (1754-1818) in 1792. On the one hand, this brought him material wealth; at the same time, his reputation among Plauen's cotton merchants grew, so that he was accepted into their guild shortly after his marriage . He was also accommodated by the fact that the founder and long-time director of the calico printing company JA Neumeister quit his job in Plauen in 1794 and moved to Zwickau. As a result, Gössel gained increasing influence on the further development of the manufacture in the following years.

From manufacture to factory

Especially during the continental blockade, Gössel was able to significantly increase sales and profits of the calico printing company. This enabled him to become one of the first Saxon entrepreneurs to get involved in mechanical cotton spinning. The first water-powered fine spinning machines started operating at Gössel as early as 1808. In the years that followed, its mechanical spinning mill, with around 13,000 spindles, was the largest in the Vogtland and one of the largest in the Kingdom of Saxony. He had the cotton yarn produced by hand weavers, some of whom were permanently employed, in his own factory to make muslin and calico . The fabrics were also printed and finished here, creating a closed production chain for cotton products. In 1811 Gössel employed 1,620 people in spinning, weaving and calico printing. During this time, the Gösselsche factory in Vogtland served as a model and thus favored the establishment of other factories, such as the cotton spinning mills of Christian Gotthelf Brückner in Mylau and Gottlob Friedrich Thomas in Lengenfeld . Gössel gradually bought all the shares in Facilides & Co. In 1814 he had acquired all of the shares and thus became the sole owner of an early industrial textile empire. For his services to the Saxon economy and the financial support of the city of Plauen during the wars of liberation , he was awarded the title of Saxon Chamber Council in 1814 .

Downfall of the calico printing plant

Gössel's wife Marie Magdalene died in 1818. The following year he married Wilhelmine Caroline Franz (1802–1839), who was only 17 years old. The marriage was more of a formal character and in 1838 he divorced. Thus Gössel remained childless, which made the succession plan for his textile factory difficult. He himself set up four equal partners. This turned out to be a serious mistake. The initial differences of opinion among the partners later resulted in legal disputes. In addition, there were disruptions in internal processes and sales problems due to the increase in Saxon and English textile competition. In the 1820s, Gössel's textile empire disintegrated. Gössel himself announced the liquidation of his company in a circular to his business partners in 1830. Only parts of the mechanical spinning mill were preserved and were later taken over by Carl Wilhelm Weisbach.

Charitable work

In the last years of his life, Gössel was mainly involved in social and communal projects. In 1834, for the first time, the Plauen theater was given a permanent venue thanks to Gössel's generous funding. The house was later called the Gössel-Löberingsches Theater. In 1836 he financed a stone bridge over the White Elster , the Gössel Bridge. To improve fire fighting, the Plauen fire brigade received a new, large fire brigade syringe. He also donated money to buy a school house and later gave the school a planetarium. Gössel died in 1843 at the age of 82.

literature

• Albin Neupert Sr.: The privilege. Kattunfabrik Facilides & Co. and the Plauische Großindustrielle Kammerrat Ernst Wilhelm Conrad Gössel . In: Messages from the Altertumsverein zu Plauen . Annual Bulletin 1913, pp. 103–118.
• Frank Luft: The history of the first Saxon calico print manufactory in Plauen . In: Sächsische Heimatblätter . Issue 2, 2014, Ed. K. Gumnior, Chemnitz, pp. 126–132.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Siegfried Rätzer: The cotton goods manufacturer in the Saxon Vogtlande from its beginnings to the collapse of the Napoleonic continental system . Verl. Krüger Mylau, 1914, p. 94 f.
2. ↑ Albin König: The Saxon cotton industry at the end of the last century and during the continental barrier . BGTeubner Leipzig, 1899, p. 341 f.
3. ↑ Richard Helmrich: Plauen's theater history up to the consecration of the city theater in 1898 . Announcements from the Plauen Antiquities Association 1908–1909, p. 206 f.