Gustav Hauck (entrepreneur)

Gustav Hauck (oil painting, 1904)

Gustav Hauck (born August 23, 1837 in Heilbronn ; † October 7, 1911 there ; from 1904 Gustav von Hauck ) was a cigar manufacturer and from 1890 to 1908 president of the Heilbronn Chamber of Commerce . In addition, in 1892 he acted on a temporary basis for the mayor of Heilbronn, Paul Hegelmaier , who was temporarily removed from office due to doubts about his mental health, and was chairman of the supervisory board of Handels- und Gewerbebank Heilbronn AG and the twisting mill Ackermann .

Life

Origin and education

Hauck was born in 1837 as the second of eight children to the father of the same name, Gustav Hauck (1809–1863) and his wife Caroline Pauline Christine Reiner (1815–1890), the only daughter of the businessman Johann Ludwig Reiner, who died in 1831. Gustav Hauck senior joined the company of his late father-in-law after his marriage in 1835 and took it over in 1845. The company Joh. Ludw. Reiner was on grocery trade specialized wholesale and retail building, which also operate tobacco production since 1824th Gustav Hauck senior brother Hermann Hauck, father of the later mathematics professor Guido Hauck (1845–1905), was also a partner in Joh. Ludw. Purer .

Gustav Hauck attended grammar school in Heilbronn from 1845 to 1850 , and then went to secondary school until 1851. After finishing school, Gustav Hauck completed an apprenticeship at the Heilbronn colonial store Friedr. Max Haakh, and on November 1, 1855 he joined his father's company. His initial tasks included office work, and he also devoted himself to the newly started production of cigars . In the summer of 1857 he left his hometown to expand his knowledge of tobacco production abroad. He spent four months at the Holz & Dircks cigar factory in Hamburg , then two months at R. Crämer & Co. in Rotterdam . Back in Heilbronn, he implemented his experience in his father's company, whose customer base and cigar sales he was able to increase significantly through subsequent field service business trips. In 1860, Hauck took further training in tobacco production at Cammert & Gädecke in Bremen , after which he went to England, where, however, during a two-month stay he was unable to get a traineeship.

Tobacco manufacturer

Gustav's older brother Ludwig († 1866) was originally chosen by the father to succeed him in the company, but the latter developed other professional interests early on, so that the father was happy that Gustav was committed to the company. After the death of Gustav Hauck senior in 1863, the son became a partner in the company. In 1869 he married the merchant's daughter Emilie Meyer. On July 1, 1869, Hauck's mother, who had previously held a majority of the shares, withdrew from the business and Gustav Hauck was the sole owner of the Joh. Ludw family. Purer .

After the company was in his sole ownership, Hauck restructured it according to the ideas he had developed from his experience. He gave up the colonial goods business and closed the store in Heilbronn and an existing branch in Stuttgart. In return, he switched primarily to cigar manufacturing, in which 127 workers were already employed in his Heilbronn factory. In 1871 he opened a factory in Waldenburg , in 1872 another in Lorsch , and later in Wimpfen and Gundelsheim . With increasing sales he also stopped the production of smoking tobacco, which had been in operation for five decades, and in future concentrated exclusively on the production of cigars.

In 1889 he built a new factory on the outskirts of Heilbronn as a replacement for the factory in the city center, which had become too small for the 220 employees at the time. His older son Ludwig Hauck (1870–1939) joined the company in 1892, followed by the younger son Otto Hauck (1874–1933) in 1899. Hauck's cigars were increasingly finding buyers outside of the traditional south-west German customer base, so the company grew steadily. In 1900 there were 400, in 1911 over 600 and in 1914 almost 1,100 workers.

Gustav Hauck was in charge of his company until April 1, 1908 and then passed it on to his sons, who had been partners since 1895 and 1901, respectively.

Other work

From 1872 until his death, Hauck was a member of the Heilbronn Chamber of Commerce, of which he was president from 1890 to 1908 and of which he was subsequently honorary president. In 1901 he became chairman of the supervisory board of the Handels- und Gewerbebank Heilbronn AG, which he co-founded, and was also chairman of the supervisory board of the Ackermann twisting mill . In addition, he was involved in numerous other supervisory boards, associations and committees. He was one of the founders of the German Tobacco Trade Association and the German Tobacco Association.

Gustav Hauck was a member of the civic bodies of the city of Heilbronn for a total of 18 years. In 1867 he was elected to the citizens' committee and was at times its chairman. He was later elected to the local council. From February to December 1892 he was entrusted with the management of the business of the city council after the then mayor Paul Hegelmaier had been removed from office due to doubts about his mental state.

For his achievements, Gustav Hauck was appointed by the Württemberg government to the council of commerce in 1889 and to the secret council of commerce in 1899. In 1904 Wilhelm II awarded him the Knight's Cross and in 1906 the Cross of Honor of the Order of the Württemberg Crown , which raised him to the rank of personal nobility.

literature

• Kurt Erhard von Marchtaler: Gustav Hauck . In: Swabian Life Pictures . Volume 2. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1941, pp. 208-215
• 125 years of Joh. Ludwig Reiner in Heilbronn am Neckar. A memorandum . Heilbronn 1940

Individual evidence

1. ^ Stefan Hauck: Beyond mathematics. Guido Hermann Hauck (1845–1905) . In: Heilbronner Köpf IV (2007), pp. 69–86. Heilbronn Verlag Stadtarchiv 2007 ( Small series of publications from the Heilbronn City Archives ; 52)
2. ^ Court and State Handbook of the Kingdom of Württemberg 1907, p. 39