Johann Friedrich Küpfer

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Johann Friedrich Küpfer (around 1740)

Johann Friedrich Küpfer (born June 15, 1708 in Bern ; † February 20, 1766 ) was a Swiss industrialist. He founded one of the first factories in the Margravial Oberamt Rötteln , which later became KBC Manufaktur Koechlin, Baumgartner & Cie. GmbH was established.

Origin and family

Johann Friedrich Küpfer comes from the Küpfer family who belonged to the Bernese patriciate . He was a son of the textile dyer and India manufacturer Hieronymus Küpfer (1679–1756) from his first marriage to Anna Benedikt.

He married Johanna Elisabeth Grütter (1705–1769). The following children reached adulthood:

  • Salome Katharina Küpfer (1730–1796) ∞ Franz Hieronimus Gaudard
  • Daniel Friedrich Küpfer (1734–1762) ∞ Katharina Le Clerc
  • Rosina Elisabeth Küpfer (1738–1802)
  • Nanette Küpfer ∞ Johann Jakob Gmehlin
  • Niklaus Jakob Küpfer (1744-1815); India manufacturer to Lörrach ∞ Rosina Küpfer

Life

Küpfer took over his father's indienne printing company in the Sulgenbach district of Bern , founded in 1706, and developed it further.

The conspirator in Bern

In the 18th century, Bern was ruled by around 80 patrician families , which led to dissatisfaction among the approximately 270 other bourgeois families, which mainly included craftsmen, merchants and scholars. After already in 1735 and 1744 the peaceful demand for participation in the government was harshly rejected, in 1749 the so-called Henzi conspiracy came about which wanted to curtail the power of the Bernese oligarchy. Several members of the Küpfer family were involved in the conspiracy. Küpfer provided the premises in his fabric printing shop for a meeting of the conspirators and not only participated passively in the conspiracy, but offered to provide weapons and armed men. On July 2, 1749, the conspirators were betrayed to the government of Bern. On July 4, 1749, Küpfer was arrested along with about 70 other suspects of the conspiracy. On August 6th, he was sentenced to loss of civil rights and lifelong banishment from the entire Swiss Confederation. After the three condemned leaders, he was seen by the government as one of the main culprits and was at the top of the list of seven life exiles . There was a minority in Bern who also demanded the death penalty for Küpfer. Despite his guilt, some residents of Bern also demanded mercy for Küpfer, as Vinzenz Bernhard Tscharner (1728–1778) wrote to Albrecht von Haller (1708–1777): " La public demande la grace de copper, actuellement le plus coupable de tous les prisonniers. "

His son Daniel Friedrich took care of Küpfer's textile printing plant in Bern and, after his early death († 1762), his daughter-in-law, Katharina Le Clerc († 1769).

The economic pioneer in Baden

After his exile, Küpfer first went to England, where he managed to come up with a recipe for dyeing fabrics blue with indigo in London . After his return from England, Küpfer first settled in Mömpelgard in Württemberg , which was in the vicinity of Basel and the upper margraviate of Baden-Durlach .

In the Margravial-Baden Oberamt Rötteln there was a fabric printing company that was founded on April 6, 1752 by Philipp Jakob Oberkampf (1714–1781), the father of Christophe-Philippe Oberkampf , as an indienne factory in Lörrach near Basel . After only a year, Oberkampf gave up because he had run out of capital.

The Röttler Landvogt Gustav Magnus von Wallbrunn tried to find a new investor because he wanted to implement the economic policy of Margrave Karl Friedrich and promote industrial settlements.

Küpfer heard about Wallbrunn's efforts and applied to the margravial government in Karlsruhe by letter of June 26, 1753, requesting additional privileges. Wallbrunn supported Küpfer's proposal because he held out the prospect of 200 jobs. Probably also the Bernese company of Küpfer, which had been functioning well for a long time, Küpfer received from the margravial government the promise of most of the privileges he wanted on August 27, 1753.

Küpfer founded the Küpfersche Cotton and India Fabrique , a calico printing company , in Lörrach in 1753 . Küpfer also brought the necessary know-how for the operation of the textile printing shop to Lörrach through foreign workers - presumably also from his company in Bern. At the beginning, the company functioned as a pure manufacture without any industrial mode of operation, but due to its size and division of labor, it was significantly more efficient than traditional craft businesses.

The Basel trading company Merian & Comp. Was on board as a financier and economic advisor from the start. During the financial support from Peter Merian, Küpfers textile printing works mainly at its own risk. Küpfer not only had the economically useful knowledge of dyeing and printing fabrics, but also a passion for alchemy and his experiments cost a lot of money. Despite a good business development, the company was therefore heavily indebted to Merian in 1761. In the autumn of this year, the entry of a new partner saved the company. Georg Friedrich Gaupp had also acquired knowledge of the Indian textile industry in the military service of the British East India Company . Gaupp intended to increase the vertical range of manufacture by adding spinning, weaving and bleaching. Already at the end of 1762 the young society broke up because of differences of opinion between Küpfer and Gaupp. Another partner, Karl Anton Breitenbach, was unable to cope with the creation of a weaving mill due to a lack of specialist knowledge. From then on, Küpfer ran the business on his own again until his death. In 1764 there were 45 work tables in his factory and he employed almost 100 workers. Cotton and linen fabrics were printed. Its annual production included u. a. over 20,000 handkerchiefs . In order to reduce the need for working capital, he now mainly worked as a subcontractor for fabric printers in Neuchâtel , Geneva and Zurich . Around this time, experiments with madder were made in the Bern printing company run by his daughter-in-law , which suggests that Küpfer not only wanted to produce gold with his alchemical experiments in Lörrach, but also experimented to develop new dyes or dyeing processes.

In 1766 Küpfer died after taking a self-made alchemical preparation. After his death, his son Nikolaus Jakob Küpfer took over the company. In the early 1770s he received support from his brother-in-law, Johann Jakob Gmehlin, who took over the commercial management. The company later became KBC Manufaktur Koechlin, Baumgartner & Cie. GmbH - Europe's largest textile printing company.

Honors

In Lörrach a street was named after Küpfer.

literature

  • Robert Neisen: The Dreiland: emergence of a cross-border industrial region. In: Markus Möhring, Marion Ziegler-Jung, Robert Neisen (editor): Rich heritage - industrial culture in the three countries. Lörracher Heft No. 23, Lörrach 2016, ISBN 978-3-922107-13-2 , pp. 29-64; here p. 36
  • G. Kurz: A contribution to the Henzi conspiracy of 1749. In: Blätter für Bernische Geschichte, Kunst und Altertumskunde , Volume 10, Issue 1 (1914), pp. 38–43 e-periodica.ch
  • Arthur Bolliger: A contribution to the development of European textile printing , Vienna 1950 Google digitization
  • Helmut Bertelmann: The beginnings of industrialization in the Lörrach area. In: Das Markgräflerland, issue 2/1981, pp. 187–230
  • Karl Seith : On the prehistory and history of the India printing company Küpfer in Lörrach. In: Das Markgräflerland, issue 2/1939, pp. 79–80, digital copy of the Freiburg University Library
  • Otto Erich Deutsch (editor): Report of Count Karl von Zinzendorf on his trade policy study tour through Switzerland in 1764. In: Basler Zeitschrift für Geschichte und Altertumskunde Volume 35 (1936), pp. 295–296. doi : 10.5169 / seals-114834
  • Karl Herbster : From the Lörrach days of the "British captain" Georg Friedrich Gaupp. In: Das Markgräflerland , Heft 3, 1929/30, pp. 74–82, digitized version of the Freiburg University Library

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A textile printing company founded by Philipp-Jacob Oberkampf in 1752 failed soon after it was founded
  2. ^ University of Hohenheim Economic Archive Baden-Württemberg Köchlin, Baumgartner & Cie Holdings: Y 270
  3. ↑ a daughter of his father's half-brother, Johann Rudolf Küpfer; On August 14, 1799, Rosina helped Johann Caspar Lavater to escape the French troops from Basel to the margraviate of Baden; see Geßner: Johann Kaspar Lavaters biography of his daughter , Volume 3, p. 443
  4. ^ See Johann Anton von Tillier : History of the Eidgenössischen Free State of Bern , Volume 5, pp. 206-207 Google Digitized
  5. ↑ see briefly pp. 40–41; this meant all of the XIII places of the old Confederation and the places facing them
  6. ^ Vinzenz Bernhard Tscharner, editor: Raphael Germann: Letter July 31, 1749. In: HallerNet.org. Retrieved September 18, 2019 (French).
  7. ↑ Otto Erich Deutsch (editor): Report of Count Karl von Zinzendorf on his trade policy study trip through Switzerland in 1764. In: Basler Zeitschrift für Geschichte und Altertumskunde Volume 35 (1936), p. 304 Otto Erich Deutsch (editor): Report of the Count Karl von Zinzendorf on his trade-political study trip through Switzerland in 1764. In: Basler Zeitschrift für Geschichte und Altertumskunde Volume 35 (1936), p. 304 Digitalisat e-periodica.ch and 310 Digitalisat e-periodica.ch
  8. ↑ Werner Kroker: Writings on economic and social history , Volume 19, Berlin 1971, p. 112 Google digitized
  9. ↑ it was about the indirect promotion of the trade. In the then agricultural region of Baden, essential characteristics of mercantilism were still missing . The Margrave's attempts at physiocratic approaches began much later, however.
  10. ↑ see Bertelmann p. 198
  11. ↑ What is meant here is the trading house founded by Peter Merian (1709–1801) and Johann Heinrich Heitz-Ochs in 1743; see also Arthur Bolliger: A Contribution to the Development of European Textile Printing, p. 185
  12. ↑ see Arthur Bolliger: A contribution to the development of European textile printing , p. 185 Google digitized
  13. ↑ see Herbster p. 79
  14. ↑ see Bertelmann p. 200
  15. ↑ see Richard Dietsche: The industrial development of the Wiesental up to the year 1870 , Schopfheim 1937, p. 31
  16. ↑ see Bertelmann p. 201
  17. ↑ Otto Erich Deutsch (editor): Report of Count Karl von Zinzendorf on his trade policy study trip through Switzerland in 1764. In: Basler Zeitschrift für Geschichte und Altertumskunde Volume 35 (1936), pp. 295–296
  18. ↑ Otto Erich Deutsch (editor): Report of Count Karl von Zinzendorf on his study tour of trade policy through Switzerland in 1764. In: Basler Zeitschrift für Geschichte und Altertumskunde Volume 35 (1936), p. 304. doi : 10.5169 / seals-114834 .
  19. ↑ Werner Kroker: Writings on economic and social history , Volume 19, Berlin 1971, p. 112 Google digitized
personal data
SURNAME Küpfer, Johann Friedrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-Swiss industrialist
DATE OF BIRTH June 15, 1708
PLACE OF BIRTH Bern
DATE OF DEATH February 20, 1766