Andreas Töpper
Andreas Töpper (also: Andreas von Töpper ; born November 10, 1786 in Schwanberg ; † April 27, 1872 in Scheibbs ) was an Austrian industrialist . He was considered the largest private entrepreneur in the Danube Monarchy , and his iron rolling mill in Neubruck near Scheibbs was the most modern in Europe. Töpper employed 800 workers in his factories from Scheibbs to Lunz am See .
life and work
The tradesman Andreas Töpper managed to rise from a simple blacksmith to the largest private ironworks owner in Austria in the 19th century. His parents, Michael Töpper, a master potter, and Ursula, moved from Lower Bavaria to Schwanberg in western Styria in 1780. The family probably came originally from northern Germany, in any case north of the Benrath line ( Töpper, Low German for potter ).
Töpper senior had heard that the economy stove was almost unknown in Austria and saw great market opportunities, he set up a kiln in Schwanberg and successfully started producing dishes and economy stoves, the clay was mined on his own land.
The son Andreas Töpper, like his two brothers, did not want to continue his father's business. He first became a blacksmith's journeyman and in 1803 went hiking to Stainz , Weiz , Göß and Krems an der Kainach . After his years of traveling as a works manager and inventor, Töpper drew attention to himself, because in 1808 he succeeded in rolling out sheet iron as thin as desired. It was the first rolling mill of the Austrian monarchy. He later built the first coal-fired flame furnace. He also manufactured precisely cut pret spindles for a paper mill and wire rollers for a gold worker . He founded the sheet metal rolling mills in Krems near Voitsberg (1808) and Gmeingrube near Trofaiach (1817) in Styria .
In 1814 Töpper received the master craftsman's certificate from the Voitsberg blacksmiths guild and started his own small rolling mill near Trofaiach. He became so famous that even Archduke Johann visited the plant. In 1817 he moved to Lower Austria. In 1818 he sold the rolling mill near Trofaiach to his brother-in-law Mathias Jandl.
Around 1817 Andreas Töpper founded an iron and sheet metal factory at the confluence of the Jessnitzbach in the Große Erlauf , today's Neubruck bei Scheibbs . Before the factory was founded, there was a hammer mill, the Grießhammer , with a nail forge at the confluence of the Jessnitzbach in the Große Erlauf .
Töpper bought the hammer in 1817, had the old production facilities demolished and in 1820 built the "First Imperial and Royal Iron, Steel and Rolled Sheet Factory", which over the course of time increased demand and entrepreneurial skill:
- four large sheet iron mills,
- four iron stretching mills,
- two cutting roller mills,
- six flame ovens,
- three tugging (= melting) fires,
- two great tearing hammers,
- also included various drilling and screw cutting machines, forges and other workshops.
Töpper received the exclusive privilege to produce all types of straight iron by means of rollers as well as pressed head nails . Due to increasing demand and entrepreneurial skill, the factory became the largest and most modern iron and sheet metal works in the monarchy. In addition to the rolling mill in Neubruck, he built the ironworks in Kienberg near Gaming in 1823.
Töpper often received the support of Emperor Franz I , for example in the expansion of the Erlauf weir, which the Scheibbser Hammerherren wanted to prevent. In addition, his workers were exempted from military service in view of the state-politically necessary production (e.g. rails for the new railways, ship plates, cartridge cases). Between 1821 and 1840 he received several privileges.
The Weghammer in Kienberg was converted into a gas pipe factory by Andreas Töpper in 1832. Also in 1832 he acquired the box building near Lunz am See. In order to use the water power of the Ybbs , he had an iron rolling mill built here. About two kilometers south of the center of Lunz, in the district of Kasten, he had the Töpperbrücke built over the Ybbs in 1855.
The region, which had a long tradition in the iron and steel industry and was therefore called Eisenwurzen , experienced a renewed boom. The Töppers factories were located in the vicinity of the Franz Wertheim factories in Scheibbs-Neustift and the Gaißmayer & Schürhagel factory in Scheibbs-Heuberg. But his social commitment to his up to 800 workers - building houses and old people's homes - was exemplary and not a matter of course for the times. The brother's shop in St. Anton an der Jeßnitz was set up in 1868 as a supply house for workers in need at his plant.
Andreas Töpper had a son Andreas in his first marriage, who died as a child. After the death of his first wife, Helene, at the age of 72, he married Amalia Höfling, a 20-year-old orphan girl from Vienna, in order to have a male descendant. This marriage had three daughters and one son. In 1862 Andreas Töpper was awarded the Franz Joseph Order . However, he was refused admission to the nobility. Töpper was very active until the end of his life, i.e. still at the age of 86. However, he was no longer able to adapt his production to modern requirements.
His successors were too inexperienced to lead the corporate empire through the economic crisis of 1873 . In the following years, large parts of the works had to be sold. Eduard Musil bought the factory in Neubruck and converted it into a paper mill. Töpper's commitment to building the Erlauftalbahn , and thus connecting his operations to the railway network, was only to come true after his death in 1877. Andreas Töpper was buried together with his first son and his first wife in the Andreas chapel and ten years after Töpper's death they were transferred to the Töpper mausoleum in the former cemetery in Scheibbs.
Pottery area
From the factory settlement he founded near the iron and sheet metal works, the town of Neubruck emerged, named after the "New Bridge" built by Töpper in 1830 over the Erlauf. The area consists of the bridge, which gave the factory settlement its name “Neubruck”, to the left, viewed from the north, of the “Traiteurhaus”, the inn and apartment of the foremen and in the middle the factory building surrounded by gardens. On the right is the Andreas Chapel, a domed structure with a portico, which was built between 1831 and 1834, and then the Töpper mansion. To the right in the direction of Gaming, the weir, built in 1821, stood over the Erlauf until 2009.
Today the factory, mansion / castle and chapel in Neubruck bei Scheibbs , the Töpper mausoleum, the so-called Töpperbrücke and the Töpperpark in Scheibbs as well as the Bruderlade in St. Anton an der Jeßnitz as well as the Heiligenbrücke in Kasten bei Lunz remind of Töpper's work.
The holy figures on the Töpperbrücke, originally made of cast iron from Mariazeller, represent the namesake of the Töpper couple - Holy Empress Helena, Apostle Andreas, Saint John Nepomuk and Saint Florian. Next to it there is a towering crucifix and a Madonna. In 1861 the bridge collapsed in a storm, but was immediately rebuilt. The new figures of saints were cast in Blansko . The former caterer's house is still preserved today. The weir over the Erlauf was replaced by a new building.
buildings
The following buildings by Andreas Töpper are still preserved today:
- Scheibbs: Manor house , Töpperbrücke, Bürgerspital, Scheibbs Castle (renovations), mausoleum, residential building on the Erlauf
- Scheibbs-Neubruck: Rolling mill (converted into a paper mill), manor house (converted into a castle) , chapel , catering house
- Kienberg / Gaming: Bottle / Iron Factory
- St. Anton an der Jeßnitz: Bruderlade
- Kasten / Lunz am See: Bridge with figures of saints
literature
- Constantin von Wurzbach : Töpper, Andreas von . In: Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich . 45th part. Kaiserlich-Königliche Hof- und Staatsdruckerei, Vienna 1882, pp. 248–250 ( digitized version ).
- Elisabeth Kraus-Kassegg: Andreas Töpper: from nail smith to large industrialist; a picture of life from the 19th century. St Pölten: Niederösterreichisches Pressehaus 1979 ISBN 3-85326-459-X (2nd edition Klosterneuburg: Österr. Agrarverl. 1998 ISBN 3-7040-1445-1 )
- Alois Krasser: Andreas Töpper - luck and end of a great inventor in the last century. Graz-Seiersberg: self-published
- Werner Berthold: Andreas Töpper. Industrial revolution in the Eisenwurzen. In: Forge his luck. Die Eisenwurzen and the rise of Andreas Töpper (Scheibbs 1987) pp. 77–100.
- Otmar Rychlik: Andreas Töpper and art. In: Forge his luck. Die Eisenwurzen and the rise of Andreas Töpper (Scheibbs 1987) pp. 101–110.
- Werner Berthold: So-called "medal tree" of the iron industrialist Andreas Töpper; Private property; Photo: Leutner. - Archiv Verlag (Vienna 1998). - 1 sheet: 1 photo (= Lower Austria Archive 4044).
- Wawrik, Friederike: Hammerherr Andreas Töpper. In: Our home. Journal of the Association for Regional Studies of Lower Austria 23 (1952) pp. 73–97.
Web links
- Entry on Andreas Töpper in the database of the state's memory of the history of Lower Austria ( Museum Niederösterreich )
- Literature by and about Andreas Töpper in the catalog of the German National Library
- Song about Andreas Töpper
- Pictures of the pottery factory
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Töpper, Andreas |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Austrian industrialist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | November 10, 1786 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Schwanberg |
| DATE OF DEATH | April 27, 1872 |
| Place of death | Scheibbs |