Arnold Wever

Arnold Wever (born February 9, 1850 in Kleve ; † May 12, 1922 in Berlin-Steglitz ) was a German banker . Before the First World War he was CEO of Deutsche Ansiedlungsbank AG and is considered to be the initiator of the Steglitz city park.

Life

Wevers tombstone in the Steglitz cemetery

Wever was the second of a total of six sons of the Prussian Attorney General Georg Carl Wever and his wife Catharina born. Tavenraat.

After graduating from high school at the Royal Wilhelms-Gymnasium in Berlin in 1868, he began a commercial apprenticeship at the export house Hardt & Co. in Berlin . However, he was unable to complete this due to a lung disease. After his recovery, he began studying agriculture at the University of Halle , which he later continued in Berlin. After graduating, his father bought him an agricultural business in Wilhelmsort near Bromberg in 1881 . Caused by several bad harvests, he followed the call of his former boss from Hardt in 1888 and took over the management of the Hardt & Tiedemann potato starch factory in Bentschen . He initially leased his Wilhelmsorter estate in order to later sell it.

Wever left Bentschen in 1898 to return to Berlin as chairman and director of the newly founded Deutsche Ansiedlungsbank AG . This bank, founded by a few wealthy shareholders, had the business purpose of buying up larger goods for sale and then parceling them out so that they could be sold to farmers in several units. In the vicinity of cities, especially in the Berlin area, the acquired businesses were also converted into building land.

Wever was married to Martha Dressler, daughter of the senior government councilor Eugen Dressler and his wife Bertha geb. from German. The three sons Karl, Eugen and Walther Wever came from the marriage .

Memberships and voluntary work

In Wilhelmsort he was a co-founder of the local evangelical parish and was responsible for building the church there on a voluntary basis. In Bentschen, too, he was entrusted with building the church there in an honorary capacity. In 1909 he became a member of the church council and later of the Steglitz parish council. Here he was able to contribute in particular his building experience in the construction of the Steglitz Church of St. Mark and the Church of St. Luke .

In 1906 he became a lay judge of the Steglitz community council; he was in charge of the garden and cemetery administration. As such, he was chairman of the beautification committee and implemented the establishment of the two Steglitz parks, the Stadtpark and the Park am Fichteberg. He oversaw the redesign of the mountain cemetery and was responsible for the administration of the Steglitz allotment gardens. As a council member, he was also a member of the administration's finance, waterworks, election and food committees.

During the First World War, a deputation of 80 people was subordinate to him, with whom he carried out the distribution of grants, fundraising, leading the wool collection week and similar welfare activities.

Wever was a co-founder of the Steglitzer Casinogesellschaft, a social club initially under the direction of his friend and first director of the Steglitzer high school privy councilor Lück. Arnold was chairman from 1912 to 1921.

In 1913 he took over the chairmanship of the Wever Family Association, which he held until his death.

honors and awards

• 1913: Prussian Red Eagle Order 4th class
• 1917: War Merit Cross

An avenue in the Steglitz city park bears the name Weverpromenade .

literature

• Walther Wever: History of the Wever family. Berlin 1898.
• Eberhard Winkhaus: We come from the family of farmers and blacksmiths. Genealogy of a southern clan group and the industrial pioneers belonging to it. Starke, Görlitz 1932.
• Walther Wever: Family Chronicle. Volume 1. 4th edition, Barsinghausen 2007.

Web links

• Homepage of the Wever Family Association