August Wegelin

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August Wegelin (born October 1, 1840, probably in today's Sülz ; †  March 17, 1902 there ) was a German entrepreneur .

Sülz, in the French times a place in the Mairie Efferen, from 1815 to 1888 part of the mayor's office in Efferen

Origin and life's work

Sülz

It is uncertain whether August Wegelin's home in Sülz was also his place of birth. In the above detailed representation of Tranchot, which was made between 1801 and 1814, the area is only sparsely populated and only developed into a larger town in the middle of the 19th century. At that time Sülz was part of the municipality of Kriel in the mayor's office in Efferen and was incorporated into the city of Cologne in 1888. The place, now part of Cologne, was able to develop into a location for numerous manufacturing companies early on.

August Wegelin, who was able to acquire skills in the paint industry, which was also emerging, had recognized the versatile uses and marketing possibilities of carbon black . At that time, in addition to the raw material for color production, a product used as a fertilizer in agriculture was made from this. Already at the age of 22 years, the offspring of a family possibly resident in Sülz, which was later incorporated into Cologne, installed the first carbon black production facilities in an existing Sülz factory building. The products he made in this way found good sales and could even be exported to England.

Factory relocation

Current state of development of the former August Wegelin AG

Wegelin introduced his sons Gottfried and Karl into the company in 1893, and in 1895 August Wegelin relocated his carbon black factory, which was founded in 1862, from Sülz to the nearby town of Kalscheuren , which had also had a train station since 1859 . The main company in Sülz continued to produce for a few years, but was shut down after a while. After the company's founder died in 1902, Wegelin's son Gottfried took over the management of the company at the new company headquarters and ran it until 1925.

End of August Wegelin AG

However, the initially prosperous company ran into economic difficulties that were to be compensated for by the establishment of a stock corporation . The August then founded Wegelin AG was soon by the then, in 1873, founded Degussa ( De funnel G old- u nd S ilber- S cheide- A nstalt) taken, which had in 1932 acquired a majority stake. The share price, which was supposed to avert the impending bankruptcy of August Wegelin AG, had the opposite effect. In 1939 August Wegelin AG was finally fully integrated into Degussa AG through the transfer of assets and conversion into the Kalscheuren plant, which in 2007 became Evonik. The company, which was formerly created by August Wegelin, has been operating under the name Orion Engineered Carbons since 2011 and employs 400 people despite all automation.

Commemoration

Höningen, August-Wegelin-Strasse

The plants that emerged from A. Wegelin AG are now located in Rodenkirchen . Wegelin's last place of residence or his place of burial are currently unclear. It may be Rondorf, because in Höningen (Rodenkirchen), about 1.5 km from the factory premises, the naming of a side street on Kalscheurer Strasse leading to the Kalscheuren chemical plant reminds of August Wegelin. The city of Hürth also remembers August Wegelin in this way. In the new Kalscheuren industrial park, a side street on Winterstrasse was named after Wegelin.

literature

  • Ulrich S. Soénius, Jürgen Wilhelm (Ed.): Kölner Personen-Lexikon . Greven, Cologne 2008, ISBN 978-3-7743-0400-0 .
  • Manfred Faust: History of the City of Hürth , ed. from Heimat und Kulturverein Hürth, Cologne, JP Bachem Verlag, 2009 ISBN 978-3-7616-2282-7

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ulrich S. Soénius, Kölner Personen-Lexikon , 200, p. 567
  2. ^ Faust: History of the City of Hürth , p. 62
  3. ↑ Ulrich S. Soénius, Kölner Personen-Lexikon , 2008, p. 567
  4. ↑ http://www.rundschau-online.de/region/rhein-erft/huerth/stadtwerke-huerth-fernwaerme-aus-der-russfabrik---ausstieg-aus-der-braunkohle-25626942
personal data
SURNAME Wegelin, August
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German entrepreneur
DATE OF BIRTH October 1, 1840
PLACE OF BIRTH Sülz
DATE OF DEATH March 17, 1902
Place of death Sülz