Benjamin Raule

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Benjamin Raule (* February 1634 in Vlissingen ; † May 17, 1707 in Hamburg ) was a Dutch shipowner and general naval director from Brandenburg .

Origin and Dutch merchant (1634–1674)

Raule came from a Huguenot family from a part of Flanders that is now part of France. The family had made a profitable life as privateers from Dunkirk and then from Zeeland . From a young age he was a respected citizen and councilor in the city of Middelburg , the capital of the Dutch province of Zeeland and an important trading center. As a businessman he successfully traded with France . The Dutch War brought his business to a standstill in 1672 and cost him his fortune.

Pirate trips for Brandenburg (1675)

In 1675 Raule turned to Brandenburg , which was at the time at war with Sweden , and offered his services to the Great Elector Friedrich Wilhelm . He received a letter from Friedrich Wilhelm which allowed him to take away Swedish ships. Brandenburg was dependent on such help against the sea power Sweden, as it had hardly any naval forces of its own.

Raule equipped privateers in Amsterdam, with which he captured 21 Swedish merchant ships in a short time. But the letters of misery were not recognized by Holland and England, and Raule had to release the ships and their cargo again. As a result, Raule fled to Berlin, even more in debt than before and persecuted in his home country.

Raule in Brandenburg under Friedrich Wilhelm (1676–1688)

In Berlin, in 1676, Raule was commissioned to build the Brandenburg Navy . The fleet was used and continuously expanded during the siege of Stettin in 1677, the siege of Stralsund (1678) and the invasion of Rügen (1678) . In 1680, 28 ships were already sailing under the Brandenburg flag.

Since the elector had an outstanding bill against Spain, which the Spaniards did not pay, Benjamin Raule helped through the pirate war against Spain , in which he achieved some successes. In the middle of 1680, a small association of eight ships with 172 cannons in the western Atlantic captured two Spanish silver ships and sold them profitably in Jamaica. The subsequent conquest of the frigate Carolus Secundus in September 1680 off Ostend by Claus von Bevern became particularly well known . On February 20, 1681 Raule was appointed "General Director de Marine" with the rank of colonel.

In addition, Raule was committed to establishing trade relations overseas. After a first trade expedition to West Africa in 1680/81 , he founded the Brandenburg-African Compagnie in 1682 , which moved its headquarters with a total of 30 merchant and 10 warships from Königsberg to Emden in 1684 . As a ship and financier, she supported the colonial efforts of the Great Elector. Otto Friedrich von der Groeben set up a small colony on the West African Gold Coast in what is now Ghana , and hoisted the Brandenburg flag there on January 1, 1683. In the same year he founded Groß Friedrichsburg near Cape Three Points (Ghana) as the main branch. Further bases were on the Arguin Islands in what is now Mauritania and on the island of St. Thomas , now part of the US Virgin Islands . The promising combination of slave trade and sugar imports served the simultaneous establishment of bases in Africa and the Caribbean .

As General Director of the Brandenburg maritime power, Raule successfully advocated the continuous building of new ships for the Elector. In 1687 he founded the Electoral Shipyard Havelberg , where he had previously had a timber trade. From 1688 to 1698 more than fifteen ships were built there.

Raule was held in high esteem by the "Great Elector", for whom overseas trade and the navy were important state tasks.

Raule in Brandenburg under Friedrich (1688–1702)

After the death of the "Great Elector" in 1688, Friedrich III came. to power. Benjamin Raule was suspected of embezzlement and arrested. But as the First Minister and tutor of the heir to the throne Eberhard von Danckelmann stood up for him, he was rehabilitated in 1690.

Initially, the new elector was also very interested in seafaring and continued to build new ships. However, there were various failures that outweighed losses, and with every ship captured or lost by accident, Friedrich III decreases. Interest in "maritime affairs". In 1701 the fleet was completely shut down.

Benjamin Raule's business continued for the time being. He now had a considerable fortune and even resided in his own castle.

Raule's advocate Danckelmann fell in 1697 over a court intrigue. Raule was also arrested because he had given Danckelmann a part in his business. What could be used under criminal law was searched for and found. An audit discovered a cash minus, he should also have betrayed the "Great Elector", every gift, every favor was held against him now. Friedrich III. Raule was arrested in 1698 on suspicion of embezzling funds at the Spandau Citadel . All of his property was confiscated. The case against him was dropped, but he remained detained.

Exile and End of Life (1702–1707)

In May 1702 he was released on condition that he go to Emden immediately . His wife could only see him for a few hours in Spandau. Like the only daughter, she died before him.

He spent the next few years as an exile and in poor conditions on a shipwreck in Emden. In June 1705, after his dwelling in Emden had become uninhabitable, he was allowed to move to Hamburg. There he died after a long illness on May 17, 1707. After Raule's death, his fortune and all of the goods he had acquired in Berlin and elsewhere went permanently to Brandenburg-Prussia.

Raule's court

In 1678 Raule had the residential and commercial building "Raules Hof" built on the foundation walls of one of the former electoral ballrooms. It was on Alte Leipziger Strasse No. 1 between Unterwasserstrasse and Adlerstrasse. This is how the passage between Adlerstrasse and Alter Leipziger Strasse got its name. Raule's work for Elector Friedrich Wilhelm turned the house into a kind of naval ministry.

In the 19th century, Johann Adolph Heese's silk goods shop was located in Raules Hof . The house was demolished around 1935 and the house at Werderschen Markt was built on the property, which covered several streets and which now houses the Foreign Office .

Rosenfelde Castle

In 1682, the Great Elector gave Raule an unused courtyard with garden land in what was then the village of Rosenfelde . There Raule had a summer palace built in the Dutch style in 1685 and acquired additional farms and areas, so that in 1696 he was master of the entire village. At the same time he had a park built in the Dutch style. The impressive overall complex, which combined art and nature, also attracted the Brandenburg court to visit Rosenfelde.

The castle fell to the new Elector Friedrich III in 1698 . who ordered the renaming of Rosenfelde to Friedrichsfelde in 1699 . It is still under this name today.

Ships named after Benjamin Raule

literature

  • Franz Eißenhardt: From the prehistory of the Brandenburg-Prussian-German fleet to the appearance of Benjamin Raule. In: Marine-Rundschau. 13th year, 1902, pp. 275-279.
  • Günther Gieraths : Benjamin Raule, his life and especially his economic views. University of Halle 1924 ( dissertation )
  • Dagmar Girra: The Rise and Fall of an Adventurer . In: Berlin monthly magazine ( Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein ) . Issue 5, 1999, ISSN  0944-5560 , p. 60-63 ( luise-berlin.de ).
  • Klaus J. Hennig: Ivory for Brandenburg . In: Die Zeit , No. 20/2001.
  • Ulrich van der Heyden: Red eagles on Africa's coast. The Brandenburg-Prussian colony Großfriedrichsburg in West Africa . Selignow-Verlag, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-933889-04-9
  • Ulrich van der Heyden: Benjamin Raule and Berlin. In: Ulrich van der Heyden, Joachim Zeller (ed.) “… Power and share in world domination.” Berlin and German colonialism. Unrast-Verlag, Münster 2005, ISBN 3-89771-024-2
  • Kurt Petsch: Seafaring for Brandenburg-Prussia, 1650-1815. History of Naval Battles, Overseas Offices and State Trading Companies. Osnabrück 1986.
  • Reemt Reints Poppinga: Benjamin Raule. A Dutchman made Emden an overseas port. In: Schiff & Zeit / Panorama maritim. Volume 17, 1983, pp. 52-56.
  • Bernhard von Poten :  Raule, Benjamin . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 27, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1888, pp. 398-401.
  • Julius Wilhelm Otto Richter: Benjamin Raule, the General Marine Director of the Great Elector. A patriotic picture of the times and characters from the second half of the seventeenth century. Jena 1901.
  • Richard Schück : Brandenburg-Prussia's colonial policy under the Great Elector and his successors (1647–1721). Leipzig 1889
  • Meta Schoepp : Benjamin Raule, the Great Elector's great naval director. Düsseldorf 1941.
  • Malte Stamm: The Colonial Experiment. The slave trade in Brandenburg-Prussia in the transatlantic area 1680-1718. Dissertation, Düsseldorf 2013, docserv.uni-duesseldorf.de
  • Klaus-Dieter Stefan (Ed.): Friedrichsfelde - The place. The lock. The story . Hendrik Bäßler Verlag, 2014, pp. 53–77.
  • Hans Szymanski: Brandenburg-Prussia at sea 1605–1815. Berlin 1939.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Dagmar Girra: The rise and fall of an adventurer . In: Berlin monthly magazine ( Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein ) . Issue 5, 1999, ISSN  0944-5560 , p. 60-63 ( luise-berlin.de ).
  2. ↑ a b c d e Klaus J. Hennig: Ivory for Brandenburg . In: Die Zeit , No. 20/2001.
  3. ↑ a b The story of Schloss Friedrichsfelde on schloss-friedrichsfelde.de
  4. ↑ Historical personalities in Lichtenberg: Benjamin Raule . Lichtenberg Museum
  5. ^ Raule's court . In: Street name lexicon of the Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein
  6. ↑ Friedrichswerder . diegeschichteberlins.de
personal data
SURNAME Raule, Benjamin
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Dutch shipowner and general naval director for Brandenburg
DATE OF BIRTH February 1634
PLACE OF BIRTH Vlissingen
DATE OF DEATH May 17, 1707
Place of death Hamburg