Carl Koch (entrepreneur)

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Carl Heinrich Koch

Carl Koch (born December 8, 1833 in Oppenheim ; † July 21, 1910 there ; also Carl Heinrich Koch ), son of the founder of the quinine factory Friedrich Koch (1786–1865), was a pharmaceutical manufacturer for industrial quinine production , winery owner, mayor and member of the Hessian parliament Land estates, member of the 2nd Chamber of the Hessian Land estates , honorary citizen and was considered a patriarch with a social conscience .

As an entrepreneur

Memento showcase in the mayor Carl Koch Erben winery, Oppenheim

Beginning and first corporate responsibility

Carl Koch was born in the Löwenapotheke, where his father ran the first quinine factory (in the world). After attending school, he worked in his father's chemical company and acquired the technical and commercial knowledge required for later management tasks.

In 1864, a year before his death, his father Friedrich Koch legally converted the company into a company with three partners. Son Carl Koch took over the technical and son-in-law Georg Senfter (father of Johanna Senfter ) the commercial area.

The Oppenheim company had great success and won awards (gold medals) at the world exhibitions in London, Paris (1867) and Vienna (1873).

The cinchona tree

Price drop for quinine

Because of the overexploitation of the wild cinchona trees in the South American Andes, deliveries from Peru and Bolivia fell sharply. On the other hand, the colonial powers developed an enormous need for their troops operating in tropical regions. The increasing pressure on the expensive quinine intensified the search for alternative solutions.

The British East India Company successfully grew cinchona trees on plantations in southern India as well as on Java and Ceylon and brought large quantities of bark to the European market. In addition, synthetic antipyretic and pain reliever drugs such as phenazone ( Ludwig Knorr ), antipyrin ( Farbwerke Hoechst ), antifebrin ( Chemische Fabrik Kalle , 1886), phenacetin ( Bayer AG , 1888) were manufactured.

Both developments collapsed the originally high price for the end product quinine. 1370 marks per kilogram in 1824 became 20 marks in 1898, nominally just one percent of the starting value when Koch was founded.

End of the quinine factory

Ten years earlier, Carl Koch saw great difficulties in the previous quinine production. The growing pressure of competition and the drop in prices on the world market due to synthetically produced fever pills and the increasingly demanding purity requirements of the drug books forced him to give up. The considerable expansion of the production facility into a large company, which was also considered, was not a real alternative. After weighing the risks, in 1888 he sold the factory equipment for 1.5 million gold marks to his competitor, Vereinigte Chininfabriken Zimmer & Co, and withdrew to his winery, which had continued to exist alongside the quinine factory. He invested the sales proceeds in a workers', savings and credit association.

In the non-profit sector

Carl Koch founded the savings and credit association in April 1865 - still in his time as an entrepreneur - on a big workers' day and took on the function of director and chairman of the supervisory board four times. Koch was elected to the local council in 1877 and then directed the fortunes of the city as mayor from 1881 to 1899. In this capacity, he created and promoted a large number of institutions:

  • Koch had the Landskron plant built from his own resources (inauguration of the Landskron Hall in 1893) and donated it to the beautification association he founded with a credit of 6,000 gold marks that was never reclaimed. After it was confiscated by the National Socialist government, the town came into possession of the complex.
  • Koch had the small Oppenheim forest created by Ferdinand Emonds in the former floodplain of the Rhine enlarged and numerous swamps drained and supported the measure financially.
  • A number of important infrastructure measures were created for Oppenheim under his leadership: Oppenheim received its aqueduct (1888), a ship landing bridge (1897) and electric street lighting (1899).

Because of his social achievements as an entrepreneur and mayor, Carl Koch was awarded honorary citizenship and he was nicknamed the patriarch with a social conscience .

After his time as mayor, he held another political office from 1899 to 1902 as a member of the second chamber of the state estates of the Grand Duchy of Hesse .

literature

  • Dieter Horst: Biography Friedrich Carl Koch published in "Oppenheim, history of an old imperial city" (on the occasion of the 750th anniversary of the city elevation), Oppenheim 1975, pages 252-254, editor: Dr. Hans Licht (Dr. Martin Held Foundation)
  • Jochen Lengemann : MdL Hessen. 1808-1996. Biographical index (= political and parliamentary history of the state of Hesse. Vol. 14 = publications of the Historical Commission for Hesse. Vol. 48, 7). Elwert, Marburg 1996, ISBN 3-7708-1071-6 , p. 219.
  • Klaus-Dieter Rack, Bernd Vielsmeier: Hessian MPs 1820–1933. Biographical evidence for the first and second chambers of the state estates of the Grand Duchy of Hesse 1820–1918 and the state parliament of the People's State of Hesse 1919–1933 (= Political and parliamentary history of the State of Hesse. Vol. 19 = Work of the Hessian Historical Commission. NF Vol. 29) . Hessian Historical Commission, Darmstadt 2008, ISBN 978-3-88443-052-1 , No. 459.
  • Ernst Schwenk: The cradle of the pharmaceutical industry was in Oppenheim , published in Oppenheimer Hefte No. 22 - Dec 2000, pages 2–21, ISBN 3-87854-154-6 (publisher Oppenheimer Geschichtsverein, editor: Dr. Martin Held)
  • Hellmut Wernher: Oppenheim as the cradle of the pharmaceutical industry , article in the Mainzer Allgemeine Zeitung of November 30, 1999 about a lecture by the Wiesbaden chemist Dr. Ernst Schwenk published in Oppenheimer Hefte No. 21 - May 2000, page 72, ISBN 3-87854-150-3 (Ed. Oppenheimer Geschichtsverein, editor: Dr. Martin Held)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ see web link homepage of the Carl Koch Erben family
  2. ↑ Newspaper article from May 13, 2006 in the Wiesbadener Tagblatt: Goldig, Two coins for the city museum
  3. ↑ a b c see literature Ernst Schwenk: The cradle of the pharmaceutical industry was in Oppenheim
  4. ↑ without taking into account the change in monetary value within 74 years
  5. ↑ see literature Ernst Schwenk: The cradle of the pharmaceutical industry was in Oppenheim
  6. ↑ In 1920 the Volksbank emerged from it
personal data
SURNAME Koch, Carl
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Koch, Carl Heinrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Pharmaceutical manufacturer, winery owner, mayor and member of the 2nd Chamber of the Hessian estates, honorary citizen
DATE OF BIRTH December 8, 1833
PLACE OF BIRTH Oppenheim
DATE OF DEATH July 21, 1910
Place of death Oppenheim