Christophe-Philippe Oberkampf
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Christophe-Philippe Oberkampf (actually Christoph Philipp Oberkampf ; born June 11, 1738 in Wiesenbach, today in Blaufelden in the Schwäbisch Hall district ; † October 4, 1815 in Jouy-en-Josas near Versailles ) was a French cloth manufacturer and textile printer of German origin.
Live and act
Oberkampf's father, Philipp Jakob Oberkampf (1714–1781), had moved with the family to Switzerland as a dyer and calico printer and ran an indigenous factory in Aarau , later in Othmarsingen near Lenzburg, and founded KBC ; other family members were also active in this trade.
At the age of eleven, Christophe-Philippe was apprenticed to calico manufacturers in Basel and Mulhouse in Alsace.
In 1758 he went to Paris with his brother Friedrich , where both initially worked as engravers . Already fourteen months later, he became head of a Indienne factory in Jouy-en-Josas near Versailles, which he with a French partner than 1,759 Sarrazin Demaraize, Oberkampf & Co took over. The company was gradually expanded and converted from a manufacture to a machine-operated factory.
The company recorded a steady upswing and already covered an area of around 18,000 m² in 1764; In 1774 around 900 workers worked for Oberkampf. Through constant exchange with experts in Switzerland, Alsace and England, where he often traveled, and constant improvements to the colors and machines, Oberkampf soon enjoyed the reputation of being one of the best manufacturers of printed cotton cloths in Europe; the most famous textile designers of their time worked for him, many of the designs are now in the Musée de la mode et du textile in Paris.
As a German and Protestant two-time outsider in Catholic France, Oberkampf fitted himself well into French society: in his first marriage he married the daughter of a Parisian wine merchant , in his second marriage a shipowner's daughter from Caen ; since 1770 he was a French citizen. In 1783 the company was "royal manufactory", Oberkampf in 1787 by Louis XVI. raised to the nobility .
In 1789 he paid off his partner and gradually filled key positions in the company with family members, whom he gradually made partners. His brother Friedrich had his own indienne factory in nearby Corbeil-Essonnes since 1769 . His nephew Samuel Widmer ran a chemical laboratory in Paris from 1791 , which became a leader in the field of synthetic pigment production .
The years of the French Revolution did no harm to Oberkampf: Since he always paid his workers appropriately, treated them loyally and brought prosperity to the town, but also through political agility, he and his company got through the turmoil of the times unscathed.
He was even able to expand his factories and add a cotton mill - the first in France - and a weaving mill in Essonnes. In the days of the continental barricade imposed by Napoleon, he became economically independent of English products such as cotton. At times, Oberkampf employed around 2000 workers.
In 1790 he became mayor of Jouy-en-Josas , and under Napoleon Bonaparte in 1800 a member of the General Council of the Seine-et-Oise department . However, he declined to be appointed senator .
Napoleon, who had a weakness for successful climbers and outsiders - as he was - visited Oberkampf several times in Jouy-en-Josas and personally pinned the cross of the Legion of Honor on him. In 1806 the manufacturer received a gold medal at the National Exhibition in Paris, and in 1809 a prize for "the most useful industrial enterprise in France."
With the fall of Napoleon, the Oberkampf company began to decline: the aging company patriarch could no longer hold the company together and was increasingly in the red. After his death in 1815 and the suicide of his successor Samuel Widmer, the company came into foreign hands and was finally closed after bankruptcy in 1844. The center of the French indienne production was Rouen in Normandy.
Aftermath
In economic-historical research, Oberkampf is considered to be one of the pioneers of the transition from manufacturing to manufacturing.
In Paris, a street and a metro station are named after him. The city of Jouy-en-Josas honored him with a bust . He is buried in the garden of his house, which is now the city's conservatory . A separate room with original fabric samples is dedicated to him in the city museum. There is also a street named after him in his birthplace Wiesenbach.
Toile-de-Jouy (Jouystoff) is still a synonym for high-quality printed cotton fabric in France and is closely associated with the name Oberkampf in memories.
literature
- Stanley D. Chapman, Serge Chassagne: European textile printers in the eighteenth century. A study of Peel and Oberkampf . Heinemann Educational Books, London 1981, ISBN 0-435-32170-6
- Serge Chassagne: Le coton et ses patrons en France (1760-1840) . l'école des haute-etudes en sciences sociales, Paris 1991, ISBN 2-7132-0968-4
- Ders .: The Oberkampf family . In: Robert Uhland (Hrsg.): Lebensbilder aus Schwaben und Franken 14 (1980), ISBN 3-17-005790-1 , pp. 143-165
- Ders .: Oberkampf. Un entrepreneur capitaliste au Siècle des Lumières . Aubier Montaigne, Paris 1980, ISBN 2-7007-0176-3
- Alain Dewerpe, Yves Gaulupeau: La fabrique des prolétaires. Les ouvriers de la Manufacture d'Oberkampf à Jouy-en-Josas (1760–1815) . Presses de l'École Normale Supérieure, Paris 1990, ISBN 2-7288-0150-9
- P. Hochstätter: Christoph Philipp Oberkampf. Manufacturer to Jouy . Vaihingen 1859
- Alfred Labouchère: Oberkampf . Hachette, Paris 1884 in the Internet Archive
- Eduard Schmidt-Weissenfels: Oberkampf and the stuff printing shop . In: Ders .: Twelve Dyers. Biographical and novelistic pictures of the noteworthy guild members (German Craftsman Library; Vol. 19). Abenheim Publishing House, Berlin 1882, pp. 143-154
- Michel Sementéry: Oberkampf. Sa famille et sa descendance . Ed. Christian, Paris 1990, ISBN 2-86496-041-2
- August Wintterlin: Oberkampf, Christoph Philipp . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 24, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1887, p. 94 f.
- Bernard Vogler: Oberkampf, Christoph Philipp. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 19, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-428-00200-8 , p. 389 f. ( Digitized version ).
Web links
- Official website of the city of Jouy-en-Josas with a short biography of Oberkampf
- Informative tour through the museum with historical explanations and material examples
- Oberkampf's Pétition à l'Assemblée nationale par les fabricans de toiles peintes from 1791 as a digital copy
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Oberkampf, Christophe-Philippe |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Oberkampf, Christoph Philipp |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | French cloth manufacturer of German origin |
| DATE OF BIRTH | June 11, 1738 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Wiesenbach (now part of Blaufelden ) |
| DATE OF DEATH | October 4, 1815 |
| Place of death | Jouy-en-Josas at Versailles |