Conrad Hinrich Donner (landowner)

Conrad Hinrich Freiherr von Donner (born October 7, 1876 in Altona , † March 21, 1937 in Hamburg-Eppendorf ) was a German landowner.

Live and act

Conrad Hinrich Donner was the only son of a banker of the same name and his wife Bodild Mimi Countess of Holstein-Holsteinborg (born June 5, 1852 in Holsteinborg on Zealand ; † July 9, 1927 in Lehmkuhlen near Preetz). He attended high school in Doberan . He then studied law at universities in Lausanne , Oxford and Kiel and graduated with a legal traineeship. He then served as an officer in the bodyguard hussars in Potsdam , where he retired as Rittmeister in 1907.

In 1908/09, Donner took part in an expedition to East Africa. Together with two friends, he hiked from Nairobi through northwestern Kenya, northern Uganda, following the Upper Nile through southern Sudan to Karthum. After the death of his father, Donner became a silent partner in the banking house Conrad Hinrich Donner, which his father left behind . The management was taken over by his uncle Richard Henry Donner. As an inheritance, he received a large estate. This consisted of the Fideikommiss Bredeneek and Rethwisch, Lehmkuhlen and the Meierhöfen Christiansruh, Hohenhütten, Trenthorst and Marienwarder, which covered an area of ​​3100 hectares. In addition, there was Conradsruh in Westphalia with an area of ​​around 2000 hectares.

Lehmkuhlen manor house (around 1910)

He had already taken over Lehmkuhlen in 1910 and chose it as his permanent residence. He had the manor house there from the 18th century expanded. It existed until 1975.

On December 7, 1910, Donner married Agnes Fanny Adolfine von Bülow in Bothkamp (born September 8, 1888 in Eckernförde ; † October 13, 1962 in Kiel ). She was a daughter of Cai von Bülow (1851-1910) on Bothkamp and his wife Elisabeth, née Countess von Holstein-Waterneverstorf (1854-1938). The Donner couple had three daughters and two sons.

Lehmkuhlen arboretum

From 1911, Donner had the park expanded on Lehmkuhlen and an arboretum laid out. This should make foreign flora and fauna in the region at home. In the early stages of the First World War he suffered an injury and was therefore considered unfit for war. Thus he could devote himself to his dendrological and zootechnical interests. In the Lehmkuhlener Park he cultivated subtropical and polar trees and shrubs and all the hardwoods, larches and conifers that existed in northern Germany. The area of ​​the Conradsruh estate comprised 2000 hectares of forest. In the Arnsberg forest he gatted around 800 hectares. With the help of Carl Hagenbeck , he bred rare wild animals here. Sika deer from Japan were best kept .

In 1919 Donner sold Meierhof Trenthorst to company partner Hans W. Julius Peter. In 1928 a paper mill bought the Conradsruh property. From this income, Donner bought a manor in Pessin in Westhavelland and the Simba farm in Tanganyika . There he crossed domestic cattle with Angelite cows he brought in and founded a well-known dairy.

literature

• Maria Möring: Donner, Conrad Hinrich . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Wachholtz, Neumünster 1982–2011. Vol. 9 - 1991. ISBN 3-529-02649-2 , pages 94-95.