David Schickler

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Coat of arms of the Schickler family

David Schickler (born September 2, 1755 in Berlin ; † March 3, 1818 in Eberswalde ) was an entrepreneur and banker in Prussia . As a representative of the third generation, he managed the banking and trading company Splitgerber & Daum, founded in 1712 (from 1795 under the new name Gebrüder Schickler ).

Family history

David Schickler, named after his grandfather and founder David Splitgerber , was like him the epitome of a merchant and entrepreneur. Both of them - each in their own time - steered the fate of the house under sole responsibility for decades. Schickler was the offspring of a family of pastors and schoolmasters from Basel. His father Johann Jacob Schickler found a job in the trading house in 1745. Splitgerber's partner Gottfried Adolph Daum had died two years earlier, and Splitgerber himself had reached the advanced age of 62. He arranged his succession in such a way that a few years later he married his two underage daughters to two of the most capable employees. One of these men was Johann Jacob Schickler. His wife was 17-year-old Ernestina Johanna. The second marriage was between the then 18-year-old daughter Charlotta Catharina and Friedrich Heinrich Berendes. When Splitgerber died in 1764, the two sons-in-law took over the management of the trading house.

After the distribution of assets between the individual communities of heirs (Daum, Berendes and Splitgerber) and after heirs left through death or compensation, the trading house finally came into the ownership of the two grandsons of Splitgerber, the brothers David Schickler and Johann Ernst Schickler , who then subordinated the company continued under their own name "Gebrüder Schickler", with David Schickler taking over the management. A few years earlier, his brother had moved to Bordeaux , where he married Ernestine Elisabeth Fahrtisen, daughter of the local banker and Prussian consul Fahrtisen - a former employee of Splitgerber in Berlin - in 1788. With this marriage, the still existing, several times ennobled, French line of the Schicklers with claim to half of the property (from 1795) in the trading house was established. In 1820 the other half was taken over by mutual agreement.

Company history

The rise of the trading company Splitgerber & Daum from the smallest beginnings to what was at times the largest commercial enterprise in Prussia is unthinkable without the support of the Prussian kings within the framework of the mercantilist order. The generational willingness of entrepreneurs to invest their considerable profits in risky and difficult projects in the service of regional development contributed to the favor granted by the various rulers over the centuries. It all started with the royal manufactories founded by Friedrich Wilhelm I , the “Soldier King”, as part of his efforts to become self-sufficient.

With the lease of these plants, Splitgerber & Daum promoted the domestic trade as desired and thus also the further settlement of skilled workers, but they forfeited their entrepreneurial freedom and exposed themselves to the arbitrary interference of the court, which even presumed the right in a family one To take sides to the detriment of the trading house. In addition, the hoped-for profits largely failed to materialize. The reasons for this were the high monopoly prices set by the crown with poor quality of the products at the same time, but also the lack of competence of the entrepreneurs and the conflict-laden triangular relationship between the crown, the workers and the tenants. The leased works included various factories for the manufacture of metal products (made of copper, brass, iron and steel). The Neustadt-Eberswalde iron and steel works, initially operated on royal account, was so unprofitable that the king first leased it out free of charge and then gave it away, with the condition that it be continued under his conditions. The end of this compulsory relationship (1824) also heralded the end of the work (1836). The brass factory was an exception, with a net profit of around 20,000 thalers a year.

The leased Königliche Gewehrfabrik Potsdam-Spandau was also a profitable business , whereby in addition to the equally delicate recruitment of skilled workers - mainly from Liège arms factories - other difficulties arose here several times. On the one hand the king set the prices, on the other hand he paid the bills at will. The king's response to a submissive reminder:
“The Lord will get money when it is time. He and his consorts are willing to be patient ” .

In addition, the orders were placed in spurts (in times of armament and wars), while in the intervening years of peace the skilled workers had to be kept and paid. In 1810 the Schickler brothers were forced by royal intervention to debit a loss of 30,000 thalers that they had paid as wage advances and were not allowed to offset. The gun factory was returned to the state in 1852. At the instigation of the court, Splitgerber & Daum also took part in high-risk overseas ventures.

The most profitable business, however, remained the trading house with connections to almost all European trading centers and its own deep sea fleet. In the trade in raw materials and finished products, supplies for military use were at the forefront for years. Above all, the Silesian Wars brought increases in sales and considerable profits, which both strengthened the equity capital of the trading house and increased the private wealth of the entrepreneurs.

The four sugar factories in Berlin and Bromberg were among the extremely lucrative foundations of their own, and they had an almost nationwide sales monopoly for the Prussian regions with additional plants they had bought in (e.g. Minden).

As part of the trading house, which was founded in 1712, business with precious metals, coins and securities was also operated from the start, making Splitgerber & Daum the oldest bank in Prussia. However, after his time as court bank under Friedrich Wilhelm I and Friedrich the Great , relations cooled down under his successors. However, the bank remained the first address for aristocratic and wealthy circles and developed into one of the leading and most respected private banks in Prussia. In later years the bank brokered several large-volume government bonds - also within the framework of the Prussian consortium - and was involved in financing in the course of the beginning industrialization and railway construction. In 1910 the merger to form the Delbrück, Schickler & Co.

The David Schickler era

Immediately before it was taken over by the Schickler brothers, the trading house suffered a total loss of 460,000 thalers in the years 1793–1795 from business with French partners that had gone bankrupt as a result of the economic crisis in the wake of the 1789 revolution . The ships had gradually been separated. The last ship was sold in 1795. David Schickler continued the withdrawal from state-owned enterprises (brass works and copper works 1786) that had already begun in the 1780s. In contrast, he initiated the expansion of the trading house with the establishment of the branch in Szczecin (1797) and the focus on pure banking. In 1803 the trading and banking branch was opened in Bromberg. After the sugar monopoly was lost (1787), the leading market position could be maintained, but in 1797 the first sugar factory was sold. Sugar production in Minden was abandoned without replacement in 1809. The factory in Bromberg followed in 1818.

The biggest turning point, however, was the collapse of Prussia in 1806 through Napoleon's victory and years of French rule. The Gebrüder Schickler banking and trading company was particularly hard hit by this crisis, as it got caught between the two fronts with its Franco-German ownership structure. On the one hand, doubts were expressed about the reliability, on the other hand, the house suffered considerable damage from the French. They confiscated rifles, shut down the factory, stole raw materials and destroyed production facilities when they left. The loss of rifles amounted to 78,000 thalers and thus consumed the profits of the arms factory's last ten financial years. Eventually the Schickler house lost part of its fortune when it was used several times due to the contributions to be paid to France .

In the following years before and during the wars of liberation , the weakened banking house was nevertheless able to grant the Prussian state, the Kurmark and the city of Berlin significant loans, which by 1813 amounted to a total of 340,000 thalers (of which around 100,000 thalers came from gun deliveries) summed up. As early as 1808, Gebr. Schickler, together with the banking houses Gebr. Benecke and SM Levys Erben, participated in a loan of 500,000 thalers to Prussia.

The efforts of the Schickler brothers were supported by King Friedrich Wilhelm III.
Appreciated in retrospect with a cabinet order of November 1, 1813: "... I renew the assurance that I am pleased to acknowledge the patriotic sentiments that you have revealed on several occasions" .

With the death of David Schickler in 1818 the influence of the “Prussian” line of the Schicklers on the bank ended, because the only heir, the son David Schickler jun., Renounced the management and in 1820 ceded half of his share of the property in exchange for a settlement of 500,000 thalers. whereby the banking and trading house went completely to the French line.

Personal

David Schickler also followed in his grandfather's footsteps as a gardening lover. In the first few years after the company was founded, he had set up his own account for gardens. His gardens were regarded by contemporaries as attractions, such as the garden behind the Splitgerberchen Palais with the address Quarrée No. 5 at the Brandenburg Gate (today Pariser Platz 5 with a halved property and the French embassy) and that of the Truchsess-Waldburgschen heirs taken over and expanded baroque garden, which is now part of the Cologne Park . Presumably there were gardens that were admired at every company location, for example in Neustadt / Dosse.

David Schickler surpassed his grandfather with the Schickler Gardens in Eberswalde, which he gave to the city as a gift. The waterfall landscape he created became a tourist attraction and also attracted numerous visitors from Berlin, for whom a separate train station ( waterfall ) was later set up. The visitors from near and far immortalized themselves in his guest and visitor book. Among the most famous visitors were the Prussian finance minister Carl August von Struensee , Daniel Chodowiecki and Friedrich Delbrück with the two young Prussian princes Friedrich Wilhelm (later King Friedrich Wilhelm IV. ) And Wilhelm (later Kaiser Wilhelm I ). The Schickler Gardens were the nucleus of the zoological garden of Eberswalde.

David Schickler's house (around 1795)
Old Forest Academy

From 1793 David Schickler owned a house in Eberswalde, where he died in 1818. The house was acquired by the Prussian state in 1830 for the Forest Academy, which was moved from Berlin to Eberswalde. The original two-storey building was reduced by one storey in 1913, changed in the entrance area and is now a listed building.

Honors

1817 honorary citizen of Eberswalde
1846 Schicklerstrasse in Eberswalde
1889 Schicklerstrasse in Berlin

literature

  • Johann David Erdmann Preuß: Friedrich the Great , Vol. 1, Nauck, Berlin 1832
  • Wolfgang Schneider, Berlin , A cultural history in pictures and documents. Gustav Kiepenheuer Verlag, Leipzig / Weimar 1980
  • Friedrich Lenz, Otto Unholtz: The history of the banking house Gebrüder Schickler , commemorative publication for the 200th anniversary, Verlag G. Reimer, Berlin 1912. digitized by the University of Toronto
  • Gerhard Johann David von Scharnhorst, head of the military reorganization: Private und Dienstliche Schriften , Volume V, edited by Tilmann Stieve, ISBN 978-3-412-20066-4 u. ISBN 3-412-20066-2
  • Nadja Stulz-Herrnstadt: Berlin bourgeoisie in the 18th and 19th centuries , Volume 99, Publisher: De Gruyter 2002, ISBN 3-11-016560-0 u. ISBN 978-3-11-016560-9
  • Wilhelm Treue: Economic and technical history of Prussia , Verlag De Gruyter 1984, ISBN 978-3-11-009598-2
  • JW Kunger, Chronicle of Eberswalde , self-published, 1841

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Friedrich Lenz, Otto Unholtz: The history of the bank Brothers Schickler , genealogy annexed
  2. ↑ Since adulthood did not come of age until the age of 25, the king's consent had to be obtained in both cases
  3. ↑ Friedrich Lenz, Otto Unholtz: The history of the bank Brothers Schickler , p 162
  4. ↑ Friedrich Lenz, Otto Unholtz: The history of the bank Brothers Schickler , p 132
  5. ↑ Friedrich Lenz, Otto Unholtz: The history of the banking house Gebrüder Schickler , p. 82 f., 90, 132, 136, 171
  6. ^ Wolfgang Schneider: Berlin, A cultural history in pictures and documents . Gustav Kiepenheuer Verlag, Leipzig / Weimar 1980, p. 172
  7. ^ Johann David Erdmann Preuß: Friedrich der Große , Vol. 1, Nauck, Berlin 1832, pp. 288 ff.
  8. ↑ Friedrich Lenz, Otto Unholtz: The history of the bank Brothers Schickler , S. 83, 84
  9. ↑ Friedrich Lenz, Otto Unholtz: The history of the bank Brothers Schickler , p 85
  10. ↑ Friedrich Lenz, Otto Unholtz: The history of the bank Brothers Schickler , p 278
  11. ↑ Friedrich Lenz, Otto Unholtz: The history of the bank Brothers Schickler , S. 75, 171
  12. ↑ Friedrich Lenz, Otto Unholtz: The history of the bank Brothers Schickler , p 59
  13. ↑ Friedrich Lenz, Otto Unholtz: The history of the bank Brothers Schickler , p 108/109
  14. ↑ Johann David Erdmann Preuß: Friedrich the Great , Vol. 1, Nauck, Berlin 1832, p. 289
  15. ↑ Friedrich Lenz, Otto Unholtz: The history of the bank Brothers Schickler , p 192
  16. ^ Gerhard Johann David von Scharnhorst: Private und Dienstliche Schriften , Volume V, p. 356
  17. ↑ Friedrich Lenz, Otto Unholtz: The history of the bank Brothers Schickler , S. 281, 282
  18. ↑ Friedrich Lenz, Otto Unholtz: The history of the bank Brothers Schickler , p 213
  19. ↑ Friedrich Lenz, Otto Unholtz: The history of the bank Brothers Schickler , p 265
  20. ^ Hugo Rachel, Johannes Papritz, Paul Wallisch: Berliner Großkaufkers , Vol. 3, p. 24
  21. ^ Hugo Rachel, Johannes Papritz, Paul Wallisch: Berliner Großkaufkers , Vol. 3, p. 24
  22. ↑ Friedrich Lenz, Otto Unholtz: The history of the bank Brothers Schickler , p 182
  23. ^ Johann III Bernoulli : Bernoulli's collection of short travel descriptions , year 1784, GE Beer, Berlin 1785, p. 414
  24. ^ Ingrid Fischer: The parks in and around Neustadt-Eberswalde , in: Eberswalde as bathing and climatic health resort 1795–1850, ed. from the city of Eberswalde, 2002, p. 44
  25. ^ Rudolf Schmidt: History of the City of Eberswalde Volume 2, edition from 1939, "Schickler and his tourist book", page 118ff
personal data
SURNAME Schickler, David
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Merchant, entrepreneur and banker in Prussia
DATE OF BIRTH September 2, 1755
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH March 3, 1818
Place of death Eberswalde