Emil Oelbermann

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Emil Oelbermann

Emil Oelbermann (born August 19, 1833 in Lennep ; † May 1, 1897 in Cologne ) was a Cologne entrepreneur who was active in the textile trade , whose wife Laura later became known throughout the city for social benefits and donations.

Emigration to the USA

Emil Oelbermann ran a cloth shop on the Alter Markt in Cologne. In 1866 he met the devout Protestant Laura Nickel; The two married in 1868. According to The New York Times , Oelbermann first came to New York in 1851 , where in 1869 he took over a company that had been in existence since 1849 and which had been known as E. Oelbermann & Co. since 1857. In New York in 1877 he built a commercial building at 57-63 Greene Street in Lower Manhattan , where E. Oelbermann & Co. relocated its headquarters. From 1858 he worked as a co-entrepreneur in the Noell & Oelbermann company. His partner was the Cologne Ludwig Noell (born August 16, 1833, † November 14, 1912). As a textile trader, Oelbermann was initially bound to orders. With a partner, he founded Oelbermann, Dommerich & Co. in 1889, which also ran textile production. His younger partner Louis Ferdinand Dommerich (born February 2, 1841 in Kassel) had completed an apprenticeship at Noell & Oelbermann after emigrating in 1859. In February 1860, Emil Oelbermann received American citizenship. The Oelbermann couple had five children in the USA, including their sons Emil (* 1872), Alfred (* 1874) and Harry (* 1877).

return

In 1880, at the request of Laura Oelbermann, the family returned to Cologne, where they initially lived temporarily in the Excelsior Hotel Ernst . Architect Hermann Otto Pflaume built a palace for the family in 1889/90 at Hohenstaufenring 57 in Cologne . Oelbermann then looked for a new job. He resorted to his former US partner Ludwig Noell, Otto Andreae's brother-in-law . He was a descendant of Christoph Andreae , who founded the velvet and silk factory Christoph Andreae in Cologne-Mülheim in 1763 . Emil Oelbermann joined here as a partner.

All children died before their parents, Harry died in Corsica in 1897 , Emil jun. 1901 in Vervi near Genoa and Alfred 1904 in Konstanz . Her father Emil died in Cologne in 1897, so that Laura Oelbermann was a millionaire widow without heirs from 1904. Around 1900 she was one of the richest individuals in Cologne, along with Theodor Guilleaume and Eduard Oppenheim . She devoted herself with great personal commitment to the poor and welfare care in Cologne, where she mainly selected Protestant beneficiaries. In 1901, for example, she contributed financially to the establishment of the Evangelical Hospital in Cologne-Weyertal, which opened on October 22, 1902. Also in 1901 she was a co-founder of the Evangelical Women's Aid in Cologne. She organized donations and foundations for the establishment of day nurseries, day nurseries and nursing homes. The management of the foundation she established is now the responsibility of the Evangelical City Association of Cologne. In 1906 she became a German citizen again. After the death of her last remaining son, she donated one million marks to her foundation for the Auguste Viktoria Hospital (Jerusalem) at the suggestion of Queen Auguste Viktoria . Laura Oelbermann was raised to the nobility in 1918 by Kaiser Wilhelm II because of her social commitment as one of the last in the empire and was now called Laura von Oelbermann. The "Emil and Laura Oelbermann Foundation" planned in detail in her will was recognized by the state in January 1930. The Palais Oelbermann was converted into a dormitory for working women in 1930 and demolished in the early 1980s.

Family grave and street name

The grave of the married couple Oelbermann is located on the "Million Allee" of Cologne's Melaten cemetery and is one of the most elaborate figural grave monuments there. It is adorned with a neo-baroque angel - who lost its imposing wings during the war - by the Düsseldorf sculptor Karl Janssen . The Laura-von-Oelbermann-Promenade on the left bank of the Rhine in Cologne is 313 m long.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ The New York Times, May 3, 1897, Death List of the Day , p. 7.
  2. ↑ a b Ulrich Soénius / Jürgen Wilhelm, Kölner Personen-Lexikon , 2008, p. 402.
  3. ↑ Clara E. Laies: Corporate Citizenship , 2005 S. 52nd
  4. ↑ The Oelbermann tomb and his family history
  5. ↑ Laura-von-Oelbermann-Promenade on Strasseweb
personal data
SURNAME Oelbermann, Emil
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German entrepreneur
DATE OF BIRTH August 19, 1833
PLACE OF BIRTH Lennep
DATE OF DEATH May 1, 1897
Place of death Cologne