Franz Heinrich Fauth

Franz Heinrich Fauth (born January 15, 1766 in Bergisch Gladbach , † September 8, 1820 in Bergisch Gladbach ) was a German entrepreneur, administrative lawyer and first mayor of Bergisch Gladbach.

Live and act

Franz Heinrich Fauth was the only child of the lawyer and Nassau-Orange court councilor Johann Gottfried Fauth (1732-1819) and his wife Helena Catharina Schnabel (1739-1819). The maternal grandfather named Heinrich Schnabel was the namesake of what is now the Schnabelsmühle district. With an excellent education, he attended the Latin school in Cologne . He completed studies at universities in Göttingen and Heidelberg with a doctorate in both rights. After that he allegedly worked as a city counsel in Elberfeld.

In 1792 Fauth was given a position as a district envoy for the Principality of Ried. He then worked in succession to his father as the district envoy of the principalities of Lippe, Wied-Runkel, Sayn and the county of Hachenburg. In 1798 at the latest he was appointed court advisor to Nassau. He was based in Cologne and continued to live in Schnabelsmühle. As a councilor he had to deal with the concerns of the districts of the principalities of the Westphalian district, those of Friesland, Minden and Mörs.

When Heinrich Schnabel died in 1797, he left behind the largest paper mill in town with 60 employees. The business was now run by his daughter Helena Catharina Schnabel and her son Franz Heinrich Fauth as the sole heir. It cannot be explained why he did not have a commercial training as such, but learned in public administration. Franz Heinrich Fauth probably gradually took over his mother's duties. In 1801 the tax list named Helena Catharina Schnabel as the payer. Official stationery from 1808 then transmits the watermark FHF 1806, ie F tolerance H einrich F auth. From 1819 took over the Fauth Schnabelsmühle itself.

Despite the complicated economic situation, Fauth took on public offices in addition to managing the paper mill. In 1804 he worked as a deputy of the industrial class in the Porz office. In 1806 he became the mayor appointed by Gladbach. This represented the canton of Bensberg with Bensberg , Odenthal and Rösrath . In 1809 he belonged to the conseil général du département du Rhin . After the end of French rule and a reform of the administration, he was appointed mayor of Gladbach and Bensberg. He also took over the office of police bailiff in the former canton of Bensberg. In 1815 he received an annual salary of 1,000 francs.

The paper mill run by Fauth ran into major economic problems. The owner tried to hide this until the end of his life. So he founded a fabric factory in the Kradepohlsmühle, bought limestone quarries and had three lime kilns built. In doing so, he resorted to high-interest debt, which he had to service with declining profits from the Schnabelsmühle. This accelerated the decline of the paper mill.

Fauth died of a consuming disease and left a bankrupt company. A street in Bergisch Gladbach is named after him today.

stationery

A letter from Fauth, which he posted on October 8, 1808 in Mühlheim am Rhein , has been preserved. In it he asked in good French a Frenchman in Beaune to send him a 135 liter wine barrel. The letter reached the recipient on October 15, 1808. Fauth paid a postage of 17 Stübern for the dispatch . At that time, an experienced journeyman who worked in the Schnabelsmühle was paid 40 stüber a day.

In 1811 Napoleon Bonaparte stayed in Düsseldorf , where the Bergisch producers presented their products at a trade exhibition. For this purpose, Fauth created paper with two watermarks. The right half shows an eagle, the left half a picture of Napoleon, inscribed with "NAPOLEON EMPEREUR DES FRANCAIS ROI D'ITALIE". It remains unclear whether Fauth wanted to moderate the French occupiers with regard to their sanctions, or whether as Maire von Gladbach he wanted to show his devotion.

Fauth was already producing vellum paper in 1808 . This was originally from England. In the Rhineland, probably only one paper mill in Werden has produced such paper since the 17th century . The letterhead on which he placed his wine order measured 242 × 402 mm. The paper has the edges cut off smoothly , which was considered sacrilege among paper producers . The reason for this may be that Fauth made stamp paper that was subject to French standards.

family

On October 15, 1792, Fauth married Anna Catharina Pütter (* 1770). The couple had five children who were not yet of age when their mother died on June 17, 1809.

• The eldest son Jakob Gottfried Matthias (1797–1829) bought the Schnabelsmühle together with Johann Wilhelm Zanders from his father's estate in 1822 . Zanders continued to run the company on his own after Gottfried Fauth's death.
• The daughter Helene (1793–1824) left behind poems that were still in the family's possession at the end of the 20th century.
• The youngest daughter Eleonore Mathilda Thusnelda (1809–1864) married into the Düsseldorf family de Weerth .

The family's graves were in the old cemetery of the then Reformed community next to the Gnadenkirche .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Franz Heinrich Fauth accessed on July 19, 2018
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l m n} Hans Leonhard Brenner : Gladbach's first mayor: Experienced administrative lawyer, entrepreneur, wine connoisseur. In: Rheinisch-Bergischer Calendar 1990 . 60th year. Heider-Verlag, Bergisch Gladbach 1989, p. 154 ff.