Friedrich Koch (entrepreneur)

Friedrich Koch (* 1775 in Wevelinghoven ; † April 5, 1847 in Hülchrath ) played a key role in the industrialization of Grevenbroich in the early 19th century. He was one of the dominant entrepreneurs of the early industrial era and one of the most important textile manufacturers with operations in Neuss and Grevenbroich.

Beginnings in Neuss

Friedrich Koch came from a wealthy, long-established, reformed family from Wevelinghoven. After his marriage in 1802 he moved to Neuss and founded a small cotton mill with 28 employees there in 1803. In the following year he was able to employ 90 weavers as home workers.

Chef in Grevenbroich

He moved part of his business to Grevenbroich and established it here in the castle and in the Elsener Mühle, although he had owned the buildings of the former Wilhelmine monastery since 1803 . The relocation of the company was completed in 1808, at which time it already employed 370 people. He left his residence in Neuss.

In 1813 he expanded the company to include a mechanical workshop, a scratching factory and two spinning mills, which increased the workforce to over 600, an enormous number for the times. As early as 1810 he had employed the two engineers Johann Wilhelm Thomas and Diedrich Uhlhorn , who set up a machine shop in the monastery. From here the repair and maintenance of the machines of the two spinning mills was carried out.

After cheap English yarns flooded the market with the lifting of the continental barrier, a general death of factories had set in, which also affected Koch's company. In 1817 Koch gave up his business premises in Neuss and moved entirely to Grevenbroich, but the decline could no longer be stopped. He had to file for bankruptcy in 1820.

The Koch brothers company

Together with his sons, he later founded the Gebrüder Koch company as a branch of the Princely Salm Alsdorfschen Mineralbrunnenkontor. In the company he worked as a managing director and once again achieved some prosperity. Koch died on April 5, 1847 in Hülchrath.

literature

• The chronicle of the history association in newspaper reports 1977 - 1995 . Edited by Jakob Tups and the History Association for Grevenbroich and Surroundings e. V. Grevenbroich 1995 (Contributions to the history of the city of Grevenbroich 11), p. 11.