Georg Friedrich Spindler

Georg Friedrich Spindler (born December 3, 1842 - † April 25, 1909 ) was a German sculptor who worked in Heilbronn . He initially had his workshop at Heilbronn's old cemetery and later moved into a larger production complex on Kernerstrasse. He mainly created grave monuments and was awarded prizes at trade exhibitions in 1881 and 1897. He came from the simplest of backgrounds and left a business of considerable size. Several of his sons followed him as sculptors and married into respected entrepreneurial families. His son Wilhelm Friedrich Spindler (1877–1939) founded the marble works in Offenau in 1905 based on the model of his father's company .

Life

Spindler's production facility in Heilbronner Kernerstraße, illustration from 1905

He was born out of wedlock to the widow Catharina Barbara Schnezer geb. Schmid (1804–1863) was born and baptized Georg Friedrich, but later mostly called himself just Friedrich. The mother had been born in 1820 and 1833 two more illegitimate children and 1,835 in cold west to Hafner Christian Friedrich married Schnezer who died. 1839 The fist weaver Ludwig Gottfried Spindler from Lauffen am Neckar , whom Friedrich's mother married in 1843, confessed himself to be Friedrich's father . Friedrich spent his childhood and youth in Lauffen, where he was confirmed in 1856. Shortly after the mother's death in 1863, father and son oriented themselves to Heilbronn in 1864, where they had relatives. In 1865 the father converted from the regional church to the Methodist community. On July 8, 1870, Friedrich Spindler received citizenship in Heilbronn. That year he also opened a sculpture shop. In 1871 he married his cousin Luise Sophie Schacht (1850-1925), who gave birth to at least 16 children between 1871 and 1893, of which at least seven died at an early age.

In 1872 Spindler lived at Klostergasse 24. In 1877 Spindler owned a property at Heilbronner Karmeliterstraße 28a, where he had a workshop and warehouse for the production of grave monuments in stone and marble. The property on Karmeliterstraße was located directly at the Old Cemetery , so that his main field of business in his early years was probably the production of tombs for that cemetery. In 1881 he received a prize as a stone cutter at the Württemberg State Trade Exhibition in Stuttgart. With the closure of the old cemetery in 1882 and the opening of the new Heilbronn main cemetery , Spindler expanded its business area to include the production and storage of grave monuments, surrounds, figures and columns, furniture panels, vanity tops, buffets, table and bedside tabletops, scales and switch panels in white and colorful types of marble ”, he also created fountain troughs and other things.

In 1891 he had a new three-storey building (Oststrasse 107) erected on the property near the old cemetery, the plans for which also included a wing that was not implemented.

Spindler also owned an orchard in the then still extremely thinly built-up east of the city, on Kernerstrasse. Today the part of Kernerstrasse, south of Bismarckstrasse, where Spindler's property was, is part of Alexanderstrasse. He had the garden pacified in 1892 and a little later another business premises were built there. The building in Oststraße housed an office and shop for a few years before it was then used entirely for residential purposes while the entire business moved to Kernerstraße.

In 1897 Spindler presented his products at the large trade and art exhibition in the Heilbronn Aktiengarten, where he received two further awards.

After moving to Kernerstrasse, Spindler's company expanded immensely. The elongated property on Kernerstrasse was soon built over by several buildings, including a workshop, two massive two-story buildings and various outbuildings and sheds, in which u. a. Stone sawmill, grinding shop and polishing shop were housed. The open spaces were used as stone storage and tombstone storage. In 1904 a stationary steam boiler was installed by the Weinheim machine factory in Badenia.

Spindler died of a heart attack on April 25, 1909 and was buried three days later in Heilbronn.

Gravestones created by Spindler have been preserved primarily in the Heilbronn main cemetery, which is now a listed building, including the family grave of the Pfleiderer family.

progeny

Among the numerous descendants, three sons, like the father, worked as a sculptor, and a fourth became a doctor:

• Karl Friedrich Spindler (1871–1942), sculptor, married to the factory owner's daughter Luise Botsch from Rappenau
• Heinrich Albert Spindler (1876–1902), sculptor, married to Christiane Magdalena Biehler from Eichelberg
• Wilhelm Friedrich Spindler (1877–1939), sculptor, married to the factory owner's daughter Emilie Botsch from Rappenau , founded the marble factory in Offenau in 1905
• Ernst Adolf Spindler (1890–1940), doctor, married to the factory owner's daughter Emilie Luise Schneider from Heilbronn, practiced in Dresden until 1924, then in Heilbronn

literature

• Norbert Jung: Georg Friedrich Spindler - a family history coincidence study , Heilbronn 2014, ISBN 978-3-934096-37-0