Georg Kreuzberg
Georg Kreuzberg (born August 2, 1796 in Ahrweiler ; † December 24, 1873 there ) was the discoverer of the springs, founder of the Apollinaris fountain and the Bad Neuenahr spa .
Life
Georg Kreuzberg was the fifth son and seventh of nine children of Samson Kreuzberg (born August 17, 1755 in Ahrweiler; † October 30, 1832 there) - after converting from Judaism to Catholicism, he is listed in the baptismal register as Peter Josef Franziskus Kreuzberg - and Margaretha geb. Kündgen (born December 15, 1757 in Fritzdorf , † March 1, 1832 in Ahrweiler). According to the tax documents of 1831, the father owned four houses in Ahrweiler and worked as a wine merchant, he was also a "church councilor" in the Catholic community on a voluntary basis.
The son Georg Kreuzberg took part in the Napoleonic Wars in 1815/16 . On May 24, 1823 Georg married Maria Elisabeth Kreuzberg (born February 15, 1801 in Ahrweiler; † April 24, 1863 there), with whom he had four daughters and two sons. He probably worked in his father's wine shop until he started his own business on July 22, 1823 as a shopkeeper for iron and wood goods. From 1829 to 1833 Georg Kreuzberg was the rifle king of the Ahrweiler Schützengesellschaft, to which the Crown Prince and later King of Prussia Friedrich Wilhelm belonged since 1833 . In the course of the 1830s, Georg Kreuzberg became the owner of many vineyard parcels on the Ahr .
Apollinaris fountain
By the 1850s Georg Kreuzberg developed into a well-known and wealthy personality in the region, with contacts in Koblenz , Bonn , Cologne and Berlin . In 1837 he bought a plot of vineyards and pasture "an der Steinkaul" and a piece of vineyard at the foot of the Kesselberg, directly on the country road and similar to the location of the well-known Heppinger Fountain . It was not until 1851 that a sounding was carried out with the help of the Bonn professor of geology Karl Gustav Bischof and the source was discovered during a main borehole. In 1852 the spring is caught and a bottling plant is built. A wayside shrine near the source , dedicated to St. Dedicated to Apollinaris , inspired to name Apollinaris fountain . In 1853, the mineral water began to be shipped in jugs. The business developed by leaps and bounds in the following years thanks to technical innovations such as bottling with source carbon dioxide and thus a better shelf life.
Bad Neuenahr health resort
From 1852 Georg Kreuzberg was busy developing further, but now warm, mineral springs, because bathing trips and spa stays developed throughout Europe in the 19th century. Together with wealthy people in the Rhineland, he founded a limited partnership in 1857 , which was renamed Aktiengesellschaft Bad Neuenahr in 1860, in order to make the enormous investments in the spa business. On July 28, 1858, Augusta , the wife of the future German Emperor Wilhelm I , inaugurated the spa facilities.
Georg Kreuzberg died on December 24, 1873 at the age of 77 and was buried in the cemetery in Ahrweiler, opposite the Ahr gate.
Honors
In 1868 Georg Kreuzberg received the Order of the Crown, IV class, from King Wilhelm I of Prussia . In 1902 a street in Bad Neuenahr was renamed Georg-Kreuzberg-Straße.
literature
- Jürgen Haffke, Hans-Jürgen Ritter: "The respectable merchant Georg Kreuzberg" (1796-1873). Legends and facts. In: Heimat-Jahrbuch Kreis Ahrweiler 2013. Ed. From the Ahrweiler district, Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler 2012, pp. 164–170 ( ISSN 0342-5827 ).
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Kreuzberg, Georg |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Discoverer of the Apollinaris springs in Bad Neuenahr |
| DATE OF BIRTH | August 2, 1796 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Ahrweiler |
| DATE OF DEATH | December 24, 1873 |
| Place of death | Ahrweiler |