Gottfried Adolph Daum

Gottfried Adolph Daum with son and pug, 1735, painting by Antoine Pesne

Gottfried Adolph Daum (born June 18, 1679 in Grossenhain ; † February 7, 1743 in Potsdam ) was a wholesale merchant and entrepreneur in Prussia who, together with David Splitgerber , his silent partner, founded the military-oriented trading house Daum & Comp. founded. With the expansion to include civil trading and banking and the takeover of leased royal factories, the trading house developed into one of the largest commercial enterprises in Prussia, later known as Splitgerber & Daum .

General

The rise of Prussia to a major European power was the result of a determined military- mercantilist economic policy. Splitgerber & Daum were part of the system, the central component of which - in keeping with the desired self-sufficiency - was manufacturing. Some of these companies, which are important for armaments, were leased by them for decades and operated at their own risk. The two Prussian kings Friedrich Wilhelm I (soldier king ) and Friedrich II (Frederick the Great) granted them support and favor .

origin

Gottfried Adolph Daum came from Saxony . His parents were the lawyer (Juris Practici) Gottfried Christian Daum and Barbara Elisabeth Daum, geb. Uschner. A military career in the Brandenburg-Prussian service is assumed as a professional background. Contacts to the artillery and connections to other sovereigns are close, because the first orders came from various German states and mainly concerned artillery ammunition.

founding

Both men were destitute. They began their ventures in 1712 in a furnished two-room apartment in the house of the widow of the court pharmacist Reichenau (also Reichenow) in Gertraudenstrasse at the Petrikirche in Berlin. The widow's son was a court medic and, like the late father, belonged to the Prussian court. A close connection later came about through the marriage of Splitgerber to the daughter of the court doctor. As the main financier in the early days, the books of accounts name the colonel of the artillery from the Electorate of Saxony, Baron von Schmettau (from 1741 Prussian field marshal). Other donors from Daum's circles included the wealthy tailor Eugeling from Halle (Daum's first father-in-law), the pharmacist Ohloff (also Oloff), Magdeburg and Potsdam, (Daum's second father-in-law) and the Prussian royal councilor Christian Köppen (from the family of the future Son-in-law).

The basis of the cooperation between Splitgerber and Daum was the contract of 1712, renewed in 1723, which was again signed with mutual brotherly love . The death regulation shows the great trust in one another. The surviving part had the sole right of management, while the heirs had to abstain from any objection.

Start as an army supplier

The first deliveries of artillery equipment (mountings), cannon balls and hollow projectiles went to the neighboring Electoral Saxon court. Ammunition was also delivered to Mecklenburg. The cooperation with the Hohenzollern began in 1716. The soldier king was also the first to order artillery ammunition. An order for 2000 muskets followed. Another shipment of cannonballs went to Amsterdam.

Mixed rigging schooner

At the instigation of the court, Splitgerber & Daum were also involved in the Russian trading company , which supplied the tsar's army with uniform cloths from Prussian production. With this extensive and profitable business, the British competition was pushed out for several years.

In addition to business in the military sector, which for years made up the largest part of sales, general trading and banking developed only slowly. Initially, even the smallest orders were carried out for private customers. An equally modest start to the development of the later deep sea fleet was a quarter participation in the ship Potsdam in the home port of Stettin (1725). Another ship share was added in 1732 (Schooner Der Kurfürst ).

Founding of the rifle factory

In addition to the ammunition deliveries to the Prussian army, Gottfried Daum had given the soldier king the idea of ​​setting up his own rifle factory in 1721 . In order to implement the plan, he also contributed to the solution of the most difficult problem, namely the recruitment of foreign specialists. While Daum was busy for months recruiting workers in distant Liège, the king had the production facilities and the houses and gardens built according to the instructions of the masters who had arrived as vanguard. In 1722 Splitgerber & Daum were able to lease the Royal Gun Factory Potsdam-Spandau . Later small churches were added in Spandau and Potsdam, which the king had promised the Catholic workers. He also paid a French-speaking clergyman. When Gottfried Daum took over the management of the rifle factory, he relocated to Potsdam.

The years 1723–1743

After taking over the rifle factory, Daum also applied for the lease of the Zehdenick blast furnace , which the Great Elector had rebuilt in 1664/66 on the site of an ironworks that had been in operation in the Middle Ages. The main product was cannon balls , which made the country independent of expensive imports. The lease agreement concluded with Splitgerber & Daum in 1725 also included the mining rights for the lawn iron stone found in the northern part of Brandenburg , the raw material for iron production there. In 1726 Daum set up a warehouse for cannonballs on the site of the rifle factory in Spandau.

In addition to the rifle factory and the blast furnace, other royal factories were leased, but despite great efforts, they were less profitable. Reasons for this were the high monopoly prices set by the crown with simultaneously poor quality of the products and the smuggling and surreptitious trade in cheaper and better goods that could not be contained, but also the lack of competence of the entrepreneurs, as well as the conflict-laden triangular relationship between the crown, the workers and the tenants.

At the leased Königliche Gewehrfabrik Potsdam-Spandau the general problem arose that rifles were only ordered in times of armament and wars, while Splitgerber & Daum continued to pay wages in peacetime to keep the skilled workers. The king also suppressed the prices he had previously set. The difficulties meant that Splitgerber & Daum wanted to withdraw from the project after five years of operation. Further cooperation was achieved through some arms exports approved by the king. The Silesian Wars , which Frederick II began immediately after his accession to the throne, brought considerable sales , which for years brought the entrepreneurs extraordinary profits. The services to the military in 1741 also included a delivery of grain for 400,000 thalers. In addition, another 76,000 bombs and grenades were delivered after the arsenal had been replenished with 80,000 cannonballs and grenades as early as 1738.

In order to overcome the dependence on the Prussian court and on military and martial developments, the general trading and banking business was promoted - mainly by split tanners. This included the establishment of consignment warehouses at German and European trading centers and further ship investments. Daum traveled extensively to Dresden, Hamburg, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Lisbon and the like. a. are signs of expansion.

Even if trading at that time was usually carried out without any industry delimitation, the unbelievable variety of goods at Splitgerber & Daum is impressive. It seems like they were able to satisfy every customer need. They supplied raw materials, building materials, colonial goods, horses, food, textiles, wines, exotic plants and animals, books, marble sculptures, furniture, paintings, porcelain, gold, silver, tobacco, medicines and much more. The court was taken care of as well as the bourgeoisie or colleagues in other factories, in trade and industry. The wind chimes so loved by Friedrich II came from Splitgerber & Daum. There was a separate account for each customer. Credit earned interest.

Splitgerber & Daum office building

The trading house handled small and large financial transactions discreetly, whether it was to advance a few thousand thalers to Crown Prince Friedrich , who was scarcely kept by his thrifty father, or to take noble jewelry as a pledge and use it, whether it was because state funds had to be administered, transported and paid out . Reliability secured the trading house recognition and advancement over generations.

The signs of success at Splitgerber and Daum included the increasingly luxurious lifestyle with silver dishes, golden toothpicks, the portraits ordered from the court painters Joachim Martin Falbe and Antoine Pesne and the acquisition of real estate in various locations. The office building on Gertraudenstrasse was built in 1735 and remained the headquarters until 1910. A year later, Gottfried Daum moved into a newly built house in Potsdam worth 60,000 thalers, and in 1741 Splitgerber bought the house on Quarrée (square in front of the Brandenburg Gate ), later called Splitgerbersches Palais , which became the French embassy in 1835 (today Pariser Platz No. 5 with the new building of the embassy). There were also other properties in Potsdam and Stralau. Daum did not live to see the completion of his Berlin house on Breitestrasse (formerly No. 15) opposite the Ribbeck House . He died in Potsdam in 1743.

Familiar

Daum was married twice. From the first marriage (1713) with Charlotta Agatha, b. Eugeling, the daughter Christina Charlotta (born 1714) comes, who later married the war councilor Friedrich Gotthold Köppen and moved into the Splitgerbersche Palais. From the second marriage (1727) with Caroline Marie, b. Ohloff, the son Friedrich Carl Daum, (born 1727) and the daughter Caroline Marie Elisabeth (* July 27, 1730, † March 10, 1810) were born. In 1753 she married the valet and close confidante of Frederick II , Michael Gabriel Fredersdorf (1708–1758), with whom she had no children, and in her second marriage, the chamberlain of Frederick II, Johann Labes, through whom she later became the grandmother of Achim von Arnims which she raised in her house on the Quarrée ( Arnimsches Palais ) opposite the Splitgerberschen Palais. Gottfried Daum died as one of the richest men in Prussia. His inherited share of the business amounted to 650,000 thalers and thus corresponded to about a third of the entire Prussian state treasure that Friedrich Wilhelm I had bequeathed to his son Friedrich II in 1740 .

Later development

After Daum's death, David Splitgerber continued to run the trading company on his own, as stipulated in the contract of 1723. His new partner on the owner side was the Daum community of heirs. The trading house expanded its activities with the establishment of branches, sugar refineries, investments in overseas trading companies and the development of an ocean-going fleet. Splitgerber's successors in the management were his sons-in-law, above all Johann Jacob Schickler , ancestor of the Schickler dynasty and as the most important grandson: David Schickler . The banking business became more and more important and eventually led to the abandonment of the other companies. The bank (from 1795 Gebr. Schickler ) was involved in railroad and industrial finance in Prussia. In 1910 the merger to form the Delbrück, Schickler & Co.

Honor

Daumstrasse in Berlin

literature

• Peter Bahl : The court of the great elector. Böhlau-Verlag, Cologne 2001, ISBN 3-412-08300-3
• Johann David Erdmann Preuss: Frederick the Great. Volume 1, Nauck, Berlin 1832
• Wolfgang Schneider: Berlin, a cultural history in pictures and documents . Gustav Kiepenheuer Verlag, Leipzig / Weimar 1980
• Friedrich Lenz, Otto Unholtz: The history of the banking house Gebrüder Schickler. Festschrift for the 200th anniversary, Verlag G. Reimer, Berlin 1912, digitized by the University of Toronto
• Nadja Stulz-Herrnstadt: Berlin bourgeoisie in the 18th and 19th centuries. de Gruyter, Berlin-New York 2002, ISBN 9783110165609
• Wilhelm Treue: Economic and technical history of Prussia. de Gruyter, Berlin-New York 1984, ISBN 9783110095982
• Ingrid Mittenzwei / Erika Herzfeld: Brandenburg-Prussia 1648–1789. Verlag der Nation, Berlin 1988, ISBN 3373000041 , pp. 224, 226, 258, 308
• Hugo Rachel, Johannes Papritz, Paul Wallisch: Berlin wholesalers and capitalists. Volume 2: The time of mercantilism 1648–1806. Gsellius, Berlin 1938
• Heinrich Ludwig Manger: Building history of Potsdam. Friedrich Nicolai, Berlin-Stettin 1789

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Friedrich Lenz, Otto Unholtz: The history of the bank Brothers Schickler. P. 4
2. ↑ Research is made more difficult due to the destruction of the Potsdam military archive in World War II.
3. ↑ Friedrich Lenz, Otto Unholtz: The history of the bank Brothers Schickler. P. 4ff.
4. ↑ Peter Bahl : The court of the great elector. Böhlau-Verlag, Cologne 2001, ISBN 3-412-08300-3 , pages 84, 561
5. ↑ Friedrich Lenz, Otto Unholtz: The history of the bank Brothers Schickler. P. 18
6. ^ Meyers Konversations-Lexikon. Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig and Vienna 1897, Volume 15, p. 552
7. ↑ Friedrich Lenz, Otto Unholtz: The history of the bank Brothers Schickler. Pp. 12, 16, 41
8. ↑ Friedrich Lenz, Otto Unholtz: The history of the bank Brothers Schickler. Pp. 4, 5, 6
9. ^ Wilhelm Treue: Economic and technical history of Prussia. Pp. 43, 44
10. ↑ Friedrich Lenz, Otto Unholtz: The history of the bank Brothers Schickler. P. 350
11. ↑ JDF Rumpf: The Prussian Monarchy. Verlag JW Boicke 1825, p. 193
12. ^ Heinrich Ludwig Manger: Building history of Potsdam. Friedrich Nicolai, Berlin-Stettin 1789, Volume 1, p. 21
13. ↑ Friedrich Lenz, Otto Unholtz: The history of the bank Brothers Schickler. Pp. 26, 27, 30, 60
14. ^ Wolfgang Schneider: Berlin, A cultural history in pictures and documents. Gustav Kiepenheuer Verlag, Leipzig / Weimar 1980, p. 172
15. ↑ Friedrich Lenz, Otto Unholtz: The history of the bank Brothers Schickler. Pp. 82 f., 90, 132, 136, 171
16. ^ Wilhelm Treue: Economic and technical history of Prussia. P. 43
17. ↑ Friedrich Lenz, Otto Unholtz: The history of the bank Brothers Schickler. Pp. 36, 37
18. ↑ Friedrich Lenz, Otto Unholtz: The history of the bank Brothers Schickler. P. 22
19. ↑ Friedrich Lenz, Otto Unholtz: The history of the bank Brothers Schickler. Pp. 8, 10, 19, 39, 40, 50
20. ↑ Friedrich Lenz, Otto Unholtz: The history of the bank Brothers Schickler. Pp. 47, 48
21. ↑ Friedrich Lenz, Otto Unholtz: The history of the bank Brothers Schickler. P. 7
22. ↑ Friedrich Lenz, Otto Unholtz: The history of the bank Brothers Schickler. Pp. 19, 24
23. ^ Wilhelm Treue: Economic and technical history of Prussia. P. 42
24. ↑ House numbers were only introduced in Berlin in 1799.
25. ↑ House numbers were only introduced in Berlin in 1799.
26. ↑ Friedrich Lenz, Otto Unholtz: The history of the bank Brothers Schickler. P. 53
27. ^ Wilhelm Treue: Economic and technical history of Prussia. P. 49

Web links

Commons : Gottfried Adolph Daum  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Berlin Chronicle
• Berlin Chronicle from 1695 to 1740