Gottlob Nathusius (company)

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Logo tobacco factory Nathusius.JPG

The Magdeburg company Gottlob Nathusius existed from 1786 to 1950. Before the Second World War it was one of the largest and best-known tobacco and cigar factories in Germany and established the wealth of Johann Gottlob Nathusius . It remained in the hands of the family until the expropriation in 1950 and was run by five generations.

Johann Gottlob Nathusius' tobacco factory

After completing commercial training in Hamburg, Johann Gottlob Nathusius worked for the respected Magdeburg businessman Johann Julius Sengewald. When he died on April 14, 1785, Nathusius first became managing director of Sengewald'schen wholesale, a short time later he took over the business on his own account.

founding

After the death of King Frederick the Great on October 17, 1786, the new Prussian government under his successor Friedrich Wilhelm II , who rejected state-organized monopolies and prohibition , lifted the tobacco monopoly that had existed until then in December 1786. A short time later, a license was required as a supplement to ensure production quality . Nathusius decided to set up a tobacco factory next to the trading business. In the same year the company Richter & Nathusius was founded, in which, in addition to Nathusius, the brother-in-law of the late Sengewald, Wilhelm Richter, also joined as a partner. It was the first Prussian tobacco factory. The company later operated under the name of Gottlob Nathusius .

At that time, tobacco was mainly processed into snuff, cigars were not yet common, and only a small proportion was smoked in - mostly Dutch - clay pipes. As a rule, the tobacco was imported already processed, as German tobacco production had a bad reputation. In the newly founded company, attempts were initially made to process raw tobacco in a previously unusual way. After a short time, a new way of processing the imported tobacco leaves was found. Instead of the previously usual addition of many flavor enhancers (so-called “sauces”) to strongly fermented leaves, Gottlob Nathusius only slightly fermented them and, in addition to table salt, only cleaned potash was added to the leaves . The result was a natural, yet aromatic product.

Former houses built around 1720 at Breiteweg 177 and 178, business seat and residence of Johann Gottlob Nathusius in Magdeburg
The shop of the tobacco and cigar factory Gottlob Nathusius in Magdeburg, Breiteweg 177

The first years

Together with his partner, Nathusius had acquired a house in Breiten Weg (No. 177) in Magdeburg's city center in 1788, valued at 8,000 thalers. This is where the company was established. Nathusius could not only live in the four-story building, but also employ up to 70 people in tobacco production. In addition, a lead roller (lead was needed to wrap the snuff), a book printing press and a sealing wax production facility were installed in order to be able to produce packaging material.

Like other tobacco manufacturers in Magdeburg, farmland outside the city (around 5 hectares ) was also leased in the 1790s  . Nathusius had tobacco grown there. Later, the knowledge gained here was used on a larger scale in Althaldensleben . The factory obtained most of the raw material from the Uckermark, Poland, Galicia, Russia and Hungary. The company had commission agents in Saint Petersburg , Pressburg and Pest to handle the business . The manufactured products were sold in the Duchy of Magdeburg , Hamburg, Anhalt and Saxony.

Wilhelm Richter died in 1793, at the time the company already employed 130 people and was worth 100,000 thalers. After the partner's death, Nathusius took over his shares.

At the end of the century, Nathusius' manufactory in the Elbe city was the leading tobacco manufacturer and of considerable importance for the local economy. Around 300 people worked in the factory, of the 22,500 quintals of tobacco processed in 1799, more than half was accounted for by Nathusius' business in 1799.

At the beginning of the 19th century, Nathusius had become the richest citizen of Magdeburg. 10% of the goods produced were sold abroad, the rest was sold within the monarchy. After 1800, a new stamping mill and a rope factory were built. 16 horses were kept for the grinders.

There was an increasing number of confrontations with the tobacco millers who were still working as an artisan. They had to limit themselves to the production of rolling tobacco and two types of cut smoking tobacco and could no longer assert themselves in the market against the industrially producing factories. Tobacco spinners in Magdeburg therefore demanded that the Nathusius company should no longer produce rolling tobacco. However, the authorities supported the liberalization of production.

The second Prussian tobacco monopoly

When Prussia got into financial difficulties during the coalition wars in 1797 , the tobacco monopoly was reintroduced. So far private factories were continued on account of the Royal Administration. In view of his success as a tobacco entrepreneur, Nathusius was appointed General Factory Director for all factories. In the same year after King Friedrich Wilhelm III took office. If the monopoly was lifted again, Nathusius could take over his Magdeburg factory again.

In 1798, “Cigaros” was the name given to smoking tobacco in Magdeburg, which was lit at one end and smoked without a pipe. The share of the tobacco industry in the total industrial production of Magdeburg was significant and amounted to 6%.

Label for smoking tobacco of the Nathusius brand Magdeburg coat of arms
Label for Canaster , a fine Dutch-style tobacco

Times of war

The coalition wars that had begun in 1792 increasingly affected the Magdeburg area from 1804. At the latest since Prussia's defeat at the battle of Jena and Auerstedt , the subsequent entry of French troops into Berlin, and the continental blockade against England imposed by Napoleon , economic conditions in Magdeburg became significantly more difficult, in addition to the consequences of the war. The problems in production were accompanied by a decline in demand due to the lack of cash available and the impoverishment of rural areas.

Kingdom of Westphalia

The Kingdom of Westphalia , established in 1807 on the basis of the Tilsiter Peace , initially brought considerable tax burdens to the merchants and producers of the incorporated Magdeburg. However, business opportunities also arose in the liberalized market. So in 1810 Nathusius was able to buy the secularized monastery property Althaldensleben near Magdeburg . When in 1813 a siege of the city by advancing Prussian troops was imminent, the tobacco factory Gottlob Nathusius was relocated from Magdeburg to Althaldensleben on August 28, 1813, where there were suitable buildings and production could continue undisturbed. After the withdrawal of the French troops, tobacco production was relocated back to Magdeburg on May 4, 1814 in the street Breiter Weg. G. A. Hillebrand and Jacob Steinbrück became authorized signatories.

Again Prussia

With the Battle of the Nations near Leipzig in 1813, the end of the Kingdom of Westphalia was ushered in. The original territories were restored and Magdeburg became Prussian again. The young industries, including industrial tobacco production, experienced a strong boom. From 1813 the job of the tobacco spinner also disappeared. The Gottlob Nathusius company soon had an enormous sales market thanks to its advantageous pricing.

Among the successors

Johann Gottlob Nathusius died in 1835. The previous authorized signatories Hillebrand and Steinbrück continued to run the company - as co-partners - on behalf of the heirs. On January 1, 1845, after eight years in the company, the nephew of the deceased founder, Moritz Nathusius (1815–1886), was accepted as a partner. He and his descendants ran the company until 1950.

Moritz Nathusius

Hillebrand and Steinbrück left the company on January 1, 1849, and Moritz Nathusius took over the factory as sole shareholder. In addition to the production of smoking, chewing and snuff tobacco, which had been in operation until then, the production of cigars was also taken up. The cigar production was further expanded, especially when Gottlob August Nathusius (1849–1906), the son of Moritz Nathusius, was accepted into the company as a partner on January 1, 1875, now in the third generation.

Thank God August Nathusius

After Moritz Nathusius' death in 1886, his son Gottlob August Nathusius took over the company. Since the cigar business was constantly expanding, branches had to be set up outside Magdeburg, for example in Calbe (Saale) at Ritterstrasse 2, in Mihla on the Werra and in Heiligenstadt . The tobacco production of the Nathusius factories steadily declined and was finally stopped completely in favor of cigar production. On April 1, 1906, the old factory on Breiten Weg, which had become too small, was given up and moved to modern production rooms on Am alten Brückor  8-10 (this street no longer exists today).

The new central factory in Magdeburg on the Elbe. Address: Am alten Brückor 8-10

Thank God Moritz Nathusius

On April 14, 1906, Gottlob August Nathusius died a few days after moving to the new "Zentral" factory located directly on the Elbe. His son Gottlob Moritz Nathusius took over the business - he had been an authorized signatory since October 10, 1899 and became a partner in the company on January 1, 1904.

Before the First World War, around 100 different types of cigars were produced in the various plants of the Gottlob Nathusius tobacco factory . In the Magdeburg central factory - in addition to the cigar production there - the cigars produced in the branch factories were also processed. Sorting and packing of these products took place in Magdeburg. The box production, the warehouse, the dispatch department and the office (sales, accounting) were also housed here. The trademark used at the time for the products from the Nathusius factories was "Gonama", formed from the first two letters of each name in the company name Gottlob Nathusius Magdeburg used at the time .

First World War and post-war period

During the war years, most of the production was allocated to supplying the front troops. The entire raw tobacco management (purchase and distribution of raw tobacco) was carried out by a distribution point of the empire. In 1918, the import of Dutch and American colonial tobacco became more and more difficult and the volume correspondingly decreased, so that the production of tobacco products decreased so much that the regular trade in tobacco products could hardly be supplied. In the spring of 1919, all remaining tobacco stocks had been processed and demand could no longer be met. Financial losses also resulted from the fact that the working capital had largely been invested in now worthless war bonds .

On September 30, 1934, the Magdeburg production was moved to a new factory building in Königgrätzerstr. 20 (today: Denhardtstrasse ) relocated. With the exception of the location in Mihla, the branch plants were closed. In November 1936, Nathusius died after a collapse in his office in the Old Town Hospital in Magdeburg.

Thank God Hans Nathusius

The heirs of the company and the factories were the widow and two children of Nathusius, Marga Katharina and the then 11-year-old Gottlob Hans Nathusius (1925–2008). Gottlob Moritz Nathusius had given his widow's will in his will to sell the company. However, she wanted to keep this for her son and so in 1936 the previous authorized signatory Schade was appointed as managing director.

World War II and post-war period

On January 16, 1945, the Magdeburg factory building was badly damaged in the bombing raid on the armaments production site in Magdeburg, with the most losses . However, production continued under difficult conditions. After Gottlob Hans Nathusius returned from captivity in 1946, he was initially accepted as an apprentice and on October 1, 1948 as a partner in the company.

Despite difficulties in procuring building material and the blocking of private and company bank accounts in the Soviet occupation zone , the factory was rebuilt in 1946 and 1947. However, the branch in Mihla had to be closed. Production resumed in 1947. As a result, there were bottlenecks in the supply of raw materials and political reprisals against the entrepreneur.

With the publication of July 5, 1950, the traditional company, run by the fifth generation, was expropriated by the Magdeburg District Court and shut down. Following the expropriation, a men's clothing factory of the “Hubert Schacht” brand (coats and jackets) was set up in the former tobacco factory.

After reunification , the expropriated building was returned to the Nathusius family, who sold it to the University of Magdeburg in the 1990s . The old factories were demolished and integrated into the site of today's university campus.

The owners until the Second World War

  • Johann Gottlob Nathusius (1760-1835)

  • Moritz Heinrich Nathusius (1815–1886)

  • Gottlob August Nathusius (1849–1906)

  • Gottlob Moritz Nathusius (1876–1936)

Others

Beatings from Richter and Nathusius

The Nathusius tobacco company was so famous at the end of the 18th century that it became a proverb. The order is said to go back to an old colonel in the Poznan garrison: " Count 25 to fellow, but from Richter and Nathusius ".

Crown Princess Luise allows Adjutant General von Köckeritz to smoke his usual pipe at the table during his visit to Paretz Castle

The simple Köckeritz

Karl Leopold von Köckeritz , adjutant general of Friedrich Wilhelm III., Had gotten so used to a certain Nathusius tobacco that he no longer liked anything else. When the Prussian units had to flee from the French in 1806 and this tobacco was no longer available in northern Germany due to the war, he asked a Danzig tobacco manufacturer to write to Nathusius and ask him for the recipe in the general's name. Nathusius allowed the production of his tobacco in Danzig, and the manufacturer there asked the general to use his name as a trademark. The general allowed this with the statement: " Don't be too bothered about it, very simple ". Accordingly, this tobacco was sold in future under the name "Simpler Köckeritz".

The label process in Berlin

At the beginning of the 19th century, a small tobacco manufacturer in Berlin brought its own products onto the market under the name Richter & Nathusius . In a lawsuit, he was acquitted of charges of defrauding buyers by selling these products under a false brand. Julius Eduard Hitzig's magazine for criminal law care in the Prussian states with the exclusion of the Rhine provinces stated that, in the opinion of the court, it was customary to label poorer tobacco with brands of better tobacco varieties; the big tobacco producers would do the same. In this respect, there would be no damage and therefore no fraud on the part of the buyer. According to the court, the use of brands of other producers is punishable, if not yet fraudulent, if their customers are withdrawn. However, this criminal liability only applies in the event of the unauthorized use of brands of domestic producers, while the imitation of brands of foreign producers is permitted. At the time Magdeburg belonged to the Kingdom of Westphalia, the complaint was rejected and the plaintiff ( Gottlob Nathusius ) was sentenced to a fine of 30 thalers.

References and comments

  1. ↑ Over the years, the company also traded as Richter & Nathusius , Richter and Nathusius , Tabacks Fabrique Gottlob Nathusius , Tabacks Fabrique von Nathusius , Gottlob Nathusius Cigar Factory or Gottlob Nathusius Magdeburg
  2. ↑ So it is described in Pierer's Universal-Lexikon , Volume 17, Altenburg 1863, pp 179-185 as one of the most famous in Germany, see online at Zeno.org
  3. ↑ a b c d e acc. Karl Friedrich Wernet , Competitive and Sales Relationships in Crafts in a Historical View , Volume One : Food, Beverages, Luxury Foods , Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1967, p. 343
  4. ↑ A tobacco monopoly (or tobacco control) is the right exercised by a state to conduct the tobacco trade on its own. In Prussia there was a tobacco monopoly from 1765 to 1787, according to Pierer's Universal Lexikon , Volume 17, Altenburg 1863, p. 186, online at Zeno.org
  5. ↑ a b from: Blätter für Architektur und Kunsthandwerk , XVI year, plate 119, Verlag von Max Spielmeyer, Berlin
  6. ↑ according to Elsbeth von Nathusius, Johann Gottlob Nathusius …, see LitVerz.
  7. ^ Rolf Straubel, Merchants and Manufacturers , Quarterly Journal for Social and Economic History, VSWG supplements, ISBN 3-515-06714-0 , Franz Steiner, Stuttgart 1995, p. 370
  8. ↑ according to Rolf Straubel, merchant and manufacturing entrepreneur , from the series: VSWG Beihefte , Volume 122, Franz Steiner, Stuttgart, p. 370
  9. ↑ The process of tobacco spinning was based very closely on that of flax spinning, hence the adoption of the name "Spinner", according to Joachim Acker, Tobacco Specialties , at: Pfeife-tabak.de ( memento from September 6, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ), accessed on February 4, 2010
  10. ↑ according to Wolfram Fischer, Economic and social-historical problems of early industrialization , publications on the history of industrialization, Volume 1, individual publications by the Historical Commission in Berlin at the Friedrich-Meinecke-Institut of the Free University of Berlin, Colloquium Verlag, 1968, p. 370
  11. ↑ General Bogislav Graf Tauentzien drove out the French occupation at the head of a Prussian-Russian army
  12. ↑ according to an announcement made by Johann Gottlob Nathusius on March 4, 1814 regarding the return of his tobacco production to Magdeburg
  13. ↑ according to Nadja Stulz-Herrnstadt, Berlin bourgeoisie in the 18th and 19th centuries. Entrepreneur careers and migration, .. , de Gruyter, ISBN 3-11-016560-0 , Berlin a. a. 2002, p. 136
  14. ^ Moritz Heinrich Nathusius (* March 20, 1815 in Kemberg ; † December 27, 1886 in Magdeburg) was the son of Ferdinand Nathusius (1762–1827) and Christina, née. Hillebrandt (1777-1845). Father Ferdinand Nathusius, mayor of Kemberg, was the youngest brother of Johann Gottlob Nathusius
  15. ↑ Gottlob August Nathusius (born November 7, 1849 in Magdeburg, † April 14, 1906 in Halle (Saale) ) was the second oldest of Moritz Nathusius' five children. In 1875 he married Catharina von Raabe (1857–1920), daughter of Colonel Rudolf von Raabe and Ottlie, born in Stendal . from Haeseler. The couple ran a hospitable house in Magdeburg, including the then commanding general of the 4th Army Corps stationed in Magdeburg , Paul von Hindenburg , a frequent guest and chess partner of Gottlob August Nathusius
  16. ↑ according to The history of cloth making in the town of Calbe an der Saale. Rise and fall of an important Calbe trade , author unknown, Heimatverein Calbe (ed.), Footnote on p. 14 (PDF; 5.5 MB)
  17. ^ Gottlob Hans Nathusius (March 8, 1925 in Magdeburg; † June 10, 2008 in Bensheim) was the only son of his parents. He attended the Wilhelm Raabe School in Magdeburg and was drafted into the 13th (anti-tank) company of the 31st Infantry Regiment in Saint-Josse in Normandy in 1943. In October 1944 he was transferred to a Volksgrenadier division in Kurland, which was already encircled . A double wound during the Third Battle of Courland was followed by hospital stays . The last deployment before his capture by American units took place with the convalescent company of Infantry Regiment No. 17 in Braunschweig . After the failed attempt in 1950 to manage the Magdeburg tobacco factory again, Nathusius left the GDR and worked as a manager in West Germany, most recently as managing director of the Chemieschutz Gesellschaft für Säurebau mbH in Bensheim an der Bergstrasse, a company of Th. Goldschmidt AG (today a Subsidiary of Degussa ) from Essen . His grave is in the mountain cemetery in Auerbach
  18. ^ Karl Leopold von Köckritz from the Zielenzig family (1744-1821) joined the Prussian Army in 1762, was promoted to adjutant general in 1797 and major general in 1805. He was a confidante of King Friedrich Wilhelm III. and died in 1821 as a lieutenant general
  19. ↑ according to Lutz Graf Schwerin von Krosigk, The great time of fire. Der Weg der Deutschen Industrie , Volume 1, Wunderlich, 1957, p. 313 f.
  20. ↑ Volume 16, page 1
  21. ↑ according to Friedrich Kappler, Handbook of the literature of criminal law and its philosophical and medical auxiliary sciences , J. Scheible, Stuttgart 1838, p. 867

literature

  • General German Biography , Historical Commission at the Royal Academy of Sciences (ed.), Duncker & Humblot, Munich a. a. 1912
  • Conrad Matschoss (Ed.), Men of Technology. A biographical manual , Association of German Engineers, VDI-Verlag, Berlin 1925
  • Central German Life Pictures , Historical Commission for the Province of Saxony and Anhalt (ed.), Self-published by the Historical Commission, Magdeburg 1926–1930
  • Elsbeth von Nathusius, Johann Gottlob Nathusius. A pioneer of German industry , Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Stuttgart and Berlin 1915
  • Lilly von Nathusius: Stamm Magdeburg In: Johann Gottlob Nathusius and his descendants as well as his nephew Moritz Nathusius with his descendants. (Family Chronicle). Detmold 1964, pp. 216-227.
  • Martin Nathusius, The “Magdeburger Line” of the Nathusius family, Illustrated Line of Origin, undated, printed by IRL Imprimeries Reunies Lausanne, Saint-Sulpice (Switzerland) 1985
  • New Nekrolog der Deutschen , Friedrich August Schmidt or Bernhard Friedrich Voigt (Ed.), Voigt, Ilmenau u. a. 1824-1856
  • Matthias Puhle (ed.), The soul wants to fly. A woman's life between adjustment and departure. Marie Nathusius (1817–1857) , ISBN 978-3-89812-466-9 , book accompanying an exhibition at the Magdeburg Cultural History Museum , Mitteldeutscher Verlag, Magdeburg 2007

Web links

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