Guaita (family)
The Guaita family was one of the most respected and influential families in Frankfurt am Main from the 17th to the 19th century . It originally came from the village of Codogna above Menaggio on Lake Como . On February 24, 1660 Francisco de Guaita was first mentioned in Frankfurt as a bitter orange boy . That was the name given to the southern fruit traders who immigrated from northern Italy , including the Brentanos . A side branch of the Frankfurt line established itself as a needle manufacturer in Aachen and France at the beginning of the 18th century .
Frankfurt line
In 1665 Innocentius Guaita († 1697) founded the trading house Innocentio & Matthäo Guaita with his brother , which maintained its business premises in the Nuremberg court . In the strictly Lutheran imperial city of Frankfurt, the successful business activities of the Catholic immigrants aroused the suspicion of the established patricians . The civil rights therefore was initially denied. It wasn't until the 18th century that both sides began to make concessions. Johann Gottfried Guaita (* 1710/11, † 1775), a former Dominican , converted in 1738, acquired citizenship and settled in Frankfurt as a private teacher, author of anti-clerical pamphlets and corpses . His cousin Anton Maria Guaita (* 1721, † 1808) became a citizen of Frankfurt by marrying the bourgeois daughter Johanna Claudia Monet without having to change his denomination.
The Guaita family acquired large land holdings on the outskirts of Frankfurt, including the Landhaus Mainlust , on the grounds of which the Nice green area is located on the banks of the Main , and the Guaita garden in front of Eschenheimer Tor .
The most important member of the Guaita family was Georg Friedrich Guaita (since 1813 by Guaita ), who became the first Roman Catholic mayor of Frankfurt in 1822 . Up until 1838 he held this office seven times, more often than anyone else in Frankfurt's history.
The Guaitasche Foundation, which still exists today, is a pension institution for poor girls and the shameful poor of the Roman Catholic faith and for unmarried or widowed men over 60 in need of help , goes to the merchant Stephan von Guaita (* 1772, † 1848, son of Anton Maria Guaita) and his wife Catharina Clara geb. Besel back.
The last businessman in the family was the Secret Commerce Councilor Max von Guaita (* 1842, † 1903).
The Guaitastraße in Frankfurt-Ginnheim is named after the Guaita family . The family burial site (Gewann J No. 331-334) is located in the Frankfurt main cemetery .
Aachen line
In the first half of the 18th century, a certain Martin Paul von Guaita, who came from Cologne, settled in Aachen, who received his nobility diploma on August 6, 1754 from Emperor Franz I. He was married and had ten children, including five sons, of whom Johann Baptist Xavier von Guaita (* 1735) was a member of the Aachen Werkmeistergericht as a jury member for many years, and another son, Bernhard Maria Joseph von Guaita (* 1737) from age 14 January 1763 had become known in Aachen as canon of the Aachen Minster Foundation and as spiritual councilor to the Elector of Trier.
Towards the end of the 18th century, Cornelius von Guaita (1766–1821), apparently a grandson of the aforementioned Martin von Guaita, took over an important needle factory in Aachen and was also a mayor during the French occupation and then first after the French had left Elected Lord Mayor of the City of Aachen and President of the Aachen Chamber of Commerce .
In the course of their previous existence in Aachen, the family had achieved considerable prosperity and acquired, among other things, the Berger-Hochkirchen estates in the Laurensberg district and Soerser Hochkirchen in the Soers district, as well as other estates in the vicinity. In addition, they owned a comfortable row of houses in Aachener Rosstrasse, which included a Rococo staircase designed by Jakob Couven around 1780 , which was known as the Guaita garden staircase . This was later moved to the Stadtgarten Aachen .
In honor of the Guaita family, a street in Aachen was renamed after them. Today, the family in the Aachen area no longer appears in the name stem. But you can visit their graves in the listed Aachen East Cemetery .
Great personalities
- from the Frankfurt branch of this family:
- Georg Friedrich von Guaita (1772–1851), Mayor of Frankfurt
- Leon von Guaita (1878–1932), German country gentleman, builder of the Villa Guaita
- Mathilde von Guaita (1850–1890), patron of the city of Frankfurt
- Max von Guaita (1842–1903), businessman and local politician
- from the Aachen branch of this family:
- Cornelius von Guaita (1766-1820), German mayor and last mayor of Aachen
literature
- Wolfgang Klötzer (Hrsg.): Frankfurter Biographie . Personal history lexicon . First volume. A – L (= publications of the Frankfurt Historical Commission . Volume XIX , no. 1 ). Waldemar Kramer, Frankfurt am Main 1994, ISBN 3-7829-0444-3 .
- Hermann Ariovist von Fürth : Contributions and material on the history of Aachen patrician families , Vol. II, 1882;
Web links
- FEDERAL ARCHIVE - Central database for estates In: nachlassdatenbank.de . Retrieved on September 26, 2017 (information about the estate of the Guaita family in the Frankfurt Institute for City History).
Individual evidence
- ↑ Karl Kiefer (Ed.): Frankfurter Blätter für Familiengeschichte, 1st year, Hefte 7, pp. 118/119
- ↑ Manor Guaita Laurensberg and Soers ( Memento from August 4, 2012 in the web archive archive.today )