Guido Henckel von Donnersmarck

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Guido Henckel von Donnersmarck

Guido Henckel von Donnersmarck (* 10. August 1830 in Breslau , † 19th December 1916 in Berlin ; actually Guido Georg Friedrich Erdmann Heinrich Adelbert Graf Henckel Fürst von Donnersmarck ) than Reichsgraf family scion Henckel von Donnersmarck and in 1901 in the rank of prince raised . He was also a major industrialist and one of the richest men of his time. In May 1916 he established the Fürst Donnersmarck Foundation in Berlin.

Life

As the son of Count Carl Lazarus Henckel von Donnersmarck and Julie Countess von Bohlen , he was a scion of the old noble family of Henckel von Donnersmarck of the Protestant Tarnowitzer-Neudecker line. The family had lived in Neudeck in Upper Silesia since 1629 and owned extensive estates in Eastern Europe . In addition, his father had already founded numerous industrial companies, especially mines and ironworks . At this time, Upper Silesia developed into an important mining region.

As heir to the family property

The New Castle in Neudeck

His father handed over these possessions to him in 1848, the year his brother died, by way of anticipated succession . At that time, the family's mines were producing 21,000 tons of hard coal per year, with the establishment and takeover of new mines and expansion of the old Henckel von Donnersmarck companies reached 2.5 million tons in the next few years.

Guido Henckel von Donnersmarck led an elaborate life and showed strong entrepreneurial interests early on by taking over leased businesses on his own as early as 1852–1856. In 1853 he took over the Bethlen-Falva ironworks, which had been founded and leased out in 1828 . The old charcoal ovens were shut down in 1858 and replaced by coke ovens 10 years later .

He was one of the first noblemen to obtain the necessary capital by founding stock corporations . So he founded in 1853 the Silesian AG for mining and zinc smelting operation in Lipine , the first Silesian Aktiengesellschaft, which he also shareholders in France sought and at the next to Wroclaw's bankers the 1837 by the Belgian banker and industrialist François-Dominique Mosselman "founded Société Anonyme des Mines et Fonderies de Zinc de la Vieille-Montagne ”from Belgium. The supervisory board, which also includes Auguste de Morny , half-brother of Emperor Napoleon III. , belonged to, he stood in front of him until his death. The zinc industry made a major contribution to the count's income, especially since he encouraged the establishment of a cartel of producers and traders.

In the years 1853 to 1857 Henckel von Donnersmarck had the Donnersmarckhütte named after him built in Zabrze , which included a casino , today's “Teatr Nowy” (New Theater), along with other social buildings . This hut became the independent Donnersmarckhütte in 1872 . Eisen- und Kohlenwerke AG with hard coal mines , ore mines and limestone quarries .

Over the years, he expanded his family's land holdings and had a charcoal blast furnace and foundry built. He owned around 27,500 hectares of land, mainly in Upper Silesia, but also in Galicia and in Russian-occupied Poland . In 1863 Henckel von Donnersmarck even invested in Russia and bought mines there. In 1868 he had the Donnersmarckhütte zinc rolling mill built in Ostrava, Moravia .

In the same year he began building a second large castle on the family estate in Neudeck , which was completed in 1875. The residence, known as the Upper Silesian Versailles , became his headquarters, where he had the old palace and the park redesigned earlier. Henckel von Donnersmarck thus owned one of the largest palace and park complexes in the German Empire , in which he engaged well-known artists.

Franco-German War

Pauline Therese Lachmann

In December 1870, Henckel von Donnersmarck was appointed city commander of occupied Metz and carried out the expulsion of the Poles living in the area. He demonstrated his political skill in 1871 during the peace negotiations with France after the Franco-Prussian War , when he achieved higher French reparations payments of 5 billion francs in gold. For this he received the post of governor of Metz after the war . But also in Silesia he was politically active in the district council Tarnowitz , with a mandate in the Silesian Provincial Parliament and a hereditary seat in the Prussian manor house . He received the highest Prussian award, the Order of the Black Eagle . He also had a long friendship with Chancellor Otto von Bismarck . In order to take advantage of the extensive forest property, he built a cellulose factory on the Breslau- Kreuzburg railway line in 1883 , and further plants of this type followed. He later had the cellulose made of rayon after merging his factories into one company in the 1890s.

On October 28, 1871, Henckel von Donnersmarck married in Paris, eleven years older, Pauline Therese Lachmann, who was born in a Moscow ghetto , grew up under humble circumstances, and was twice divorced . After her first divorce from a tailor Villoing and her long-term relationship with the pianist Henri Herz , with whom she had a daughter, Therese Lachmann rose to the Portuguese nobility through a second marriage as Marquise Blanca de Païva. She became known to posterity through the Goncourt brothers' diary as La Païva and the most famous courtesan of her time. After Henckel von Donnersmarck had a hotel built for his wife on the Avenue des Champs-Élysées (Hôtel de la Païva) and bought the Pontchartrain Castle in Jouars-Pontchartrain for her , both were expelled from France in 1878 on suspicion of espionage. Blanca de Païva was a successful economic advisor to her husband and died in 1884. It was rumored that the count kept the body of his beloved wife preserved in alcohol at Neudeck Castle.

The marriage had remained childless, and Henckel von Donnersmarck only had an (illegitimate) son from Rosalie Colemann (née Pareut) when he was 55 years old: Odo Deodatus . It is not certain whether Rosalie Colemann really was the mother, especially since she must have been 50 years old at the time of her birth and New York was also given as the place of birth .

Katharina Henckel von Donnersmarck, b. Slepzow

In 1887 Henckel von Donnersmarck married Katharina Slepzow, who was more than 30 years his junior and who also came from Russia. With her he had two sons: Guidotto (1888–1959) and Kraft (1890–1977). He named the zinc works in Chwałowice, founded in 1888, after his older son. In 1896 he bought land in the Spiš and a year later mines in Sweden and Bendzin . He also invested in the Ruhr area , France and even Sardinia . In addition, he was involved in Berlin real estate projects in Zehlendorf-West and Frohnau .

In 1895, after careful examinations, Count Guido decided to implement the idea of ​​the production engineer at his Falva hut, Bernhard Grau , to build a steelworks for the production of pig iron on the coast for economic reasons . The place Stolzenhagen-Kratzwieck (Szczecin Glinki) on the Oder near Stettin was chosen in order to take advantage of the lower freight costs for iron ore from Sweden and inexpensive high-quality coal from England . In addition, this hut was intended to achieve independence from the raw material syndicates for coal, coke and ore, some of which are still being established . A comparatively high annual production of 120,000–130,000 t was planned. The construction of the named after the second son force metallurgical plant - in short power plant called - began in 1896, and in 1897 the first was blast furnace blown with transfer of the blast furnace plant in the corporation iron station Power AG , the Count Guido led as chairman. It also had its own coking plant and a power plant heated with coke oven gas and furnace gas to supply all ancillary operations.

Because of the dispute with the pig iron syndicate, Count Guido became involved in the Rheinische Bergbau- und Hüttenwesen-AG in 1907 with the old Niederrheinische Hütte in Duisburg , which produced pig iron for foundries and, after 1903, with the construction of a blast furnace and a Siemens-Martin steelworks and lease in 1904 of the Oberbilker Blechwalzwerk GmbH behind the train station in Düsseldorf also processed the pig iron. With these activities, Count Guido brought about the end of the pig iron syndicate in 1908. Bernhard Grau further developed the Niederrheinische Hütte by building a block, billet and plate mill in 1910, merging with Eisenwerk Kraft AG in 1911 and building a large sheet metal mill in 1912 with wire mill and leasing the Wesel wire refining plant in 1913 (taken over in 1917). After the Count's death and the end of the First World War , the factory was sold to a Dutch company in 1919 .

The fact that Guido Henckel von Donnersmarck was also concerned about the well-being of his workers and employees is shown by the establishment of the Guido Foundation in 1898, which he endowed with start-up capital of 1.5 million marks. In the course of time he also provided financial support for the construction of the churches in Mikultschütz (Mikulczyce) and Zaborz (Zaborze) (districts of Zabrze ), Randsdorf (Wieszowa), Kamien, Repten (Repty), Alt Tarnowitz (Stare Tarnowice), Tarnowitz .

Guido Henckel von Donnersmarck (right) with Kaiser Wilhelm II.

On January 18, 1901, he was raised to the rank of prince by Kaiser Wilhelm II for his services on an economic and political level . The Kaiser had been friends with Guido for a long time. He valued Neudeck Castle , where he was often a guest, as he could go hunting with him there. Guido, one of the richest men in Germany, also often gave him loans. From 1903 to 1906 he had the Kavalierspalast built in Neudeck for his distinguished guests, and he also owned palaces, castles and mansions in Paris , Berlin , Rottach-Egern and Repten . In 1904 Henckel von Donnersmarck was a member of the founding board of the Central European Customs Union. In 1905 the Technical University of Charlottenburg awarded him an honorary doctorate ( Dr.-Ing.Eh ) for his work in the chemical industry . Despite his foundations, the largest workers' strike to date in Silesia took place in his factories in Chwałowice in 1910 , which lasted two months.

The First World War began in 1914 ; at that time the fortune was estimated at 250 million marks . Guido Henckel von Donnersmarck financed the construction and maintenance of a military hospital in Berlin-Frohnau and equipped it with 1000 acres of land. This later became the Fürst Donnersmarck Foundation . In 1916, the year he died, he increased the capital of the Fürst Donnersmarck Foundation by 1 million to 4 million marks. He died in Berlin and was buried in the new mausoleum in Neudeck. Guido no longer experienced the cession of Eastern Upper Silesia to Poland as a result of the Treaty of Versailles . Henckel von Donnersmarck was a member of the Senate of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society from 1911 to 1916 .

progeny

  • Odo Deodatus I. Tauern (* 1885; † 1926), illegitimate son from connection with Rosalie Colemann (1835–1915); Founder of the Tauern family.
  • Guidotto Karl Lazarus (born May 23, 1888 in Berlin ; † December 23, 1959 in Rottach-Egern ); 2. Prince of Donnersmarck ; Marriage on February 13, 1909 in Munich (church marriage on February 14) to Princess Anna zu Sayn-Wittgenstein -Berleburg (born September 12, 1884 in Egern am Tegernsee ; † February 21, 1963 in Wildbad Kreuth ); Descendants: Count Henckel von Donnersmarck and Prince von Donnersmarck
  • Kraft Raul Paul Alfred Ludwig Guido (March 12, 1890 in Berlin; † September 1, 1977 in Rottach-Egern), 16th free landlord of Beuthen , owner of Repten.

Industrial holdings

See also

literature

  • Joseph Bitta: Count Guido Henckel Prince of Donnersmarck . In: Silesians of the 19th century (= Schlesische Lebensbilder , Volume 1). Korn, Breslau 1922 ( digitized version ); 2nd edition: Thorbecke, Sigmaringen 1985, ISBN 3-7995-6191-9 .
  • Edmond and Jules de Goncourt : The Diary of the Goncourt Brothers , Paris 1870–1895.
  • Arkadiusz Kuzio-Podrucki: Henckel von Donnersmarckowie. Kariera i fortuna rodu. Bytom 2003.
  • Udo Lohse: Count Guido Henckel Prince of Donnersmarck and his industrial creations . In: Steel and Iron. Journal for the German Ironworks , Volume 37 (1917), No. 7 of February 15, 1917, pp. 156-161.
  • Helga Nussbaum: Henckel von Donnersmarck Graf (since 1901 Prince) Guido. In: Karl Obermann, Heinrich Scheel u. a. (Ed.): Biographical Lexicon for German History . Deutscher Verlag der Wissenschaften, Berlin 1967, p. 205 f.
  • Alfons Perlick :  Henckel von Donnersmarck, Guido. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 8, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1969, ISBN 3-428-00189-3 , p. 516 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Manfred Rasch : The first wire rod from the Niederrheinische Hütte 1913 - Guido Henckel von Donnersmarck and Bernhard Grau . In: Stahl und Eisen , Vol. 133 (2013), No. 11, pp. 256-259.
  • Manfred Rasch : The entrepreneur Guido Henckel von Donnersmarck. A sketch . Klartext Verlag. Essen 2016, ISBN 978-3-8375-1507-7 .

Web links

Commons : Guido Henckel von Donnersmarck  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Notes and individual references

  1. ↑ Klemens Skibicki: Industry in the Upper Silesian Principality of Pless in the 18th and 19th centuries . Steiner, Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3-515-08036-8 , p. 212 f.
  2. ↑ Udo Lohse mentions January 18, 1902.
personal data
SURNAME Henckel von Donnersmarck, Guido
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Henckel Fürst von Donnersmarck, Guido Georg Friedrich Erdmann Heinrich Adelbert Graf (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Silesian industrialist
DATE OF BIRTH August 10, 1830
PLACE OF BIRTH Wroclaw
DATE OF DEATH December 19, 1916
Place of death Berlin