Gustav von Mevissen

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Gustav Mevissen in 1848. Lithograph after a drawing by Valentin Schertle.

Gustav Mevissen , since 1884 Gustav von Mevissen (born May 20, 1815 in Dülken , Rhine Province , † August 13, 1899 in Godesberg ), was a German entrepreneur and politician. Starting with textile production, Mevissen invested in railway construction and heavy industry. As the founder of numerous banks, including the Darmstädter Bank , as well as insurance companies, he is one of the pioneers of the German credit and insurance industry. As a politician, he was one of the leading representatives of Rhenish liberalism . Mevissen belonged to the provincial parliament of the Rhine Province, the United State Parliament , the Frankfurt National Assembly and, from 1866, the Prussian mansion .

Family and education

Mevissen came from a Catholic Rhenish merchant family from the area around the textile city of Krefeld, which was important in pre-industrial times . He was the son of Gerhard Mevissen (1776–1843). His father had risen from journeyman to master in the twisting trade, acquired a twisting mill in 1798 and added a yarn business to it. As a merchant and factory owner, he already had business relationships throughout the Rhineland. In 1834, the father expanded the business by purchasing an oil mill. His mother was Catharina Elisabeth (née Gierlings). The father was not only a businessman, but also interested in the intellectual developments of the time. He raised his children in the spirit of Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi . Between 1828 and 1830 Mevissen first attended the Protestant grammar school in Cologne, later the Catholic Marzelle grammar school and the higher middle school up to tertiary level . Although he showed an interest in science, he joined his father's company in 1830 and completed a commercial training there. In addition, he continued to educate himself through reading. Trips to Belgium, France and England between 1836 and 1838 also broadened Mevissen's intellectual horizons.

Mevissen married Elise Leiden in 1846. He and his wife had five daughters, including the future women's rights activist Mathilde von Mevissen . After eleven years of marriage, his wife died in 1857. In 1860 Mevissen married Therese Leiden, the sister of his first wife.

Economic rise

Rheinische Zeitung from October 1842
Share of the “Agrippina Sea, River and Land Transport Insurance Company” from March 31, 1845

In 1834 Mevissen took over the management of his father's oil mill and in the same year was co-founder of the Cologne general organ for trade and commerce . Four years later he became a partner in the German-English Steamship Company and in the following year also a partner in his father's twisting factory, in which he initially shared management with his sister Wilhelmine. In 1839 he was a co-founder of the Rheinische Allgemeine Zeitung .

In 1841 Mevissen moved to Cologne. There he founded a textile wholesaler with a partner. After his sister's marriage, the new brother-in-law largely took over the business in Dülken, while Mevissen moved his life and business focus to Cologne. One of the first deals in which he participated was the founding of the Rheinische Zeitung in 1842 together with Ludolf Camphausen and others. In doing so, economic striving and political goals were mixed. Mevissen himself published a few articles in the paper, which was shaped by Karl Marx as editor. The Prussian state banned the newspaper as early as 1843.

Although the textile industry remained at the core of his business, he has worked in a wide variety of industries, particularly transportation and heavy industries , insurance, and banking . As early as the 1830s, Mevissen spoke out in favor of founding stock corporations, for example to finance mechanized flax yarn spinning mills, and in the early 1840s also for mining companies and banks. However, he initially encountered resistance from the Prussian bureaucracy.

In 1843 Mevissen became a board member of the Rheinische Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft , from 1844 until its nationalization in 1880 he was its president. Since the founding of the Association of German Railway Administrations in 1846/47 , which was particularly responsible for technical standards and the standardization of operational processes of the many private and state railways and lobbying the governments, Mevissen also took on an influential role in the joint association work of the German railways Role.

In 1845 Mevissen was involved in founding the sea, river and land transport insurance company Agrippina . In April 1848 Mevissen was appointed director of the Cologne branch of the loan office. In September 1848, as the state commissioner appointed by the Prussian state, he played a key role in the rescue of the Schaaffhausen Bank Association and its transformation into a stock corporation . Mevissen became the company's first director, and in 1857 he changed to its supervisory board , to which he was a member until 1875. Under Mevissen's direction, the bank continued to participate in the financing of the emerging industry. Since 1856 he was involved in the development of the Siegerland ore deposits.

Mevissen as a politician

Mevissen and the Rhenish Liberalism

Politically, Mevissen was initially strongly influenced by southern German liberalism around Karl von Rotteck , but also by other Rhenish liberals. In 1835 he even wrote an “Ode to Rotteck”. Two years later, influenced by David Hansemann's text “Prussia and France” , he drafted a petition to the district president against the high class taxes. In political and business contact with other Rhenish liberals such as Ludolf Camphausen and Hermann von Beckerath , Mevissen developed into a leading representative of Rhenish liberalism. This variety of liberalism based its self-image, especially in contrast to the Prussian nobility, not least on the rise of industry. Mevissen said in 1840: "Industry has become an independent power [... thanks] to this new social power" . In Germany it must be “ undeniably towards a new era, also politically”. “Because where industry is strong as a power, there is also political power and freedom. "

In 1844 Mevissen became a member of the Chamber of Commerce in Cologne ; from 1856 to 1860 he was its president. Mevissen's economic policy statements did not always correspond to the demand for free trade represented by the majority of the Chamber of Commerce, but rather to the thoughts of Friedrich List . Although he was positive about the establishment of the German Customs Association , he advocated protective tariffs and state interventions to a greater extent. In addition, he called for stronger social policy measures. During the start-up crisis in the second half of the 1870s, which was triggered not least by the build-up of overcapacities , Mevissen called for an active economic policy by the state, for example through public investments.

The push for a liberalization of the political system went hand in hand with the fear of a revolution of the lower classes. In 1845 Mevissen wrote: "[...] that the number of proletarians in all states of the present is increasing in a most alarming progression: The threatening wave of the avenging future [rolls] closer and closer to the living sex." For Mevissen the The real social danger does not come from the few industrial workers, but from the rural lower classes threatened by pauperism . He concluded that for this reason, too, society needed far-reaching reform. A growing industry, also supported by state economic policy, could create prosperity in the long term to combat poverty. In order to implement his socio-political position, he took an active part in the work of the Central Association for the good of the working classes in 1844/45 . For Mevissen, a Prussian constitution was a necessary prerequisite for implementing economic and social policy reforms. This is one of the reasons why this question was at the center of political activity for Mevissen in the 1840s.

While other Rhenish liberals wanted to fend off the pressure of the lower classes, among other things, through a census suffrage, Mevissen spoke out in favor of equal political rights. "Only if the increasing need for equality for all in the state and social forms is adequately satisfied, a peaceful development of today's society [...] is possible." Hans-Ulrich Wehler describes Mevissen as an exponent of an enlightened social liberalism, which with its demands in this respect went further than other representatives of Rhenish liberalism. Mevissen has been a member and founder of several social and charitable associations since the 1840s. He set up widows, orphans, invalids and health insurances and built hospitals for the employees of his companies. In 1879 Mevissen also became the financial sponsor of the historian Karl Lamprecht . With him and other citizens he founded the Society for Rhenish History in 1881 . It was on his initiative that the Cöln City Commercial College was founded in 1901, for which he had been campaigning for financial support by establishing a foundation with other citizens since 1879. After his death, he bequeathed his library of almost 15,000 books to the city of Cologne. Today these books are in the University and City Library of Cologne .

Political activity in the Vormärz

In practical political activity, Mevissen began to emerge more strongly from the mid-1840s. In 1845, for example, he was involved in the preparation of two petitions in favor of a general representation of the people, freedom of the press , the demand for public meetings of the provincial council and the emancipation of the Jewish population. He ignored the requirement of secrecy of the provincial parliament's negotiations by participating in the compilation and illegal dissemination of the results of the negotiations of the parliament of 1845. Mevissen wrote to his brother-in-law about the success of the book: “My last publication on the parliament is eagerly read and almost devoured. "

In 1846 he became a member of the Rhenish Provincial Parliament . His oppositional stance led to the state refusing to accept him in 1847 as city councilor. In the same year Mevissen was elected a member of the Prussian United State Parliament for the constituency of Gladbach, which also included his home town of Dülken . Although the Prussian authorities first tried again to refuse his confirmation, he was able to take up his mandate. The United State Parliament had become necessary under the State Debt Act of 1820 so that the Prussian state could issue a loan for the construction of the Prussian Eastern Railway , a railway from Berlin to Königsberg . Although the Prussian king had only constituted a state assembly instead of the freely elected parliament through the organization of the United Landtag, the meeting of the Landtag was eagerly awaited by liberal and democratic politicians from all over Germany. In the United State Parliament, the Rhenish liberals around Mevissen and Hansemann became the spokesmen who demanded personal freedom rights, freedom of the press and the independence of judges. Mevissen played a key role in ensuring that the Rhenish liberals and the mostly aristocratic liberals from the eastern provinces found a common line. While most of the liberal MPs from the eastern provinces only wanted to protest and refuse to attend the meeting, the Rhinelander were ready to negotiate within the United State Parliament in order to achieve political results. This line largely prevailed, also at the cost of rejecting the loan, from which the two liberal camps would have benefited economically. Mevissen wrote to his wife about the goals: "A powerful, lofty and inviolable crown, responsible ministers, a free people who would advise and participate."

As in the provincial parliaments, the negotiations of the United Landtag were not public. In a partly conspiratorial manner, Mevissen ensured that the press, and in particular the Kölnische Zeitung, was provided with reports on the debates. The Rhenish Liberals played an important role during the meetings. A member of parliament wrote to Johann Jacoby , for example : “The Rhinelander, however, show a great deal of parliamentary talent, and the speakers among them, namely Beckerath , Hansemann and Mevissen, should stand alongside the best speakers in England and France, at least in terms of the conception and execution of their task concerns. “ Together with Rudolf von Auerswald and Georg von Vincke , Mevissen worked out a position paper, the main message of which was that the United State Parliament had a right to regular convocation based on previous laws. At least 138 MPs signed this declaration. Camphausen refused to do so because he started to petition the king. In the further course of the negotiations, Mevissen then fell on the defensive. "The last few days here have not been without a hot struggle, and yesterday I found myself on the breach with a small heap of faithful, 31 against 418." Through his work in the United State Parliament, Mevissen had made a name for himself as a leading personality in the liberal camp in Germany. Therefore, he was invited by Hansemann to the Heppenheim conference , but by mistake he arrived a day late.

Political action at the beginning of the revolution of 1848/49

Opening of the second United State Parliament (1848)

The news of unrest during the first days of the March Revolution worried Mevissen. In Cologne, too, the leading liberals were surprised by the events. On March 3, 1848 there was a demonstration in front of Cologne City Hall, calls for political reforms in the democratic sense were loud. Mevissen made “traces of a communist movement (which has shown itself to be very threatening and undisguised”) . This is not yet dangerous, but it can become so if the path of reforms is not taken quickly. Mevissen and other MPs expressed their disgust at the unrest, but also demanded the immediate reconstitution of the United State Parliament in order to complete the constitution. Mevissen had also been invited to the Heidelberg meeting , but did not follow it for fear of further unrest. Instead, he invited the Rhenish MPs to Bonn to discuss the situation. The discussions there revealed considerable differences between, on the one hand, Hansemann and Mevissen, who wanted to take a more decisive path, and, on the other hand, Camphausen. The resolution enforced by this had no practical effect, because the Committee of Seven had already created new facts with the convening of the preliminary parliament and the revolution on the streets of Vienna and Berlin had made it obsolete. The leading Rhenish liberals left for Berlin. Mevissen and Beckerath in particular did everything in their power to persuade the recently appointed Prime Minister Adolf Heinrich von Arnim-Boitzenburg to resign and to establish a liberal ministry. Just one day after his arrival, Mevissen wrote to his wife: "After a difficult six hours' birth, a Camphausen ministry has just come into being." It was not least thanks to Mevissen that the more radical liberals initially supported this course. During the constitutional phase of the new government, the news of the collapse of the Schaafhausen Bank burst. Mevissen feared a risk to the creditworthiness of the entire state and successfully urged Finance Minister Hansemann and Camphausen to intervene. Apart from helping the bank, which he then headed as State Commissioner, Mevissen implemented direct aid for companies affected by the economic crisis.

During the second session of the United State Parliament in 1848, Mevissen campaigned against census suffrage. He was of the opinion that the "agitation in the country [...] would only stop if the general right to vote was given without restriction." This position largely prevailed in both the elections for the Prussian and German national assemblies.

Work in the Frankfurt National Assembly

The casino faction of the National Assembly. Lithograph “Club de Casino” by Friedrich Pecht , 1849.

Mevissen himself sought a mandate for the Frankfurt National Assembly. In the Rhineland, however, this attempt failed. Obviously, reservations on the part of the strictly Catholic played a role. With the help of the industrialist Gustav Mallinckrodt , who lived in Siegen, however, he managed to win a “brilliant majority” in the Siegen-Olpe-Wittgenstein constituency. Feuding pastor Friedrich Christian Vogel was elected as his deputy . In his election victory, he benefited from the fact that the interests of the Siegerland iron manufacturers coincided with those of Mevissen. After his election he promised to act on their behalf. In addition, he announced "to contribute to the great work of the rebirth of a united and powerful Germany, that the nation would guarantee free development of all material and spiritual forces internally, and a dignified independence externally."

From May 18, 1848 to May 21, 1849 Mevissen was a member of the Frankfurt National Assembly . He was a co-founder of the casino liberal faction . In the resolution formulated by Johann Gustav Droysen , Mevissen was listed alongside Heinrich von Gagern among those who are familiar with the preparation, management, appointment, etc. Mevissen advocated the establishment of a provisional central authority (imperial government) and the election of Archduke Johann of Austria as imperial administrator (a kind of provisional monarch). By making these decisions, he hoped to put the Republicans on the defensive. After the end of the Camphausen government, Mevissen tried in vain to win him over for a responsible position in the central government. In contrast, he made himself available to the new government. From August 9 to September 5, 1848, Mevissen was part of the provisional central authority as Undersecretary of State of the Reich Ministry of Commerce. Mevissen soon realized that his influence, but also that of the entire government, were very limited. He gave up the post when he was offered the leadership of the Schaaffhausen'schen Bankverein. After the dismissal of the Auerswald-Hansemann cabinet, Mevissen tried in vain to set up another liberal cabinet for Prussia on a trip to Berlin.

In the National Assembly he was a member of both the Economics Committee and the Commission for Preparing the Reception of the Reich Administrator. He presented a memorandum on the centralization of the German banking system to the Economic Committee. However, his focus of activity had shifted to the management of the bank association. This is probably one of the reasons why he made no motions in the National Assembly and did not appear as a speaker in plenary.

In December 1848, like many moderate liberals, he welcomed the coup d'état by the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm IV , who had dissolved the Prussian National Assembly and imposed a constitution. One of the main reasons was the concern that the political revolution might turn into a social one. Mevissen welcomed the “bold step of the king”, since he believed the time had come “when all men of political influence [on the] newly created legal ground […] must fight the anarchy that is coming in.”

On the question of the future head of state, Mevissen voted for a hereditary head of the empire and the election of Friedrich Wilhelm IV. As emperor of the Germans . He voted accordingly in the National Assembly on March 28, 1849. But after the Prussian king had refused the dignity of emperor, Mevissen saw the political future bleak, as he wrote on April 28, 1849. "The political prospects are becoming more and more gloomy, and if things go on as they have for the last eight days, we will suddenly find ourselves in the deepest reaction with the prospect of a new revolution that will not fail to materialize." After the start of the imperial constitution campaign , Mevissen saw politics the National Assembly as a final failure. “Our task, the peaceful reform, is finished, if not solved. We can only pass on passive spectators during the further course of events. ” Together with 64 other members of the casino parliamentary group, Mevissen resigned from the National Assembly on May 21, 1849.

Post-Revolution Politics

In June 1849, Mevissen took part in the Gotha meeting of the Hereditary Emperors and in vain advocated criticism of the governments that had rejected the Paulskirche constitution . In 1850, Mevissen again belonged to the Erfurt Union Parliament for the districts of Olpe, Siegen and Wittgenstein . From 1866 he was a member of the Prussian manor house as a representative of Cologne . In the manor he belonged to the old liberal direction. Mevissen also retained political influence as a member of the Prussian State Council , the Economics Council and as an advisor to Wilhelm I. Overall, however, Mevissen had largely withdrawn from active politics after the failure of the revolution of 1848/49. Instead, he turned back to his commercial activity. " As things [in the face of] the total powerlessness [...] in the political questions [lie], I believe that material interests are the only place from where a better future can develop ."

Nonetheless, he remained true to his liberal convictions and expressed himself accordingly. After the establishment of the German Empire , he criticized the “all-powerful” position of Otto von Bismarck .

Founding phase after the revolution

Gustav von Mevissen

In the economic boom in the Rhineland and the neighboring mining districts as part of the industrial revolution in Germany , Mevissen was one of the established investors who, often using the form of a stock corporation, drove the growth of the Rhenish-Westphalian region in the areas of transport, trade and heavy industry. Mevissen ran many of the projects together with other investors from Cologne, including in particular the Oppenheim banking family . In October 1849 Mevissen was among the founders of the Cologne Mining Association and in the same year became a member of the supervisory board of the limited partnership for mining and smelting . In 1852 he participated in the founding of the Hörder Bergwerks- und Hütten-Verein and a flax spinning mill in Düren . In the following year he was a co-founder of a large number of heavy industrial companies. These included the Eschweiler Bergwerks-Verein , the Alsdorf-Hoengener Kohlenbergwerksgesellschaft and the Massener Gesellschaft für Kohlenbergbau , as well as a mechanical flax spinning mill in Dülken and the Cologne cotton spinning and weaving mill . The Kölnische Maschinenbau AG was founded in 1855 . One year later he became chairman of the administrative board of the Cologne-Müsener Bergwerkverein, which he co-founded .

Shaped by his experience with the Schaaffhausen'schen Bankverein, Mevissen became one of the major pioneers in the field of financial services alongside his industrial companies. In 1853 Mevissen expanded into the emerging field of insurance. He founded the Kölnische Rückversicherungs-Gesellschaft (today: General Reinsurance AG) and combined two insurance companies founded in 1851 to form Concordia insurance with a share capital of ten million thalers. In the same year, together with Abraham Oppenheim, because of the more favorable legal situation in the Grand Duchy of Hesse and not in Prussia, he created the Darmstadt Bank for Trade and Industry with a share capital of 15 million thalers. A foundation in Frankfurt had failed due to the resistance of the Rothschilds , who saw dangerous competition in the modern joint stock bank. This fear was not unjustified, as Mevissen also saw a goal in “creating a corporate counterweight against the sole rule of Rothschild’s money power.” The Darmstädter Bank is considered to be the real prototype of the German joint stock banks. In 1855 he founded the Kölner Privatbank and the Münchner Bank für Süddeutschland and in 1856 again together with Oppenheim the International Bank of Luxembourg, initially as an international central bank, which soon became a credit institution. In 1871, he participated in the founding of the Süddeutsche Bodenkreditbank and the Mainz Süddeutsche Immobilienbank .

In recognition of his experience and achievements as a textile entrepreneur, Mevissen has been a member of the international jury for the linen industry at the world exhibitions since the 1850s . On September 4, 1884, he was raised to the Prussian nobility in Berlin with a diploma dated September 23, 1884 in Schloss Brühl . Associated with this was a hereditary seat in the Prussian manor house. He also received the title of a secret commercial councilor and honorary doctorates from the University of Bonn in 1885 and 1895 . The honorary citizen of the city of Cologne was awarded Gustav von Mevissen on 25 April 1895th On December 23, 1897, the city of Cologne named the street that runs from Riehler Platz to the Rhine after Mevissen. Likewise, since March 26, 1929, a street on Siegener Giersberg has been named after him. He was a member of the Society of German Natural Scientists and Doctors .

Gustav von Mevissen was buried in the Melaten cemetery in Cologne .

Works

  • About flax hand-spinning on the left bank of the Rhine in the administrative district of Düsseldorf . [after 1830].
  • Holland as a trading agent for Rhenish products . 1839.
  • Memorandum regarding the establishment of a commercial academy in Cologne. Cologne 1879.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. Obermann, pp. 392-394.
  2. ^ Association of German Railway Administrations (ed.): Commemorative publication on the activities of the Association of German Railway Administrations in the first 50 years of its existence, 1846-1896. Berlin 1896, pp. XIII-XVII.
  3. ^ Zeumer, pp. 15, 41.
  4. ^ Wolfram Siemann: The German Revolution of 1848/49 . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1985, ISBN 3-518-11266-X , p. 22f.
  5. ^ Joseph Hansen: Gustav von Mevissen. A portrait of the Rhenish life 1815–1890 . Berlin 1906, Vol. 1, pp. 231f., Cited above. according to Wehler, Gesellschaftgeschichte , Vol. 2, p. 199.
  6. ^ Wehler, Gesellschaftgeschichte , Vol. 3, p. 565f., Hashagen, p. 775.
  7. Quotation from Wehler, Gesellschaftgeschichte , Vol. 2, pp. 266, 288f.
  8. cit. according to Wehler, Gesellschaftgeschichte , vol. 2, p. 266f.
  9. ^ Wehler, Gesellschaftgeschichte , Vol. 2, p. 426.
  10. Quoted from Obermann, p. 395.
  11. Best / Weege, p. 237.
  12. ^ Siemann, The German Revolution , p. 24; Heinrich August Winkler : The long way to the west. Vol. 1: German History 1803-1933 . 5th edition, CH Beck, Munich 2000, pp. 95f.
  13. Joseph Hansen (Ed.): Rheinische Letters and Files on the History of the Political Movement 1830–1850 . [1919 edition, reprint Osnabrück, 1967] Vol. 2/1, pp. 200f., Cited above. after Obermann, p. 396.
  14. Edmund Silberner (Ed.): Johann Jacoby: Briefwechsel 1816–1849 . Hannover 1974, p. 361, cited above. after Obermann, p. 397.
  15. Hansen, Rheinisches Lebensbild , vol. 2, p. 316, cited above. after Obermann, p. 397.
  16. ^ Roland Hoede: The Heppenheimer Assembly of October 10, 1847 . W. Kramer, Frankfurt am Main 1997, pp. 89f. ISBN 3-7829-0471-0 .
  17. Hansen, Rheinisches Lebensbild , Vol. 2, p. 339, cited above. after Obermann, p. 400.
  18. Hansen, Rheinisches Lebensbild , vol. 2, p. 356, cited above. after Obermann, p. 401.
  19. Hansen, Rheinisches Lebensbild , Vol. 2, p. 363, cited above. after Wolfgang J. Mommsen : 1848. The unwanted revolution. The revolutionary movements in Europe 1830–1849 . Frankfurt a. M. 1998, p. 174. ISBN 3-10-050606-5 .
  20. Westfälischer Merkur No. 119, May 18, 1848
  21. Hansen, Rheinisches Lebensbild , vol. 1, pp. 542f., Cited above. after Obermann, p. 404.
  22. Obermann, pp. 407-409.
  23. Best / Weege, p. 238.
  24. Quotation from Wehler, Gesellschaftgeschichte , Vol. 2, p. 753.
  25. Hansen, Rheinisches Lebensbild , Vol. 2, p. 472, cited above. after Obermann, p. 415.
  26. Hansen, Rheinisches Lebensbild , Vol. 2, pp. 486f., Cited above. after Obermann, p. 417.
  27. cit. according to Wehler, Gesellschaftgeschichte , vol. 3, p. 92.
  28. ^ Wehler, Gesellschaftgeschichte , Vol. 3, p. 374.
  29. Best / Weege, p. 237.
  30. Zeumer, p. 32.
  31. cit. according to Wehler, Gesellschaftgeschichte , Vol. 3, p. 88; Nipperdey, Bürgerwelt , p. 203.
  32. ^ Zeumer, p. 38.
  33. Regional history around the corner . In: Siegener Zeitung of January 14, 2012, p. 39.
  34. Members of the Society of German Natural Scientists and Doctors 1857

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This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on August 12, 2007 .