Gustav Verclas

Gustav Heinrich Karl Verclas (born October 28, 1853 in Hanover ; † April 2, 1925 there ) was a German master locksmith , entrepreneur , inventor and benefactor . He was one of the well-known personalities in his hometown.

Life

Gustav Verclas was a descendant of the Verclas family , which on the male side can be traced back to the pastor Augustinus Verclasius , who was active in Burggräfenrode in the 17th century . Gustav Verclas was in the 1853 residence of the Kingdom of Hanover was born the eldest of three children of the checkout assistants Georg Friedrich Heinrich Otto Verclas (1828-1866), the son of the royal court couriers , courtyard lacais and court Fourier Heinrich Christian Carl Verclas (1783-1838 ) and Justine Elisabeth Gärtner (1787–1868). His mother was Sophie Charlotte Louise Wilhelmine, nee Engel (1828-1906), the eldest of four children of from Aerzen originating citizen and "locks Office Master" Christian Eberhard Engel (1781-1852) and Hanna Helene Henriette Schmidt (1797-1842).

Gustav Verclas opened an art and building locksmith's business in Heckengang 2 , a street north along the garden cemetery , or in Arnswaldtstrasse , which was only officially laid out in 1888, at the latest in the 1870s, probably in the early days of the German Empire . He later relocated this company to a newly built factory on Marienstraße , which - like his private villa , which he had equipped with central heating - was not built on the street front.

The Verclas normal clock in the foreground on the left between palm trees on Aegidientorplatz in front of the Café Rabe in the line of alignment on Marienstraße ;
Postcard ( collotype ) number 961 by Karl F. Wunder , around 1900

Numerous works by Verclas, some of them as art in public spaces , were to be found in Hanover for a long time with a text sign saying “Kunst- und Bauschlosserei Gustav Verclas”. According to a granddaughter of Verclas, Matron Ursula Müller, one of the most famous pieces is the Verclas normal clock , which was set up as a foundation on Aegidientorplatz in 1877 and which went missing around 100 centuries later.

Just a few years after setting up his normal clock, Verclas married Auguste Sophie Louise Wilhelmine, née Bünger (born February 25, 1862 in Grone, either near Göttingen or Hanover; † August 1, 1934 in Hanover), daughter of the Locomotive driver, fitter and railroad engineer Friedrich Heinrich Wilhelm Bünger (1821–1895) and Johanna Dorothea Engel Elisabeth Beushausen (* 1791). Verclas had eight children with his wife. In the family album of the company founder, which was still in existence in 1972, there were photographs of the normal clock as well as a picture of Gustav Verclas with his wife Sofie on the garden stairs of his villa.

The entrepreneur was one of the first to have his own telephone connection in Hanover. As a well-known and highly respected personality of urban life, he was one of the invited guests for the first ride on an “electric” in the history of the tram in Hanover .

At the beginning of the 20th century in which the Imperial Patent Office issued Patent Bulletin one of Gustav Verclas at the address 32 Marie Street on March 28, 1903 registered utility models announced a support frame.

Gustav Verclas died during the Weimar Republic on April 2, 1925 in Hanover, almost a decade before his wife.

Works (selection)

In addition to Verclas' normal clock on Aegidientorplatz, other creations from the art and building locksmith Gustav Verclas are known, for example

• a four-armed candelabra on Georgstrasse in Hanover,
• an exhibition pavilion for a photographer on Georgsplatz in Hanover
• as well as the fence formerly built around the Hanover Zoo.

From “G. Verclas ”are also around 500 kg strong vaults with American boltwork, similar to Bode & Troué from the period between 1880 and 1890.

Similar to Carl Meyer and "Paumann", Gustav Verclas supplied the ironwork for the building of the Hannoversche Bank built by the architect Carl Börgemann around 1900 on Georgsplatz .

In the early 1970s the Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung wrote that "the works of Gustav Verclas have probably all disappeared from the cityscape".

literature

• mk: erected in 1877 - dismantled in 1951: where has the Aegi normal clock gone? Veil lifted a little over the origin. In: Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung of September 9, 1972, p. 13 (with the reprint of three historical photographs).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d} Wolfgang Holler: Gustav Heinrich Karl Verclas , data set and cross-references from the Holler file with the title Holler-Ahnen aus dem Aartal and Nebenlinien on the website of the Association for Computer Genealogy in the version of March 29, 2017, last accessed on November 12, 2017
2. ↑ ^{a b} Patentblatt ... , Vol. 27, C. Heymanns Verlag, 1903, p. 559; Preview over google books
3. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i} mk: erected in 1877 - dismantled in 1951: where has the Aegi normal clock gone? ... in Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung of September 9, 1972, p. 13.
4. ↑ Compare the digital version of the journal of the Association for Hamburg History [undated], p. 237 (PDF document) of a company listing.
5. ↑ Compare for example the city ​​map of Hanover in Meyers Konversations-Lexikon , 4th edition from 1888, grid square D4 ; Digitized at Wikimedia Commons
6. ^ Helmut Zimmermann : Arnswaldstrasse , in ders .: The street names of the state capital Hanover. Hahnsche Buchhandlung Verlag, Hannover 1992, ISBN 3-7752-6120-6 , p. 28.
7. ↑ Stefan Bruckner, Holger H. Raum: Sale of anti-lock safes , illustrated offers with a brief description on the tresorservice24.de page [ undated ], last accessed on November 12, 2017.
8. ^ Hermann Jansen (Red.): Der Baumeister , Munich: Callwey Verlag, 1903, p. 57; Preview over google books