Heinrich Böcking

Heinrich Böcking (1785–1862), painting by Louis Krevel , around 1830, catalog inventory of the Saarland Museum

Heinrich Böcking in front of parts of his vase collection , on the golden left vase you can read: "From grateful citizens to Saarbrück & St. Johann on January 1st, 1835", on the right a crater vase of the Königliche Porzellan-Manufaktur Berlin with the portrait of the Prussian king Friedrich Wilhelm III. , Painting by Louis Krevel (Saarland Museum)

Heinrich Böcking (* 1. June 1785 in Trarbach , † 6. May 1862 in Bonn ) was Bergrat and mayor in Saarbrücken .

origin

Heinrich Böcking's father was the wholesale merchant and banker Adolf Böcking (1754–1800). In 1783, Adolf Böcking was the first Protestant to receive permission from Trier Elector Clemens Wenzeslaus of Saxony to settle as a Protestant in the Catholic city of Koblenz and to set up a business. The family had to flee to Hanau when the French revolutionary troops approached and did not return to the area on the left bank of the Rhine until after Robespierre's fall and the end of the reign of terror . From 1796 the family lived in Saarbrücken. For the choice of the new place of residence, the business with the export of Lorraine salt and Saarland coal were probably decisive. Already in 1789, the coal trade with Germany by water was assigned to the trading companies of Heinrich Karcher and Böcking Brothers in Koblenz and three years earlier, in 1786, Adolf Böcking's sister Therese Sophie Böcking (1764–1842) had met the in Metz-born Catholic Nicolas Villeroy married. Villeroy had completed a commercial apprenticeship at Böcking and later founded the internationally known ceramic company Villeroy & Boch with Jean-François Boch in 1836 .

To promote his commercial interests, Adolf Böcking, together with 46 families from Saarbrücken and 13 St. Johann families , turned to the Paris Directory in a joint address of devotion . Adolf Böcking died while staying in his hometown Trarbach in May 1800. His death led to the end of the company on the Moselle.

Adolf Böcking was married to Ernestine von Scheibler (1760-1821), the daughter of cloth manufacturers raised in 1781 in a baron Bernhard Georg von Scheibler from the internationally active Monschauer business family Scheibler . The couple had a total of 14 children, ten of whom were still alive when Adolf died. Only the two sons of Adolf, Heinrich and Eduard (1798–1866) remained on the Saar. Böcking's brother was the Düsseldorf landscape painter Adolph Böcking .

Life

Heinrich Böcking completed a commercial apprenticeship from 1800 to 1804 with his uncle Friedrich von Scheibler (1777-1824) in Iserlohn, Prussia . He then worked for a number of years as a trainee in the commercial operations of his relatives in Amsterdam . At the age of 19 he became a clerk at the Goedhart Cappel & Sons trading company. After he advanced to managing director there, he soon set up his own business. However, establishing himself as a merchant in Amsterdam failed, so that he settled in Saarbrücken again in 1811. Through his marriage to the nineteen-year-old Charlotte Henriette Stumm (1790-1832), the daughter of the respected mining and smelting entrepreneur Friedrich Philipp Stumm , on December 28, 1809, Böcking's access to the city's leading circles expanded again considerably. Although the two families Stumm and Böcking had had business relationships for generations, Böcking was not the preferred son-in-law of the Stumm family for financial reasons. Other members of the Stumm family, however, later harbored less resentment against the Böckings. Charlotte's younger brother Carl Friedrich (1798–1848) married Heinrich's niece Maria Louise (1813–1864) the year before his father's death. In any case, the relationship between Friedrich Philipp Stumm and his influential brother Johann Ferdinand Stumm (1764–1839) with Böcking remained undercooled throughout his life. On behalf of his father-in-law Friedrich Philipp Stumm, Böcking often went on business trips. Self-taught, he dealt with economics, mineralogy and antiquity and delved into the geographic conditions of the Saar coal deposits and the structures of the Saar economy.

The marriage of Heinrich and Charlotte Henriette had four children:

• Heinrich Rudolf (1810–1871): He completed a commercial apprenticeship at the Reverchon trading house in Trier , then studied in Berlin and in 1837 settled at the Asbacher Hütte , which was closed in 1871 after his death. He was married to Marie Luise Hildebrand (1817–1901), the daughter of Saarbrücken superintendent Ludwig Philipp Hildebrand (1764–1833). His son Rudolf was the manager of the Halbergerhütte in Saarbrücken- Brebach . His daughter Ida Charlotte (1839-1918) was 1860, the wife of Carl Ferdinand von Stumm-Halberg - the eldest son of Charlotte's brother and niece of Henry, so her cousins 2nd degree.

• Gustav Adolf (1812–1893): He took over the Abentheuerer Hütte in 1839 and lived there after it was closed in 1870. The sons Eduard Sigismund (Abentheuerer Hütte, Halbergerhütte ) left their marriage to Wilhelmine Mayr (1819–1889) from Memmingen , Dillinger Hütte , rolling mill Cologne-Mülheim ) and Richard (1848–1919, merchant in Antwerp and married to Elly Königs). The descendants now live in the Böcking manor in Abentheuer .

• Eduard (1814–1894): He lived on the Graefenbacher Hütte and was married to Adelheid Graeff from Kreuznach .

• Carolina Clara (1816–1878): She was married to the lawyer Detmar Cramer (1812–1892) and lived in Trier, then in Cologne .

Charlotte Henriette was ailing all her life and died in Nice in 1832 at the age of 42 .

When the question of the future state membership of Saarbrücken and the Saar district was discussed in the course of the wars of liberation in 1814/15, Böcking was, alongside Philipp Fauth, the most prominent advocate of a German patriotic party that called for the Saar area to be incorporated into Prussia .

The civil governor Justus Gruner (1777-1820) appointed the 28-year-old Böcking Mayor of Saarbrücken on March 17, 1814. The appointment was linked to the political mandate to mobilize the German-minded sections of the population at the head of a patriotic association and to activate the able-bodied male population in this regard. After just a few weeks, Böcking applied for his discharge from the mayor's office for professional and private reasons. He believed that the connection of the Saarorte with the Kingdom of Prussia was a decisive matter. His dismay was all the greater when, contrary to all expectations, the Paris Peace of May 30, 1814 left the core area of ​​the former principality of Nassau-Saarbrücken and the French fortress town of Saarlouis founded by Louis XIV . Thereupon Böcking protested against German politicians and patriots and sought support from the publicist Joseph Görres , who demanded a correction of the Allies' decision regarding the Saar valley locations in the “ Rheinischer Merkur ”.

With the return of the exiled Napoleon from the island of Elba and the resulting Second War of Liberation, the opportunity for a border correction seemed to be within reach for Böcking. In Saarbrücken, under Böcking's initiative, a citizens' initiative was formed that vehemently campaigned for the release from French rule.

When the Prussian State Chancellor Karl August von Hardenberg crossed Saarbrücken on the way to Paris, he was received in a festive manner on the evening of July 10, 1815 by a delegation of the German patriotic citizens in Saarbrücken. After in-depth discussions, Hardenberg assured him that he would campaign for the Saartalorte to be connected to the Kingdom of Prussia. On the following day, July 11, 1815, 345 citizens signed a petition to this effect and elected a committee of six citizens, led by Böcking and Karl Lauckhard , who were to continue to work diplomatically to enforce the request.

With a majority of 26 to eleven members, the Citizens 'Council decided to send Böcking and Lauckhard to Paris as representatives of the Citizens' Initiative to advertise with the Allies for the connection of the Saar Valley locations and to ask for an exemption from the extraordinary burdens of war. In order to give even more emphasis to their concerns, Böcking and Lauckhard succeeded in gaining an additional important ally in Heinrich Friedrich Karl vom und zum Stein , who at the time was an advisor to the Russian Tsar Alexander .

Signature campaign by citizens from Saarbrücken and St. Johann an der Saar on July 11, 1815 to join the Saar Valley locations to the Kingdom of Prussia (inner sheet)

In addition, Böcking belonged to various delegations, in particular the deputation sent to the Paris Peace Conference in the summer of 1815 together with Karl Lauckhard . The decisive text of the letter, which was supposed to initiate the connection of the Saartalorte to the Kingdom of Prussia , was written by the Protestant Malstatter pastor Johann Friedrich Köllner . Böcking got to know Köllner at the age of twelve, when he was employed by his family as his tutor .

In the peace preliminaries agreed on October 2, 1815, France had to accept the cession of the economically profitable Saar area to the Kingdom of Prussia. The agreement was sanctioned under international law in the Second Peace of Paris on November 20, 1815.

In the same year, on December 8, 1815, Böcking was appointed to the Royal Mining Authority Commission. The provisional administration was converted to the Royal Mining Office on September 22nd, 1816 , which was located at Saarbrücker Schlossplatz. Bergmeister Leopold Sello was appointed head of the new office . As Rendant, Böcking was Head of Finance. In 1838, after resigning from his mayor's office, he was appointed Bergrat, and in 1844, shortly before his retirement, he was appointed Oberbergrat.

The relationship between Heinrich Böcking and the Prussian royal house was characterized by loyalty on the part of Böcking and royal favor, especially through King Friedrich Wilhelm IV. Böcking supported his government with extensive informant activities. After the July Revolution of Paris in 1830 , he reported on the French press, the situation in the capital Paris and the Lorraine border area. In November 1830 he became an informal employee of the head of the Prussian news center, Karl Ferdinand Friedrich von Nagler , who used the postal service for police surveillance. Böcking's reporting activity lasted until 1834, i.e. until his term of office as Saarbrücken mayor (1832–1838). The Prussian Higher Government Council in Cologne , Ernst von Bodelschwingh the Elder , arranged for Heinrich Böcking to be appointed mayor of Saarbrücken in 1831 on instructions from a higher authority. He took up this office on January 1, 1832. In the process, Böcking was released from his duties in the mining office and was given leave of absence while continuing to pay his salary. This was an administrative peculiarity, as the mayor's office was usually run on an honorary basis.

Heinrich Böckings tried during his term of office to strengthen the state authority of the Kingdom of Prussia in Saarbrücken and turned against any socially or politically motivated opposition movement. During his tenure, he managed to establish a regional court in Saarbrücken on January 21, 1835, through good contact with the king, against the resistance of the superior authorities in Trier and Koblenz.

His plan to set up a Saarbrücken savings bank failed. In the social field, however, he succeeded in placing charitable institutions to support poor women, to care for small children and to care for the sick. Böcking's intended appointment as district administrator of Saarbrücken did not receive the support of the superior authority in Trier, which spoke out against him in 1837 because of a lack of theoretical and scientific training. The district president of Trier, Adalbert von Ladenberg , also accused him of undue zeal for innovation, which exceeded the limits set by the existing forms and laws. There had also been repeated problems with the Saarbrücken city council, since Böcking had obviously acted too independently past political decision-makers. On January 30, 1838, Böcking acknowledged the Saarbrücken mayor's office whether this service appraisal was displeased and resumed work in the mining office. In his last professional years before 1844 he was increasingly concerned with general economic problems. During this time, his leave of absence was very generously approved and financially regulated. In 1839 Böcking went on a study trip to England.

In addition, from 1838 Heinrich Böcking took care of the ironworks in the Hunsrück , which his sons Heinrich Rudolf, Gustav Adolf and Eduard had inherited from Böcking's father-in-law Friedrich Philipp Stumm in 1835. In business associations, Böcking campaigned for a protective tariff policy at the national Prussian level, but in this regard he met with opposition from both the Prussian government and the entrepreneurship of the Rhineland.

Eduard Böcking (1798–1866), youngest brother of Heinrich Böcking, painting by Louis Krevel around 1837 (Saarland Museum)

Maria Elisabeth Böcking, b. Artois (1806–1867), painting by Louis Krevel around 1837 (Saarland Museum)

In 1850 he was a member of the Volkshaus of the Erfurt Union Parliament . In 1858 Böcking moved from Saarbrücken to Bonn , where he maintained contact with friends of ancient Rhenish times and former colleagues from the mining industry. Heinrich Böcking's youngest brother Eduard (1798–1866), who had completed an apprenticeship at the educational institute Philipp Emanuel von Fellenberg in Hofwil near Bern , had been living in Bonn since 1852 . He then studied law in Jena and Bonn. After initially settling down as a notary in Rhaunen , he moved to Saarbrücken in 1827. In the same year he married the Catholic Maria Elisabeth Artois (1806–1867) in Trier, the daughter of the local judge Johann Baptist Artois and his wife Maria Catharina Ludowika Staadt.

Heinrich Böcking died after a stroke on May 6, 1862 at the age of 76.

Foundation, endowment

Heinrich Böcking Collection, installation in the prehistoric department of the former Royal Museum of Ethnology in Berlin, photo before 1892

Before his death, on April 21, 1855, Böcking bequeathed the Malstatter suburb of Rußhütte (today a part of Saarbrücken) a piece of land of twelve acres to set up a custody for small children . The house was named "Charlotten-Stiftung" in memory of his wife, who died in 1832. In 1920 this property was added to the reconstruction of the parish church of St. Marien .

After his death, Böcking's extensive collection of antiquities ended up in the prehistoric department of the Royal Museum of Ethnology in Berlin. With numerous donations (around 30 archaeological objects), Böcking managed to make himself popular with the Prussian royal house of the Hohenzollern.

So it happened that the Prussian Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm (IV.) Visited him in Saarbrücken in November 1833. For the elaborate celebratory meal that Böcking organized, he even had glasses made with the likeness of the Crown Prince (the glasses are now owned by Heinrich Böcking's descendants). Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm wrote in his letter of thanks on January 11, 1834:

"When I saw your writing, my dear Böcking, I felt a pleasant echo of the beautiful time of my Rhain trip, by name: the dear, unforgettable. Hours to Saarbrücken & our community. I drove - and that's thankful. But how am I supposed to thank you for your self-sacrificing kindness, for your transmission of that beautiful Nicolaitan Hermes and his companion. Bock and Hahn u. Dog and Rabbit and leopard tamer etcetcetc !!! I am afraid the mayor has spoken to the old Gaulish language that Mercury has no doubt with the same, does not really have command of it, and so on. has misunderstood the thief = God as if he wanted the Wirthl. Abandoned apartment on the beautiful square at the corner of God's house under the mild ground of the Saar valley. as if he wanted him in our sand and Fog. - Well; i will look for him u. His companions to make the stay here as pleasant as possible and to lodge them well.

The things that you have sent to me are wonderful, best Böcking, u. I thank you a thousand, a thousand times for it. How kind it is not of you to rob yourself of such treasures for the sake of mainet!

I greet with love and delight the memory of those beautiful days, all of Saarbrücken and St. Johann u. all biedren German men u. Women whom I have there u. until I met Ottweiler , in special terms all my friendly dancers, from the white hall at the old castle as well as the beautiful yellow rooms; I greet the hailig halls of St. Arnual  & the herrl. Bridge , and the friendly Up the bank u. downhill & the burning mountain  & all saine beautiful companions who surround the valley; I greet the noble man with a warm handshake who first had the courage to say that those districts would like to become German again under the wings of our eagle!

God bless him and give us a happy and peaceful reunion soon! ”- Friedrich Wilhelm

Awards

• In Saarbrücken- St. Johann the "Heinrich-Böcking-Straße" is named after him. There is also a portrait medallion of him on the façade of the building of the former Saarbrücken mine headquarters .
• Due to the fact that Heinrich Böcking, also for economic reasons (his family's participation in the Dillinger Hütte ), had massively connected Dillingen to the Kingdom of Prussia , a street in the city of Dillingen was named in his honor ( "Böckingstraße" ). The street was renamed “De-Lénoncourt-Straße” (after the founder of the Dillinger Hütte, the Lorraine Marquis Charles Henri Gaspard de Lenoncourt) in a “repression” by the French military government in 1945 . After the resignation of the government of Prime Minister Johannes Hoffmann and the end of the Saar state after the Saar referendum in 1955 , the renaming was withdrawn.
• In Abentheuer , where the family ran a steelworks, there is a "Böckingstraße"

literature

• Burg, Peter, Saarbrücken 1789–1860, From the residential town to the industrial center, Blieskastel 2000.
• Robert Capot-Rey: Quand la Sarre était française, Paris 1928, pp. 253-291.
• R. Dieckmann: Oberbergrat Heinrich Böcking, a patriot and promoter of German industry, St. Johann an der Saar 1901.
• Fritz Hellwig:  Böcking, Heinrich. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 2, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1955, ISBN 3-428-00183-4 , p. 369 f. ( Digitized version ).
• Fritz Hellwig: Heinrich Böcking 1785–1862, in: German West - German Empire, Saarpfälzische Lebensbilder, No. 1, Kaiserslautern 1938, pp. 119–131.
• Fritz Hellwig: Heinrich Böcking, in: Saarländische Lebensbilder, ed. v. Peter Neumann, Saarbrücken 1984, pp. 117-159.
• Roland Hoffmann: From Hérapel to Berlin, The Böcking Collection, Fate of a Remarkable Archaeological Collection of the 19th Century, Saargemünd / Sarreguemines 1999.
• Hanns Klein: short biographies of the mayors of Saarbrücken ; in: Journal for the history of the Saar region, 19th century, Historical Association for the Saar region , Saarbrücken 1971, pp. 515–516.
• Hanns Klein: History of the Saarbrücken district 1815–1965, in: Limit as fate, pp. 37–58. (with Böcking's unsuccessful efforts to obtain the district administration office in 1836/37)
• Hanns Klein: Local Politics on the Early Prussian Period on the Saar, in: Journal for the History of the Saar Area 36, ​​1988, pp. 83–91.
• Adolph Köllner: History of the cities of Saarbrücken and St. Johann. Edited from documents and authentic reports, 2 volumes, Saarbrücken 1865, Vol. 1, pp. 539f.
• Christof Trepesch (ed.): Kultur des Biedermeier, The painter Louis Krevel, Worms 2001, pp. 119–121 and 132, 144–145.
• Jochen Lengemann : The German Parliament (Erfurt Union Parliament) from 1850. A manual: Members, officials, life data, parliamentary groups (= publications of the Historical Commission for Thuringia. Large series, Vol. 6). Urban & Fischer, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-437-31128-X , pp. 88-89.

Web links

Commons : Heinrich Böcking  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Heinrich Böcking in the Saarland biographies
• http://www.rheinische-geschichte.lvr.de/persoenitäten/B/Seiten/HeinrichBoecking.aspx
• http://gw.geneanet.org/cvpolier?lang=de&p=heinrich&n=bocking

Remarks

1. ^ List of antiquities, pictures and other works of art in the possession of Privy Councilor Böcking's wife, LA SB, Archive Historischer Verein, No. 256.
2. ↑ The white hall refers to the hall of the Saarbrücken judicial building, a predecessor building on the site of today's district building
3. ↑ The yellow rooms , the rooms are the casino company meant at that time in today's Wilhelm-Heinrich-Straße home
4. ^ The next visit of King Friedrich Wilhelm IV. Together with the Prussian Queen Elisabeth Ludovika of Bavaria in Saarbrücken took place in the year 1842. Albert Ruppersberg: History of the cities Saarbrücken and St. Johann from 1815 to 1909. the city Malstatt-Burbach and the united city Saar bridges until 1914, III, vol. 2, p. 19f

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Christof Trepesch (ed.): Kultur des Biedermeier, The painter Louis Krevel, Worms 2001, pp. 45–49.
2. ↑ Hermann van Ham: Adolf Böcking, the first Protestant in the Archbishopric Trier, in: Monthly Issues for Rhenish Church History, No. 27, 1933, pp. 48–50.
3. ↑ Guido Müller: The Villeroy and de Galhau families in Saarland, Saarbrücken 1991, pp. 49-55.
4. ↑ D. Wiese / Ernest Babelon: From Saarbrücken's past, Ein Rückblick, Paris 1919, pp. 22-24.
5. ^ The descendants of FP Stumm and H. Böcking on Geneanet.org ( Memento from August 7, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) (last accessed on January 30, 2015)
6. ↑ Christof Trepesch (ed.): Kultur des Biedermeier, The painter Louis Krevel, Worms 2001, pp. 44–49.
7. ↑ Hildebrand-Philipp-Ludwig ( Memento from January 3, 2015 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on January 3, 2015.
8. ^ Hermann-Josef Braun: The ironworks of the Hunsrück, 15th to the end of the 18th century, (Trier historical research 17), Trier 1991.
9. ↑ ^{a b} General Directorate for Cultural Heritage Rhineland-Palatinate (ed.): Informational directory of cultural monuments - Birkenfeld district. Mainz 2019, p. 3 (PDF; 5.8 MB).
10. ↑ Christof Trepesch (ed.): Kultur des Biedermeier, The painter Louis Krevel, Worms 2001, pp. 119–121 and 132, 120–121.
11. ^ Adolph Köllner : History of the cities of Saarbrücken and St. Johann. Edited from documents and authentic reports, 2 volumes, Saarbrücken 1865, Vol. 1, pp. 539f.
12. ^ Fritz Hellwig: Heinrich Böcking, in: Saarländische Lebensbilder, ed. v. Peter Neumann, Saarbrücken 1984, p. 137.
13. ^ Family books , Trier Anton , accessed on January 3, 2015.
14. ^ Family books , Trier Gangolf , accessed on January 3, 2015.
15. ↑ Christof Trepesch (ed.): Kultur des Biedermeier, Der Maler Louis Krevel, Worms 2001, p. 121.
16. ^ Peter Burg: Saarbrücken 1789–1860, From the royal seat to the industrial center, Blieskastel 2000.
17. ^ Heinrich Böcking , accessed on January 2, 2015.
18. ↑ The way to the parish of St. Marien-Rußhütte ( memento from December 9, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) on the parish's website (last accessed on March 20, 2014)
19. ^ Hanns Klein: Short biographies of the mayors of Saarbrücken ; in: Journal for the history of the Saar region 19th century, Historical Association for the Saar region , Saarbrücken 1971, p. 516.
20. ↑ Roland Hoffmann: Vom Hérapel nach Berlin, The Böcking Collection, Fate of a Remarkable Archaeological Collection of the 19th Century, Saargemünd / Sarreguemines 1999, p. 137.
21. ↑ Christof Trepesch (ed.): Kultur des Biedermeier, The painter Louis Krevel, Worms 2001, pp. 44–49.
22. ^ Roland Hoffmann: Vom Hérapel nach Berlin, The Böcking Collection, Fate of a Remarkable Archaeological Collection of the 19th Century, Saargemünd / Sarreguemines 1999.
23. ↑ Albert Ruppersberg : History of the cities of Saarbrücken and St. Johann from 1815 to 1909. of the city of Malstatt-Burbach and the united city of Saarbrücken until 1914, III, vol. 2, p. 19.
24. ↑ Scherer, Alois: "Streets and squares in Dillingen, Pachten, Diefflen - cause and meaning of their naming", published by the Realschule Dillingen and the city of Dillingen, Nalbach 1990, p. 19.