Heinrich Graefe

Heinrich Graefe as a member of the Reichstag in 1912

Emil Heinrich Graefe (born January 8, 1857 in Bischofswerda ; † October 23, 1917 there ) was a German flower manufacturer, wine merchant and member of the Reichstag .

biography

Emil Heinrich Graefe was born on January 8, 1857 in Bischofswerda. His father Karl-August-Heinrich Graefe came from Pickau and lived there with his wife Marie Graefe, née Engel. In 1856 they moved to Bischofswerda on what was then Bautzner Straße 61 (today Bautzner Straße 15), where Karl-August-Heinrich Gräfe opened his own shop as a Gürtler. There, among other things, self-made “men's and women's jewelry, all kinds of nickel silver items, as well as soup plates, dining and cooking spoons, candlesticks, riding and driving cantars, as well as sporrn in any selection” were sold.

Shortly after his birth he was baptized in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Bischofswerda, where he was also a member of the church council years later. Gräfe, who was known for his generosity, donated a silver cross and several silver altar candlesticks to the church.

He grew up in Bischofswerda and started school in Bischofswerda at the age of six in 1863. He attended this for a total of seven years until he went to the Dresden private school of Dr. Gelineck changed. At this school he enjoyed an apprenticeship as a businessman from 1871 to 1873 and worked in the following years as a commercial clerk for office and travel. He worked as a traveler and clerk from 1874 to 1879 in an umbrella factory. In the end he founded "a flower factory at the age of 22 in 1879, thereby introducing the flower industry to our area". This factory was located at Carolastraße 5 (today Hellmut-Muntschick-Straße) and became a source of income for many families.

After Heinrich Graefe married Marie Ida Scheffler, their first daughter Marie Margarete Graefe was born on September 3, 1881. She later married Heinrich Hubert Nicolaus Hürter and had two daughters with him.

In the year his daughter was born, Heinrich Graefe took his first steps on the political path in addition to his business activities. When he joined the German Reform Party in 1881, he laid the foundation for his later political activities. His first son, Georg Otto Heinrich Gräfe was born on October 29, 1884. Two years later, in 1886, he was also elected city councilor for the city of Bischofswerda, and since 1891 he also held the office of city councilor. He ran for the German Reform Party in 1893 as a candidate for the third constituency in the Reichstag and won this election with a large majority. At the same time, Heinrich Gräfe opened his own wine shop in 1896, which was also located at Carolastraße 5 (today Hellmut-Muntschickstraße 5) and for which he sold his flower factory. However, production was continued under the name "Graefe". In addition, from 1897 he worked as a wine wholesaler for Bischofswerda and Trarbach on the Moselle. A few months later, on January 22nd, 1898, his mother Marie Graefe died shortly after his 42nd birthday.

In 1902 the so-called "Graefenburg" was completed, which Heinrich Graefe had built and into which he moved with his family that year. The house is located at today's Johann-Sebastian-Bach-Straße 6 (then Burgstraße 2) and is now inhabited by the descendants of Gräfe. His daughter Hilde moved in with her family in the house on the other side of the street. Heinrich Graefe's father, Karl August Heinrich Graefe, also died that year on June 17, 1902 at the age of seventy.

In the following years Gräfe was busy with his work in the Reichstag, as head of the city council and with his wine shop. On January 2, 1911, he was made an honorary citizen of the city of Bischofswerda, which only Ernst Richard Huste succeeded in doing. In addition, he was awarded the Knight's Cross First Class of the Order of Albrecht by royal grace , which he earned through his services for the public good.

1914 was a very difficult year for the Graefe family. Heinrich Graefe's wife Marie Ida Graefe died on March 11th and a few months later, on November 9th, 1914, his son Georg Otto Heinrich Graefe, who had to fight at the front in the First World War , also died. "After a long period of suffering [...] Heinrich Graefe, a member of the Reichstag, was carried away by death." He died on October 23, 1917. He was buried on October 26, 1917 in the Old Cemetery. His grave can still be visited there today.

From 1893 until his death he was a member of the German Reichstag for the constituency of the Kingdom of Saxony 3 Bautzen , Kamenz , Bischofswerda and the anti-Semitic German Reform Party .

Economic activities

Heinrich Gräfe founded his flower factory in 1879. At that time he was only 22 years old and had already gained experience as a businessman in industry, as he had been trained as a businessman in Dresden and had worked for an umbrella factory for several years. With the establishment of the flower factory, which was located in Carolastraße 5 (today Hellmut-Muntschick-Straße 5), he reintroduced this branch of industry in Bischofswerda and in the villages and towns in its vicinity. This factory was beneficial for many families as it "has become a beneficial source of income." Here artificial flowers were made from silk, which could be attached to clothes or hats. The seamstresses of the flowers were housewives from the area who could take the fabrics, mostly silk, home with them and produce the flowers from home. That way they could look after their families at the same time. When they finished processing the fabrics and sewing the flowers, they sent them back to the flower factory, where they were resold. Since then, more than 1000 people have been working in this branch of industry in Bischofswerda and the surrounding area. When Heinrich Gräfe opened his wine shop in the same building as the factory in 1896, he sold the flower production to the businessman Richard Hermann Kreisig. However, it was continued under the name "Gräfe".

After Heinrich Gräfe had sold the flower factory in 1896, he founded the Gräfe wine wholesaler in the same year. It was located in the house of the flower factory at Carolastraße 5. One year after it was founded, Gräfe was already a recognized wine merchant for Bischofswerda, but also for Trarbach ad Mosel. "The well-known wine wholesaler Gräfe was [...] even supplier to the court of His Majesty the King of Saxony", which is also due to the friendship between Heinrich Gräfe and King Friedrich August, which deepened as a result. Gräfe mainly sold and stored imported wines from Bordeaux and southern wines, but he also had a large warehouse of Moselle and Rhine wines , sparkling wines and dessert wines. This was also largely located in the so-called "Graefenburg" at Burgstrasse 2, where Heinrich Graefe had lived since 1902. In addition to the wines, he also sold German brandy cognac from the Jas Purnier & Co. company. This cognac cost between 5.50 and 45 marks per bottle. Since Gräfe was a businessman and interested in the economy, he also advocated economic issues in politics. For example, he was a member of the farmers' union for a long time and was also a shop steward for the farmers. In the Reichstag he was responsible, among other things, for the sparkling wine tax and the wine laws.

Political activities

After an application for the military bill was made in 1893 and rejected by the Reichstag, the imperial message was read out that the Reichstag should be dissolved. As a result, Reichstag candidates had to be put up for the new elections, including Heinrich Graefe, although he had not submitted an application for candidacy. Due to the acceptance of the candidacy for the third Saxon constituency, he was deposed as shop steward for the Federation of Farmers.

The German reform party presented Graefe as a simple man of the people, since he did not inherit his wealth, but had earned it himself. In addition, his exemplary qualities were advertised, which included strength, courage and, above all, an honorable character, but also that he was a loyal German, lived according to Christian ideals and made sacrifices for the people. The German Reform Party "stood up for the preservation of the middle class, agriculture, handicrafts and trade". She also wanted to "strengthen the Wehrmacht" and "switch off Judaism". Again and again one could read in their election appeals that the people should be economically healthy, have a viable middle class and a healthy working class. In order to win over voters, they cast the conservative party in a bad light. For example, it was said that the conservative party “has not done the least thing since the last elections to oppose the red revolutionary storm surge, which [broke] through all the dams,” but the German reform party “has been for years entered the middle of the red camp ”. It was also shown that the strongest opponents of the conservative parties were the Social Democrats, who rose in power throughout the empire.

An important point in the election manifestos of the various parties was the military bill, "which was primarily about building a strong German war fleet, for which considerable financial resources were necessary". It was a major point of conflict in which views diverged even within the parties. The German Reform Party was positive about the military bill, which meant a strengthening of the army and better protection of Germany, but only on the condition that the government undertook to cover costs before it approved it. The election speeches in the various inns were also part of the campaign. In Burkau, for example, Graefe spoke in front of 400 listeners "in a short, sparkling speech about his party's relationship to the Social Democrats and Conservatives, and above all about the different views on the military bill" and was able to do so many because he was an outstanding speaker Win votes. He succeeded in doing this in almost all villages, except Großröhrsdorf, Pulsnitz, Meißner Seite, Ohorn and Böhmisch-Vollung.

When the Reichstag elections finally took place on June 15, 1893, the Reform Party won with 7,293 votes ahead of the Social Democrats and Conservatives. In Bischofswerda alone, Graefe received 606 votes, which was the second-best election result since 1877.

Web links

• Gräfe, Emil Heinrich in the database of members of the Reichstag
• Biography of Emil Heinrich Graefe . In: Heinrich Best : database of the members of the Reichstag of the Empire 1867/71 to 1918 (Biorab - Kaiserreich)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Gräfe, Heinrich; Saxon narrator p. 749; August 1, 1856
2. ↑ ^{a b c} Saxon narrator; October 24, 1917
3. ↑ Schmitt, Erhard; Saxon Newspaper; December 21, 2001; "Wein-Gräfe supplied the farm"
4. ↑ ^{a b c} Gersdorf, Horst; Saxon Newspaper; July 7, 1993; "The election campaign in 1893"
5. ^ Print: Friedrich Man; Election poster 1893; "Voters of the third Saxon Reichstag constituency"