Heinrich Ulrich (bell founder)

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The Petersglocke in Cologne Cathedral 2018, cast in Apolda in 1923 by master bell founder Heinrich Ulrich

Heinrich Richard Karl Ulrich (born March 25, 1876 in Apolda ; † February 12, 1924 in Weimar ) was a German bell founder . He created the Petersglocke , the largest of the Cologne cathedral bells in Cologne Cathedral , the first ringing of which he did not live to see. Ulrich was significantly involved in the tradition of the bell foundry in Apolda .

Life

Heinrich Ulrich came from a family that had been ore and bell-casting for many generations. He was the oldest of three siblings and was baptized Protestant. He married Else Margarete Bach in 1899; the marriage was divorced. In 1917 he married Ida Stock and converted to Catholicism because of her Catholic faith. Both marriages remained childless.

At the beginning of the 1920s Ulrich moved into his own house in Weimar at Elisabethstrasse 5, today's Helmholtzstrasse 5. The roof of the bay window of the house built in 1875 is bell-shaped.

Papal honor

In the Vatican Pope Pius XI. Issue a certificate for Heinrich Ulrich on July 18, 1922, granting him the title of papal journeyman , as well as the authority to display the coat of arms of His Holiness on his shield.

Create

Postcard from Master Ulrich to his colleague Kreutz: “The cathedral bell is shiny. Pure C0 with a large oberterz as requested. The exterior is magnificent. "
Postcard from Master Ulrich to his colleague Kreutz: “The cathedral bell is shiny. Pure C 0 with a large upper ore as requested. The exterior is magnificent. "

After his father's company went bankrupt in 1902, Ulrich went to the USA and England. He then worked in well-known foundries in Germany, where he expanded his skills and abilities. In 1910 he returned to Apolda. On April 23, 1910, his company, Heinrich Ulrich Glockengießer GmbH, was entered in Apolda's commercial register with three managing directors, the merchants Carl Unartikel and Ernst Unartikel as well as himself.

In order to be able to use the formerly known company name Gebrüder Ulrich again, he briefly gained his brother Ernst Ulrich, a master dyer, as co-owner. A short time later, the brother left the company, but the traditional name has remained.

From 1912 to 1918 the foundry existed in the legal form as a limited partnership. Only a few of the cast bells from that time have survived, as most of them were melted down for armament purposes during the First World War.

In 1921 Ulrich created the Weimar town hall bell , which was melted down for armament purposes during World War II.

In 1923 the company was converted into a stock corporation with Heinrich Ulrich as general director, with the company name "Gebrüder Ulrich Glockengießereien Aktiengesellschaft in Weimar" . In fact, Ulrich always poured bells in Apolda and not in Weimar.

After the First World War, Heinrich Ulrich joined the Weule iron foundry in Bockenem, where he had bells made of chilled iron for a long time . In 1921 he also founded a branch in Kempten, where his brother Ernst Ulrich and later his brother-in-law Karl Czudnochowsky worked. The branch existed until 1932.

Bell as a tomb for master bell founder Heinrich Ulrich from Apolda on the historical cemetery in Weimar. The bell has the inscription on the back: "The master of the big bell in Cologne Cathedral "

Heinrich Ulrich's most important achievement, which outshines his entire life's work, is the successful casting of the Petersglocke in Cologne Cathedral with a weight of 24,000 kilograms. Before he took on the order in 1922, numerous bell foundries had rejected the order because of the risk involved in casting such a large bell. After the successful pour, Ulrich is said to have gone out and cried. The bell should be heard for the first time on Christmas Eve 1924, which failed due to a technical error with the clapper that was forged in Schlebusch - Manfort . It rang for the first time in the cathedral city on October 28, 1925 at 12 noon.

Heinrich Ulrich was not allowed to hear the first ringing of his St. Peter's bell at the destination - he died on February 12, 1924 of a severe flu. His grave in the historical cemetery in Weimar is still adorned with a bronze bell (lower diameter 109 centimeters); his wife Ida Ulrich and his brother-in-law Josef Stock also rest there.

The bell on Heinrich Ulrich's grave has the following inscription:

You fatherland, my Germany! You country so rich in bells! I poured you many a bell, so full, so pure, so soft.
Got to close my day's work early, you know God why. The bells should praise you, because my tongue is silent.
I sleep by the sound of it; what must be, quietly I wear. Until one day they all ring on the eternal Easter day.

Ulrich's company was expropriated on February 21, 1949 before the GDR was founded, and the foundry was assigned to the state-owned Total fire extinguishing equipment factory in Apolda. The bell foundry ended there.

From 1910 to 1939, around 5000 bronze bells were cast in Heinrich Ulrichs bell foundry on Katharinenweg in Apolda, some of which have stood the test of time and are still used today in Germany, Switzerland, Luxembourg, the Czech Republic, Austria, Belgium, Romania, Hungary, Poland, Lithuania, Canada, Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia and Africa testify to the high quality of the bells from this foundry in Apolda.

literature

  • Margarete Schilling : The Ulrich brothers foundry . In: Art, ore and sound - the works of the bell foundry families Ulrich and Schilling from the 17th century to the present . Henschel, Berlin 1992, ISBN 3-362-00617-5 , pp. 75-81 .
  • Ernst Fauer: Heinrich Ulrich and his bell foundry on Katharinenweg . In: Apoldaer Geschichtsverein e. V. (Hrsg.): Apoldaer Heimat - Contributions to the nature and local history of the city of Apolda and its surroundings . Issue 20. Apolda 2002, p. 20-26 .
  • Ernst Fauer: Chilled iron bells from the Ulrich & Weule bell foundry . In: Apoldaer Geschichtsverein e. V. (Hrsg.): Apoldaer Heimat - Contributions to the nature and local history of the city of Apolda and its surroundings . Issue 36. Apolda 2018, p. 35-41 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Gitta Günther, Wolfram Huschke, Walter Steiner (eds.): Weimar - Lexicon for city history . Böhlau, Weimar 1993, p. 465 .
  2. ↑ a b Wilhelm Kaltenbach: The St. Peters bell of Cologne Cathedral . In: Willy Weyres , Herbert Rode (ed.): Kölner Domblatt . Yearbook of the Central Cathedral Building Association . tape 36 . JP Bachem Publishing House, Cologne 1973, p. 155-156 .
  3. ↑ Ernst Fauer: Heinrich Ulrich and his bell foundry on Katharinenweg . In: Apoldaer Geschichtsverein e. V. (Hrsg.): Apoldaer Heimat - Contributions to the nature and local history of the city of Apolda and its surroundings . Issue 20. Apolda 2002, p. 20-26 . P. 25.
  4. ^ Wilhelm Kaltenbach: The St. Petersglocke of Cologne Cathedral . In: Willy Weyres , Herbert Rode (ed.): Kölner Domblatt. Yearbook of the Central Cathedral Building Association . tape 36 . JP Bachem Publishing House, Cologne 1973, p. 144 .
  5. ^ Wilhelm Kaltenbach: The St. Petersglocke of Cologne Cathedral . In: Willy Weyres , Herbert Rode (ed.): Kölner Domblatt. Yearbook of the Central Cathedral Building Association . tape 36 . JP Bachem Publishing House, Cologne 1973, p. 153 .
personal data
SURNAME Ulrich, Heinrich
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ulrich, Heinrich Richard Karl
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German bell founder
DATE OF BIRTH March 25, 1876
PLACE OF BIRTH Apolda
DATE OF DEATH February 12, 1924
Place of death Weimar