Hermann Aust (entrepreneur)

Hermann Aust (born June 16, 1853 in Berlin ; † 1943 ) was the royal Bavarian secret councilor , president and co-founder of the Bavarian Association of Industrialists , co-founder of the German Association of Brands and purveyor to the papal court .

Origin and early overseas activities in the vanilla trade

Hermann Aust was born on June 16, 1853 in Berlin. His family came from Silesia . His ancestors were veil weavers who immigrated from the Netherlands to the Silesian Hirschbachtal in 1350. After training in various trading houses at home and abroad, Aust began trading overseas in the 1880s . HG Aust Export was founded in Hamburg on April 1st, 1880 . He also owned sugar cane plantations in Mauritius. In 1881 he founded the company Aust and Hachmann Vanille together with his childhood friend Rudolph Hachmann (the son of the first Hamburg mayor Gerhard Hachmann ) . After giving up his overseas activities, the company became the property of the Hachmann family. The company is still in the vanilla trade today .

The development of the "Kathreiner Kneipp malt coffee"

In 1892 Aust moved from Hamburg to Planegg near Munich, where he owned a hunting estate near Lake Starnberg from the 1880s . In the 1890s, Aust joined the newly founded company Kathreiners Kneipp Malzkaffee , a wholly owned subsidiary of the Munich trading company Franz Kathreiner's successor (FKN-Kathreiner AG), which was founded in 1829 . At the beginning of the 20th century, the parent company FKN was the largest inland grocer and at times the largest tea and coffee dealer in the German Empire.

Aust, later co-owner and personally liable partner, patented the process found by the chemist Trillich (a student of Max von Pettenkofer ) for making malt coffee under the Reich patent (DRP 65300). In addition to Franck Landkaffee ( Caro-Kaffee ), with which they later merged, and Linde , Kathreiner's Kneipp Malzkaffee was now the largest manufacturer of coffee substitutes. Under Aust, the malt coffee developed into a popular drink, which was sold worldwide. Kathreiner's malt coffee had production sites across Europe and soon became one of the largest industrial food producers in Germany with a worldwide sales network. The company was owned by the founding and owner families Wilhelm, Aust, Brougier-Seisser, who were related by marriage to one another. Hermann Aust, together with the commercial councilors August Oetker and Fritz Henkel, was one of the first entrepreneurs of the second half of the 19th century who recognized the importance of branded goods and "stringent brand management" early on and was one of the first entrepreneurs to set up an advertising department at Kathreiner, which operated according to precisely defined principles. Aust also wrote various articles on the importance of the brand and its promotion, as did his companion Adolphe Brougier. It is thanks to Aust that he was able to win the Pfarrer Kneipp brand for Kathreiner AG. In particular, the use of advertising and collective stamps as well as postcards that were used for advertising purposes was personally promoted and coordinated by Hermann Aust. The famous poster artist Ludwig Hohlwein worked for some time for Austs Kathreiner Werke and designed numerous advertising posters (including for Kathreiner Marco Polo tea, Kathreiner wine and Kathreiner bean coffee).

Life, Activities and Associations

Aust was one of the early supporters of Sebastian Kneipp , with whom he was still personally acquainted. The expansion of Bad Wörishofen into a spa town was supported by Aust.

Palais von Aust, Munich, Leopoldstrasse 4

Together with his partner Adolph Brougier , he was one of the first automobile owners in Munich and lived in a palace at Leopoldstrasse 4 at Siegestor, where he regularly received artists, business leaders and members from politics and culture. Among the guests of his salon of the Wittelsbach dynasty and the operators Hugenberg belonged among other members Hugo Stinnes , Maximilian Harden , families Bruckmann, the industrialists of Friedlander, Jan Baron von Wendel city, the brewer Joseph Pschorr , with the Aust the board of the Chamber of Commerce was . With his partner Emil Wilhelm, who was an avid hunter , Aust owned one of the largest high mountain hunts in the Allgäu , in which u. a. Prince Alfons of Bavaria and Crown Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria went hunting.

On November 25, 1903, the "Association of Manufacturers of Branded Articles" was entered in the register of associations at the Royal District Court I in Berlin . In addition to Hermann Aust, the initiators and founders also included Fritz Henkel , August Holste, Clemens Lagemann as well as August Oetker and the Krupp family . Aust was also the founder and the first president of the Bavarian Association of Industries (VBW, now the Association of Bavarian Economy). He was a member of the Münchner Kaufmanns Casino, numerous gentlemen's clubs and a member of the council of the City of Munich for the promotion and development of domestic industry . In 1913, together with members of the Franck family from Ludwigsburg (Heinrich Franck Söhne and Franck'sche Zichorienfabrik ), he founded the International Food and Beverage Ltd, INGA, in Zurich . Several subsidiaries such as u. a. the former Osta Finanz und Industrie AG in Basel , from which the Handelsbank in Zurich later emerged.

Aust was also on the board of the Association of the Munich People's Kitchen and a member of the German Association for Poor Care and Charity as well as a consultant for purchases for the German Museum, member of the supervisory board of Rheinisch-Westfälischer Lloyd, Transport Versicherungs AG, Rheinisch-Westfälische Rückversicherungs AG, Board member of the BDI; Chairman of the BV Munich Action Committee of the BDI in Bavaria, Honorary President of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Bavarian Association of Industrialists. As a lobbyist for Bavarian business associations , Aust maintained close ties to Bavarian and Berlin politics . Aust was an advisory member of the Central European Economic Association and was involved in the organization of the third general assembly of the association in October 1911 in Munich. Together with Duke Ernst-Günther of Schleswig-Holstein and Chamber of Commerce President Privy Councilor von Pfister, he gave the welcoming speech for the delegates. Initially an early supporter of the NSDAP , he later withdrew from the National Socialists . After the early support of the NSDAP, which Aust saw purely economically justified, there were several rifts - especially within the Catholic part - of his family. Only after the end of his association and lobbying activities was he again in contact with some close relatives. Aust spent the last years of his life as a naturalist and collector of Asian artifacts on his country estate and in Switzerland .

Family and Relationships

Aust was married to Clara-Henriette Lilie (born 1862), daughter of a banker from the Mark Brandenburg region. He had several children with her. Aust's children married and were related by marriage to members of the established economic bourgeoisie, sometimes to members of influential old Bavarian families and high officials. Through these connections Aust made a number of acquaintances and relationships with personalities from industry, trade, large estates and civil servants, which he also used for his association work and business contacts. Aust's daughter Marie Elisabeth married the secret government councilor Alfred Kuhlo (1876–1931), BDI boss for southern Germany, and later chief counsel of the Bavarian Association of Industrialists. As a founding member, Aust sat with his son-in-law in the influential Munich men's club and in the Kaufmanns-Casino. (Alfred Kuhlo's father, Kommerzienrat Richard Kuhlo, knew Hermann Aust and was involved in association work. Richard Kuhlo was the managing director of the BDI district association for Nuremberg-Fürth). It was Alfred Kuhlo who established the first connections between the NSDAP and the industrial associations. In the twenties, after the Hitler putsch, there was a rift between him and the leadership of the early NSDAP. Kuhlo - like his father-in-law - had a lot of dealings with Jewish bankers and artists, was active in the church and, above all, was a supporter of Freemasonry, which the Nazis badly reviled. The Kuhlo family also had contacts with the AEG through the inventor of the “Kuhlo pipe”, Ernst Kuhlo, director of the German electricity company in Berlin and the Stettiner Elektrizitätswerke. Aust later made contacts in North America and Canada for AEG. Aust's granddaughter from the Kuhlo connection was her first marriage to Dr. Hans Dyckerhoff, in his second marriage - against the will of the family - the then famous composer Peter Kreuder ( when saying goodbye, say hello and I don't need millions ). Another daughter of Austs married a nephew of the royal Kommerzienrat Ludwig Seisser (1866-1936), who was the director of Franz Kathreiner's successor GmbH (later FKN AG). Ludwig Seisser, in turn, was married to the daughter of Aust's childhood friend and partner Privy Councilor Adolph Brougier, who was the main shareholder in Franz Kathreiner AG and Kathreiner Kneipp Malzkaffee-Werke . (With A. Brougier and the Franck family from Ludwigsburg, H. Aust later founded the International Food and Beverage AG in Zurich, from which later the Franck-Kathreiner AG with the well-known product "Caro Landkaffee" and later the Unifrank Allgäuer Alpenmich AG emerged .) Brougier's grandson Erich Seisser, was for a time private secretary to Hermann Aust and later a member of the supervisory board of Kathreiner AG. He was later executed by the Nazis for undermining military strength. Due to the family connections of his daughter to the Brougier-Seisser families, Aust and his family were related by marriage to a number of influential Bavarian personalities from politics, trade and the military. B. the privy councilor Prof. Oliver von Leube (Rector of the University of Würzburg ) or the military and Max-Joseph-Knights General Hans von Mieg, Major General Julius von Braun and Hans von Seißer , later head of the Bavarian State Police in Munich, with the Aust later testified together in the trial against Adolf Hitler .

Awards and honors

Prince Regent Luitpold made him a royal Bavarian councilor of commerce , and later a secret councilor of commerce. Aust was among others the bearer of the following orders: Bavarian Order of St. Michael , Stanislaus Order III. Class, bearer of the Order of the Iron Crown III. Class (in Austria mostly associated with the personal nobility), he was also an officer's cross bearer of the Order of the Sun and Lions of the Persian Crown. Bearer of the Commander's Cross of the Apostolic St. New Year's Eve Order, etc. In 1906, Aust and his business partners and directors became “purveyors to the court of His Holiness the Pope Pius X and the Holy Apostolic Popes”. He was an honorary citizen of the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich. For his services to Munich's economy and culture, he and his partners Emil Wilhelm and Adolphe Brougier received the Golden Badge of Honor of the Munich Merchant Casino. The city of Bad Wörrishofen erected a memorial to Hermann Aust in the Hermann-Aust-Strasse named after him . Furthermore streets in Krailling-Planegg (Starnberg district) are named after Aust, where he owned an estate. The streets in Krefeld , Augsburg , Merzig-Wadern , Bad Wörishofen and the Kathreiner skyscraper on Potsdamer Straße in Berlin, designed by Bruno Paul , still bear witness to the malt coffee works he founded .

The enterprise

The Kathreiner Kneipp Malzkaffe is now produced by the Swiss food company Nestlé together with Caro Landkaffee . The parent company FKN (Franz Kathreiner's successor), which later became Kathreiner AG, had to file for bankruptcy in Munich in 1997 after a failed attempt with the supermarket chains KATRA, KOMM and KRONE in the new federal states. The Kathrein site in Munich is now owned by the electronics group Rohde & Schwarz and descendants of the founding families.

Trivia

Hermann Aust was considered an esthete and dandy of his time. He had his tailor come to Munich regularly from Paris and stayed with him for several days. A well-known curiosity of his clothing style was that he appeared regularly in so-called Kneipp sandals, also known as Wörishofener sandals (today 'Jesuslatschen'), even though he was wearing a frock coat and top hat. As a staunch Kneipp supporter and supporter of his teaching, he regularly went to the English Garden early in the morning to tread water and dew. (Kneipp recommended going barefoot in the morning over dewy meadows if you were susceptible to infection or if you had trouble sleeping. His valet accompanied him with towels. After that, Aust went to shave in the so-called Kneipp sandals, which is why Aust came up with the joking name of "healthy council" in reference to his privy council title and his healthy lifestyle.

Aust was not averse to an elevation into the nobility, this was also strongly supported by the government and association, also in order to be on an equal footing with his fellow campaigners and competitors at court in Berlin in association work (BDI etc.). Georg von Hertling encouraged him to make generous charitable donations and advised him to make purchases and donations for the Pinakotheken. After the recommendations for special paintings and artists, Aust was annoyed about the prices and informed the responsible gentlemen and committees that he “did not have to find any titles, honors or castle” and that he did not want to be Freiherr von Böcklin or Piloty's grace. He alluded to the elevation of Jan von Wendelstadt to the Bavarian nobility, which was probably associated with a donation of a Böcklin work to the Pinakotheken.

In 1880 he was admitted to the Berlin Masonic Lodge Zur Treue .

Sources and literature

• “Debit and credit” - a balance sheet, Kathreiner AG, Munich 1954.
• The financed ascent of Adolf H. Ueberreuter, 2002.
• Herrenclub Munich, guest books, copy ?, Kathreiner estate, IHK Munich
• The orders, coats of arms and flags of all regents and states (appendix), Leipzig, Verlag Moritz Ruhl, 1884.
• “Social spaces in the urbanization of Munich”, Klaus Tennfelde, Oldenbourg
• Bayerischer Kurier & Münchner Urlaubsblatt No. 266, replica of the document with the appointment of Kathreiner's malt coffee factories as "purveyors to the court of His Holiness the Pope Pius X and the Holy Apostolic Popes", probably 1907? Bay. Economic archive
• The "INGA" - International Food and Beverage Stock Corporation through the Ages 1913-1963, Süddeutsche Verlagsdruckerei, 1964.
• “On the occasion of the 100th birthday of the founder of the company Kommerzienrat Emil Wilhelm”, Munich 1944; Franz Kathreiner's successor, grocery store and coffee substitute factory.
• Munich bourgeoisie, master's thesis, LMU, 2003.
• German Commerce Councilors, Appointments, Franz Leuwer, Bremen, 1909.
• Memorandum on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of (Franz) Kathreiner's malt coffee factories and d. 25y. Working d. Kgl. Bayer. Kommerzienrat Hermann Aust in d. Malt coffee industry Munich, Bruckmann, 1917. Monacesia Library Munich.
• Birthday publication, Comm.-Rath Aust, Munich, self-published by Familie v. Miller,? 1920, estate of the Munich City Museum?
• Rüdiger Moser: The relationship between fiction and reality in Lion Feuchtwanger's novel “Success”. A contribution to the city of Munich in the twenties of the 20th century. In: Read Munich. Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg?
• Writings of the German Association for Poor Care and Charity, issues 62-67.
• "The Great Age of Fire: The Way of German Industry", Volume 3, Graf Schwerin?
• “The successors of Franz Kathreiner, family chronicle, FKN AG” (self-published), 1928, private property, Küssnacht
• "Genealogies and connections: German gender book", "Handbuch des Bavarian Adels", various volumes, from 1890.
• "Memories of Hermann Aust, 150 years of family at FKN, by Frieda Kreiser, Ebener Ulm publishing house, manuscript, private property, Starnberg

Individual evidence

1. ^ Civil status of the Ludwig Maximilians University in the winter half of 1931/32 . Munich 1932, p. 10. ( digitized version )