Hugo Sholto Oskar Georg von Douglas

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Hugo Sholto Oskar Georg von Douglas (born April 19, 1837 in Aschersleben , † April 19, 1912 in Berlin ) was a German writer , Count Douglas from 1888, entrepreneur and member of the Prussian Parliament and the Council of State.

Life

His ancestors came from the ancient Scottish clan of Douglas from the Central Lowlands . For reasons of faith, his branch emigrated from Scotland in 1772 and came to Aschersleben , which belonged to the Mark Brandenburg as part of the Halberstadt Monastery . The ancestors initially worked as Calvinist preachers in the Reformed churches for two generations . They also ran arable farming because there was hardly enough money. Hugo's grandfather William Douglas discovered in 1795 in Aschersleben a lignite deposit and founded with his sons in 1828 a lignite mine. Hugo's father Gustav (1798–1877) became mayor of Aschersleber and member of the district council in 1832. Due to the high demand for lignite and the opening of new mines, the family became wealthy. That is why Hugo was able to study chemistry in Berlin and Heidelberg . After completing his studies, he became an employee in the new potash mine near Staßfurt .

In the German War in 1866 and in the Franco-German War in 1870/71 he advanced to major and received the Iron Cross . From 1864 he was co-owner of the Alfred mine near Calbe , which existed until 1915. In 1882 he deepened the pit to 57 meters. In 1889 over 200 miners extracted 683 tons of raw lignite every day. A few kilometers west of Westeregeln , he discovered potash salts under a gypsum hat, took a plunge and began mining carnallite in 1875 . He founded the Douglashall potash and rock salt mine .

In 1881 the stock corporation “Consolidierte Alkaliwerke” was merged with the existing potash plants. Douglas expanded the number of mining shafts to meet the increased demand. His potash plant in Westeregeln was one of the largest of its kind in the world at the end of the 19th century. In 1884 he was promoted to the status of baron . He was also socially committed: in 1884 he founded a central office for people's welfare, the Evangelical Consolation Association and in 1886 a family foundation and a family-owned kindergarten. He also supported the sciences and financed an expedition to Togo . In 1899 he became chairman of the German Association for Public Hygiene, which was founded in that year .

From 1882 to 1912 Douglas was a member of the Prussian House of Representatives as a member of the constituency of Magdeburg 7 (Calbe - Aschersleben) , where he initially remained non-attached and from 1886 was a member of the Free Conservative Party .

Ralswiek Castle

In 1888, the year Emperor Wilhelm II ascended to the throne , Douglas was raised to the rank of count . In 1891 he acquired the Ralswiek estate. With this Fideikommissgut the title of count became hereditary. Here in 1893/96 he had a mansion built by the Berlin architect Gustav Stroh in the style of the French Loire castles on a hill . From 1894 he had the park, which had existed since 1810, redesigned into a landscape park with many dendrological rarities, which he had bought at the World Exhibition in Sweden. In 1913 the Marstall was added according to plans by the Stralsund master builder Franz Juhre . The count had the wooden chapel Ralswiek built at the entrance to the village in 1907. His son had the manor house, known as the “castle”, refurbished in the Art Nouveau style by Henry van de Velde in 1912–1914 .

Graf Douglas was awarded in 1896 by the Grand Ducal Mecklenburgisch-Schwerin government to under the contract, gypsum layer in Lübtheen to develop salt dome Lübtheen-Jessenitz located and exploit. The Mecklenburg Trade Union Friedrich Franz , whose main shareholder was Grand Duke Friedrich Franz II , was founded and the mine opened in 1906 . As early as 1916, however, the shaft had to be closed again due to massive water ingress .

In 1909 Hugo Sholto Oskar Georg Graf von Douglas published his memoirs under the title “Contemplations of Life - Aphorisms on Wisdom”.

The art historian Udo von Alvensleben noted in his diary on the occasion of a visit to Ralswiek with Countess Douglas, b. Princess Schoenaich-Carolath , just a few years before the Ralswiek Castle was expropriated by the Imperial Navy in 1939:

Ralswiek castle portal with the Douglas coat of arms

“There is no doubt that he (Hugo Sholto Douglas) pursued his rank improvements with zeal and attached importance to relations with the imperial family. His pictures and expressions of life show something solid, bold, great. He created for the most distant future. He hoped to found a house for eternity and restore the former Douglas rank. He searched for a long time where the new barony was to be established until he finally found Ralswiek with its location above the sea to be worthy. The emperor had tried in vain to induce him to buy Urville in Lorraine or Bentschen in Poland. The high castle by the sea , descendant of the Douglass castles in Scotland, armed with towers, a belated knight's castle, as Uhland and Fontane sing about it, was built in the place he had chosen and probably essentially according to his own ideas . It had to be thick walls, imperishable materials. High rooms and windows from which one looked out over the sea. Here his descendants should become real knightly landlords again ...

What proof of the moral value of a tradition that is still uncertainly founded. The Douglas idea overcame all cliffs of wealth and committed to a strict style. What a difference to the views of most of the people who made large fortunes in the early days, but which have since then mostly melted away due to the lack of a Douglas complex. A historian was marched into Douglas Land to provide evidence of mythical ancestry. What does it mean that it failed? The idea as such was strong enough, and in the new coat of arms, which (he) had achieved, the Douglas heart crowned with the royal crown and the three stars above it were emblazoned. The English literature about the Douglas is in the library of Ralswiek in many monumental volumes. The ruins of Douglas Castle are presented as paintings in the dining room, and countless castles from England hang in the stairwell. There must have been something of Douglas romance in the old industrial tycoon ... "

- Udo von Alvensleben : Visits before the sinking

Hugo Sholto Graf Douglas died in Berlin, where he owned a palace on Viktoriastraße am Tiergarten, and was buried in Ralswiek near his manor house. After his death, the many relatives who were involved sold the joint mining and industrial property and divided the income proportionally among themselves.

The University of Halle awarded him an honorary doctorate, he was knight of several orders and an honorary citizen of the city of Aschersleben. In addition, Douglasstrasse in Aschersleben was named after him, where the administration and kindergarten were located.

family

On April 25, 1865 Douglas married Jenny Amalie Reisner in God's grace near Calbe (Saale) . The couple had several children:

  • Angus Karl Konstantin (born November 16, 1871) ⚭ 1898 Margarete Anna Agnes von Enckefort (born October 8, 1878)
  • Katharina Ellen Adelheid (born September 1, 1873) ⚭ 1894 Freiherr Erik von Barnekow (born November 13, 1860), major ret. D.
  • Ellen Antonie Jane Renate (born December 1, 1881) ⚭ 1900 Ferdinand von Grumme-Douglas (born June 5, 1860 - † July 18, 1937), Rear Admiral

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Bernhard Mann (arrangement), collaboration with Martin Doerry , Cornelia Rauh and Thomas Kühne : Biographical Handbook for the Prussian House of Representatives. 1867-1918 . In: Handbooks on the history of parliamentarism and political parties . tape 3 . Droste, Düsseldorf 1988, p. 112 .
  2. ↑ Thomas Kühne: Handbook of the elections to the Prussian House of Representatives 1867-1918. Election results, electoral alliances and election candidates . In: Handbooks on the history of parliamentarism and political parties . tape 6 . Droste date = 1994, Düsseldorf, p. 416-419 .
  3. ↑ Sabine Bock , Thomas Helms: Castles and mansions on Rügen . 3rd updated edition, Bremen 2011, pp. 140–144
  4. ^ Visits before the sinking, aristocratic residences between Altmark and Masuria , compiled from diary entries and edited by Harald von Koenigswald, Frankfurt / M.-Berlin 1968, pp. 232–234f. New edition: When they still existed ... noble seats between Altmark and Masuria. Ullstein, Berlin 1996, ISBN 3-548-35641-9
  5. ↑ Historical news about the family v. Enckevort, p.192
  6. ↑ Gothaisches genealogical pocket book of baronial houses, 1910, p.17

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Douglas, Hugo Sholto Oskar Georg von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German industrialist
DATE OF BIRTH April 19, 1837
PLACE OF BIRTH Aschersleben
DATE OF DEATH April 19, 1912
Place of death Berlin