Johann Adolph Heese

Johann Adolph Heese (born June 11, 1783 in Berlin ; † March 25, 1862 there ) was a German silk merchant, manufacturer and purveyor to the royal court. Together with Wilhelm von Türk , he stands for the second heyday of Prussian silk mining, which began in 1825 . He is considered the "father of the Steglitz industry".

Gravestone of Johann Adolph Heese in the old cemetery at Schloßstrasse 43, Berlin-Steglitz

Heese in Berlin

In 1796, Johann Adolph Heese began a five-year apprenticeship as a silk knitter with the Berlin velvet and silk knitter Johann Carl Wrede, which he completed in 1801 as a journeyman. In 1813 he passed the master's examination. From 1807 to 1822 he worked as a foreman in Georg Gabain's silk factory.

In 1822 he founded the Herrmann und Heese velvet and silk goods factory together with the businessman Herrmann . In 1827 he left the company to set up his own velvet and silk goods factory J. A. Heese in the Raules Hof building (corner of Alte Leipziger Strasse 1). After a short time his silk goods shop was the first address for wealthy Berliners who could meet their needs for silk goods of all kinds here. Heese was appointed as an expert in the silk industry at the Berlin factory court in 1832 .

Heese was a city councilor from 1825 to 1828. In 1834 he was elected deputy city councilor. He received a silver medal at the General German Trade Exhibition in 1844 .

Heese in Steglitz (from 1840)

In 1840 he bought around eight hectares of land on the corner of Grunewald and Schloßstraße in what was then the village of Stegelitz , now Berlin-Steglitz , where he planted a mulberry plantation for silkworm breeding . First he had to get mulberry leaves from abroad to meet the needs of the caterpillars. For his first attempts at breeding, he won over the Italian silk breeder A. M. Bolzani, who worked for him on the Stegelitz plantation from 1840. The location was favorable because the Berlin-Potsdamer Railway , which opened in 1838, passed there.

Heese lived in Steglitz from 1847. In addition to breeding caterpillars, he also built farm buildings there for industrial use. His cocoon reeling and twisting mill was also called “Filanda” as a factory, an Italian name for a system for unwinding silk cocoons. From here, as the central agency for Germany, he sent mulberry seeds and eggs all over Europe. Heese exported its reel machines all over the world.

He bought several other silk goods factories in Berlin (including the silk shop of David Girard and Pierre Michelet), including his training company in 1855.

The following company figures are documented for the 1850s:

Retail and wholesale company: 28 employees in 1855
Factory: approx. 200 employees in 1855
Silk breeding and spinning (depending on the season): 20–50 employees
Production of up to 750 kg of silk per year
Exports of up to 260 pounds of grains worth 10,000 Reichstalers annually.

The entire Steglitz plantation, consisting of around 35,000 mulberry trees, was devoured by game in 1844. He put new plantings now in fenced areas.

Around 1855 a silkworm disease, which had been rampant in the traditional silk-building countries of Italy and France since around 1845, spread to become an epidemic . Heese initially profited from this by selling silkworm eggs (grains) there that were not infected. Around 1860, the silkworm epidemic, which was now rampant across Europe, also put an end to Heese silk making. The company survived this crisis with heavy losses but closed in 1889. The Steglitz plantation, which Heese had laid out between Bergstrasse and Albrechtstrasse , was eventually built on with residential houses.

Johann Adolph Heese died in 1862 of kidney disease. His grave is in the old cemetery on Schloßstraße in Berlin-Steglitz. His two sons, Adolf and Julius, who already ran his Berlin business on Alte Leipziger Strasse and later on Leipziger Strasse 87 during Heese's lifetime , also continued the Steglitz company until it closed.

Remembrance in Steglitz today

Heesestraße in Berlin-Steglitz has been named after him since 1871 . In addition, the street names Filandastraße , Neue Filandastraße and Plantagenstraße in Steglitz are reminiscent of his Filanda factory or another plantation,

A mulberry tree with an estimated age of over 150 years has survived on Althoffplatz and has been a protected natural monument since 1961.

biography

C. Brecht: Johann Adolph Heese . In: Mixed writings following the Berlin Chronicle and the Document Book . Volume 1. Berlin 1888, p. 165 ff.

literature

Benno Carus: Silk construction in Zehlendorf in the 18th and 19th centuries . In: On a silk thread ... Colonization and cultural landscape development in the south of Berlin . Berlin 2001
Ilja Mieck : Seidenbau in Steglitz, Johann Adolph Heese's company . In: Yearbook of the Landesarchiv Berlin 1 , 1982
Hainer Weißpflug: Johann Adolph Heese - He made the village of Steglitz world famous . In: Berlin monthly magazine ( Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein ) . Issue 10, 1996, ISSN 0944-5560 , p. 43–45 ( luise-berlin.de ).

Web links

Heesestrasse. In: Street name lexicon of the Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein (near Kaupert )

Individual evidence

^ ^A ^b ^c Nadja Stulz-Herrnstadt: Berlin bourgeoisie in the 18th and 19th centuries: Entrepreneur careers and migration. Families and social circles in the capital of Brandenburg-Prussia. The elders of the corporation of merchants in Berlin . Walter de Gruyter, 2002, ISBN 978-3-11-090457-4 ( google.de ).
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Hainer Weißpflug: Johann Adolph Heese - He made the village of Steglitz world famous . In: Berlin monthly magazine ( Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein ) . Issue 10, 1996, ISSN 0944-5560 , p. 43–45 ( luise-berlin.de ).
↑ Manfred A. Pahlmann: Beginnings of urban parliamentarism in Germany: The elections for the Berlin city council assembly under the Prussian city order of 1808 . Walter de Gruyter, 1997, ISBN 978-3-05-007325-5 ( google.de ).
↑ ^a ^b ^c Hartmut Kaelble: Berlin entrepreneurs during early industrialization: origin, social status and political influence . Walter de Gruyter, 1972, ISBN 978-3-11-082997-6 ( google.de ).

personal data
SURNAME	Heese, Johann Adolph
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German silk merchant and manufacturer
DATE OF BIRTH	June 11, 1783
PLACE OF BIRTH	Berlin
DATE OF DEATH	March 25, 1862
Place of death	Berlin

[Stulz-Herrnstadt-1] A ^b ^c Nadja Stulz-Herrnstadt: Berlin bourgeoisie in the 18th and 19th centuries: Entrepreneur careers and migration. Families and social circles in the capital of Brandenburg-Prussia. The elders of the corporation of merchants in Berlin . Walter de Gruyter, 2002, ISBN 978-3-11-090457-4 ( google.de ).

[Wei-2] Hainer Weißpflug: Johann Adolph Heese - He made the village of Steglitz world famous . In: Berlin monthly magazine ( Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein ) . Issue 10, 1996, ISSN 0944-5560 , p. 43–45 ( luise-berlin.de ).

[3] Manfred A. Pahlmann: Beginnings of urban parliamentarism in Germany: The elections for the Berlin city council assembly under the Prussian city order of 1808 . Walter de Gruyter, 1997, ISBN 978-3-05-007325-5 ( google.de ).

[Kaelble-4] Hartmut Kaelble: Berlin entrepreneurs during early industrialization: origin, social status and political influence . Walter de Gruyter, 1972, ISBN 978-3-11-082997-6 ( google.de ).