Johann Arnold of Clermont

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Johann Arnold Clermont

Johann Arnold von Clermont (born May 24, 1728 in Aachen ; † December 5, 1795 in Vaals , Netherlands ) was a German cloth manufacturer , industrialist and builder .

origin

Johann Arnold von Clermont came from a traditional patrician family whose origins lie in what is now Belgium. She settled in Aachen and Burtscheid around the 15th century , where her relatives worked as cloth and needle manufacturers and cloth dealers and took on political offices in the city council.

After the family had turned to the Lutheran faith in the 16th century and therefore had to accept disadvantages in the course of the Aachen religious unrest, they increasingly oriented themselves to neighboring Vaals, which at that time belonged to the Duchy of Limburg and where the Reformed religious freedom was allowed was. Johann Arnold's great-great-grandfather, Johannes Clermont (1612–1682), a needle and cloth manufacturer from Burtscheid, founded his first Lutheran congregation here in 1669. His son Esaias Clermont (1647–1706) bought a copper mill there in addition to his parents' business in 1695 and his son Johann Adam Clermont (1673–1731) bought Neuburg Castle in 1716 , which his widow sold in 1732. Johann Adam's son Esaias Clermont (1698–1751), heir and court lord of Neuburg and also cloth manufacturer in Aachen, had a church built next to his copper mill for the Lutheran congregation in Vaals, which still exists today as the “ De Kopermolen ” cultural center . This Esaias was married to Helene Margarethe von Huyssen (1705–1776), daughter of the Essen mayor Arnold von Huyssen (1659–1734), when their third of ten children, Johann Arnold Clermont, was born. One of his brothers, Theodor Christian Clermont (1730–1788), became a member of the chamber judge in Berlin, 1765 president of the Kurmärkischen pupil college and owner of the manor Lenzerwische near Lenzen on the Elbe . One of Johann Arnold's sisters, Helene Elisabeth (Betty) Clermont (1743–1784), was married to the philosopher Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi .

Live and act

Johann Arnold von Clermont in old age

After Johann Arnold von Clermont had spent part of his youth with his maternal grandmother, the widow of the Essen mayor Arnold von Huyssen, to attend the Latin school there, he decided early on to do a commercial apprenticeship at prestigious houses, first in Hamburg and then to be completed in Leipzig . It was his goal and also the endeavor of his father Esaias to build him up as a successor for his cloth manufacture in Aachen. For this reason, after completing his commercial apprenticeship, he was sent to the respective trading partners in Russia , Poland and Austria as a representative of his father's cloth factory in order to obtain orders there.

At this point in time, the Clermont family's cloth production had already existed for three generations in Aachen. There they mainly produced cloth for the manufacture of soldiers' uniforms for the Prussian , Russian and later also for Napoleon 's imperial guards . Tsar Peter the Great (1672–1725) personally during a visit to Aachen in 1717 insisted on spending the night privately with the Esaias Clermont family and his wife Helene Margarethe Huyssen in Aachen's Franzstrasse. The contacts of his wife's uncle Heinrich Freiherr von Huyssen (1666–1739), who was a state councilor and diplomat at the Russian court, were of enormous advantage.

After the early death of Esaia's father in 1751, Johann Arnold, the eldest son, was forced to join the family business as a commercial director at the age of 23, which was initially continued by his mother. The Johann Arnold Clermont family was raised to the imperial nobility on August 29, 1752, prompted by their father, who had since passed away . Gradually he expanded the production facilities in Aachen. But since the rigid guild laws of the city of Aachen forbade him to unite weavers and cloth shearers in one house and to limit the permitted number of looms to four, this situation forced him to follow suit in the neighboring village of Vaals in the Dutch part of the Duchy of Limburg suitable opportunities to look around. It was also an advantage for him to emigrate there as a Protestant during the time of the Counter Reformation , since Vaals welcomed the majority of the wealthy and influential, innovative Aachen Protestants who were disadvantaged in the strictly Catholic Aachen, especially if they were additionally accepted were of noble origin.

Vaalsbroek Castle - the family estate
House Clermont, central factory in Vaals

In 1761, Clermont acquired the dilapidated aristocratic residence Vaalsbroek with a mill from Anton Ullrich Lamberts von Cortenbach and gradually converted the remains of the 15th century building into his country residence, today's Vaalsbroek Castle with a residential building, office wing and manufacturing facility. In 1765 the plant was finally completed and the cloth shearing , dyeing and pressing shop could fully start up. Between 1761 and 1775, he was beyond of the living in Aachen Milan builder and architect Joseph Moretti (1793 †) in the center of Vaals beside the brook Gau today called by House Clermont built as a central factory and additional dwelling. The original Aachen business itself continued to be run by her until his mother's death in 1776 and then, under Clermont's management, it was merged with his Vaals factory under the common name "Esaias Clermont sel. & Sohn". It was not until 1786 that he transferred part of his management of the communal cloth trade in Aachen to his sons and cousins, until in 1793 he left their overall management to his deputy managing director. From then on his company was called "Esaias Clermont sel. Erben & Co". However, in accordance with the wishes of all co-shareholders , he still retained the overall supervision.

Due to the French invasion of Germany from 1792 and the establishment of the Arrondissement d'Aix-la-Chapelle within the Département de la Roer in 1794, Clermont ordered that his Aachen trading office should be relocated to Braunschweig in order to continue with the Eastern European partners to do business. In the meantime he was forced to bow to the French occupying forces in Aachen and Vaals and to adapt to avoid the impending contribution and to be able to maintain his operations. As a result, his company also received major orders for the French army for the manufacture and delivery of fabrics for military uniforms. After his death in 1795, the business, the manufacturing facilities and his most important properties were taken over and continued by three of his sons with different areas of responsibility. But one more generation later, also as a late consequence of the contribution, the orders gradually decreased, and from 1825 the family company, which had been run for a total of seven generations, was extinguished.

  • De Kopermolen Lutheran Church , Clermont Family Foundation

  • Verves dye works , previously a Mennonite church

  • Master apartment Clermontplein 4

  • Master's Apartment Clermontplein 24

  • House in Kirchfeld for his son Carl von Clermont, Mayor of Vaals, later Binterim House

Johann Arnold von Clermont as the client

After Clermont took over and expanded Kasteel Vaalsbroeck in 1761, he acquired more mostly inexpensive land and real estate in Vaals for his numerous children and his expanding businesses. He had several patrician houses remodeled or built for his family or his employees, often in his own Clermontian style in a pleasing yellow. For example, the Kirchfeld house (1790), a house for his son and later mayor of Vaals, Carl Theodor Arnold von Clermont, as well as two representative houses (1765 each) for his executives in the immediate vicinity of the Clermont house.

Blumenthal Castle
Vaals Obelisk

In addition, he also set up other new weaving mills and cloth dyeing works for his business needs, including the Haus Verves dyeing building opposite the central building, which housed a church for the Mennonite community of Vaals from around 1740 to 1780 . As the high point of his building activity , he bought today's Blumenthal Castle in Vaals in 1791 and expanded it into a second magnificent residence and representative building in the early classicist Louis-seize style. A year before his death, he moved into this building, which was only half habitable, but was unable to witness its complete completion.

But Clermont also had several comfortable residential and commercial buildings built in his hometown of Aachen. In all of these construction activities, he was advised over many years and mainly by the Milanese builder and architect Joseph Moretti, who lives in Aachen.

Due to his passion for nature and contemplation, he had the area around the Vaalsbroek headquarters equipped early on into a magnificent park with duck and fish ponds, waterfalls, orchards and rare groups of trees based on the English pattern. In 1788 he had a mausoleum built in this park for himself and his family according to Moretti's plans in the Louis-seize style, in which he had to have the remains of three of his sixteen children and his wife buried during his lifetime. Finally, a 30-foot high pyramidal column with a Janus head , the Vaals Obelisk, was erected.

Since water played an important role for him as a cloth manufacturer, he not only selected his buildings according to their proximity to a stream, but also made sure that many of Vaals' local streams were re-canalized, which also benefits the entire population and benefited other industries. However, Clermont had taken over financially with all these projects due to the increasingly declining business income, among other things caused by the contribution, and so his heirs were later forced to sell most of the properties. After several changes of ownership , the Vaalsbroek and Blumenthal castles have now become handsome hotel complexes , the central production and trading building in Vaals is now used by the municipality as the town hall, and other buildings and facilities have been taken over by private individuals.

further activities

Clermont sculpture in Vaals

Johann Arnold von Clermont was a multi-talented and well-read person from an early age. This made him predestined for many additional tasks. He was appointed vice mayor of the banks in Vaals, Holset and Vijlen , as well as honorary chief judge of the " Oberholzrichteramt " in the Malensbosch district. Later, under the French occupation, he was appointed finance commissioner of the provisional central government in Aachen and finally appointed administrator of the canton of Vaals. In all these tasks he always tried to judge fairly and neutrally and, especially as a finance commissioner, to avert damage to the citizens of Aachen and Vaals and business people.

In doing so, he continued to devote himself to the study of various fields of science and the fine arts . He wrote several more essays, the best-known essay: " Frank contemplation of a cosmopolitan for the good of Aachen " in 1788 was intended both as a warning and a suggestion for improvement for the city of Aachen.

In his honor and his family, streets in both Vaals and Aachen have been named after him.

family

Mausoleum of the Johann Arnold von Clermont family on the grounds of Vaalsbroek Castle

Johann Arnold von Clermont was married to Maria Elisabeth Emminghaus (1733–1783), daughter of Hagen's Lord Mayor Heinrich Wilhelm Emminghaus (1682–1749). He had 16 children with her, including five sons and eleven daughters:

  • Carl Theodor Arnold (1756–1824), lord of Vaalsbroek Castle, 1814 President of the State Deputation for the Roerdepartement and then First Mayor of Vaals. He married Marie Juliane Kopstadt (1763-1826), a daughter of the Essen mayor Heinrich Arnold Kopstadt (1719-1786) and Juliana Catharina Clermont (1725-1770), a sister of Johann Arnold von Clermont. Carl Theodor ran together with his brother
  • Johann Adam Heinrich (1758–1826), cloth manufacturer, his father's businesses.
  • Ludwig Arnold von Clermont (1765–1824), a businessman by trade, was married to his cousin Clara Franziska (Claire) Jacobi (1777–1849), the daughter of Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi and Helene Elisabeth (Betty) von Clermont ( 1743–1784), another sister of Johann Arnold von Clermont
  • Johann Heinrich Leopold (1771-1816) was Justice of the Peace of Vaals and Gulpen.

Johann Arnold von Clermont's Daughters:

  • Eleonore Maria (1759–1845) married the Protestant canon Johann Arnold Kopstadt (* 1755), a son of the Essen mayor Heinrich Arnold Kopstadt (1719–1786) and the aforementioned Juliana Catharina Clermont.
  • Carolina Helene (1761–1825) married General Georg August Heinrich Freiherr von Kinkel (1741–1827) for the second time,
  • Johanna Katharina Luisa (1763–1844) married her nephew and cloth manufacturer in Braunschweig, Johann Friedrich Jacobi (1765–1831), son of Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi and Helene Elisabeth (Betty) von Clermont
  • Helene Sophie Fredrike von Clermont (1764–1799) was the first wife of Johann Peter (Eduard) Jacobi (1760–1830), a businessman in Düsseldorf, the youngest son of the Kommerzienrat Johann Konrad Jacobi and half-brother of Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi, in 1794 Husband of her aunt Betty of Clermont.
  • Juliane (1766–1853) married the Essen mayor Johann Conrad Kopstadt in 1788 , another son of the aforementioned mayor Heinrich Arnold Kopstadt and Juliane Catharina Clermont
  • Charlotte (1773–1868) married the general and bearer of the Pour le Mérite , Franz Friedrich Karl Ernst von Klüx (1776–1858)

Work (selection)

literature

  • Walter Kaemmerer:  Clermont Johann Arnold. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 3, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1957, ISBN 3-428-00184-2 , p. 288 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • J. Liese: The classic Aachen - 1. Johann Arnold von Clermont, his family and his work in the Vaals paradise . Meyer-Verlag Aachen, 1936.
  • H. Jacobi: Contributions to the history of the von Clermont family , in: Communications of the West German Society for Family Studies V , 1926, pp. 55ff and 103ff
  • JF van Agt: Zuid-Limburg, Vaals Wittem en Slenaken - De Monuments van Geschiedenis en art. Staatsuitgeverij, Den Haag 1983, detailed mentions of his buildings: digitized on dbnl.org (ndl.) .

Web links

Commons : Johann Arnold von Clermont  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Friedrich Maximilian Bernhard Johannes Jacobi: Genealogical directory of the Jacobi family in the Rhenish family branches from the oldest named ancestors , printed by Martin Oldenbourg, Berlin, 1896 digitized on uni-duesseldorf.de
personal data
SURNAME Clermont, Johann Arnold von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German entrepreneur and builder
DATE OF BIRTH May 24, 1728
PLACE OF BIRTH Aachen
DATE OF DEATH December 5, 1795
Place of death Vaals , Netherlands