Johann Conrad Jacobi (banker)

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Colored wood engraving after Emill Dörstling's painting “Kant and his table companions” . Johann Conrad Jacobi on the far left at the table, with a black skirt and white hair; on the right, Immanuel Kant , reading from a letter.

Johann Conrad Jacobi (born October 30, 1717 in Grünstadt , Palatinate ; † August 22, 1774 in Königsberg , East Prussia ) was a merchant, banker and royal secretary of commerce . He was one of the most respected Konigsberg dignitaries ; he had a long-standing, close friendship with Immanuel Kant .

Life

Johann Conrad Jacobi was born as the son of the Lutheran married couple Johann Friedrich Jacobi and Margarethe Sibylle Elisabeth. Grün, born in the Palatinate residential town of Grünstadt. The father Johann Friedrich Jacobi was a valet and barber for the Counts of Leiningen-Westerburg , who lived in the city ; the mother came from a local innkeeper and wine merchant family.

In Frankfurt am Main Johann Conrad Jacobi learned the merchant profession and then worked for the renowned banker Georg Wilhelm Schweigger in Berlin . In 1750 he sent him to his business friend Georg Friedrich Schwinck, the most important businessman in Königsberg at the time. Jacobi settled in the city, traded in precious metals and became the main supplier of the Königsberg mint . He finally married Schwinck's very young daughter on June 6, 1752 and became a partner in his trading house. He also founded his own banking institute, which existed in Königsberg until the beginning of the 20th century and developed into one of the most important in East Prussia. The young couple first lived in a house from the woman's dowry, located in Kneiphofschen Langgasse, and since 1764 a befitting palace in Junkerstrasse, which they bought from the Burgrave of Dohna.

The wife Maria Charlotta Jacobi geb. Schwinck - called "Princess Jacobi" - was considered the most beautiful woman in Königsberg and the house developed into the center of a private circle that the Königsbergers called the "learned society" . In addition to the Jacobi couple, these included Jacobi's long-time friend Immanuel Kant , first lieutenant von Lettow, Baroness von Thile, mint master Julius Göschen, city president Gottlieb Hippel , the writer Johann Georg Scheffner and the philosopher Johann Georg Hamann , whom Jacobi took up a position at Kant's request in 1767 Königsberg Customs Administration procured. In return, Kant always invited his trusted friend Johann Conrad Jacobi to his own societies, which were mainly composed of the same group of people. There is a painting by Emil Doerstling from 1892 with the title “Kant and his table companions” , on which the Palatinate banker Jacobi is depicted. It originally hung in the Königsberg town hall, then in the castle museum there, today in the Kant Museum (in the restored Königsberg Cathedral ) and the scene designed has shaped the general idea of ​​Kant's philosopher rounds to this day.

Maria Charlotta Jacobi - 22 years younger than her husband - began a love affair with the mint master Julius Göschen, who was about the same age. Johann Conrad Jacobi was divorced from her in September 1768; they had no offspring. Thereupon Jacobi brought his Grünstadt nephew Friedrich Conrad Jacobi to Königsberg and made him a universal heir. He continued to expand his uncle's banking house and later, together with his own son-in-law Johann Christian Gädeke, made it one of the most important in East Prussia. He also founded the first sugar factory in Königsberg.

Johann Conrad Jacobi died in Königsberg in 1774, only 56 years old. His friendship with the philosophers Kant and Hamann was unbroken and he was in constant correspondence with them. Jacobi's divorced wife and her second husband Julius Göschen again ran a large house in the Königsberg Society, but Immanuel Kant demonstratively stayed away from there both during his lifetime and after the death of his friend Johann Conrad Jacobi. After his death, he passed on his friendship with Johann Conrad Jacobi to his nephew and heir Friedrich Conrad Jacobi.

It should be noted here another fact that the scholar Friedrich Christian Matthiä (1763-1822), former grammar school director in Grünstadt, informed his brother August in a letter dated January 20, 1821, namely that Immanuel Kant always obtained his philosophically inspiring wine from Grünstadt have. No one else could have bought this drink in Königsberg than Kant's friend Johann Conrad Jacobi, who came from a family of hosts and wine merchants in Grünstadt.

The Grünstadt or Königsberg banker Johann Conrad Jacobi (1717–1774) is very often confused with his contemporary of the same name, Johann Conrad Jacobi (1709–1786), mayor and merchant in Bochum .

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ On Emil Doerstling and his painting "Kant and his table companions" , in the section "Painter and Sculptor"
  2. ^ Urte von Berg: "Theodor Gottlieb von Hippel" , page 60/61, explanation of the picture for the painting "Kant and his table companions" by Emil Doerstling
  3. ↑ On Johann Conrad Jacobi's wife and on his marriage
  4. ^ Fritz Gause, Jürgen Lebuhn: "Kant and Königsberg bis today" , Rautenberg Verlag, 1989, page 137, ISBN 3-7921-0418-0
  5. ^ Friedrich Christian Matthiä about Kant's wine from Grünstadt
personal data
SURNAME Jacobi, Johann Conrad
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Jacobi, Johann Konrad
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Banker and merchant in Königsberg, close friend of Immanuel Kant
DATE OF BIRTH October 30, 1717
PLACE OF BIRTH Grünstadt
DATE OF DEATH August 22, 1774
Place of death Koenigsberg