Johann Gottfried Brügelmann

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Medallion with the portrait of Brügelmann
Contemporary portrait painting

Johann Gottfried Brügelmann (baptized July 6, 1750 in Elberfeld , today a district of Wuppertal ; † December 27, 1802 in Ratingen ) was a German industrialist and, as the founder of the first factory on the European mainland, one of the pioneers of the industrial revolution .

Live and act

Johann Gottfried Brügelmann came from a wealthy merchant family from Elberfeld, who was part of the yarn diet , a cartel-like association of the leading merchant families in the Bergisches Land , who controlled the yarn market in this region. He was born the second of four children of Elberfeld's mayor Johann Wilhelm Brügelmann (1721–1784) and his first wife Anna Gertrud Kühnen (1721–1754) and was baptized on July 6, 1750.

Brügelmann heard about the mechanization of spinning mills in England and decided in the early 1780s to open a mechanical spinning mill himself. However, since he feared the displeasure of yarn food with these plans and, as the spokesman for the entrepreneurs, was in a dispute with the Elberfeld linen weavers , he looked for a suitable location a safe distance from Elberfeld. Finally he found it in the Mairie Eckamp not far from the city walls of Ratingen: what would later become the Cromford textile factory . There he was able to acquire a mill right including an oil mill on the Anger at a reasonable price. Labor was much cheaper than in the rich Elberfeld, and above all, Elector Karl Theodor gave him the privilege of being the only one in the Rhineland to operate a factory like this for 12 years at this location . With the help of the electoral privilege, Brügelmann relentlessly pursued attempts by numerous competitors to poach his employees or to rebuild the machines used. With increasing success, Brügelmann expanded and founded a branch in 1802 in Munich, which belonged to the territory of Elector Karl Theodor. Today the plant in Ratingen is considered to be the first fully mechanized cotton spinning mill and thus the very first factory on the European mainland. Around 1789 Brügelmann bought the building with the site of the former sugar refinery , located on the Düsselbach in Pempelfort , from the heirs of Johann Konrad Jacobi , and set up the “Brügelmann & Bredt” yarn dye works there together with the ribbon manufacturer Johann Friedrich Bredt (1751–1810) “For Turkish red .

Historians rate Brügelmann's approach as remarkable, as the economy of that time was primarily shaped by traditions and the rules imposed by the professions themselves. Not only was the idea of ​​mechanized production on a large scale unusual, but also the way in which he specifically examined national site conditions, researched and copied technologies from abroad (the Waterframe , a patent by Richard Arkwright ) and thereby the traditions of " Yarn food ”was ignored.

He was engaged in industrial espionage in Great Britain through his friend Carl Albrecht Delius, who sent him a scraper to clean the cotton in 1781 and in 1782 smuggled the model of a water frame from England, which was then prohibited from export, and brought along a skilled worker who could operate it.

Brügelmann's pioneering work was extremely profitable. He quickly expanded his business to include a five-storey factory building (which was huge at the time), and in 1787 had the luxurious manor house, which can still be viewed today, and a little later extensive parks (including the Poensgenpark ) built. After his death, Brügelmann's fortune was estimated at 380,000 Reichstaler - excluding real estate and machines. When he died in 1802 at the age of 52, Brügelmann was one of the richest people in the Rhineland.

Since November 7, 1774 he was with Anna Christina Brügelmann geb. Bredt (1745–1805) married. His inheritance was divided between his sons Jakob Wilhelm (1776–1826) and Johann Gottfried junior (1777–1808). His descendant Moritz Gottfried Brügelmann, chemist (1849–1920) was married to the singer Pauline Horson (1858–1918).

literature

  • Franz Josef Gemmert: The development of the oldest continental spinning mill: an economic and historical study , dissertation at the University of Cologne, Leipzig, Jänecke, 1927
  • Marie-Luise Baum: Johann Gottfried Brügelmann . In: Wuppertal Biographies 1st episode . Contributions to the history and local history of the Wuppertal Volume 4, Born-Verlag, Wuppertal 1958, pp. 19–26.
  • Marie-Luise Baum: Johann Gottfried Brügelmann (1750–1802). In: Rheinische Lebensbilder. Vol. 1, 1961, ISSN  0080-2670 , pp. 136-151.
  • Eckhard Bolenz: Johann Gottfried Brügelmann. A Rhenish entrepreneur at the beginning of industrialization and his bourgeois world (= contributions to industrial and social history. Vol. 4). Rheinland-Verlag, Cologne 1993, ISBN 3-7927-1372-1 .
  • Michael Klepsch, Helge Reisel: From Cromford to Cromford. Industrial espionage in the 18th century. Rheinland Verlag, Cologne 1990, ISBN 3-7927-1116-8 .
  • Burkhard Dietz: Departure to new shores. Johann Gottfried Brügelmann's decision for the Cromford location and the role model function for a successful company foundation. In: Cornelia Frings (Red.): "The desolate area was converted into a pleasure garden ...". On the industrial architecture of the Cromford textile factory 1783–1977 (= Landschaftsverband Rheinland, Rheinisches Industriemuseum. Writings 5). Rheinland-Verlag et al., Cologne et al. 1991, ISBN 3-7927-1201-6 , pp. 16–34.
  • Gabriele Harzheim: “Excellent spinning machines driven by water”. A documentation of the technology of cotton spinning using the example of the Johann Gottfried Brügelmann company in Ratingen, 1780–1830 (= contributions to industrial and social history. Vol. 5). Rheinland-Verlag, Cologne 1995, ISBN 3-7927-1492-2 .
  • Marga Ludemann:  Brügelmann, Johann Gottfried. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 2, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1955, ISBN 3-428-00183-4 , p. 658 ( digitized version ).
  • Herbert Vogler: Johann Gottfried Brügelmann - founder of the German textile industry. In: Melliand textile reports. Vol. 83, 2002, ISSN  0341-0781 , pp. 888-889.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Eckhard Bolenz: From the end of the ancien régime to the end of the German Confederation (approx. 1780-1870). In: Eckhard Bolenz et al .: Ratingen. History 1780 to 1975. Klartext-Verlag, Essen 2000, ISBN 3-88474-943-9 , pp. 11–74.
  2. ↑ Edmund Strutz: The pedigree of the Elberfeld mayors and city judges from 1708–1808 (= Bergische Forschungen. Vol. 3, ISSN  0405-4520 ). 2nd Edition. Martini & Grüttefien, Neustadt ad Aisch 1963, p. 114 f.
  3. ↑ a b c Jakob Germes: Ratingen Through the Ages - History and Kulturdolumente a city . 4th improved and expanded edition, Verlag Norbert Ernst Henn, Ratingen 1979, p. 82ff.
  4. ↑ Michael Klepsch: From Cromford to Cromford 1992.
  5. ↑ in biography Johann Gottfried Brügelmann: He bought a piece of land in Pempelfort from the Jacobi family and opened a Turkish red dye works under "Brügelmann & Bredt". ( Memento of the original from September 23, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , at guelcher-chronik.de, accessed on September 19, 2016 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.guelcher-chronik.de
  6. ^ Philipp Andreas Nemnich: Diary dedicated to one of the culture and industry , Gothic bookstore, 1809 p. 288
  7. ↑ Burkhard Dietz: Departure to new shores. 1991.
  8. ^ Johanna Lutteroth Preussens Plagiarism ( Memento from June 15, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Financial Times Deutschland from November 18, 2012
  9. ↑ Gülcher Chronicle: Johann Gottfried Brügelmann. Archived from the original on September 23, 2017 ; accessed on September 23, 2017 .
personal data
SURNAME Brügelmann, Johann Gottfried
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German industrialist
DATE OF BIRTH baptized July 6, 1750
PLACE OF BIRTH Elberfeld
DATE OF DEATH December 27, 1802
Place of death Ratingen