Johann Gottlob Nathusius

Johann Gottlob Nathusius as a young man, engraving

Johann Gottlob Nathusius, the tobacco manufacturer with a tobacco box in his hand, engraving probably after a picture by the painter Schöner

Luise Nathusius, b. Engelhard, wife of Johann Gottlob Nathusius

Magdeburg, residential and trading houses in Breiten Weg 175/177 , photo from around 1900, destroyed in World War II. The living rooms and the first cigar factory of Johann Gottlob Nathusius during his time in Magdeburg were in the middle three houses

Johann Gottlob Nathusius (born April 30, 1760 in Baruth / Mark , † July 23, 1835 in Althaldensleben ) was a German businessman, entrepreneur and large landowner.

Life

education

Nathusius was born as the son of a tax collector in the Electorate of Saxony , his ancestors lived in Upper and Lower Lusatia . From 1774 he completed a commercial apprenticeship in Berlin . He was unable to study for financial reasons. However, he read economic literature. After completing his apprenticeship in 1780, he was first as clerks before joining four years later a job as an accountant in Magdeburg was trading Sengewald.

Companies

After Sengewald's death in 1785, he and Johann Wilhelm Richter took over the company, which now operated under the name Richter & Nathusius .

That with the accession of Frederick William II. Falling state tobacco monopoly took Nathusius so that it finally to his tobacco production Prussian State dominated. As early as 1787, the tobacco factory he founded employed 60 workers. When the monopoly was temporarily reintroduced, he was the first general factory director.

In 1801, 300 employees worked for Nathusius, who had become the wealthiest citizen of Magdeburg. During this time, Nathusius also introduced the cultivation of chicory , which served as a coffee substitute. From this, a branch of industry that was at times very important for the region developed.

After his marriage in 1809, he first acquired the secularized monastery of Althaldensleben in 1810, and one year later the baroque castle in Hundisburg . Much later, he acquired other properties in Königsborn and Meyendorf . Nathusius used the acquired goods to grow agricultural products, which he then processed further with his own companies.

Nathusius founded the first industrial group in Germany, which consisted of more than thirty commercial enterprises - including the commercial gardening in Althaldensleben , grain and oil mills, a noodle factory, a distillery, a starch factory, fruit wine and vinegar factories, a beet sugar factory as well as a brewery, brickworks and quarries, an earthenware factory, the Nathusius porcelain factory and a machine factory in Hundisburg . The structural changes he initiated in and around Haldensleben developed the greater area from an agricultural to an industrial region.

Political activity

During the existence of the Kingdom of Westphalia , he represented the newly formed department of the Elbe in the imperial estates in Kassel .

After Napoleon's defeat , Nathusius advocated political and economic reforms and was part of the bourgeois opposition. He was a member of the Provincial Parliament of the Province of Saxony .

horticulture

In addition to his economic activity, he also devoted himself to horticulture and had large gardens laid out according to international models. A garden was created in Magdeburg-Werder . He had a large English-style landscape park laid out between Hundisburg and Althaldensleben. At his instigation, a double church was built in Althaldensleben .

family

Johann Gottlob Nathusius married Luise Wilhelmine Engelhard (1787–1875), a daughter of the Hessian director of the Kassel War College, Johann Philipp Engelhard and the important poet Philippine Engelhard , née Gatterer (1756–1831) , in February 1809 . The couple had eight children: Hermann (1809–1879), Luise (1811–1891), Gottlob Engelhard (1813–1829), Philipp (1815–1872), August (1818–1884), Wilhelm (1821–1899), Heinrich (1824–1890) and Johanne (1828–1885).

Nathusius in literature

The work of Nathusius found its way into the works of several well-known poets and writers: with Johann Wolfgang Goethe in “ Wilhelm Meister ”, with Karl Immermann in “ Die Epigonen ” and with Clemens Brentano in “ Kommanditchen ”. In the family novel Green tendrils around old pictures by Gabriele Reuter , his life and work is briefly described.

Awards and honors

Johann Gottlob Nathusius was to be raised to the nobility because of his services to the development of agriculture, trade and industry; However, according to family tradition, he rejected this with the dry remark: "Better to distinguish yourself than to be distinguished". In 1840 and 1861 his sons were raised to the nobility. Nathusius was the bearer of the Iron Cross on a white ribbon and the Order of the Red Eagle 3rd class with a ribbon.

The city of Magdeburg has named a street ( Johann-Gottlob-Nathusius-Ring ) in his honor. There is also Johann-Gottlob-Nathusius-Strasse in Haldensleben.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Johann Christoph Gatterer, the founder of scientific genealogy . In: Archives for kin research and all related areas with practical research assistance . 47th volume, issue 81/82, February 1981, ISSN  0003-9403 , CA Starke Verlag, Limburg / Lahn 1981, p. 26 f.
2. ^ Nathusius (1840, 1861 ), I. Line, Hermann Engelhard v. Nathusius (Prussian nobility Berlin, October 15, 1840). In: Genealogical manual of the nobility . Volume 57 of the complete series, Noble Houses B, Volume XI, CA Starke Verlag, Limburg a. d. Lahn 1974, p. 308
3. ^ Nathusius (1840, 1861 ), II.-V. Line, Philipp Engelhard, August Engelhard, Wilhelm Engelhard and Heinrich Engelhard v, Nathusius (Prussian nobility in Königsberg i. Pr., October 18, 1861). In: Genealogical manual of the nobility . Volume 57 of the complete series, Adelige Häuser B, Volume XI, CA Starke Verlag, Limburg ad Lahn 1974, pp. 311, 314, 317, 320
4. ↑ Johann Gottlob Nathusius , engraving, lith. Mittag print, after A. Schöner, A. Küper

Works

• Self-made youth story, available as: Johann Gottlob Nathusius. Self-made youth story. Infused with his oral narratives and documented deeds . Printed as a manuscript. Printed by G. Gasse, Quedlinburg, undated

literature

• Ludwig Bechstein (Hrsg.): 200 German men, in portraits and descriptions of life . Leipzig 1853
• Hans Jaeger:  Nathusius, thank God. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 18, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1997, ISBN 3-428-00199-0 , p. 748 f. ( Digitized version ).
• Carl Leisewitz:  Nathusius, thank God . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 23, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1886, pp. 271-276.
• Jochen Lengemann : MdL Hessen. 1808-1996. Biographical index (= political and parliamentary history of the state of Hesse. Vol. 14 = publications of the Historical Commission for Hesse. Vol. 48, 7). Elwert, Marburg 1996, ISBN 3-7708-1071-6 , p. 277.
• Elsbeth von Nathusius: Johann Gottlob Nathusius, a pioneer of German industry . DVA, Stuttgart 1915 (various editions)
• Max Pahncke: Johann Gottlob Nathusius . In: Central German Life Pictures . Volume 2: Pictures of the 19th Century . Magdeburg 1927, pp. 60-81.
• Ruth Stummann-Bowert: Johann Gottlob Nathusius in Althaldensleben and the Engelhard family in Kassel: cultural relationships and family ties . In: Annual journal of the Ohrekreis . Volume 1, Haldensleben 1994, pp. 20-35
• Ruth Stummann-Bowert, Philippine Engelhard, née Gatterer: A bourgeois woman's life between enlightenment and sensitivity . In: Traudel Weber-Reich (Ed.): “Worth getting to know”. Important women of Göttingen. Wallstein Verlag, Göttingen 1997, pp. 27-52 (various editions, 1st edition 1993)
• Herrmann Wagener (Ed.): State and Society Lexicon . Volume 14, Berlin 1863
• Roswitha Willenius: Nathusius, Johann Gottlob. In: Guido Heinrich, Gunter Schandera (ed.): Magdeburg Biographical Lexicon 19th and 20th centuries. Biographical lexicon for the state capital Magdeburg and the districts of Bördekreis, Jerichower Land, Ohrekreis and Schönebeck. Scriptum, Magdeburg 2002, ISBN 3-933046-49-1 .
• Thank God Nathusius. In: New Nekrolog der Deutschen, Volume 13 (1835), Volume 2, No. 182, S 609 - 626, Bernhard Friedrich Voigt, Weimar 1837.

Web links

Commons : Johann Gottlob Nathusius  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Detailed portrait on the Nathusius family website ( Memento from August 22, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
• Nathusius, Johann Gottlob. Hessian biography. (As of April 30, 2020). In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS).