Johann Heinrich Franck

Johann Heinrich Franck (born February 2, 1792 in Vaihingen an der Enz ; † September 11, 1867 there ) was a German entrepreneur . He founded the chicory coffee factory , which became known under the name Heinrich Franck Söhne GmbH .

Life

Johann Heinrich Franck's parents lost their belongings during the war, which is why the son had to complete an apprenticeship as a merchant and confectioner and start a new life. He went into the field as a Württemberg hunter in 1813. Via Leipzig he got to Paris and then for a long time to Reims because his regiment belonged to the occupation troops. In Reims, he learned that normal coffee beans can be mixed with chicory and gained an insight into the French coffee additives industry. This had developed during the so-called continental blockade, when the import of English colonial goods such as coffee and cane sugar was prohibited.

After Franck returned from France, he settled in Vaihingen an der Enz in 1822 as a grocer and confectioner and began to experiment with the production of chicory coffee. Six years later he started the factory production of coffee additives. His income was increased by the fact that he had received a monopoly for the sale of rock salt in the Oberamt Vaihingen.

At the beginning, Franck's simply equipped factory only had three day laborers who had to roast and grind the raw material, and ten packers. While Franck had initially grown the noble chicory on his first test field, the bleaching field in Vaihingen, and other fields of his own, he now obtained it from farmers in the area, who first had to be instructed in how to use the unknown plant. It was also a matter of organizing the transport of the plants and goods, which was initially commissioned by private truckers.

When the demand for Franck's products increased, he built a drying house and shortly afterwards a Göpel factory for the roastery. After purchasing the Seemühle in Vaihingen, it was possible to switch to the use of water power, in 1832 a kiln was built in Steinach near Esslingen am Neckar , and in 1844 another kiln followed in Großgartach , which was expanded into a second factory the following year. More kilns in Meimsheim , Bretten and Eppingen were set up when Franck's sons joined the business and were also attracting customers abroad. Shortly before his death, Franck ordered the relocation of the factory from Vaihingen, where the now 64 buildings were no longer sufficient for operation, to Ludwigsburg .

In 1934, Adolf Heller described the effects of the construction of the factory there with the following sentences: “Here, opposite the train station , is the large factory [...] It's a whole district, so extensive are the buildings, courtyards and facilities. A large coffee grinder that shines in red light at night is intended to draw the travelers' attention. It is not necessary, because over the whole station, over the city and even over large parts of the district there is often a bitter, pungent smell [...] "

Parts of the Ludwigsburg factory, built from 1868 onwards, have been preserved and are now listed: In Franckstrasse 5 and Pflugfelder Strasse 31 there is still part of the administration and production building, and on the railway line is the eastern part of a once three-aisled warehouse building from 1909, the essentially goes back to two warehouses from 1868. There are also villas belonging to the descendants of Johann Heinrich Franck at Pflugfelder Strasse 5 and 20 and at Franckstrasse 2 and 4 in Ludwigsburg.

literature

• Andrea Berger-Fix (editor); Municipal Museum Ludwigsburg (ed.): The capital of the Cichoria. Ludwigsburg and the coffee agent company Franck. Ludwigsburg, 1989.
• Alfred Marquardt: 100 years of Franck: 1828 - 1928. - Greiner & Pfeiffer, Stuttgart, 1928.
• Walter Schuster: Aecht Franck. Linz, 2019.

See also

Coffee-like drink

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Baptism and death registers of the Evangelical Church Community Vaihingen an der Enz.
2. ^ ^{A b} Adolf Heller, The economic conditions , in: Oscar Paret , Ludwigsburg and the land around the Asperg. A home book for the district of Ludwigsburg , Ludwigsburg 1934, p. 225 ff., Here p. 257
3. ^ Wolf Deiseroth et al., Monument Topography Baden Württemberg. I.8.1: City of Ludwigsburg , Konrad Theiss Verlag, Stuttgart 2004, ISBN 3-8062-1938-9 , p. 112
4. ^ Wolf Deiseroth et al., Monument Topography Baden Württemberg. I.8.1: City of Ludwigsburg , Konrad Theiss Verlag, Stuttgart 2004, ISBN 3-8062-1938-9 , pp. 164 and 111 f.
5. ^ Family history Franck as book orf.at, September 17, 2019, accessed September 17, 2019