John C. Funch

John Christian Funch (* 23. August 1852 in Brooklyn in New York ; † 23. January 1935 at Gut Loy, community Rastede ) was German agronomist , landowners , Oldenburg shear chamber president and Oldenburgischer state representative .

Life

Origin and early years

Funch came from a Danish pastor family. The grandfather originally came from Bornholm and later lived in Copenhagen . His father Christian Friedrich Funch worked as a ship broker and ship owner and went to New York with his partner Edy around 1850 to take part in the development of the new world. Born in the United States in 1852 , John came after the early death of his mother Sophie Antoniette Henriette nee. Marts at the age of five to his aunt in Hamburg , where he grew up.

As a student at the grammar school in Altona , which at that time belonged to Denmark , Funch was enthusiastic about the German side during the German-Danish War in 1864 and therefore came into conflict with his father's relatives in Denmark.

After completing an agricultural training as a volunteer in Holstein , he studied agriculture at the Hohenheim Academy, later the Hohenheim University of Applied Sciences , where he learned the basics of modern agricultural science, which was rapidly developing in the 19th century. There he was a co-founder of the "Academic Society Gemüthlichkeit" in 1871, which was later renamed Corps Germania Hohenheim at his instigation .

After completing his studies, he took up his first managerial position as an economic inspector at Gut Hahn in the Oldenburger Land in 1873 . In 1875 he married Alma de Cousser (1854–1906), the daughter of his employer Adolf de Cousser. His father knight (Chevalier) Louis Marcel (1775–1854) was emigrated to Oldenburg from his northern French homeland in the turmoil of the French Revolution of 1789.

Good loy

Career in agriculture

In 1874 John Funch acquired the neglected Oldenburg estates Loy and Haus Osterberg in the Grand Duchy of Oldenburg for 72,000 thalers , a total of around 250 hectares, which he brought back to its original size over years of efforts and expanded through new acquisitions. Thanks to its prudent management, the estate soon became the most important model agricultural operation in Oldenburg. As early as the 1880s, Funch was able to beat the English , whose agriculture was considered the most modern in Europe at the time, with its pig breeding in all classes at the international agricultural exhibitions in Hamburg, Hanover and Amsterdam . In horse and cattle breeding , in the improvement of arable, grassland and forest cultures, and finally in the reclamation of heather and moorland, he did an exemplary job for the time. After ten years of activity, in 1885 he was able to supply the large Berlin exhibition with the best animal material; A special train of the railway carried two bulls, four cows, six oxen and 37 pigs to the capital of the Reich in seven wagons. In 1903 Funch played a key role in organizing the agricultural exhibition in Hanover.

In 1878 Funch was co-founder and in 1880 chairman (until 1886) of the Agricultural Association Rastede. In addition, he was committed to the rural cooperative system in the spirit of Raiffeisen , was a member of the central board of the Oldenburg Agricultural Society from 1883 and became its chairman in 1886 as the first farmer in the history of the society, which had been trying to promote local agriculture since 1818. When the Agricultural Society in 1900 under his active participation in the newly established Chamber of Agriculture was transferred, he was elected to the first president (until 1915). He was also a member of the Oldenburg Landtag for twelve years in political life (1887–1893, 1899–1902, 1908–1911). Funch joined the National Liberals or the farmers' union . In the state parliament he fought as a “democratic agrarian”, as he called himself, during the disputes over the economic development to be pursued in the Grand Duchy of Oldenburg against “industrialism”, an option for a pronounced industrialization of the country that contradicts peasant interests.

As a member of the German Agricultural Council and founding member of the German Agricultural Society (DLG), of which he was a board member and later an honorary member, he was also professionally involved in Germany. For the years 1890 to 1915 he was a member of the standing committee of the German Agriculture Council . In 1906, in recognition of his achievements, he was appointed the Secret Economics Council , a title which he was one of the first to be awarded in Germany. In addition, Grand Duke Friedrich August , whose trust Funch enjoyed and who often sought his advice, awarded him the Knight's Cross 1st Class of the Oldenburg House and Merit Order . A sign of the successful close cooperation between the ruling house, state government and agricultural self-government in the decisive phase of the Oldenburg agricultural modernization.

Commitment to the Hohenheim University of Applied Sciences

Through his intervention with King Wilhelm II of Württemberg in 1904, John Funch achieved the renaming of the academy to the Hohenheim University of Applied Sciences and the recognition of study semesters at German universities as well as Hohenheim's later right to award doctorates .

The "Hohenheim Student Association", which represented the interests of all Hohenheim students vis-à-vis the later university administration, was founded in 1902 at his suggestion by the Germania and Württembergia student associations and most of the non-incorporated students. For more than 40 years, as chairman of the Corps Germania, he led the old manor in Hohenheim and was involved in founding the Corps Suevia.

Late years

During World War I , Funch served as a colonel on the Western Front. After the war he finished his political and professional work, retired to his estates in Oldenburg and died there on January 23, 1935.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Harald Winkel (ed.) With contributions by Erwin Reisch , George Turner and Harald Winkelː University of Hohenheim, Festschrift for the 175th anniversary, Verlag Ulmer 1993 ISBN 3-8001-4801-3, page 83 ff

literature

• Albrecht Eckhardt: From the bourgeois revolution to the National Socialist takeover of power - The Oldenburg State Parliament and its members 1848–1933, 1996, ISBN 3-89598-327-6 , page 94
• Paul Eiermann: The History of Hohenheimer SC , 1961
• Ernst Klein: The academic teachers at the University of Hohenheim 1818–1968, W. Kohlhammer Verlag Stuttgart 1968, John C. Funch page 26
• Funch-Loy, John Christian. In: Hans Friedl u. a. (Ed.): Biographical manual for the history of the state of Oldenburg . Edited on behalf of the Oldenburg landscape. Isensee, Oldenburg 1992, ISBN 3-89442-135-5 , pp. 214-216 ( online ).
• Heinrich Munderloh: The Loy peasantry and their aristocratic seats , self-published in 1988
• Friedrich Nagel: The Lighthouse Germans, Germanenblätter Hohenheim, 2007
• Manfred G. Raupp: Fox Primer of the Corps Germania Hohenheim , 2006
• Walter Erich Schäfer : Secret Economic Council John Funch-Loy , Hohenheim 1935

Web links

• University of Hohenheim
• Corps Germania Hohenheim
• Gut Loy Oldenburg