Julius Schultze (entrepreneur)

Franz August Julius Schultze (born May 23, 1811 in Kirchgellersen ; † July 10, 1881 in Oldenburg (Oldb) ) was a German entrepreneur .

biography

Professional career

Schultze was the son of the pastor in Kirchgellersen and Bevensen Friedrich Karl Schultze (1772-1857). After finishing school, he began commercial training in the Hemmerde trading house in Hanover and then worked as a representative for this company in the Duchy of Oldenburg .

In 1842 he founded an iron foundry in Varel with the financially strong Varel iron dealer Anton Wilhelm Eyting . Due to the cheap importation of pig iron and coal from England, the company enjoyed a rapid upswing and was expanded in 1852 to include a machine factory, a boiler forge and a hammer , puddle and rolling mill .

In 1856, and thus before the economic crisis of 1857 , which led to the collapse of the Varel industry, Schultze withdrew from the company due to disputes with his partners. He invested his free capital in a new ironworks in Augustfehn , for which he founded the Oldenburg Ironworks Company together with the Dutch consul of the house of Aldenburg-Bentinck in Varel, JCH Bley, and with British and French participation .

The Augustfehn ironworks.

Schultze took over the management with his 16% stake and, after initial difficulties, led the company to a rapid upswing, which was reinforced in 1869 by the construction of the Oldenburg-Leer railway line . In the long run, however, the iron content of the turf ore deposits smelted by the company proved to be too low and Schultze was forced to use English and Westphalian pig iron, which was processed into high-quality iron in a newly developed process using peat gas . In 1872 a steel mill was added to the company, which was converted into a stock corporation in 1883 .

Schultze was also involved in other company foundings, for example he was part of the consortium that founded the stock corporation for warps spinning and starch mill in Oldenburg in 1856 . With 331 employees, this company was one of the largest in the Grand Duchy in 1861 . In 1857 he also participated in the founding of the Oldenburg Insurance Company and in the same year became a co-owner of the Oldenburg Glassworks in Easterburg , which in 1862 was owned by the trading company Harbers, Schultze & Co., in which Schultze was again involved. Here too, Schultze acted as managing director, procured the capital required for the expansion of production and organized exports.

meaning

According to his biographer Hans Friedl, Schultze was the most important entrepreneur of the brief Oldenburg founding period , who also took a leading position within the small group of entrepreneurial personalities for industrial development in the Grand Duchy of Oldenburg.

family

Schultze was married to Catharina geb. Hemken (1827-1871). Her father Berend Hemken had set up shop in New Orleans. The marriage came from the son August , who also worked as an entrepreneur.

literature

• Hans Friedl: Schultze, Franz August Julius 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. 654 f. ( online ).