Julius Spohn

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Portrait relief of the patron Julius Spohn on a commemorative plaque for the city of Ravensburg in the Ravensburg Concert Hall (1911)
Portrait relief of the patron Julius Spohn on a commemorative plaque of the city of Ravensburg in the Spohn-Gymnasium Ravensburg
The Spohn family grave in the Ravensburg main cemetery. The grave slab for Julius Spohn is the second from the left in the right wing of the tomb.

Julius Spohn (born July 31, 1841 in Ravensburg ; † October 16, 1919 there ) was a Württemberg patron , textile and cement entrepreneur.

Entrepreneur

textiles

In 1866 Julius Spohn and his younger brother Georg (1843–1886) took over the silk and linen spinning mill of the Spohn Brothers founded by their father Christian Paul Spohn (1803–1884) in Ravensburg in 1832/1833 . In 1904 Julius Spohn relocated production from Ravensburg to Neckarsulm , which with its Neckar port offered more favorable transport conditions. There he built a modern jute mill , which his son Richard Spohn (1880–1959) took over in 1919 . From 1922 the Neckarsulm plant was a branch of the United Jute Spinnerei und Webereien AG , based in Hamburg and Mannheim. After the company failed to recover from the recession in the textile industry in the 1970s, production ceased in 1986.

cement

Portland cement Blaubeuren Gebrüder Spohn AG

Julius Spohn was also the founder of the cement works Spohn & Ruthard in Blaubeuren together with his brother Georg and the local innkeeper Albert Ruthardt . The cement works was completed in 1875. The first cement was delivered to Ravensburg for the expansion of the Spohn family's spinning mill. At first, however, the company made economic losses, so that Ruthardt left the company. From 1887 could Cementfabrik Brothers Blaubeuren Spohn then Portland cement produced profitably and in good quality. In October 1900 Julius Spohn handed over the technical management of the Blaubeuren cement works to his son Georg Spohn .

In view of the ongoing decline in prices due to intensified competition and the pending new investments in grinders and furnaces, the Blaubeur company founded a cartel in 1903 with the other 25 southern German cement plants , the Süddeutsche Cement -verkaufstelle GmbH , based in Heidelberg .

In the following year Julius Spohn and his son Georg converted their cement plant into a stock corporation , Portland-Zement Blaubeuren Gebrüder Spohn AG . The majority of this was taken over by Portland-Zementwerke Heidelberg AG in 1938 , later HeidelbergCement AG . But it was not until 1966 that the Blaubeuren cement works was fully integrated into the Heidelberg cement group. In 1998/1999 the cement plant, which had become unprofitable, was shut down and demolished by HeidelbergCement AG without replacement.

The Blaubeurer cement factory of the Spohn family formed the cornerstone of the building materials branch of the Merckle Group . The entrepreneurial family Spohn exchanged the shares in their cement plant for a minority stake in Portland-Zementwerke Heidelberg AG (today HeidelbergCement AG ). After a granddaughter of Julius Spohn, Luise Spohn († December 13, 1984 in Blaubeuren ), married Ludwig Merckle senior in 1931 , this block of shares came into the possession of the Merckle family from Aussig (now Ústí nad Labem in Bohemia , Czech Republic ). The son of Ludwig Merckle and Luise Spohn, Adolf Merckle , expanded this stake in 2005 to a majority stake in HeidelbergCement AG .

patron

In 1896/97 Julius Spohn provided substantial financial support for the construction of the concert hall in Ravensburg , which he helped initiate, based on plans by the Viennese theater architects Fellner & Helmer , which is now considered the most important Ravensburg architectural monument from the late 19th century. The theater there from 1897 and an extension from 1899 were largely financed by him.

North portal of the "Spohnschlössle" in Ravensburg (formerly Julius Spohn's house, today part of the Welfen-Gymnasium)

In 1912, the then Mayor of Ravensburg, Andreas Reichle, was able to persuade Julius Spohn to set up a foundation for the construction of a new school building, which was built by 1914 on 8000 m² of former Spohn property based on a design by Heilbronn architect Adolf Braunwald and has been called the Spohn-Gymnasium since the 1930s . Julius Spohn also financed an observatory in the new school building for almost 5,000 marks (according to other sources, 30,000 gold marks). The refractor purchased from Zeiss (Jena) in 1914 had a lens diameter of 110 mm and a focal length of 164 cm (replaced in 2004 by a reflector telescope).

The former home of Julius Spohn in Ravensburg ("Spohnschlössle") is now part of the Welfengymnasium. Julius Spohn, who was interested in technical innovations, is said to have had the first telephone connection in Württemberg in the Spohnschlössle. In 1897 he became a member of the "Association for Patriotic Natural History in Württemberg".

Julius Spohn was also one of the lenders for the 1911–1913 construction of the first Heilbronn city theater .

Honors

Julius Spohn was awarded the honorary title of Privy Councilor of Commerce and in 1897 was made an honorary citizen of the city of Ravensburg. With a local council resolution of July 12, 1906, he became (along with five other personalities) an honorary citizen of the Ilsfeld community in the Heilbronn district, because of his services to the reconstruction of the place after the great fire of 1904.

family

Julius Spohn's parents were Christian Paul Spohn (1803–1884) and Katharina, geb. Gradmann (1811-1891). In 1868 he married the pharmacist's daughter Luise Heiss (1845–1900), who came from Biberach an der Riss . She brought a substantial dowry into the marriage. The couple had seven children:

  • Johann Georg Spohn (1870–1948): cement entrepreneur,
  • Luise Spohn, married Kübel (1871–1955),
  • Julius Spohn (1873–1928),
  • Theodor Spohn (1874–1960),
  • Hermann Spohn (1876–1923): Founded the body shop "Hermann Spohn",
  • Richard Spohn (1880–1959): textile entrepreneur.
  • Karl Spohn (1887–1983): In 1920, together with David Burkhardt, founded the electric motor factory (later electrical engineering factory) " Spohn & Burkhardt ".

Julius Spohn's brother Georg died in 1886 just three years after his wife Auguste. According to a promise, Julius Spohn took the eight children of his brother, who had now become orphans, in with his seven children in his villa.

literature

  • Dieter Kühn: 160 years of the Blaubeuren cement industry. (= Blaubeurer Geographische Hefte , booklet 16.) Denkhaus, Blaubeuren 1999, ISBN 3-930998-16-5 .
  • Alfred Lutz: Julius Spohn, industrialist, patron. In: Maria Magdalena Rückert (Ed.): Württembergische biographies including Hohenzollern personalities. Volume I. On behalf of the Commission for Historical Regional Studies in Baden-Württemberg. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2006, ISBN 3-17-018500-4 , pp. 264-266 ( online ).
  • Thilo Pflugfelder: An early spo (h) nsor. The manufacturer Julius Spohn and his family. In: To Mehlsack and Martinsberg. Stories about the history of the Schussental. Biberacher Verlags-Druckerei, Biberach an der Riß 1991, pp. 170–178.
  • Georg Spohn: Privy Councilor of Commerce Julius Spohn, owner of the Spohn brothers company in Ravensburg, Blaubeuren and Neckarsulm. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1922. (6 pages; not sold in bookshops)
  • Ulrich Viehöver: The influential. Henkel, Otto and Co. Who is in power in Germany. Campus Verlag, Frankfurt am Main / New York 2006, ISBN 3-593-37667-9 , p. 35 ff.

Web links

Commons : Julius Spohn  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Notes and individual references

  1. ↑ This merger of several textile companies belonged to the so-called "Blumenstein Group" around the Jewish entrepreneur Julius Blumenstein and his brothers.
    Jacob Toury: Jewish textile entrepreneurs in Baden-Württemberg 1683-1938. JCB Mohr (Paul Siebeck), Tübingen 1984, ISBN 3-16-744824-5 .
  2. ^ Ulrich Viehöver: The influential ones. Henkel, Otto and Co. Anyone in Germany who has money and makes. (cf. literature ), pp. 11-48.
  3. ↑ Alfred Lutz: From commercial apprentice to large industrialist. Rise, representation and patronage of the Ravensburger Spohn family 1765-1919. (pdf; 113 kB) In: City and bourgeoisie in the Lake Constance area . Dornbirn City Archives. Archived from the original on April 25, 2011. Retrieved April 25, 2011.
  4. ↑ Carsten Przygoda: How it all began . In: ratt-rv.de . June 2008. Archived from the original on April 25, 2011. Retrieved on April 25, 2011.
  5. ^ Helmut Wagner: Renovation and modernization of the observatory . In: Yearbook . Spohn high school . Archived from the original on April 25, 2011. Retrieved April 25, 2011.
  6. ↑ Annual notebooks of the Association for Patriotic Natural History, 53rd year, 1897.
personal data
SURNAME Joke, Julius
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German textile and cement entrepreneur
DATE OF BIRTH July 31, 1841
PLACE OF BIRTH Ravensburg
DATE OF DEATH October 16, 1919
Place of death Ravensburg