Karoline Kaulla

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Johann Baptist Seele : Madame Kaulla (no year)

Karoline "Chaile" Kaulla , née Karoline Raphael (* 1739 in Buchau am Federsee ; † March 18, 1809 in Hechingen ), best known under the name Madame Kaulla , was one of the greatest court factors in her time and was considered the richest woman in Germany . She is the namesake of the Swabian entrepreneur family Kaulla .

Origin and family

Karoline, Hebrew " Chaile ", Kaulla was born in Buchau in 1739 as the eldest of six children of Isak Raphael and his wife Rebecca Wassermann from Regensburg († 1797). The father was head of the Jewish community in Buchau and court factor in the service of the House of Hohenzollern-Hechingen . The great-grandson of her second youngest brother Hirsch Raphael Kaulla (approx. 1756–1798) was Alfred von Kaulla (1852–1924). At the age of 18, Karoline Kaulla was married to the horse dealer Akiba (Kiefe) Auerbach (1733-1812) in Hechingen in 1757 , with whom she had five children, including three sons Mayer (1757-1823), Wolf (1758-1841) and Raphael (1763-1828). Rudolf Kaulla (1872–1954) was her great-grandson.

Life

Karoline and her siblings received an upbringing that was customary in enlightened families of the Jewish upper class of the 18th century: lessons were given by a private tutor . Karoline took over the management of the horse trade, as her husband mainly studied the Torah and Talmud and left the economic security of the rapidly growing family to his wife.

Karoline Kaulla's business career only really began when she took over his father's business after the death of her father in 1760. Karoline Kaulla founded the wholesale company "Kaulla & Cie." In Hechingen, which her brother Jacob Raphael later joined. The siblings initially traded in luxury goods (e.g. noble horses, precious textiles, jewels, rare coins and medals). In 1768, at the age of twenty-nine, she received her patent as a court factor "Kaula Raphael" from Prince zu Fürstenberg in Donaueschingen . From the paraphrasing "Kaula" or "Kaulla" of her German name Karoline used here, her new family name, which was soon in common use in business life at the time, arose, which was so successful that it was also adopted by her husband, brothers and their descendants. In 1770, at her request, she became the ducal-Württemberg court factor and thus successor to the Württemberg court factor Joseph Suss Oppenheimer (1672–1738), who had been executed in Stuttgart. In 1780 Karoline Kaulla's younger brother, Jacob Raphael Kaulla (approx. 1750–1810), also became court factor for the princes of Fürstenberg in Donaueschingen.

The first big job as a military supplier received the Kaullas 1790 for the Netherlands standing Habsburg troops. During the coalition wars (1792–1815) they supplied the imperial armies in particular . The wealth obtained from this trade formed the basis for the Kaullas' money transactions, which have been increasingly evident since around 1800. In particular, loans were granted to the Duchy of Württemberg, which were covered by expected British aid payments (" subsidies "). These payments ran into the millions of guilders in the course of the coalition wars . In 1797, the Kaulla siblings received court protection for the Württemberg residences in Stuttgart and Ludwigsburg, which the duke had to withdraw after protests from the Stuttgart citizens and merchants in 1798. Instead, Jacob Raphael Kaulla was appointed court banker in Stuttgart on February 9, 1800.

In 1802 Karoline Kaulla and her brother Jacob Raphael Kaulla moved the headquarters of their trading company to Stuttgart. In addition, they outsourced the trading company's money business to a subsidiary also based in Stuttgart and named the bank created in this way “M. & J. Kaulla ". The "M" stood for "Madame". With this, Karoline Kaulla established the first private bank in Stuttgart in addition to the flourishing trading company. Duke (from 1806 king) Friedrich Wilhelm Karl von Württemberg took a 50% share in the bank's start-up capital of 150,000 thalers . The task of this court bank was not only to handle royal financial transactions, but also to grant loans for business start-ups.

Renamed in 1805 to “Königlich Württembergische Hofbank”, this institute remained a semi-state private bank with the king's involvement. This bank was run by members of the Kaulla family until 1915. In 1922 it was taken over by the Württembergische Vereinsbank and merged with the Deutsche Bank in 1924 .

In 1806 King Friedrich von Württemberg appointed Karoline and Jacob Raphael Kaulla and three other members of the Kaulla family and all of their descendants to Württemberg subjects with full rights. From 1807 to 1814 the Kaullas were also leased the Württemberg salt monopoly .

Grave monument at the Jewish cemetery in Hechingen

Karoline Kaulla died on March 18, 1809 at the age of 70 in Hechingen. She is buried in the Jewish cemetery in Hechingen ; their impressive grave monument has been preserved.

Charity

Karoline Kaulla's social commitment earned her respect even during her lifetime. She also used her good contacts to the Princely House of Hohenzollern-Hechingen for the benefit of the Jewish community in Hechingen. There she founded a home for homeless Jews in 1803, a Talmud school and a library.

Honors

Jacob Raphael Kaulla had already received the title of Imperial Councilor in 1801 for his services in delivering goods to the imperial armies. Karoline Kaulla was awarded the great imperial civil merit medal on the golden chain of honor by Emperor Franz I in 1808 . According to a family legend, the emperor first offered Madame Kaulla her elevation to the hereditary nobility. However, this refused out of fear that an increase in rank could induce her descendants to apostate from the Jewish faith. No fewer than five members of her family, all of whom were Jewish, received the Württemberg staff nobility in later years because of their own merits . But only one member of the Kaulla family, Joseph Wolf Kaulla (von Kaulla since 1841), received the hereditary nobility , not in Württemberg, but in the neighboring Principality of Hohenzollern-Hechingen .

Streets in Hechingen, Schwäbisch Hall and Stuttgart are named after Karoline Kaulla.

See also

literature

  • Lea Hampel: Early messenger of globalization. Karoline Kaulla was at times one of the richest women in Europe. Among other things, it financed the wars of the Empire against Napoleon. But society set limits. That is why the pious businesswoman let her brother go first (SZ series These women have moved the financial world, part 26 ), in: Süddeutsche Zeitung , 29./30. August 2015, p. 26.
  • Rotraud Ries: Chutzpah, Calculus and Fantasy - Career and Post-Fame of Entrepreneur Mme. Kaulla (1739-1809) , lecture at the German Historians ' Day, October 3, 2008
  • Gabriele Katz: The first female entrepreneur in southern Germany and the richest woman of her time. Madame Kaulla . Markstein-Verlag, Filderstadt 2006, ISBN 978-3-935129-32-9 .
  • Wolfgang Schmierer: Baden-Württemberg portraits, edited by Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann . Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt Stuttgart, Stuttgart 1999, ISBN 3-421-05271-9 , pp. 37-41 .
  • Sybille Oßwald-Bargende: Group picture with lady: Madame Karoline Kaulla, court factor . In: Stuttgarter Frauenmuseum eV, Equal Opportunities Office Stuttgart (Ed.): Secretly, quietly and industriously? Women's work in the Stuttgart region since the 18th century; a historical reader . Silberburg-Verlag, 1995, ISBN 3-87407-216-9 , p. 59-71 .
  • Heinrich Kohring: The inscriptions of the Kaulla grave monuments on the Jewish cemetery in Hechingen, text and translation as well as philological and content- related commentary, in: ZHG 21 (1985), pp. 171-213.

Web links

Commons : Karoline Kaulla  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Manfred Pohl and Angelika Raab-Rebentisch: The Deutsche Bank in Stuttgart - 1924–1999. Piper, Munich 1999, page 18.
  2. ↑ Hans-Ulrich Fehler: "Deutsche Gesellschaftgeschichte 1815-1845 / 49", 4th edition, Verlag CH Beck, Munich 1905, p. 108, ISBN 3-406-32490-8
  3. ^ Rudolf Lenz: Kaulla, Chaile, nee Raphael . In: Neue Deutsche Biographie 11 (1977), pp. 360–362 [online version]; URL: http://www.deutsche-biographie.de/pnd132530244.html (accessed on January 19, 2016).
  4. ↑ Lexicon History Baden + Württemberg: Kaulla, Karoline (Chaile), Hofaktorin, Bankerin ( Memento of the original from January 11, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Extract from: Gabriele Katz: The first female entrepreneur in southern Germany and the richest woman of her time. Madame Kaulla , Markstein-Verlag, Filderstadt 2006, ISBN 978-3-935129-32-9 ; accessed on January 19, 2016). @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.s-line.de
  5. ^ Kai Drewes: “Jüdischer Adel - Nobilitierungen von Juden in Europa des 19. Century”, Campus Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2013, p. 100, ISBN 978-3-593-39775-7
  6. ^ Kai Drewes: “Jüdischer Adel - Nobilitierungen von Juden in Europa des 19. Century”, Campus Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2013, p. 98, ISBN 978-3-593-39775-7
  7. ↑ Google Maps: Hechingen, Kaullastraße (Link)
  8. ↑ Google Maps: Schwäbisch Hall, Kaullaweg (Link)
  9. ↑ Google Maps: Stuttgart, Karoline-Kaulla-Weg (Link)
personal data
SURNAME Kaulla, Karoline
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kaulla, Chaile (nickname); Raphael, Karoline (maiden name); Kaulla, madame
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German court factor
DATE OF BIRTH 1739
PLACE OF BIRTH Buchau am Federsee
DATE OF DEATH March 18, 1809
Place of death Hechingen