Kessel & Röhl

Kessel & Röhl was a nationally renowned stonemason company operating in the second half of the 19th century . The joint-stock company specialized in granite grinding . Operating facilities were located in Berlin (company headquarters), Wolgast and Scandinavia (especially in Sweden , but also in Norway ).

The founder and owner was Adolf Kessel. It became particularly known for the delivery and stonemason's processing of numerous bases of statue monuments ( equestrian statues , war memorials ) in the German Empire and beyond. After the North German Confederation and its South German allies had won the Franco-Prussian War in 1870/71 , the demand for stone for the construction of victory monuments, which were mainly erected in northern German cities, increased.

Granite, which came from the company's own quarries in Sweden and Norway, was often used. At that time Kessel & Röhl was one of the most important companies in the Swedish stone industry. The dispatcher (managing director) of the company in Sweden was Carl Schylander. Initially (from 1870) the stone was brought from the Blekinge area . Later, red Bohusgranite came from Bohuslän (south-west Sweden) and coarse-grained granite from Stångehuvud near Lysekil (south-west Sweden; there the company built a stone cutting shop). The company had another large location around Oskarshamn (Vånevik, Uthammar). In Vånevik, Kessel & Röhl had a villa built from the local reddish granite in 1877 as a branch of the company and at the same time Schylander's private residence.

However, due to the imposition of high import duties on processed stone, the profitability of the business decreased, so that in 1904 the quarry and grinding shop on Stångholmesund was sold to the Hebbel & Co. company.

Work examples

Victory Column 1870/1871 in Schwerin

Prince Albrecht of Prussia Monument in Berlin-Charlottenburg

• Bremen : War memorial 1870/71
• Spandau : Memorial to those who fell in the German Unification Wars (1876) (not preserved)
• Frankfurt (Oder) : Sedand monument (not preserved)
• Barmen : Statue of Emil Rittershaus in the Barmer grounds
• Barmen : Bismarck monument
• Charlottenburg : Prince Albrecht monument by the sculptors Eugen Boermel and Conrad Freyberg
• Elberfeld : Bismarck monument 1898 (not preserved)
• Schwerin : equestrian monument to Friedrich Franz II. 1893
• Schwerin: Victory Column 1870/71 in the Old Garden, 1873
• Schwerin: Bismarck monument 1901 (not preserved)
• Parchim : Moltke monument 1876
• Rostock : Friedrich-Franz-III.-Monument 1901 (not preserved)
• Chemnitz : Monument to Kaiser Wilhelm I (not preserved)
• Hanover : Provincial War Memorial (not preserved, location was at today's Emmichplatz )
• Berlin: Tomb for the pharmacist Gustav Schubarth in the old St. Matthäus-Kirchhof, 1889 grabpatenschaften-berlin.de
• Eisenach : Bach monument on the Frauenplan, 1884

Monuments in Cologne , Dresden , Jena and Darmstadt were also erected on pedestals by Kessel & Röhl.

• The Hague : Spinoza Monument

Web links

• Memories of Wolgast granite grinders

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Stenindustrien . In: John Rosén, Theodor Westrin, Bernhard Meijer (eds.): Nordisk familjebok konversationslexikon och realencyklopedi . 1st edition. tape 15 : Socker – Tengström . Gernandts boktryckeri, Stockholm 1891, Sp. 484 (Swedish, runeberg.org - middle of the column).
2. ↑ Uthammars Historia: Stenhuggeriet ( Memento of the original of August 22, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF) 
3. ↑ Stenbrytningen på Stångehuvud