Konrad Gustav Pastor

Konrad Gustav Pastor (born June 2, 1796 in Aachen - Burtscheid , † January 20, 1890 in Liège ) was a German industrialist and key reorganizer of the SA Cockerill .

Live and act

The son of the Burtscheid cloth manufacturer Karl Philipp Pastor (1745–1810) and Anna Gertrud Schmitz (1760–1809) began technical training in their parents' company after finishing school. Subsequently, John Cockerill , who was married to Pastor's cousin Johanna Friederike, took it over in 1813 in his steel production and mechanical engineering company, which was under construction. At a total of 60 locations, many of them outside of Belgium, Cockerill's coal works and ironworks, spinning mills, cloth factories, mechanical engineering workshops and others were operated. A few years later, Pastor also founded a worsted yarn factory in Verviers , where his relative Gottfried Pastor also spent his apprenticeship years. Konrad Gustav Pastor benefited above all from the experience of William Cockerill, senior , also resident in Verviers , father of John Cockerill, who manufactured weaving machines in Verviers . In the meantime Pastor traveled to England again and again to get up to date with the latest industrial technology through internships .

In the run-up to the Belgian Revolution in 1830, John's second partner and brother, James Cockerill, sold his shares to the United Kingdom of the Netherlands in 1823 and relocated his activities to the Aachen area. With that, John Cockerill became the sole owner and in 1829 appointed Pastor as its general manager. However, during the time of the revolution and the subsequent economic and financial crisis up to 1839, he could initially only lead the company into liquidation and then reorganize it. By rejection of the entire property with the exception of Seraing and Liege, succeeded Pastor after Cockerills sudden death in 1840 to save the core of the company and on the basis of Sera Inger systems, the " Societe Anonyme des Etablissements John Cockerill to make" short SA Cockerill which in the following years again rose to a company with a worldwide reputation. Pastor introduced numerous technical innovations, such as the coke oven , and was one of the first on the mainland to use the Bessemer method .

Pastor headed the company until 1865 and as Chairman of the Board of Directors until 1869. His two sons from his marriage to Adele Hodson (1810–1888), Gustave Léon Pastor (1832–1922) and Georg Oktave Pastor (1835–1915), he employed as trained metallurgical engineers in his work and appointed Georg Oktave as his successor General Manager and Gustav Léon as Operations Manager. Both continued to build on the company's successful position and stayed with it until they left in 1871.

Konrad Gustav Pastor, who was affectionately known by the population as “the Belgian pastor”, was still active in charity in many respects after his retirement from active service. In addition, he was President of the Liege Chamber of Commerce . For his services to the Belgian economy in general and to the Liege region in particular, he was made an honorary citizen of Belgium with the Commander's Cross of the Belgian Order of Leopold and a street in Seraing was named after him.

Literature and Sources

Hermann Friedrich Macco : Contributions to the Genealogy of Rhenish noble and patrician families , Vol. IV: History and genealogy of the Pastor family , 1905

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personal data
SURNAME	Pastor, Konrad Gustav
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German industrialist and reorganizer of SA Cockerill
DATE OF BIRTH	June 2, 1796
PLACE OF BIRTH	Burtscheid
DATE OF DEATH	January 20, 1890
Place of death	Liege