Laura von Oelbermann

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Laura von Oelbermann , b. Nickel (born May 18, 1846 in Cologne ; † June 3, 1929 there ) was a Cologne patron and donor of charitable , Protestant institutions, especially for children, young women, widows and the sick. The foundations she set up are committed to supporting children and young people to this day. In recognition of her social commitment , Laura Oelbermann was one of the last people to be raised to the nobility by Kaiser Wilhelm II on August 15, 1918 .

Live and act

Laura Nickel was born in Cologne as the daughter of a brush goods dealer. She attended the Lyceum of the Protestant parish at the Antoniterkirche in Cologne . In 1868 she married the textile merchant Emil Oelbermann , who worked and lived as a commission agent in New York and Chicago as a partner in the Otto Andreae silk goods factory in Mülheim since the late 1850s . Laura Oelbermann moved with her husband to New York, where three of her five sons were born.

Villa Oelbermann, Hohenstaufenring 57

In 1878 the family, who had made considerable fortunes in America, returned to Cologne. In the absence of a suitable residential building, the family initially resided in the Excelsior Hotel Ernst , and later in the Unter Sachsenhausen 4 house . Emil Oelbermann commissioned the architect Hermann Otto Pflaume to build a representative city palace on Hohenstaufenring , which was built in the style of the Italian Renaissance .

After the death of her husband (1897) and her sons Emil (1869–1870), Paul (1871–1871), Emil Jr (1872–1901), Alfred (1874–1904) and Harry (1877–1897), she devoted herself strictly devout Protestant Laura Oelbermann numerous charitable tasks. She established foundations and, with generous donations, made it possible, among other things, to build the first Protestant hospital in Cologne. She donated 150,000 marks for the 575,000 mark hospital building, which was inaugurated in 1902 in Weyertal, in the Cologne district of Lindenthal .

Auguste Victoria Hospital in Jerusalem

In 1900, on her initiative, Frauenhilfe , an evangelical aid association, was founded in Cologne. She herself managed the club until the end of the First World War . Laura Oelbermann was also a member of the board of the Rheinisches Provinzialverband der Frauenhilfe for many years. She organized meals for the poor, recreational opportunities for the poor and orphans, arranged work for single women and mothers, and often helped with social work herself.

In 1906 she donated 1,000,000 marks for the construction of the Auguste Viktoria Hospital on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem , which cost 2,225,000 marks and was inaugurated in 1910. For this she was honored with the Prussian Mount of Olives Cross . In 1909 she got involved in the Palestine Foundation, which initiated the construction of a household school in Jerusalem. Before the First World War, Laura Oelbermann was one of the richest inhabitants of Cologne with an estimated fortune of 16–17 million marks. She also generously supported cultural life in her hometown; in 1912 she financed a research trip to Asia for the Museum of East Asian Art .

Laura von Oelbermann was the owner of numerous properties in the early 1920s, including on Hohenstaufenring (No. 30, 32, 48, 50, 52, 54 & 57), on Jahnstrasse (No. 36, 38), on Mauritiuswall (No. 15 and 17) as well as the house at Engelbertstrasse 88. Except for her house and the property at Engelbertstrasse 88, she sold the land until 1925 to the Parisian businessman Gayet.

During his lifetime decreed Laura of Oelbermann testamentary that the inventory of their home Hohenstaufenring to be auctioned 57 after her death and the proceeds of the auction will benefit their foundations. The auction of the furniture and the extensive art collections was carried out from December 11th to 14th, 1929 by the Kunsthaus Lempertz on Neumarkt in Cologne. The auctioned items included 57 Persian carpets , 169 pieces of furniture, 700 handicraft items including a 600-piece Meissen service , over 90 Meissen statues and groups of figures, 12 KPM mocha cups as a gift from Queen Auguste Victoria , stoneware from the Westerwald , Siegburg and Raeren . Among the 120 paintings auctioned were pictures by Camille Jean Baptist Corot ( Schlösschen am Wasser ), Théodore Rousseau ( river-crossed evening landscape with farmstead in the foreground ), Wilhelm Leibl ( portrait of cousin Dr. Karl Leibl; head of a peasant girl , farmstead between the trees , drinker Man with mug and long clay pipe ), Hans Thoma ( Black Forest landscape with shepherd children ), Franz von Lenbach ( portrait of Hans Makart) , Max Liebermann ( rider in the dunes ), Franz von Defregger ( ball on the mountain pasture ) and von Berthe Art ( flower piece ).

Oelbermann tomb in the Melaten cemetery

After her death, the house at Hohenstaufenring 57 was converted into a boarding house for working Protestant girls and a venue for Protestant virgins' associations. In 1931 the first of the 60 residents moved into the simply furnished rooms. The converted city palace survived the Second World War and was used as a working home for the Oelbermann Foundation until the end of the 1970s. In the early 1980s, the Oelbermannsche Villa was demolished in order to build a commercial building on the property.

Laura von Oelbermann was buried next to her husband in Cologne's Melaten cemetery (MA at hall 70). The tomb was designed by Karl Janssen on behalf of Laura von Oelbermann after the death of her husband in 1897 and was partially destroyed in the Second World War. On the edge of the tomb there are commemorative plaques for her sons who died early. The grave inscription for Laura von Oelbermann next to her husband reads: Frau Emil von Oelbermann. Laura born Nickel . Before the war, the Oelbermann family grave was one of the largest figurative grave sites in the Melaten cemetery, the one on the pedestal with the inscription: Father, I want that, where I am, those you gave me to be with me; for you loved me before the world was founded for him. (Joh.17,24) is provided.

Despite Laura von Oelbermann's testamentary decree that the city ​​of Cologne should decorate the tomb for All Saints' Day , Sunday in the dead and the days of death, the tomb fell into disrepair and was not fully repaired until 2009.

Donations and facilities from the Laura von Oelbermann Foundation

After the death of her husband and her sons, Laura Oelbermann made extensive donations, including 150,000 marks for the immediate start of construction of a Protestant hospital in Cologne, 42,500 marks for the German hospital in New York, 10,000 marks each for the asylum for women who have recently given birth and for the association for Feriencolonien, 8,000 marks for the nursery in the south of Cologne, 6,000 marks for the German church in Jerusalem , 5,000 marks for the poor Law as a Christmas gift, the 4000 Mark for various Protestant churches and the association for caring for the blind in Cologne, 3500 Mark for the Protestant children's home in Cologne, 3,000 marks for the charity, 2,000 marks for the Protestant women's association and 1,000 marks each for the prison association and the association of female employees.

After the death of her son Emil JR, she made further extensive donations in 1901, including 24,000 marks for women's aid in Cologne, 20,000 marks for the construction of the Protestant hospital, 10,000 marks to alleviate unemployment , and 4,000 marks each as an annual donation to equip the Protestant hospital chapel and for the establishment of the Syrian orphanage in Jerusalem as well as 2,000 marks each for the Association for People's Welfare and for the Charity Association

Another generous donation from Laura Oelbermann in the amount of 1,000,000 marks enabled the inauguration of the Charlottenhaus , a children's and orphanage as well as a home for babies and mothers , on April 28, 1913 in the presence of Princess Charlotte of Saxony-Meiningen at Severinstrasse 158 , Ms. Oelbermann's maintenance was paid for from the foundation funds.

In 1916 she transferred 1,000,000 marks to the evangelical community in Cologne for the construction of the Auguste Victoria crèche at Overstolzenstrasse 23 and the Emilienhortes at Handelstrasse 25, which were inaugurated on October 22, 1916. After her death, a maternity home was inaugurated at Volksgartenstrasse 46/48. Even after the Second World War, the facilities were partially continued. From the funds of the Oelbermann Foundations were u. a. the day clinic in Pionierstrasse and a youth center in Buchheim are financed.

The Emil and Laura Oelberman Foundation, registered on January 1, 1930, and the Laura von Oelbermann Foundation have existed as a non-profit foundation to the present day. According to the statutes, the interest on the foundation capital was used as annual support for the surviving dependents of Protestant pastors. The management of their foundation is in the hands of the Evangelical City Church Association of Cologne.

Honors

literature

  • Udo W. Hombach: Laura Oelbermann compact. Cologne, August 2019, online publication, www. udo-w-hombach.de
  • Anne Sass: Prosperity and Welfare - Laura Oelbermann between Protestant auxiliary work and luxury life . In: Kölner Frauengeschichtsverein (Hrsg.): "10 o'clock punctually Gürzenich" - A hundred years of moving women in Cologne . Agenda, Münster 1995, ISBN 3-929440-53-9 , pp. 109-114.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Josef Abt, Joh. Rolf Beines, Celia Körber-Leupold: Melaten - Cologne graves and history . Greven, Cologne 1997, ISBN 3-7743-0305-3 , p. 105 f .
  2. ↑ Irene Franken: Women in Cologne . In: The historical city guide . JP Bachem, Cologne 2008, ISBN 978-3-7616-2029-8 , pp. 143 f .
  3. ^ Hiltrud Kier & Werner Schäfke: The Cologne rings - history and splendor of a street . Vista Point, Cologne 1987, ISBN 3-88973-066-3 , p. 23 .
  4. ^ Ulrich S. Soénius (Ed.), Jürgen Wilhelm (Ed.): Kölner Personen-Lexikon. Greven, Cologne 2007, ISBN 978-3-7743-0400-0 , p. 402.
  5. ^ A b Anne Sass: Prosperity and Welfare - Laura Oelbermann between Protestant auxiliary work and luxury life . In: Kölner Frauengeschichtsverein (Hrsg.): 10 a.m. punctually Gürzenich - Hundred years of moving women in Cologne . Agenda, Münster 1995, ISBN 3-929440-53-9 , p. 110 ff .
  6. ^ Karl Möckl: Economic bourgeoisie in the German states in the 19th and early 20th centuries . In: Büdinger research on social history . tape 1987/1988 . Büdingen 1988, p. 278 .
  7. ↑ a b c d e Klara von Eyll: Leafed through Cologne address books . Greven, Cologne 1978, ISBN 3-7743-0160-3 , p. 96-98 .
  8. ↑ Interior furnishings of the house Mrs. Laura von Oelbermann †, Cologne, Hohenstaufenring 57: furniture, antiques, handicrafts, Persian carpets; Auction in the same place: December 12-14, 1929 . In: Kunsthaus Lempertz (Ed.): Catalog . tape 294 . Bachem, Cologne 1929, p. 24 .
  9. ^ Gallery Ms. Laura von Oelbermann, Hochstaufenring 57 . In: Kunsthaus Lempertz (Ed.): Catalog . tape 293 . Bachem, Cologne 1929, p. 79 .
  10. ↑ a b Detlef Rick: Melaten - graves tell the history of the city . 2nd Edition. emons, Cologne 2010, ISBN 978-3-89705-789-0 , p. 73 f .
  11. ^ City of Cologne (ed.): 200 years of Melaten - Festschrift and event program . Cologne 2010, p. 17th f .
  12. ↑ MIK NRW: Looking for foundations. (No longer available online.) In: www.mik.nrw.de. Archived from the original on November 6, 2016 ; accessed on November 6, 2016 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.mik.nrw.de
personal data
SURNAME Oelbermann, Laura von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Nickel, Laura (maiden name); Oelbermann, Laura (married name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German patron and founder
DATE OF BIRTH May 18, 1846
PLACE OF BIRTH Cologne
DATE OF DEATH June 3, 1929
Place of death Cologne