Leberecht Hoffmann

Leberecht Hoffmann around 1914

Leberecht Carl Heinrich Hoffmann (born July 2, 1863 in Salzuflen, † October 19, 1928 in Bad Salzuflen ) was an entrepreneur and politician from Lippe . From 1894 until his death he managed Hoffmann's starch factories , the largest industrial company in Bad Salzuflen at the time.

parents house

Leberecht Hoffmann was born on July 2, 1863 as the eldest son of Eduard Hoffmann (1832-1894) and his first wife Johanne Böhmer (1839-1868) in Salzuflen. He had a particularly warm relationship with his older sister Friederike Edeling (1861–1937), known as Frieda. His two younger biological siblings, Emilie and Heinrich, died in childhood. From his father's second marriage to Wilhelmine Lossnitzer (1846–1912), the step-siblings Ernst (1871–1920), Wilhelm (1874–1951) and Paul (1875–1931) emerged.

School and education

From Easter 1869 to Easter 1875 Leberecht Hoffmann attended the Salzufler Rector School and then the Lemgoer Gymnasium. In 1878 he moved to the Dresden-Neustadt grammar school and in 1880 to the Leopoldinum grammar school in Detmold. There he graduated from high school in 1882. During the following military service as a one-year volunteer at the Infantry Regiment Kaiser Wilhelm (second Grand Ducal Hessian) no. 116 in Giessen he visited in the off-duty time lectures in chemistry and history at the local university . However, he did not take up studies, but began commercial training in Cologne in 1883, which later also took him to France and Great Britain.

family

Leberecht Hoffmann married his cousin Johanne Hoffmann (1870–1931) on March 14, 1891. They had a harmonious marriage that resulted in six children. Most of them died in childhood and Leberecht Hoffmann jun. (1897–1915), who was supposed to follow in his father's footsteps at Hoffmann's starch factories, died at the age of 18. He served in a Prussian hussar regiment in Lithuania during World War I in 1915 and fell while on patrol. Only Victoria Hoffmann (1904–1998) survived her parents.

Hoffmann's starch factories

Leberecht Hoffmann joined his father's company on October 1, 1884 and was initially employed as a traveler at home and abroad. This changed in 1887 when he worked permanently in Salzuflen to support his father Eduard Hoffmann, who was in poor health, and was appointed authorized signatory on December 31 of the same year . In June 1889 he took part in a board meeting for the first time. From then on he regularly represented his father at these meetings. Leberecht Hoffmann took on more and more tasks until he was appointed to the company's board of directors and thus his father's successor on December 31, 1894, around 14 days after the death of Eduard Hoffmann, by the supervisory board of Hoffmann's starch factories.

Around 1900 the company employed around 1200 people and had become the most powerful commercial enterprise in Lippe.

In the post-war period, however, the company only managed to build on the company's pre-war successes with difficulty.

Since his three sons had died early, Leberecht Hoffmann could not appoint any of them as his successor. He also considered his half-brother Wilhelm Hoffmann unsuitable, which is why he wrote in a letter to the members of the supervisory board in September 1926 that, in the event of his death, Otto Künne , a long-time employee and his confidante, would be his successor. After his death on October 19, 1928, the Supervisory Board complied with this recommendation and appointed Otto Künne as General Director.

Leberecht Hoffmann's signature

Economic and political engagement

In addition to his work as managing director of the starch factories, Leberecht Hoffmann was also involved in various other economic bodies. From 1913 until his death he was chairman of the Chamber of Commerce of the Principality and Free State of Lippe. He was also a member of the Foreign Trade Committee of the German Industry and Trade Conference and an advisory board for the Reichsnachrichtenstelle at the Foreign Office. He worked on the main tax committee at the Detmold tax office, on the electricity advisory board of the Weser Association and on various other committees.

In September 1900, on the company's 50th anniversary, as head of the largest industrial company in Lippe, he was awarded the title of Kommerzienrat by the Lippe State Ministry . The award was made against his express will. Leberecht Hoffmann had advocated that some of the workers should be awarded a medal of merit instead. He never made use of the title and achieved in 1904 that it was withdrawn.

Before the First World War he was politically active in the National Liberal Party and held various offices

Political body	Office
City Council	Member from 1890 to 1898; 1893 to 1895 as chairman
Landtag Lippe	1897–1919 National Liberal MP; Vice President February 1901 to March 1918
State Committee of the National Liberal Party for Lippe	Chairman
National liberal regional association for Minden-Ravensberg and the principalities of Lippe	from 1909 party executive

After the First World War, he joined the successor to the National Liberal Party, the German People's Party (DVP) , but did not hold any offices.

Despite the many political offices that he held, he never strived for a career in politics, work in his own company always had priority. Only during the Lippe succession dispute (1895-1905) did he get into the headlines because of his political convictions when he publicly advocated the Bückeburg cause.

Private life

Leberecht Hoffmann particularly enjoyed spending his free time on music. He played the piano himself and invited singers, violinists and other artists to join him to make music. He was especially adored Richard Wagner , on the 25th anniversary of his death in 1908, he even gave a speech in the Salzufler Bildungsverein. After 1900 he attended the Bayreuth Festival almost every year . Leberecht Hoffmann was also enthusiastic about literature and owned an extensive library, which is largely preserved to this day. Underlinings and marginal notes in most of the books testify to a thorough examination of their content. Leberecht Hoffmann was also not averse to sport. He played tennis or went on long bike rides with his daughter Victoria. He traveled to St. Moritz occasionally to ski there. He spent longer vacations with his wife in southern Germany, Switzerland and Italy. He also owned a spacious property in Berlebeck (Berlebeck No. 171, today Berlebeck Heide 1), which he had to sell as a result of inflation. In Salzuflen he was involved in numerous associations, such as B. the Natural Science and Historical Association for the State of Lippe , the Beautification Association, the Lippischer Bund for Heimatschutz und Heimatpflege , the Salzufler Citizens Association and the Salzufler Warrior Association.

literature

• Gustav Delpy: Festschrift for the fiftieth anniversary of Hoffmann's starch factories AG Salzuflen on September 29, 1900 . Salzuflen 1900.
• Franz Meyer and Stefan Wiesekopsieker: The company archive of Hoffmann's starch factories as permanent loan in the Bad Salzufler city archive . "Archive maintenance in Westphalia and Lippe", issue 39, April 1994.
• Stefan Wiesekopsieker: Hoffmann's starch factories in Salzuflen: entrepreneurs, workforce and company social policy, 1850-1914 . Institute for Lippe Regional Studies, Lemgo 2005, ISBN 978-3-936225-16-7 .
• Otto Sartorius: 100 years of Hoffmann's starch factories in Bad Salzuflen . Bielefeld 1950.
• Statute and family table for the Leberecht Fürchtegott Hoffmann Family Foundation . Bremen 1899 (continued through addenda until 1914).

Web links

Commons : Hoffmann's starch factories  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

• Official website of Reckitt Benckiser

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Bad Salzuflen City Archives, HI 3676, fol. 71
2. ↑ Bad Salzuflen City Archives, HI 3786
3. ↑ City Archives Bad Salzuflen, HI 3786 and 3787
4. ↑ Correspondence published in 1905 by Leberecht Hoffmann on this matter (Stadtarchiv Bad Salzuflen, H VI 88)
5. ↑ General Gazette for Salzuflen, Schötmar and Oerlinghausen from February 25, 1908