Lorenz Goebel

Lorenz Goebel (born November 17, 1853 in Mainz , † November 30, 1936 there ) was a German confectioner and manufacturer .

Life

Lorenz Goebel was born in November 1853 as the eldest son of Nikolaus Goebel (1818-1897) and his wife into a Mainz baker and confectioner family. The founder of the tradition was Johann Jakob Goebel (1777–1837), who moved from Niederlahnstein to Mainz in the early 19th century . The Goebel family originally ground their flour on the ship mills on the banks of the Rhine and operated in the old town of Mainza bakery at Augustinerstraße 12. Lorenz Goebel first did an apprenticeship with his father and his uncle before he went abroad. He is said to have stayed in Brussels, Vienna, Paris and Nice. After his return he founded a confectionery factory in Augustinerstr. 12. While the range of baked goods, sweets and pralines was manageable at the beginning, the creative confectioner gradually came up with new ideas. Among other things, he invented the "Rocks", glass-like candy slices as thick as a finger, in which - similar to Venetian glass art - flowers and butterflies were embedded. Goebel brought momentum to his shop from the start. As a result, the shop on Augustinerstrasse soon became too small. And the property that Goebel bought for the shop and factory in Franziskanerstraße soon offered too little space. By 1890 the company already had around 100 employees and the company moved to a complex on the corner of Fuststrasse and Gymnasiumstrasse. On both sides of the street you could read the big lettering "Conditoreiwaren & Bonbonfabrik L. Goebel". Before the First World War, the “Goebel Sugar Factory” had almost 200 employees and was one of the largest companies in Mainz. In an article in the latest advertisement from 1908, the company was characterized as "by far the largest sugar confectionery factory in Hesse and goods after central, southern and western Germany and Luxembourg". The factory was known not only for its innovative and fresh products, but also for the successful use of technical means. Customers could admire this in the "Monder", the shop window, for example, a rabbit laying Easter eggs or a Santa Claus who took gingerbread figures out of his sack and then smoked a cigar. Modern machines and ovens were introduced, an elevator in the inner courtyard transported flour and sugar to the silos in the warehouse, from where they fell through pipes into the work rooms. Baked goods drove through the ovens on suspension trains, and molds for Santa Clauses and Easter bunnies were made in the company's own atelier. Goebel also used technical progress to design shop windows, which was very important to him. Figures that moved with the help of invisible mechanics repeatedly attracted onlookers: the hunter who shoots the hare and then falls into the well himself; Santa Claus who takes pieces of gingerbread out of a sack and shoves himself in his mouth, threatens to raise his rod or smoke a cigar. Shortly after the end of the First World War, Lorenz Goebel withdrew from the operational business of the company and transferred responsibility to his three sons, including Joseph Philipp (1879–1938) and Nikolaus (1884–1917), who were married to Anna Dittel Mainz came from. He died at the age of 83. His grave is on theMain cemetery Mainz .

Honors

Lorenz Goebel received an honorary award from the city of Mainz and a state award from the Grand Duchy of Hesse-Darmstadt for his products .

literature

• Wolfgang Stumme: Mainzer Hauptfriedhof II. People and their final resting places. 31 portraits, Mainz 2013.