Luitwin von Boch-Galhau

Johann Benedict Luitwin von Boch-Galhau (* 25. February 1875 /1877 in Mettlach , † 18th May 1932 ) was a German entrepreneur. He was one of the main owners of the Villeroy & Boch company and its general manager from 1917 to 1932.

Life

Boch-Galhau was the second-born son of the entrepreneur René von Boch-Galhau , the owner of the stoneware manufactory Villeroy and Boch, and his wife Maria Pescatore. His older brother was Roger von Boch-Galhau (1873-1917), who, like him, gained some importance as an entrepreneur. Sister Martha was also part of the family who married the officer and later Chancellor Franz von Papen in 1905 .

Boch-Galhau was determined early on by his father to manage the family business together with his older brother: in 1898 he joined the company. In 1899 he became head of the Mettlach mosaic factory. In 1909 he took over the general management of the company together with Roger von Boch-Galhau. When his brother joined the military as a reserve officer at the beginning of the First World War, he took over the responsibility for managing the company on his own until further notice. After the death of his brother in Russia in 1917, with the approval of the shareholders' meeting of Villeroy & Boch, he was appointed permanent sole manager of the company with the title of General Director.

The comprehensive restructuring of Villeroy & Boch after the First World War under the direction of Boch-Galhaus was of importance to the company's history: As the company no longer imports any goods into the Reich from its headquarters in the newly formed Saar area, which was now under the administration of the League of Nations allowed, the various smaller plants located in the Reich were combined to form a joint stock company based in Breslau-Deutsch-Lissa. This included stoneware factories in Bonn and Dresden, a mosaic tile factory in Deutsch-Lissa and a factory in Dänischburg. In 1924 the headquarters of the AG was relocated to Dresden (after the Saar was re-incorporated into the German Reich in 1935, the AG was finally dissolved).

At the time of Boch-Galhaus's death, his company comprised eleven factories (six earthenware and four plate factories and one crystal factory) as well as thirty sales branches in Germany and abroad. The number of his workers was around 10,000.

In addition to managing his own company, Boch-Galhau held the position of Dr. Ing. E. H. from 1921 as President of the Saarland Chamber of Commerce . In addition, he was chairman of Section IV of the trade association for the Saar region and a member of the cooperative board, chairman of section VII of the pottery trade association and member of the cooperative board, member of the main committee of the Reich Association of German Industry and the Chamber of Industry and Commerce, member of the International Chamber of Commerce and honorary member of the German Ceramic Society as well as member of various supervisory boards, u. a. of the Supervisory Board of Deutsche Bank.

He played a political role indirectly by acting as the middleman of the Langnamverein, receiving monetary contributions that the Ruhr industry made to his brother-in-law, the central politician Franz von Papen, in the 1920s and 1930s, as supposed business transactions, and then received the corresponding amount paid out to his brother-in-law from another account. In this way, Papen's connection to the Ruhr industry, whose political interests he defended within the Center Party and as chairman of the Germania newspaper, should be concealed from the public.

After Boch-Galhaus's death, his son of the same name Luitwin (1906–1988) took over the management of the company.

Marriage and offspring

Boch-Galhau was married to Adeline Freiin von Liebig. The marriage resulted in the daughter Octavie (* 1904), the son Luitwin (* 1906), the daughter Angelika (* 1911) and the son Gisbert (* 1920).

literature

• Robert Volz: Reich manual of the German society . The handbook of personalities in words and pictures. Volume 1: A-K. German business publisher, Berlin 1930, DNB 453960286 .
• Beatrix Adler: Wallerfanger Steingut, 1995. ISBN 978-3921236727
• Joachim Petzold: Franz von Papen. A German Doom, 1995. ISBN 978-3372004326