Martin Heinrich Wilkens

Martin Heinrich Wilkens (born November 21, 1782 in Bremen ; † May 8, 1869 in Hemelingen) was a master goldsmith from Bremen who opened his first shop in downtown Bremen in 1810.

biography

Wilkens was the son of a kimkermeister ( cooper or barrel maker). He did an apprenticeship as a goldsmith. A few years of professional wandering followed, which also took him to Paris and Lyon , among other places . In 1809 he returned from Lyon to Bremen.

In Bremen he was admitted as a guild master. In 1810 he started his own business. In 1830 he purchased the first silver press that enabled the conversion to semi-industrial production with steam power . The upturn began after the three sons Carl Philipp, Diedrich and Friedrich Wilhelm Wilkens joined the company. In 1859 he retired from the management of the family business. At the same time, first the cutlery production and ten years later the entire company including the family apartments were relocated to Hemelingen , which at that time was outside the Bremen customs barriers. When Wilkens died, the traditional Bremen company MH Wilkens & Sons already had over 100 employees.

Under the name Wilkens Bremer Silberwaren AG, the majority of the company remained in family ownership until 1995.

The entrepreneur and politician ( DDP and DStP , BDV , CDU ) Martin-Heinrich Wilkens was his great-grandson.

literature

• Hermann Entholt : Martin Heinrich Wilkens . In: Bremische Biographie of the nineteenth century . Published by the Historical Society of the Künstlerverein Bremen, Verlag Gustav Winter 1912.
• Herbert Black Forest : The Great Bremen Lexicon . 2nd, updated, revised and expanded edition. Edition Temmen, Bremen 2003, ISBN 3-86108-693-X .
• Martin Heinrich Wilkens: memories . Edited by MHWilkens & Söhne GmbH, Bremen, on the occasion of the company's founder's 200th birthday. Bremen 1982 [private print].