Max Hötte

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Max Hötte († 1860 ) was an important German tobacco merchant . He "temporarily ruled the Brühl ", the Leipzig world trade center for fur skins.

General

Remote traders from Munster imported from the Middle Ages incense , especially from the Baltic States . As early as 1184 fur traders are documented here and the guild of pelters was respected.

The North American , also largely South American and Australian fur trade initially ran via London. Around the street Garlick Hill was the second European world trade center next to Leipzig . The continental blockade imposed by Napoleon from 1806 to 1813 and an import ban on British goods that existed as early as 1796 ended the purchase of goods from Great Britain during this period.

The tobacco trade in Leipzig could not be completely suppressed, the fur traders procured "under the most difficult conditions American and other foreign tobacco products by means of extensive smuggling". The smuggling of English goods, especially fur, was particularly well organized in the Lower Rhine region. In Galicia and Belarus , too, a “large industry had established itself which only dealt with smuggling in banned furs” and supplied Leipzig with goods. Some companies acquired huge fortunes in the process, companies such as Kloppenburg, Esders and Hötte. The tobacco products market in Leipzig collapsed completely due to the continental blockade and the already poor economic situation due to the previous wars. When peace was concluded in 1815, only two older tobacco companies working in Leipzig are said to have existed. Within ten years, however, the Leipzig fur trade had already recovered.

Company history

According to an entry in the Pelzer guild book, Johann Bernhardt Hötte was accepted into the guild on May 17, 1742. He paid 45 thalers for admission and his wife three thalers. Soon he can be proven as a guild master, so in 1967/68 and 1772/73. In 1777 Franz Joseph Hötte became a member of the Pelzeramt, he paid a fee of 30 thalers, Johann Bernhard Hötte was also admitted in 1790, his wife was Catharine Alyda (Adelheid?). The foundation for the company's later wealth was perhaps laid by Anton Hötte, who was born in 1770. The sequence of the genealogy of the various namesake Hötte, fur traders and furriers has probably not yet been determined.

The tobacco shop Bernhard and Clemens Hötte can be proven from 1870 to 1890. Tobacco merchant Max Hötte opened a fur trade in Leipzig, in the fur trade center around Leipziger Straße Brühl, in addition to his business in Münster, Westphalia .

Max Hötte bought directly in Russia. He was also the first to import skins directly from America, bypassing London, in particular through the company founded by Johann Jakob Astor .

Parcel cover letter from the company Hötte & Söhne, posted on August 4, 1851. The “Package in canvas enthl. Rauchwaaren ". Addressed to Mr. M. Rosenstock in Braunschweig.

When Max Hötte died of old age in 1860, he left a fortune of 20 million thalers. At that time the company had already passed its peak. In the Leipzig address book of 1880 the entry read: “Clem. Bernh. Chrstn. Whlm. Hötte, B. u. Merchant. Company Hötte & Sons. Rauchwaarenhandlung. Bruehl 74, SG. l. I. "; in the Münster address book of 1883: "Hötte, JB & Söhne, Rauchwaarenhandlung (owner Bernh. and Clem. Hötte), Verspoel 12"; as well as: "Hötte, Clemens, part owner of the company JB Hötte & Sons, Alter Steinweg 8".

The company quickly declined in importance under his descendants and was probably closed in 1892, the last mention found in 1891.

The important patron of the city of Münster, Josef Hötte junior (1838-1919), son of Franz Hötte, was also a fur trader there. The Hötteweg in Münster is named after him.

Web links

Commons : Max Hötte  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c Walter Fellmann: The Leipziger Brühl . VEB Fachbuchverlag, Leipzig 1989, pp. 35, 209.
  2. ↑ a b c d Letters from the Münster City Archives to Rifra Verlag, Murrhardt, February 16, 1973 and August 11, 1978 (3 sheets: 1973, sheet 1 ; 1973, sheet 2 ; 1978 .
  3. ↑ a b c Emil Brass : From the realm of fur . 2nd improved edition. Publishing house of the "Neue Pelzwaren-Zeitung and Kürschner-Zeitung", Berlin 1925, p.  278-279 .
  4. ^ Philipp Manes : The German fur industry and its associations 1900-1940. Attempt a story . Berlin 1941 Volume 1. Copy of the original manuscript, p. 166 ( G. & C. Franke collection ).
  5. ↑ Leipzig address book 1880 . Retrieved March 26, 2020
  6. ↑ forum.ahnenforschung.net: Address Book Münster 1883 (letter H) . Retrieved March 26, 2020
personal data
SURNAME Hötte, Max
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Leipzig tobacco shop (fur trade)
DATE OF BIRTH 18th century or 19th century
DATE OF DEATH December 1860