Melchior Schwoon (entrepreneur, 1809)

Melchior Schwoon Sr. (* October 17, 1809 in Bockhorn (Friesland) ; † November 11, 1874 in Bremerhaven ) was a German entrepreneur.

biography

Schwoon was the son of a farmer and timber merchant. His grandson was Melchior Schwoon jun. (1871-1956). Schwoon completed a commercial apprenticeship at a Berlin company. From 1831 he lived in Lehe and founded a shipping and commission business . He became British Vice Consul, was a co-founder of the Geestemünder Bank and, in 1851, a member of the community council in Lehe. Since 1848 he was a member of the Bremen citizenship .

The master mason Eits in Lehe built a simple water tower and a water pipe to Bremerhaven around 1840. Soon that was not enough to supply Bremerhaven. In 1852 Schwoon founded, together with the captain Köper and the brewer Aschoff, through the company Schwoon, Köper & Co. (later Schwoon & Co. ), a steam-powered waterworks in Lehe right next to the water art of Eits. The neo-Gothic water tower (also called Schwoon's water tower ) in today's city park on Hafenstrasse was built in 1852/53 to a design by the Bremen architect Simon Loschen (1818–1902) and is a listed landmark in Lehe. The competition between Eits and Schwoon ended with a marriage between members of both families. In 1870 the two water suppliers merged.

Melchior Schwoon's family crypt in the Lehe I cemetery in Bremerhaven

From 1864/65 Schwoon was one of the builders of the Mayor Smidt Memorial Church (Great Church) in Bremerhaven.

Melchior Schwoon was buried in a large family crypt in the Lehe I cemetery in Bremerhaven ( → Lage ).

Honors

The Melchior-Schwoon Street in Bremerhaven-Lehe was named after him.

literature

• Herbert Black Forest : The Great Bremen Lexicon . 2nd, updated, revised and expanded edition. Edition Temmen, Bremen 2003, ISBN 3-86108-693-X .