Niederfüllbacher Foundation

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Logo of the Niederfüllbach Foundation

The Niederfüllbacher Foundation was established on September 9, 1907 by the Belgian King Leopold II . It is named after the Upper Franconian town of Niederfüllbach in Bavaria, which his father Leopold I acquired in 1819 .

Niederfüllbach Castle

history

Foundation institution

King Leopold II, last picture

The result of the Congo Conference , the Congo Treaty of April 8, 1885, secured the "Association Internationale du Congo", which was founded by Leopold II on November 17, 1879, rule over the Congo. On April 23, 1885, Leopold II declared the independent Congo Free State ("Etat indépendant du Congo") to be his private property, with him as sovereign. In the decades that followed, the resource-rich country was plundered using brutal, inhumane methods known as the Congo Abominations. The extraction of rubber , in particular, generated huge profits and made Leopold one of the richest people of his time.

On March 9, 1896, Leopold set up a crown foundation by decree, into which he brought in extensive, so-called ownerless areas - 25 million hectares of land that was not directly used by the locals - as well as unexploited mines. He estimated the value of the foundation's assets to be at least 700 million Belgian francs. With the foundation, he wanted to secure parts of the Congo as a crown domain , i.e. as private property , for himself and his descendants and also to build public buildings in Belgium.

At the beginning of the 20th century, more and more reports of ruthless exploitation practices created such strong public pressure that the Belgian parliament demanded the transfer of ownership of African property from the king to the state. In 1906 the king agreed to cede it, provided the crown foundation remained intact. Accordingly, on November 28, 1907, a contract of assignment for the Congo state came into being.

At the beginning of 1908, the Belgian government also requested the transfer of the 25 million hectare Crown Foundation. Leopold then dissolved the Crown Foundation on March 5, 1908 and transferred parts of it to the Belgian state. He wanted to secure the remainder, securities with a nominal value of just under 40 million francs, as well as jewelery and furniture worth 1.5 million francs, by buying it together with the inherited Niederfüllbacher real estate from the Niederfüllbacher Foundation, established on September 9, 1907, based in Coburg, Germany bequeathed.

Foundation life

The purpose of the foundation was the protection of descendants and charitable purposes. The city of Coburg should receive 30,000 marks annually for buildings and the promotion of art, science and public education. One third of the remaining foundation income was intended for the Belgian male descendants of the Saxon-Coburg and Gotha families, one third was to be purchased in Belgium and on the Côte d'Azur and large-scale buildings were to be built, the last third to be added to the foundation's assets . A special feature was that the founder not only had power of disposal over the foundation income, but also over the foundation's assets.

Monument of Prince Friedrich Josias in Coburg

In Coburg, among other things, the new building of the natural history museum was supported with 60,000 marks and 28,000 marks were made available for the Josias monument.

King Leopold died on December 17, 1909. Immediately, his daughters Louise , Stephanie and Clementine as well as the Belgian state raised claims to the values ​​assigned to the foundation. As early as January 1910, the Foundation's securities were therefore deposited with the Belgian National Bank. On January 28, 1911, under strong Belgian pressure, the administrators of the Niederfüllbacher Foundation finally agreed with the Belgian state to transfer the entire assets in exchange for a one-off settlement of 1.1 million marks, in the event of a breach of the foundation statutes, which stipulated the inalienability of the foundation's assets. except for the properties in Germany. This corresponded to about one fortieth of the values ​​handed over and should ensure the income of 30,000 marks annually for charitable purposes. The daughters' inheritance claims were rejected by the Belgian court on November 14, 1911, which was also confirmed by the court of appeal on April 2, 1913. In a settlement, however, the Belgian state still paid 16 million francs to the daughters in early 1914. The Foundation was administered by three Belgians, the King's secret secretary Baron August Goffinet, the General Director in the Ministry of Finance Henri Pochez and the First President of the Supreme Court August van Maldegham as well as two Coburgs, the Privy Councilor Hermann Forkel and the court banker Rudolf Schraidt. At the beginning of 1910, the Coburg state had changed its income tax laws in order to generate a greater profit from the formation of the foundation. The part of the foundation that did not serve charitable purposes was made subject to tax. But the hoped-for tax payments no longer came.

On February 4, 1911, the Coburg state government, as the foundation supervisory authority, declared the agreement of January 28 of the same year invalid and in 1915 installed new administrators. Among them was Max Oscar Arnold , who had long been committed to the return of the foundation's assets. The administrators complained against the former foundation administrators based on numerous legal opinions. However, it was not possible to restore the foundation to its old extent. The First World War ended all activities against the Belgian state.

On May 15, 1920, the foundation statutes were adapted to the reduced foundation assets. The inflation of 1923 and the currency reform of 1948 consumed the severance payment, and on February 25, 1957 another amendment to the statutes followed.

Since then, the non-profit foundation has lived mainly from the leasing of the property in the Coburg region, in 1979 it was 216 hectares , which brings in around 290,000 euros a year. It promotes art, science and public education in the city of Coburg and the district of Coburg through grants , whereby the city receives 2/3 and the district 1/3 of the foundation funds.

literature

  • Konrad Fastnacht: From the history of the Niederfüllbacher Foundation. In: Niederfüllbach - Origin and Change; Festschrift for the 900th anniversary. Niederfüllbach 1976.
  • Ludwig Frenking: The creation of the Niederfüllbacher Foundation. In: Yearbook of the Coburg State Foundation 2007. Coburg 2007, ISSN  0084-8808 .
  • Karl Heinsheimer : Legal opinion in matters of the Niederfüllbacher Foundation in Coburg , Heidelberg 1917.
  • Esther Reinhart: Max Oscar Arnold (1854-1938) . Volume 21 of the series of publications of the historical society Coburg eV, Coburg 2007, ISBN 3-9810350-3-8 .

swell

  1. ↑ Coburger Tageblatt of September 30, 2007

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