Peter Eberhard Müllensiefen

Peter Eberhard Müllensiefen

Peter Eberhard Müllensiefen (* March 7, 1766 in Ründeroth (today Engelskirchen ), †  April 10, 1847 in Crengeldanz (today Witten )) was an industrialist and politician in the Bergisch and Märkischen areas. He has made particular merits as a district administrator in the Iserlohn district .

Childhood and family

Müllensiefen comes from a well-to-do Protestant family in the Aggertal valley , who produced landowners and merchants for generations. He had three half-siblings and a sister who died in childhood and two half-brothers who grew up. At the father's request, Peter Eberhard was to become a pastor . But at the age of 15 he became a commercial apprentice to Johann Caspar Rumpe in Altena . In 1794 he married the daughter of his employer: Wilhelmine. She gave birth to a daughter in 1797 but died in childbed while the daughter survived.

Müllensiefens second wife Henrietta Wilhelmina Riedel came from Iserlohn ; the marriage followed in 1798. She gave birth to nine children, seven of whom survived childhood, among them the future entrepreneurs Gustav and Theodor .

Entrepreneurial career

After seven years of work under Rumpe, he rose to become an authorized signatory (1788) and later a partner (1793) in his company. The partnership led to a falling out of the two, especially after the death of their daughter Rumpes (Müllensiefens wife) in 1797. Shortly afterwards, he separated from his former teacher.

About 1800, Müllensiefen founded a needle factory in Iserlohn with Johann Hermann Altgeldt. The needles produced there from steel were of higher quality than those produced in other factories needles of iron wire. The new production methods in the needle industry brought Iserlohn an industrial boom, which made the city an industrial metropolis until the middle of the 19th century.

The company Müllensiefen & Altgeldt was only successful for a few years. In 1811, Müllensiefen came into contact with the French occupiers and was able to sell his products again at a profit. He supported Napoleon's policy because he benefited from it himself.

Müllensiefen wrote expert opinions and reports on various economic issues, which earned him an expert call in West Prussia. The questions about monopolies , supply and demand not only brought him friends, as various entrepreneurs were weakened in their (monopoly) positions.

Political career

At the request of his wife, Müllensiefen became involved in the Prussian state after the war of liberation. Müllensiefen built his political career. From 1814 he initiated the erection of the Iron Cross memorial in Iserlohn in memory of the victims of the Napoleon Wars.

In 1817, Müllensiefen applied for the office of district administrator in the newly founded district of Iserlohn and took up the office in January 1818. A central problem during the term of office was the integration of the Catholic population into the Protestant majority, as a small part of the new district consisted of areas of the former Catholic Duchy of Westphalia . The Catholic population did not support the new monarchy.

Under Müllensiefen's government, road and church construction in and around Iserlohn were significantly advanced. By equating Catholic and Protestant interests in church building, he brought the denominations closer together. For reasons of age, he resigned in March 1836.

Müllensiefen wrote an autobiography between 1837 and 1839 that comprised about 2,000 pages. The material has not yet been processed by a biographer.

religion

Although Müllensiefen had made a contribution to the Protestant church system in his circle during his tenure, his own religious views were rather heterodox. He was a follower of Emanuel Swedenborg from around 1782 and was closely related to Johann Friedrich Immanuel Tafel , who was one of the first and leading exponents of Swedenborgism in Germany. In 1832 a daughter from Müllensiefen married Tafel. In old age, Müllensiefen made a name for himself by publishing a pamphlet on Swedenborg's “New Church”.

Müllensiefen was one of the presidium members of the " Märkische Bibelgesellschaft " founded by Friedrich von Scheibler on December 1, 1814 , which in Iserlohn had grouped around the committed pastor Johann Abraham Strauss and which was later served by the later first Oberpräsident of Westphalia, Ludwig Freiherr von Vincke .

In addition, Müllensiefen was again, together with Scheibler, Vincke, Johann Caspar Harkort and others, among the members of the " Literary Association of Grafschaft Mark ", which at that time was under the direction of the Schwerter doctor and universal scholar Friedrich Bährens and existed from 1814 to 1860.

literature

• Friedhelm Groth: Peter Eberhard Müllensiefen, Iserlohn District Administrator from 1818 to 1836, in his relationship with the Tübingen Swedenborgian Immanuel Tafel . Iserlohn 1995, ISBN 3-924385-53-X
• Wilfried Reininghaus:  Müllensiefen, Peter Eberhard. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 18, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1997, ISBN 3-428-00199-0 , p. 310 f. ( Digitized version ).
• Wilfried Reininghaus: Peter Eberhard Müllensiefen (1766–1847). In: Wolfhard Weber (Ed.) Bergisch-Märkische entrepreneurs of the early industrialization. (= Rheinisch-Westfälische Wirtschaftsbiographien , Volume 18.) Aschendorff, Münster 2004, pp. 155–185.

Web links

• Friedhelm Groth: Peter Eberhard Müllensiefen, Iserlohn District Administrator from 1818 to 1836, in his relationships with the Tübingen Swedenborgian Immanuel Tafel http://www.pastoerchen.de/Muell.htm