Piedbœuf (entrepreneurial family)
Piedbœuf (alternative spelling Piedboeuf ) is the name of a Belgian family of entrepreneurs who originally lived and worked in Jupille-sur-Meuse near Liège , but also founded other important companies in Aachen and Düsseldorf . With its various companies, the family has been a leader in steam boiler production for many decades and generations, but has also made a name for itself as a brewery founder and operator as well as a vehicle designer .
Piedbœuf in Liege
The first member of the family to recognize the entrepreneurial opportunities during the early phase of the Industrial Revolution was Jacques Pascal Piedbœuf. Even trained as a colliery blacksmith at the Belgian works of the William Cockerill family , senior , he took over his father's village forge and expanded it in 1812 to produce bulky steam boilers forged with rivet bolts, which at that time was still new technical territory outside of England. Increasing order numbers, mainly due to orders from Russia and a leading market position as well as more favorable customs regulations finally moved Piedbœuf to build further boiler forges in 1833. This time he built it in Aachen, about 50 km away, as well as in the Aachen suburb of Weiden and placed the steam boiler forge, trading as “Jacques Piedboeuf GmbH”, under the management of his eldest son Jacques.
After the death of the senior boss in 1839, his second son Jean Théodore took over his father's company in Jupille and later brought it to the company "SA des Laminoires de Jupille" founded in 1866 as the main shareholder. Since his father's company was already producing steam boilers and other devices for beer production, he decided to take the entire beer production into his own hands and founded the “ Brasserie Piedbœuf” in Jupille-sur- Meuse , a sub-municipality of Liège. Since his son Théodore Piedbœuf embarked on a scientific and political career, the brewery was initially run by his nephew Théodore after Jean Théodore's death. However, it could not last long on the market due to the lack of suitable and functional refrigeration systems. Through his marriage to Marie Lhoest-Collinet (1863-1923), who brought a brewery founded by her father Henri in 1873 and inherited after his death, Théodore Piedbœuf was able to merge the two companies and become Brasserie Piedbœuf to continue. In 1913 his son Henri took over the company, which he had already transferred to Albert van Damme, the husband of his sister Eugénie (* 1901), and whose main product from 1966 was beer with the brand name " Jupiler ". In 1987 the Brasserie Piedbœuf merged with the Stella Artois brewery from Leuven and finally became part of the international brewery group InBev , which in turn became Anheuser-Busch InBev through the takeover of Anheuser-Busch in 2008 . The Piedbœuf family is still one of the larger individual shareholders in this brewery group.
Adrien Piedbœuf, great-grandson of the senior boss and descended from the Düsseldorf branch, moved back to Belgium after studying at Cornell University in Ithaca (New York) and after completing an internship in the Aachen family business at the beginning of the 20th century, where he lived in Liege founded the construction workshop Imperia initially for motorcycles and from 1904 also for automobiles. Here, together with Paul Henze , he mainly produced the car brand of the same name. In 1907 he moved his factory to a former arms factory in Nessonvaux. Despite multiple changes of ownership and interruptions due to the war, Imperia produced automobiles there until it closed in 1958.
Piedbœuf in Aachen
After the senior boss's eldest son, Jacqeus Piedbœuf, took over the Aachen steam boiler manufacturer "Jacques Piedboeuf GmbH" as managing director, he expanded it to a monopoly-like position throughout Germany, especially for further developed flame tube and water tube boilers . In addition, in 1845 he founded together with the entrepreneur Hugo Jakob Talbot, who had already founded the Talbot wagon factory in 1838 , as well as with the mechanical engineers Johann Leonhard Neuman and Theodor Esser for the purpose of product expansion, the OHG "Piedboeuf & Co, Aachener Walz- und Hammerwerk “In today's Rothe Erde district, the former mayor's office of Forst .
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The emerging economic crisis at the end of the 1840s and the associated drop in prices for bar and rolled iron as well as railroad tracks, but also the lack of networking with other sectors, forced the OHG "Piedboeuf & Co." to cease production in early 1850 and apply for liquidation. Even the takeover of the OHG by the metallurgical specialist Carl Ruetz in 1851 and its conversion into the limited partnership "Carl Ruetz & Co" could not improve the market share at first. On the part of the Piedbœuf family, this company also included the former company founder Jacques Piedbœuf, who, however, died unexpectedly a year later, his brothers Jean Pascal and Jean Théodore and, among others, the companies Eberhard Hoesch & Söhne and Leopold Schoeller & Söhne . Above all, the construction of a connection to the Aachen – Cologne railway line brought about a gradual operational upswing again from 1853 for the Aachen plant "Carl Ruetz & Co", but after differences among the shareholders, this company was also dissolved again in 1861 and changed to the new limited partnership "Talbot & Co, Aachener Walz- und Hammerwerk Rothe Erde" transferred, with the Piedbœuf family still being guaranteed shares.
The original boiler company "Jacques Piedboeuf GmbH" in Aachen and Weiden, however, was relocated to Düsseldorf in 1863 by Jean Pascal Piedbœuf and continued to operate there under the same name.
The Piedbœuf family remained closely connected to the Talbot family for several generations in Aachen. After Clémence Marguerite Piedbœuf, one of Jean Pascal's daughters, had married Jacob Hugo Talbot's son, Commerzienrat Carl Gustav Talbot , her son, Kommerzienrat Georg Talbot , later married Eugènie Philippine Antoinette Piedbœuf, a granddaughter of Jean Pascal and daughter of his son Eugène.
Piedbœuf in Düsseldorf
Jean Pascal Piedbœuf, the aforementioned youngest son of the senior boss, was integrated into the management of the Aachen works at an early stage, especially after the death of his brother Jacques in 1851. Warned by the economic crisis of 1849 and Aachen's unfavorable connection to the Rhenish economic centers, he dared he was one of the first Aachen entrepreneurs of Walloon origin to make the leap to Düsseldorf . Here he built up a veritable group of companies with Belgian partners and skilled workers, consisting of a boiler factory built in 1857, the sheet iron rolling mill Piedboeuf, Dawans & Co. founded in 1858, and the pipe mill JP Piedboeuf & Co. in Düsseldorf-Eller . With this step, Jean Pascal Piedbœuf assumed a role model function for many other Walloon entrepreneurs who later settled in the area. Later, in 1863, the boiler companies outsourced from Aachen followed. Its management was initially taken over by his son Jean Louis, who brought the company up to date with his own technology, as well as his two other sons, Gustave and Eugène, and later his grandson Louis Piedbœuf.
Jean Pascal's third son Jean Louis followed the family tradition, studied mining and metallurgy at the University of Liège and gained practical experience in family businesses in Liège and Aachen. Soon afterwards, he gradually took over his father's businesses in Düsseldorf and networked them with neighboring independent and coordinated businesses. His companies benefited above all from the intensive cooperation with the Düsseldorfer Röhren- und Eisenwalzwerke AG , formerly Poensgen, founded in 1872 . After his death in 1891, his eldest son Paul took over his father's boiler factory and JP Piedboeuf & Co. Röhrenwerke AG . His younger son Louis was later awarded the management of the boiler operations of his cousins Jacques Piedboeuf GmbH , while his youngest son Adrien, as described above, moved back to Liège, where he established himself as a successful automotive designer .
In 1912, Paul Piedbœuf incorporated JP Piedboeuf & Co. Röhrenwerke AG into Gelsenkirchener Bergwerks- AG for strategic market reasons , which in turn became part of Vereinigte Stahlwerke AG (VSt) in 1924 . As part of a reorganization of the VSt in 1934, the former company JP Piedboeuf & Co. was combined with other companies to form the "Düsseldorfer Röhrengruppe" in the VSt, which in turn was finally taken over in 1948 by the newly founded Rheinische Röhrenwerke AG , which itself joined the Hüttenwerk Phoenix AG merged and since then has operated as Phoenix-Rheinrohr AG Vereinigte Hütten- und Röhrenwerke .
In a crisis-ridden situation in the Weimar Republic characterized by falling prices and overcapacity, Paul Piedbœuf was also forced to close down his boiler shop in 1927, including the boiler works of his cousins Jacques Piedboeuf GmbH , Petry-Dereux GmbH in Düren and the union, which were under the management of his brother Louis Orange to merge in Gelsenkirchen and bring it to market as a new company, Vereinigte Kesselwerke AG (VKW) in Düsseldorf. In the years that followed, this company, like the earlier Piedboeuf boiler companies, again achieved a top position in German steam boiler construction. It was ultimately reserved for his son Theodor, the subsequent head of VKW, to gradually transfer it to Babcock-BSH from 1963 to 1974 . After his death, however, in 1990 the United Kesselwerke was finally shut down and dismantled for economic reasons.
The Düsseldorf branch of the family acquired the Villa Haus Grünewald with a large English landscape garden in Solingen-Gräfrath through Jean Louis in 1880 , which remained in the family until 1997 and always served as a representative meeting place for the widely branched family.
Important family members (selection)
- Jacques Pascal Piedbœuf (born August 7, 1782 in Jupille, † June 14, 1839 there); Colliery and company founder of the steam boiler works “Jacques Piedbœuf GmbH” in Jupille, Aachen and Weiden near Aachen.
- Jacques Piedbœuf (* 1802 in Jupille; † August 9, 1852 in Aachen); Founded Germany's first steam boiler factory in Aachen in 1833 and the "OHG Piedbœuf & Co Aachener Walz- und Hammerwerk" in Aachen- Rothe Erde in 1845 .
- Jean Théodore Piedbœuf (born September 17, 1804, † June 12, 1875); Founder of the Brasserie Piedbœuf.
- Victor Piedbœuf (born June 24, 1828 Jupille, † June 12, 1901);
- Théodore Piedbœuf (1864 - January 1, 1916); Director of the Brasserie Piedbœuf
- Henri Piedbœuf (born January 23, 1889 - June 1943); Director of the Brasserie Piedbœuf
- Théodore Piedbœuf (1864 - January 1, 1916); Director of the Brasserie Piedbœuf
- Théodore Piedbœuf (born January 22, 1837 in Jupille, † November 27, 1879); Dr. in politics and business studies, lawyer and industrialist, shareholder in Brasserie Piedbœuf, mayor of Jupille and councilor in Liège
- Victor Piedbœuf (born June 24, 1828 Jupille, † June 12, 1901);
- Jean Pascal Piedbœuf (born February 3, 1813 in Jupille; † August 22, 1879 in Ostend ) founder of the sheet iron rolling mill “Piedbœuf, Dawans & Co” and the pipe mill “JP Piedbœuf & Co.”, both in Düsseldorf-Oberbilk ; Kgl. Belgian consul in Aachen
- Clémence Piedbœuf (born October 16, 1835 - † September 25, 1912), married to the wagon manufacturer Carl Gustav Talbot
- Eugène Piedbœuf (born February 5, 1837 in Jupille, † June 19, 1903 in hair ); Head of "Jacques Piedbœuf GmbH" and Kgl. Belgian honorary consul in Aachen
- Eugènie Piedbœuf (born January 9, 1861 - † February 10, 1921), married to the wagon manufacturer Georg Talbot
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Jean Louis Piedbœuf (born June 22, 1838 in Jupille, † August 20, 1891 in Solingen - Gräfrath ); Took over and networked his father's company; Honorary Consul in Düsseldorf
- Paul Piedbœuf (born October 31, 1866 in Düsseldorf, † April 16, 1948 in Gräfrath); Took over his father's company and merged it in 1927 into “ Vereinigte Kesselwerke AG ”, Düsseldorf, which he co-founded .
- Theodor Piedbœuf (born October 29, 1892 in Düsseldorf, † February 23, 1984 in Neuss); Took over his father's company and integrated it into
- Paul Piedbœuf (born October 31, 1866 in Düsseldorf, † April 16, 1948 in Gräfrath); Took over his father's company and merged it in 1927 into “ Vereinigte Kesselwerke AG ”, Düsseldorf, which he co-founded .
- Louis Piedbœuf (born April 4, 1874 in Düsseldorf, † November 4, 1956 in Chaudfontaine -Embourg); Head of "Jacques Piedboeuf GmbH" in Düsseldorf
- Adrien Piedbœuf (born October 12, 1876 in Düsseldorf, † September 16, 1919 in Spa ); Founder of the Imperia construction workshop in Liège for the manufacture of motorcycles and cars.
The Aachen sculptor Lambert Piedboeuf (born February 3, 1863 in Aachen, † 1950 in Bad Reichenhall ), on the other hand, is obviously not to be assigned to this family branch.
Literature and Sources
- Hartmut Schainberg: The Belgian influence on early industrialization in the Aachen area, approx. 1820 - 1860 . Dissertation, University of Trier 1997 ( full text )
- Hans Seeling: Piedboeuf. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 20, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-428-00201-6 , p. 422 ( digitized version ).
- Hans Seeling: Walloon Industrial Pioneers in Germany , Ed .: Eugen Wahle, Lüttich 1983.
