Robert Nobel

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Robert Nobel (1829-1896)

Robert Hjalmar Nobel (born August 14, 1829 in Stockholm , † August 7, 1896 in Getå / Östergötland ) was a Swedish industrialist, oil magnate and brother of Alfred Nobel .

Life

Robert Nobel initially spent two years at sea before he was employed in the tool factory of his father Immanuel Nobel in Saint Petersburg , Nobel & Söner , and studied chemistry. In the 1860s Robert Nobel founded his own factory near Helsinki for the production of nitroglycerin .

In 1861 he married Paulina Sofia Carolina Lenngrén, who gave him the daughters Ingeborg Sofia and Tyra and the sons Hjalmar Imanuel and Ludvig Imanuel.

In 1871 he returned to Saint Petersburg and worked successfully in the factory of his brother Ludvig Nobel , a. a. in arms production and the sale of civil machinery.

Oil business

At the request of his brother Ludvig, he went to the Caucasus , to Baku , in 1873 . He was actually supposed to buy walnut wood for rifle production, but recognized the opportunities of the impending petroleum boom. The brothers secured research and exploitation rights for naphtha in the areas of the Caspian Sea from the Russian state . Together they opened up the local oil wells starting in 1876 with cheap purchases, successful drilling and innovative refining systems. In 1877 they put their invention of a pipeline into practice for the first time, drastically reducing the cost of oil transport.

Her company, the Naftaproduktionsbolaget Bröderna Nobel ( Branobel ), founded on May 15, 1878 with a capital of 3 million rubles , was able to hold its own against the competition, especially against the Paris branch of the up-and-coming family of entrepreneurs Rothschild and John D. Rockefeller . It became one of the richest oil companies of the time.

retreat

Robert Nobel's grave

In 1881 Robert Nobel largely withdrew from business life and, with poor health, went with his wife and children via Switzerland to Sweden . He retired in Getå near Norrköping , but continued to work as an inventor and designer.

Robert Nobel died at the age of 66 and was buried on the Norra begravningsplatsen in Solna .

literature

  • Daniel Yergin: The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money & Power . 1991.
  • Robert Nobel . In: Herman Hofberg, Frithiof Heurlin, Viktor Millqvist, Olof Rubenson (eds.): Svenskt biografiskt handlexikon . 2nd Edition. tape 2 : L – Z, including supplement . Albert Bonniers Verlag, Stockholm 1906, p. 184 (Swedish, runeberg.org ).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ knerger.de: The grave of Robert Nobel
personal data
SURNAME Nobel, Robert
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Nobel, Robert Hjalmar (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swedish industrialist, oil magnate and brother of Alfred Nobel
DATE OF BIRTH August 14, 1829
PLACE OF BIRTH Stockholm
DATE OF DEATH August 7, 1896
Place of death Getå