Salomon Volkart

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Salomon Volkart (born May 21, 1816 in Niederglatt ; † December 24, 1893 in Winterthur ) was a Swiss entrepreneur . Together with his brother Johann Georg Volkart , he founded the Volkart Brothers trading company in 1851 . Salomon Volkart was also a co-founder of the bank in Winterthur (a predecessor of today's UBS ) and the Swiss Accident Insurance Company , which later renamed itself " Winterthur Insurance ". He also made a name for himself as a patron of art and science and was involved in charitable causes.

Life

Salomon Volkart grew up in a rural bourgeois family. His father Johannes Volkart (1783–1853) was a master builder, captain and member of the Grand Council . Volkart visited the trading institute of the Hüni brothers in Horgen and joined the Caspar Schulthess von Rech company at the age of sixteen. At the age of 20 he left Switzerland for Italy, where he first worked in Genoa and later in Naples . In 1844/45 Volkart traveled to India, where his younger brother Johann Georg worked as a cotton buyer in Calcutta . He then traveled all over Europe for a fabric printing company.

On February 1, 1851, Salomon Volkhart and Johann Georg founded the Volkart brothers' collective company based in Winterthur and Bombay . The trading company imported cotton, tea, oils, coffee, cocoa, spices, rubber and other raw materials from India and exported soap, paper, matches, watches, textiles, machines and other industrial goods to the subcontinent. The business was successful and branches were established in Colombo (1857), Cochin (1859) and Karachi (1861). In Winterthur, the family company bought the Villa Wehntal on Römerstrasse as a representative company and residence from 1859 .

Salomen Volkart's nieces, Nanny Wunderly-Volkart (1878–1962), a long-time patron and close confidante of Rainer Maria Rilke, and the writer Elisabeth Aman and Marguerite Bühler (1897–1987) an enthusiastic organic gardener and watercolorist, grew up in Villa Wehntal .

When Johann Georg Volkart died unexpectedly in 1861, Salomon Volkart had to continue the business with partners outside the family. During this time, a subsidiary was founded in London (1868). Due to political and economic difficulties, frequent changes in the management of his company and his poor health, Salomon Volkart retired from active business activities in 1875 and only worked as a silent partner until his death in 1893.

literature

  • Hans Peter: Salomon Volkart (1816-1893). In: Swiss pioneers in business and technology. No. 6, Zurich 1956.
  • Hans R. Volkart u. a .: Volkart: The story of a world trading house. Winterthur 1989/90.
  • Walter H. Rambousek, Armin Vogt, Hans R. Volkart: Volkart: The history of a world trading company. Inselverlag, Frankfurt a. M. 1990, ISBN 3-458-16130-9 .
  • Hans Conrad Peyer: From the beginnings of the Swiss Indian trade. Letters from Salomon Volkart to Johann Heinrich Fierz, 1845–1846. In: Zürcher Taschenbuch for the year 1961. pp. 107–19.
  • Christof Dejung : The merchant Salomon Volkart. Global markets and the circulation of knowledge , in: Of bugs, markets and people. Colonialism and Knowledge in the Modern Age , edited by Rebekka Habermas and Alexandra Przyrembel , Göttingen 2013, pp. 73–83. ISBN 978-3-525-30019-0

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Five Generations - Overcoming Boundaries. Archived from the original on April 21, 2009 ; accessed on August 31, 2020 .
  2. ^ Hans Conrad Peyer: From the beginnings of the Swiss trade in India. P. 108.
  3. ^ Family tree of Volkert and Reinhart. Retrieved May 1, 2020 .
  4. ↑ Renate Egli-Gerber: Villa Wehntal. In: Thurgauer Jahrbuch. Accessed April 30, 2020 .
  5. ^ Salomon Volkart 1816-1893. Archived from the original on April 21, 2009 ; accessed on August 31, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Volkart, Solomon
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss entrepreneur
DATE OF BIRTH May 21, 1816
PLACE OF BIRTH Niederglatt ZH
DATE OF DEATH December 24, 1893
Place of death Winterthur