Schleicher (family)
Schleicher (variation: Slicher ) is the oldest and one of the most important copper master families in Stolberg and the Aachen area . Mainly due to the marital and business connections of the Schleicher family with the also highly respected and successful manufacturer families Hoesch , Peltzer , Prym , Lynen, von Asten and others in the Stolberg area, Stolberg has been one of the most important centers of the for more than 200 years European copper industry.
Origins
After the Lutherans had gradually gained acceptance in Aachen from the middle of the 16th century, many families joined this new religion, including the Schleicher family from Aachen. But due to the disadvantages and stalking associated with this, during the time of the Aachen religious unrest, she was forced to build her future in other regions at an early stage under the aspect of freedom of religion and freedom of work, especially after the imperial ban against reformed citizens and office holders in years 1598.
In this context, a certain "Anthoin Slicher" emigrated to The Hague , where he became the progenitor of a successful and later ennobled branch of the family that became known under the name Slicher . Around 1571, the Aachen copper master and magistrate Leonhard Schleicher (approx. 1535–1606), son of the Protestant copper master Leonhard Schleicher (1495–1560) and a daughter of the merchant Servatius von Cölln, moved to Stolberg in good time, just like after him in 1785 the members of the Peltzer family. He became the founder of the family of entrepreneurs, which has ramified widely and has been extremely successful for many centuries.
coat of arms
The coat of arms of the Schleicher family shows a broad red crossbar on a golden background, above three blue (or silver) horseshoes next to each other (whereby the direction of the studs varies). There is a blue mill iron below the crossbar . On the helmet with blue and gold blankets a bursting, (red bridled ) silver horse . The coat of arms of the Slicher line essentially corresponds to this .
Family owned copper yards
Leonhard Schleicher took the first step towards founding the company in 1571 by purchasing a plot of land on today's Burgstrasse and building the first copper yard there in 1575 , today's Adler pharmacy . Together with his sons and grandchildren, the family later built the Schart, Knautzenhof, Rose, Vogelsang farms and, in 1724, Rosenthal, where a certain Johannes Schleicher had a representative baroque farm built. In addition, members of the family held shares in a large number of other copper farms, such as the Ellermühle or the Krautlade, through inheritance or purchases - even in some cases sole ones . Some of the copper yards and products acquired were marked with a mirck , as is customary in the industry .
The acquisition of the Bernardshammer copper yard from the Mondenschein brothers by Leonhard Schleicher (1561–1617), son of Leonhard, who emigrated to Stolberg, was crowned with particular economic success in 1617 , and Guillaume Schleicher (1673–1731) acquired the lower yard copper yard in 1718. from the Peltzer family. The Bernard hammer was only sold seven generations later by Johann Adam Schleicher (1776-1854), who was also appointed Maire von Stolberg in 1794 , after the death of his second wife Maria Gertrud Lynen, who also belonged to the old Aachen and Stolberg patrician family came from. On the other hand, the Unterste Hof survived all economic impairments and eight generations later, only between the world wars, the Kommerzienrat Emil Schleicher (1850-1933) merged this farm with other communities of heirs to form a limited partnership and, after his death, it was leased to the Stolberger Metallwerke . Because of this loyalty to its location, Emil Schleicher has named this farm "Hof Bleibtreu" since that time.
The Schleicher family currently still lives in the Bleibtreu farm on Eisenbahnstrasse in Stolberg, near which is the associated “Schleicherpark”.
Adler pharmacy, formerly Kupferhof
Kupferhof willow
Bernard hammer
Kleinbernard's Hammer
Kupferhof Unterster Hof / Bleibtreu courtyard
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Changes from the time of industrialization
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With the beginning of industrialization and the associated decline of the copper master trade, the Schleicher family played a significant role in ensuring that the non-ferrous metal trade in the Eschweiler-Stolberg area could continue to operate. Matthias Leonhard Schleicher (1758–1836), for example, founded the first zinc works in the Rhineland in 1819 in his brass works in what was then the Eschweiler district of Velau : the Velau zinc works . He also ran the Atsch mill and built an industrially structured brass factory at the lower court. From 1822 the company was named after Matthias Ludolf Schleicher (1788–1831), son of Matthias Leonhard. This company continued to exist from 1933 as part of the Stolberger Metallwerke. Matthias Ludolf also took over the Krautlade farm and set up a thimble factory there and was a co-founder of the Birkengang zinc smelter .
Another family member, Richard Schleicher (* 1838), took over a needle production facility in the Langerweh district of Schönthal , which was extremely successful. This led to the fact that in 1869 he had a representative villa built for his family and at around the same time was able to acquire Karlsburg and, in 1893, Holzheim Castle . The Karlsburg, to which a park laid out between 1858 and 1894 belonged, mainly served as a guest house. After Richard's son Waldemar died childless, the Schleicher era in the Langerwehe area ended in the 1930s and the park began to decline and Karlsburg, Holzheim Castle and the Schleicher Villa were sold.
In contrast, other start-ups or takeovers by the family were not too successful at that time. Issak Schleicher (1751–1815) tried in 1790 together with Isaak Lynen, Johann Peltzer and Isaak Prym to restructure the existing Kupferhof Steinfeld into a glassworks and also merged it with the “Am Hammerfeld” hut to become “St. Johannis Hut ". Just two years later, however, this was then transferred to the “Gebr. Siegwart & Co ”and produced brass again at Steinfeld. Then Johann Adolf (1752-1819) and his son Johann Matthias Schleicher (* 1782) headed the farm before it fell back to the Peltzer family.
The Kupferhof Weide , which had already been owned by the family in earlier years, was also taken over by Matthias Leonhard Schleicher in 1805, but from around 1900 it was mainly used as a workers' apartment, wine cellar and chicken farm and after its destruction in the course of the Second World War it was used as a normal house restored. Johann Adam Schleicher, the last owner of Bernardshammer, together with Johann Heinrich Schervier still operated a brass rolling mill in Stolberg-Buschmühle from 1807, which, however, was liquidated as early as 1814 .
Other personalities
- Carl Wilhelm Schleicher (1857–1938), grandson of Matthias Ludolf Schleicher from the Lower Court; Architect of historicism , based in Düsseldorf
literature
- Hermann Friedrich Macco : Contributions to the history and genealogy of Rhenish noble and patrician families , Volume 2, Aachen 1887, pp. 97–113.
- Hans-Joachim Ramm: Schleicher, family. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 23, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-428-11204-3 , pp. 47-49 ( digitized version ).
- Rudolf Arthur Peltzer: History of the brass industry and artistic work in brass (Dinanderies) in Aachen and the countries between the Meuse and the Rhine from Roman times to the present. In: Journal of the Aachen History Association . Volume 30, 1908, pp. 235-463.
- Hans-Joachim Ramm (editor): Mills, hammer mills and copper yards in the Vicht Valley and their owners (= contributions to the history of Stolberg, Volume 23), Stolberg 1998, ISBN 3-926830-12-3
- Karl Schleicher: History of the Stolberg brass industry . Stolberg 1956.
Web links
- Copper farms of the Schleicher family at Stolberg Tourist Info
