Ulrich Zellweger

Ulrich Zellweger

Johann Ulrich Zellweger (born August 1, 1804 in Trogen ; † January 19, 1871 ibid) was a Swiss banker , publicist and founder of the Basler Missions-Handlungs-Gesellschaft. He was the son of Landammann Jacob Zellweger, builder of the town hall on Trogner Landsgemeindeplatz, and Anna Barbara Zellweger-Zuberbühler. His second marriage was to Cécile Ryhiner von Basel . The couple had seven children.

Live and act

childhood

Ulrich Zellweger was born in 1804 as the ninth child of Jacob and Anna-Barbara Zellweger-Zuberbühler. In addition to regular school attendance, he was also able to benefit from training with a private tutor. The Zellweger textile trading family belonged to the rural upper middle class, who had gained wealth and prestige through the long-distance trade in cotton at the time of proto-industrialization in Appenzell Ausserrhoden .

When his mother died early in 1815, Ulrich Zellweger was eleven years old. The stroke of fate changed his father's family and professional circumstances. The lifestyle was restricted as the father's company was financially troubled after the collapse of Napoleonic rule. In 1817 the company "Zellweger & Comp." Collapsed, the family had to dismiss the tutor, among other things. Ulrich and his siblings left Trogen; Together with the brothers Eduard and Salomon Zellweger , he was brought to Ludwigsburg by his father .

youth

Ulrich Zellweger attended schools in Ludwigsburg and Stuttgart from 1816 to 1819 . At the end of 1819 he began a commercial apprenticeship in a trading house in Marseille . The apprenticeship lasted four years. After this time he went to London . In the meantime his father had passed away. Uncle Johann Caspar Zellweger , among others, was responsible for the orphans . He remained an important reference person for Ulrich Zellweger throughout his life.

Professional career

In London, Zellweger and a friend from Zurich founded their own company called "Orelli & Zellweger". The two entrepreneurs had little success with their company. They lacked contact with English houses and the investments in the premises, equipment and machines for the manufacture of horn combs were higher than the yield. Ulrich Zellweger and his partner struggled with their debts, and Zellweger often had his uncle Johann Caspar transfer money to him. The efforts of the two young entrepreneurs did not help. After seven years the company was closed and Zellweger tried his luck overseas.

He went to Cuba , the most important trading center of the Caribbean islands at the time . He traveled there with the prospect of a job with the Swiss sugar plantation owner H. Stouder. When he arrived in Cuba, he received news that his future employer had died shortly before his arrival. He first settled in Matanzas , but then moved to Havana . The first five years in Havana were difficult. Zellweger engaged in a wide variety of activities and lived very frugally so that he could pay his debts. One day he was in contact with Charles Drake, a leading exporter in the Cuban sugar trade . After a six-month trial period, Ulrich Zellweger became a partner in the company "Charles Drake & Co." recorded. Working in this company provided him with an ample income. In 1836 and 1840, Zellweger visited Europe and the Appenzell region . The company was liquidated in 1839. However, this was not a failure for Ulrich Zellweger. He was able to establish the successor company with the name "Drake Brothers & Co." together with Joseph M. Morales and Charles Respinger, a Basel resident. The company had intensive contact with Switzerland, especially with the company “Burckhardt-Wildt & Sohn” in Basel. This supplied silk ribbons to Cuba and obtained cigars and other colonial goods for them . The company later developed into the “Forcart-Weis & Burckhardt-Wildt” commercial bank.

Ulrich Zellweger's trade relations took him from Havana to North America , where he met with numerous personalities from leading business circles. In exchange with the successful and wealthy American merchants, including the banker and real estate owner John Jacob Astor (1822–1890) and the New York corporate bankers Prime, Ward, King & Co., he had a revival . He became a devout Protestant and from then on was simultaneously an entrepreneur and Christian missionary. The central element of his credo was the conviction that his actions and thoughts were predetermined.

Zellweger left America in 1846 and went back to his hometown Trogen. He lived there as a privateer for six years . Since he was very wealthy and made this known, the poor and needy made pilgrimages to his house. Zellweger gave something to everyone and advised everyone to trust in divine support. He wanted to steer people on the “right” path and knew that to do this, they had to be given training and employment. So he devoted himself more to caring for the poor . The first charitable commitment went to the rescue facility for boys in Bächtelen near Bern. The establishment of the institution was partly thanks to his uncle Johann Caspar Zellweger. He was president of the institution from 1839 to 1847. Ulrich Zellweger was asked for financial support. Johann Caspar Zellweger was a member of the “closer” committee of the Bächtelen, and the nephew sat on the “other” committee. He took part in meetings, inspected new classrooms and was particularly interested in religious education. When Ulrich Zellweger went to Paris to devote himself to his banking business, he resigned as a member of the further committee.

The first railway in Switzerland, the “Spanish Brötli Railway” , was inaugurated in 1847. Just two years later, Ulrich Zellweger got involved in railway construction. His plan was initially to connect Zurich, Basel, Aarau , Solothurn and Bern with railway lines. Zellweger campaigned for a realization. However, it was not until the Railway Act of 1852 that the construction of railway lines was regulated and a railway construction boom began.

In the revolutionary year of 1848 , Zellweger was afraid of losing his fortune, most of which he had invested in French papers. The political unrest in France at risk their security so that Zellweger unceremoniously relocated to Paris and, along with his business associate Charles Respinger in Paris , the bank "Zellweger & Cie." founded. The bank gained an excellent reputation. After a few years, Zellweger took on his nephews Otto Friedrich Krauss and James Zellweger as partners in the bank.

Ulrich Zellweger campaigned for marginalized children and made sure that they could enjoy a good upbringing. In 1849 he founded a foster home, the "Rebhaus" in Basel. On the day of the opening, the first house-parents moved in, and many young people joined the institute who were cared for for little money. Zellweger supported several pupils by taking over their board. The young people enjoyed an excellent education and entered respected professions such as teachers, pastors or doctors. The religiously motivated philanthropist also took care of young children and founded a children's asylum and an orphanage in 1849. The refuge for the smallest among the little ones was connected to an educational center for toddler teachers in 1852. The founding of the Hüttschwendi work school in Trogen also goes back to Zellweger's initiative.

With the mechanization of weaving, hand weaving got into a crisis. The lack of education and training of young people in rural areas was partly due to the lack of innovative strengths. In 1856, Zellweger founded an “educational and weaving establishment” with a model farm in the former brewery of his brother Eduard, which he had taken over in the “Lindenbühl” . The purpose of the institution was to guarantee Appenzellers from poor backgrounds a good training as weavers. In addition, they were able to attend the school belonging to the institution and gain experience in agriculture .

Zellweger was also active in other areas of self-help. For example, he promoted beekeeping and rationalized dairy and forestry. The advancement of forestry was close to his heart. With a trained forester he started state schools. Ulrich Zellweger was also interested in the quality of cattle breeding in Appenzellerland. He brought precious cows and cattle to the canton, which should help improve the Appenzell breed. In addition, he introduced the production of Emmentaler cheese by financing his own dairy with Emmentaler Sennen . He also made a renewed attempt to introduce silkworm breeding in the Appenzellerland after the "Appenzell Non-Profit Society" had already gained experience with it in the 1830s. To maintain home weaving, he supported the introduction of improved paperwork and sizing for handlooms. In the second half of the 19th century, folding, a weaving technique, was mechanized with the introduction of warping machines. When finishing, brushes are dipped in a glue broth and thus the threads are moistened.

Ulrich Zellweger supported the training of nurses in Trogen. After his death, his wife Cécile Ryhiner supported the construction of the district hospital in the Nideren, which later became the hospital (today Palais Bleu ). The benefactor also had a warm heart for the Catholic Appenzell Innerrhoden ; he donated large sums of money in the unprofitable years. After Zellweger founded the Basler Missions-Handlungsgesellschaft in 1859, he lifted the Appenzeller Sunday paper out of the eaves in 1862 . It quickly found widespread use. The weekly newspaper was continued well after Zellweger's death until 1972. Son Otto Zellweger and his wife Lily Zellweger-Steiger took over the editing and subsequently printed the sheet in Basel.

In 1866 the private bank «Bank für Appenzell A.Rh.» was founded take place. First it was supposed to become a state bank in order to stop the outflow of Appenzell money from textile production to banks outside the canton. But the great council refused the experienced entrepreneur and banker the establishment of a state bank. This is how a private bank was created for Appenzell Ausserrhoden. Ulrich Zellweger was the initiator and first president of this bank, which merged with the Swiss Bank Corporation in 1909 .

In the last years of his life, Zellweger was very worried about his bank in Paris. Because the Franco-German War broke out in 1870 and Paris was besieged. From his sickbed he used to exchange letters with his bank in Paris in order to avoid losses. The events in France shook Zellweger very much. However, he did not live to see the end of the war.

Basel Mission

In 1858 Ulrich Zellweger was invited to the Basel Mission . Volunteering was a great honor for the believing man. He appreciated being a member of the committee that offered development aid for the needy and advocated overcoming slavery , creating trading posts and promoting the indigenous cotton culture in Africa . In addition to preaching the Christian faith, the Basel missionaries were also interested in development cooperation. By promoting local industry, the economic position of the locals should be strengthened. A distribution of European goods and the exchange for national products by the missionaries was not initially planned. However, it turned out that many everyday goods could only be procured from Europe. That means, money and mail traffic as well as activities in connection with the stay and the return journey of the missionaries were added. Ulrich Zellweger was the founder of the Missions-Handlungs-Gesellschaft, which took on the practical tasks. The missionaries were thus able to devote themselves entirely to missionary work and were freed from practical tasks. The mission stations developed into small shops in which locals and Europeans stocked up. There was more and more trades, which resulted in an increasing discrepancy between mission and trade. Zellweger took on the task of solving this problem.

He quickly realized that trading as part of the Basel mission also offered good opportunities for Swiss companies. He therefore wanted to separate the commercial activities from the actual missionary work in order to secure long-term funding for the Basel mission. As President of the Action Society, he ensured that not only those who were committed to Christianity, but also economically minded merchants could participate. From now on, profit-oriented work was carried out via the stock corporation der Missionshandlung. The shareholders should receive half of the profit. The other half went to the Basel Mission. Ulrich Zellweger's aim was to use the profits of the private company “Missions-Handlungs-Gesellschaft” to finance the infrastructure measures in the mission areas. Not everyone on the Basel Mission Committee was convinced that development aid could be provided through a market economy. When tensions arose in 1864, Zellweger resigned as president and resigned from the committee.

Ulrich Zellweger Tomb (2007)

Private life

In 1837 Ulrich Zellweger married Elisabetha Potts from Norfolk (Virginia) . She was a widow and brought five children from her first marriage. After five years, the couple separated again: Elisabetha only took care of the children and Ulrich only went about his business. Zellweger returned to Trogen in 1842 and his marriage was divorced in 1848 by the judgment of the Appenzell court.

In 1850 he met and fell in love with Cécile Ryhiner from Basel. She was the daughter of Christoph Ryhiner, the owner of the “Ryhiner & Sons” floret spinning mill in Basel. The two married on April 18, 1850. Their marriage had seven children. The family spent seven years in Paris before moving to Basel. Zellweger carried out the most important business of his bank «Zellweger & Cie.» From Switzerland.

At the end of Zellweger's life, his sons Walter and Wilhelm were fighting tuberculosis . Despite taking a spa stay in Nice and Cannes , the two died. The Franco-Prussian War of 1870 and the siege of Paris caused great concern for the providential entrepreneur. He maintained an extensive correspondence with his bank in Paris. At the same time, he was physically ill and cuffed to his bed. He spent sixteen weeks in his sick bed. Until shortly before his death on January 1, 1871, he dictated answers to the letters in Paris in order to avoid losses.

For Ulrich Zellweger, his good deeds had only one purpose: to serve God. Many people came to his funeral in Trogen Church . Ulrich Zellweger's tomb stands next to that of his brother Salomon Zellweger in the Trogen cemetery. Even if Ulrich Zellweger did not always stay in Trogen, he still had his summer house in his home town, with which he was connected throughout his life.

literature

• Hugo P. Salvisberg: Swiss pioneers in business and technology. Salomon and Ulrich Zellweger. Appenzell pioneer of open economic borders. Association for Economic History Studies, Zurich 2008, ISBN 978-3-909059-42-3 .
• Trogen village square. In: Appenzeller Sunday newspaper. 1922.
• Felix Erbacher: Appenzeller gets Basel's mission going. Ulrich Zellweger combined Christian commitment with economic thinking. In: Basler Zeitung. Volume 170, No.?, 2012, p. 12.
• Anna Carolina, Schärer Knutti: Global entanglements and Protestant networks in the 19th century: The Appenzell entrepreneur and philanthropist Johann Ulrich Zellweger. Zurich 2010.
• Johann Jakob Etter: Johann Ulrich Zellweger. In: Appenzeller Sunday newspaper. Volume 10, No. 20, 1871, pp. 154–155.
• Johann Jakob Etter: Johann Ulrich Zellweger. In: Appenzeller Sunday newspaper. Volume 10, No. 21, 1871, pp. 163–166.
• Johann Jakob Etter: Johann Ulrich Zellweger. In: Appenzeller Sunday newspaper. Volume 10, No. 22, 1871, pp. 170–173.
• Johann Jakob Etter: Johann Ulrich Zellweger. In: Appenzeller Sunday newspaper. Volume 10, No. 23, 1871, pp. 178–179.
• Ernst H. Koller, Jakob Signer: Appenzell coat of arms and gender book. With 711 coats of arms in color lithograph and 104 text figures. Stämpfli, Bern / Aarau 1926, p. 405.
• Walter Schläpfer: Economic history of the canton of Appenzell Ausserrhoden up to 1939. H. Kern, Buch- und Offsetdruckerei, Gais 1984, pp. 340–343.
• In memory of JU Zellweger. Banker in Trogen. born on August 1, 1804, died on January 19, 1871.
• Albert Tanner: The boat flies, the engine roars. Weber, sticker and entrepreneur in Eastern Switzerland. Unionsverlag, Zurich 1985.

Web links

• Thomas Fuchs: Zellweger, Ulrich. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Swiss Economic Archives , Basel, PA 255, circular "Charles Drake & Co.", May 31, 1839. Printed in: Salvisberg: Salomon and Ulrich Zellweger , p. 66.
2. ↑ Tanner: The boat flies. 1985, pp. 61-64 (notes) and 65 f. (Finishing).