Valentin Pfeifer (businessman)

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Valentin Pfeifer (1763–1840), born in Sommerau (picture owned by the M. Pfeifer family)
Pfeifer grave (2015) in the Frankfurt main cemetery, No. B 128
Pfeifer grave - No. B 128 - after restoration in July 2019
Memorial at the cemetery in Sommerau, erected on April 24, 2019

Valentin Pfeifer (born November 10, 1763 , † February 21, 1840 in Sommerau im Spessart ) was a German merchant and shipowner .

Life

He came from the second marriage (1756) of the farmer Johannes Pfeifer (1722–1794) from Sommerau and his wife Anna Maria, née Weber (1735–1810) from Laudenbach am Main. After studying in Mainz, he was employed as a child teacher with Baron von Harff at Dreiborn Castle near Monschau in the Eifel . In September 1786 he went to Holland and found a job in Johann Schuhmann's trading house in Amsterdam , which went bankrupt after a year and a half. Valentin stayed in Amsterdam and moved to Johann Albert Cramer's trading house, where he became a partner from February 1794. From July 1, 1798, Valentin Pfeifer took over the business and continued to run it under his name. In January 1797 he married Maria Agnes née Weyll (1772-1856), daughter of the Cologne ranger Johann Christian Weyll (1724-1798) and Anna Katharina Weyll née Hofbauer (1732-1819) from Mainz . In May 1811 Valentin Pfeifer went back to Germany with his family for three years. The barriers to trade caused by the French continental barrier had caused the merchant to put his business activities on hold in Offenbach am Main to wait for further developments. A month after Napoleon's abdication, the Pfeifers returned to Amsterdam. In November 1814 Valentin Pfeifer acquired the frigate “Vrees en Hoop (fear and hope)”, in June 1817 the pink “Harmonie” was added.

The merchant and shipowner spent his retirement from 1833 with his wife in Frankfurt am Main and on their estate in Oberrad ; both are buried in the main cemetery in Frankfurt am Main (Winning B - no. 128). The grave site was restored in 2019 by the Pfeifer family and is a listed building ( list of cultural monuments at the main cemetery in Frankfurt ).

family

Valentin's brother Johann Joseph Pfeifer (1776–1856) took over the parental estate in Sommerau . Joseph Pfeifer was also a colorful personality. As a 24-year-old, he had already traveled to Vienna with the mayor of Sommerau, Johann Georg Fuchs , in order to assert forest rights for the place against the aristocratic Fechenbach landlords before the Reichshofrat. In 1810 he was Sommerau's delegate in the electoral college of the estates of the newly created Grand Duchy of Frankfurt . In the chronicle of the market in Erlenbach am Main , from 1958, he is named as one of the community's lenders during the French era. In 1820 he acquired the Jesuit estate in Eichelsbach, which once belonged to the Himmelthal monastery , with commercial skill . The extent to which the two brothers worked together in economic matters is not documented. But there were enough common interests. One business area could have been trading in "Dutch wood". In Valentin Pfeifer's adopted Dutch home, there were strong oak trunks from the Spessart z. B. in demand for shipbuilding.

Relatives like the teacher, folklorist and local writer Valentin Pfeifer (1886–1964) also come from Sommerau or are still based there today.

Valentin Pfeifer's children were:

  • Maria ("Mimi") Georgina (1797–1863), born in Amsterdam, married the merchant Wilhelm Kiderlen (1798–1870) from Württemberg in 1822 in Amsterdam. The family grave is located in the main cemetery in Frankfurt am Main (Gewann F - No. 423). The grave site was restored in 2019 by the Pfeifer family and is a listed building ( list of cultural monuments at the main cemetery in Frankfurt ). The couple had three children: Auguste Kiderlen, born in 1823; Emil Kiderlen, born 1824; Robert Kiderlen, born in 1828. A son of Emil Kiderlen, Antoine Emil Kiderlen (called "Pim"), born in 1828, became known as a cyclist.
  • Albert Johann (1802–1803), born in Amsterdam. Albert Johann Cramer's relationship with his business partner Valentin Pfeifer was very personal. So Cramer became the godfather of Valentin and Maria Agnes Pfeifer's son. Albert Johann P. was buried in Amsterdam.
  • Valentin (1804–1833), born in Amsterdam, owned a paper mill in Oberschneidhausen (formerly Eisenwerk) near Düren; he remained unmarried. Valentin was buried in the cemetery in Brühl (Rhineland) .
  • Emil Pfeifer (1806–1889), born in Amsterdam, sugar manufacturer and entrepreneur. Emil was married twice, first to Maria Emma , born in 1833 . Hoesch (1814–1845), daughter of Düren and Schneidhausen paper manufacturer Ludolph Mathias Hoesch (1788–1859) and his wife Juliane, born. Schleicher (1793-1868). There were two children from this marriage. From Emil's second marriage in 1847 to Josephine Charlotte Lucie Mayer (1823-1893), the youngest daughter of the Düren Oberbergrats Johann Heinrich Daniel Mayer († 1836) and his wife Philipine nee. Jardou, have three children.
  • Robert ("Robertus") (1808–1877), born in Amsterdam, merchant in Antwerp, married in Paris in 1834 Maria Wilhelmine André (1815–1876), born in Frankenthal / Pfalz. Her daughter Agnes Hoesch , née Pfeifer (1839–1903), married the ironworks owner Eberhard Hoesch from Düren in 1862 . The Pfeifer couple are buried in Antwerp.
  • Oscar (1812–1815), born in Offenbach, buried in Amsterdam.
  • Lilla (1813–1868), born in Offenbach, married the son of the Frankfurt merchant Franz Dominicus Brentano , Georg Franz Melchior Brentano (1801–1852) in 1836 . The two called themselves Brentano-Pfeifer after their marriage; they had 7 children: Agnes (1837–1916), Johanna (1839–1885), Franz (1840–1888), Maria (1842–1867), Josefa (1844–1875), Emil (1845–1890) and Louise (1848 -1866). The couple is buried in the main cemetery in Frankfurt (Gruftenhalle / Brentano-Gruft No. 48). The grave is a listed building.

literature

  • Heinrich Philip Bartels: Chronicle of the Pfeifer family , around 1975 (only published in the family circle)
  • Otto Pfeifer: Historical house book of Sommerau. Hinckel-Druck, Wertheim, ed. Markt Eschau, self-published, 2010.
  • Otto Pfeifer: The history of the parish and the churches of St. Laurentius Sommerau. Hinckel-Druck, Wertheim, ed. Markt Eschau, self-published, 2012.
  • Otto Pfeifer: Chronicle of the Pfeifer Sommerau family. , Self-published, 2017.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Stichting Maritiem Historische Data - home. In: marhisdata.nl. Retrieved July 18, 2019 (Dutch).
  2. ↑ Alexander Karpf: Von Sommerau in die Welt In: Spessart, May 2019, pp. 6-15.
  3. ↑ http://www.schlossarchiv.de/haeuser/d/DA/E/Daechheim.htm
personal data
SURNAME Pfeifer, Valentin
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German merchant and shipowner
DATE OF BIRTH November 10, 1763
DATE OF DEATH February 21, 1840
Place of death Sommerau , Spessart