Viktor Rolff

This article describes the entrepreneur Viktor (Victor) Rolff (* 1878). For his grandson (* 1934) see Friedrich Victor Rolff .

Decorative briquette from Victor Rolff KG

Viktor Rolff (born February 5, 1878 in Cottbus , † December 28, 1950 in Cologne-Weiden ) was a German entrepreneur in the Rhenish lignite mining industry , as well as a patron and sponsor of archaeological research in Cologne.

Live and act

Origin and family

Viktor Rolff was born in Cottbus in 1878 as the son of a textile manufacturer . In 1903 he married Elisabeth Krüger (born September 17, 1883, † December 19, 1965), who was also from Cottbus. With her he had five children, two of whom died at a young age. One son died as a young man in World War I and the eldest son died as an officer in World War II.

Construction of the Wachtberg I mine and briquette factory

In 1901 Viktor Rolff, who was living in Cologne-Lindenthal at the time, founded Wachtberg I, Braunkohlenwerke und Briquettfabrik Frechen GmbH . Rolff was the main partner alongside Peter Werhahn and his cousin Carl Sporkenbach. The purpose of the company was to open an open- cast mine in the Wachtberg I mine near Frechen -Wachtberg for the extraction of clay, gravel, sand and, above all, lignite , as well as the construction of a briquette factory to utilize the Coal.

The mine field was acquired by the company of Gisbert Egon , Count von Fürstenberg-Stammheim , landlord of Bachem Castle . The field was created in 1900 by splitting the previously combined fields of Umschlag and Clarenberg . In addition to Wachtberg I , the neighboring fields of Clarenberg and Graf Fürstenberg were created in which other companies also opened pits. The latter came into Rolff's possession more than 30 years later (see below).

Wachtberg I's operations grew rapidly under the direction of Director Rolff . After the first factory had already started production in 1901, two more factories followed in 1907 and 1909. The increase in output was also due to technical improvements that Rolff developed himself. In 1905, for example, Rolff patented a new form of coal distribution for tube dryers that uses compressed air , as is used in briquette factories upstream of the briquette presses.

In 1913 the GmbH took over the shares of the shareholder Werhahn. In 1920 Rolff finally sold the flourishing mine and briquette factory to the paint factories vorm. Bayer & Co. in Leverkusen.

Rolff used part of the proceeds from the sale to acquire a stake in BIAG Zukunft in Weisweiler. There he became the largest single shareholder in 1923.

Landowners and patrons

Having made his fortune through the sale of Wachtberg, Rolff bought a large property in Weiden in 1920 ( Aachener Strasse / corner of “Alte Post”, house number at that time: 1089) and had a villa built there by the architects Carl Moritz and Fritz Fuß (later burnt down ). In the following year 1921 he also bought a villa in Schwangau im Allgäu as a holiday home . The car lover Rolff, who had been a member of the German Automobile Club (DAC) since 1905, also acquired several exclusive cars, for example a Maybach Zeppelin DS 8 in 1936 .

Viktor Rolff also used his money and his influence as a patron for charitable purposes: In 1926 he initiated the construction of a church in his home town of Weiden and in 1930 donated a large sum of money (35,000 RM) for the purchase of a former excursion restaurant, which after the Purchase was converted into a community center. Between 1935 and 1937 he also donated money and land for the construction of a church in Brüggen .

Rolff, who was a friend of Fritz Fremersdorf (Director of the Roman Department of the Wallraf-Richartz Museum in Cologne), also supported archaeological research in Cologne with the publication of publications and the implementation of projects. For example, in 1928 he made a mine train available for an excavation at the Alteburg naval fort . He also endeavored to preserve and archaeological evaluation of historical structures in advance of the dredging of his opencast mines.

For his services he was made an honorary citizen of the University of Cologne in 1938.

From that time on, Viktor Rolff's family had close business and private contacts with Count Berghe von Trips, who had their seat at the nearby Hemmersbach Castle near Kerpen-Horrem and who also owned lignite mine fields in the Ville and near Zülpich.

Expansion of Graf Fürstenberg and Zülpich

In 1937, the limited partnership Victor Rolff KG Braunkohlenbergwerk und Briquettfabrik , which had meanwhile been founded by Rolff in Bottenbroich , bought the Dutch mining company Algemeene Bruinkool Compagnie (ABC) based in Amsterdam . ABC was the owner and operator of the aforementioned Graf Fürstenberg mine and briquette factory near Kerpen - Türnich .

In order to expand its activities, Rolff also bought mining fields around Zülpich . However, due to the Second World War, the revelation was delayed. The company founder, who had died three years earlier, did not see the start of operations in the Zülpich opencast mine - called "Victor" in his honor - and in the associated briquette factory in Geich in 1953.

After Viktor Rolff's death, the company was continued by his wife and son Joachim. The company management later passed to his grandsons F. Victor (* 1934, known as a racing driver) and Eduard Joachim (* 1936, later managing director of the Früh brewery in Cologne).

Remarks

1. ↑ Spelling of the first name often also Vi c tor (with c instead of k). Warning, risk of confusion with his grandson Friedrich Victor Rolff !
2. ↑ Sporkenbach is probably the owner of the clay, kaolin and glue sand pit Sporkenbach near Satzvey .
3. ^ Gisbert Egon was the son of Franz Egon von Fürstenberg-Stammheim

Individual evidence

1. ^ ^{A b c} Uwe Griep: Cologne: Lövenich, Weiden and Junkersdorf. Settlement history until 1953 . Ed .: Hiltrud Kier, Ulrich Krings (=  Stadtspuren. Monuments in Cologne . Volume 27 ). JP Bachem, 2003, ISBN 3-7616-1591-4 .
2. ↑ ^{a b c} Karl Pokschewinski, Volker students , Manfred Coenen: briquette and sidings in the Rhenish lignite mining . Lokrundschau, Gülzow 2004, ISBN 3-931647-18-8 .
3. ↑ ^{a b} Annual Report 2008. Bergbau-Archiv Bochum . German Mining Museum Bochum, Bochum 2008, p. 22–23 ( full text online ).
4. ^ ^{A b c} Arno Kleinebeckel: Lignite company: history of a raw material, a district, an industry in the Rhineland . 2nd Edition. Greven, Cologne 1986, ISBN 3-7743-0225-1 .
5. ^ ^{A b} Walter Buschmann , Norbert Gilson, Barbara Rinn: Brown coal mining in the Rhineland . Ed .: Landschaftsverband Rheinland and MBV-NRW (=  The architectural and art monuments of North Rhine-Westphalia . Volume 1 ). Werner, Worms 2008, ISBN 978-3-88462-269-8 , pp. 457, 618 .
6. ^ ^{A b c} Herbert Eidam: Wachtberg briquette factory. koelnland.de, accessed on December 31, 2011 .  
7. ^ ^{A b} Volker HW pupil : The Clarenberg Actien-Gesellschaft for the coal and clay industry in Frechen near Cologne 1893-1971 . DBH pupils ( full text on dbhverlag.de [PDF; 1.9  MB ]).
8. ↑ Volker HW Schüler , Manfred Coenen: The Briquette Production in the Rhenish Brown Coal District . (Rhenish briquette factories 1877–2004) . In: 6th Colloquium of Mining History . Magistrate of the City of Borken, Borken (Hessen) 2005, ISBN 3-932739-13-2 , p.  29 ff . ( Excerpt from the online archive of DBH-Verlag Schüler ).
9. ^ Georg Franke: Handbook of the briquette preparation: Two volumes . 2nd Edition. tape 1 . Ferdinand, 1909.
10. ↑ C. Richter: The mechanical processing of brown coal . (= The German Lignite Industry , Volume 2). W. Knapp, 1910.
11. ↑ James Sheridan Muspratt, Bernhard Neumann, Ernst Otto Beckmann, Hans Bunte, Arthur Heinrich Binz, Fritz Hayduch, Friedrich Karl Adolf Stohmann: Encyklopädisches Handbuch der technischen Chemie . tape 1/1 . F. Vieweg & Son, 1917.
12. ^ German Chemical Society, Association of German Chemists (Ed.): Chemisches Zentralblatt . tape 4 . Verlag Chemie GmbH, 1919.
13. ↑ Hans Sester: As a boy in the so-called Third Reich: a report from Cologne and places of evacuation . HA. Herchen, 1987, ISBN 3-89184-043-8 .
14. ↑ ^{a b} Villa Rolff, Cologne - Weiden (Cologne), Aachener Straße 1089. Image index of art and architecture, accessed on January 5, 2012 . 
15. ↑ Wolfram Hagspiel , Dorothea Heiermann: Cologne, Marienburg: Buildings and architects of a villa suburb, including the villa areas of Bayenthal . Ed .: Hiltrud Kier (=  Stadtspuren, Denkmäler in Köln . Volume 8 , Part 1: List of Buildings A – L). JP Bachem, 1996, ISBN 3-7616-1147-1 .
16. ^ Wilhelm Liebhart (Ed.): Schwangau: Village of the royal castles . Jan Thorbecke, Sigmaringen 1996, ISBN 3-7995-3435-0 .
17. ↑ Barbara Haubner: Thrill and Leisure Time: Automobilism in Germany 1886-1914 . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1998, ISBN 3-525-01372-8 , pp. 83 .
18. ^ GN Georgano: The complete encyclopaedia of motorcars 1885-1968 . 2nd Edition. Ebury P. Dutton, 1968.
19. ↑ Peter Crohn, Rolf Lenhartz, Hannelore Mäueler (eds.): Departure in the west of Cologne: 100 years of Protestant worship in Weiden . 1st edition. Association f. Business u. Local Studies , 2007, ISBN 3-927765-41-4 .
20. ↑ Peter Crohn: 50 Years of the Evangelical Church Congregation Weiden. Part 1: The time until the church is founded. (No longer available online.) Evangelical Congregation Weiden / Lövenich, archived from the original on January 13, 2013 ; Retrieved January 5, 2012 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
21. ↑ ANNIVERSARY: 75 years of Ev. Community center in Weiden (since 1978: "Jochen-Klepper-Haus"). (No longer available online.) Evangelical Congregation Weiden / Lövenich, archived from the original on January 6, 2013 ; Retrieved January 5, 2012 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
22. ↑ Short history of the parish Brüggen / Erft. Evangelical Church Community Kerpen-Brüggen, accessed on January 5, 2012 . 
23. ^ Fritz Fremersdorf, Archaeological Society Cologne, Römisch-Germanisches Museum: The Monuments of Roman Cologne: New Acquisitions of the Roman-Germanic Museum during the years 1923–1927 . (= Volume 1 of The Monuments of Roman Cologne ). 2nd Edition. The Lion Publishing House, 1964.
24. ^ Everhard Kleinertz: files of the cultural administration of the city of Cologne 1880-1930 . Ed .: Stadtarchiv Köln (=  messages from the Stadtarchiv Köln . Volume 1 , issue 97). Historical archive of the city of Cologne, 2005, ISBN 3-928907-16-6 .
25. ^ Ulrich Krings: Cologne: Lövenich, Weiden, Junkersdorf. Settlement history until 1950 . (= City tracks, monuments in Cologne , volume 27). Ed .: Hiltrud Kier. JP Bachem, 2003, ISBN 3-7616-1591-4 .
26. ↑ Andreas Freitäger: Honorary Citizen and Honorary Senators of the University of Cologne 1925–2004 with a list of the holders of the University Medal . Publications from the University Archives Cologne, Issue 5. Ed .: University Archives Cologne. University of Cologne, Cologne 2005 ( full text as PDF on uni-koeln.de ).
27. ^ Hans Gerd Dick: 6th Tour de Tolbiac: Juntersdorf Castle . Information leaflet. Ed .: Marketing working group for Zülpich. City of Zülpich, Zülpich 2009 ( full text as PDF on zuelpich.de ).
28. ↑ ^{a b c} Otto Becker: Brown coal on the outskirts of the Roman city of Zülpich . In: Home calendar of the Euskirchen district . Schiffer, Rheinberg 1959, DNB  015111199 ( full text on wisoveg.de).
29. ^ Mining science and process engineering in mining and metallurgy . tape 5 . H. Huebner, 1958, ISSN  0005-8920 .
30. ^ Peter Josef Früh (1862–1915), founder of the brewery. Landschaftsverband Rheinland , accessed on January 6, 2012 . 
31. ↑ Rolff threatens the city of Zülpich with a bathing ban on the lake. (No longer available online.) City of Zülpich, January 11, 2002, formerly in the original ; Retrieved January 6, 2012 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.