Villa Profitable

Villa Profitlich (2018)

The villa in 1912

The Villa Profitlich in the town of Unkel on the Middle Rhine is a residential building built in 1910/11 for the fur manufacturer Ernst Profitlich (born December 10, 1855 in Paris; † February 19, 1919 in Unkel). It is located on the site of the Paul Profitlich & Söhne factory, which dates back to 1873 , tobacco goods finishing and dyeing works , which today can hardly be identified as a former production and storage facility.

The house address is Von-Werner-Straße 9.

villa

In the years 1910/1911, about 37 years after acquiring the property for the fur finishing and dyeing works, Ernst Profitlich, son of the company's founder Paul Profitlich, had a representative villa built on the Rhine side of the company property . It was designed by the well-known Berlin architect Wilhelm Freiherr von Tettau . Ernst Severin Profitlich comes from a family that has been known to have been at home in Unkel since at least the 17th century. He was married to Johanna Reussner. Until the completion of his house in 1911, Ernst Profitlich lived in Haus Adrienne (named after his mother) on Unkeler Siebengebirgstraße 1, a likewise very beautiful villa that his father had built opposite the new train station.

The Villa Profitlich is a mansard roof building , characterized on the Rhine side by an ornamental gable and an impressive oriel with Art Nouveau ornaments , which is decisive for the representative . The courtyard gate is marked with the year 1922. The retaining wall from more recent times consists of hewn trachyte , which may come from the Perlenhardt in the Siebengebirge , although the structure differs somewhat from it. On the wall of the Fronhof on the opposite side of the street, various high water marks bear witness to the floods of earlier years.

Middle part of the Cometen oriel frieze, with two rabbits, as a reference to the rabbit finishing by the Profitlich company

An inscription on the house bay commemorates an event that terrified many people at the time. This year the earth crossed the tail of Halley's Comet , which passes through the earth every 74 to 79 years , and scientists had recently discovered that it contained the poisonous gas dicyan . The three-part text says:

“I was born here under the sign of the Comet - In des XX. Century's tenth year before the river a. Fluer God preserve - Me and those who chose my roof as an umbrella "

A feasibility study commissioned by the Vienna University of Technology described future development possibilities for the Profitlich complex within the framework of the model project "Unkel am Rhein":

“The former fur factory from the end of the 19th century is an undiscovered gem of a small town on the lower Middle Rhine. The property is not a listed building, but it is one of the few traces of the industrial history of the community. H. Monument protection would be possible. The property is hardly recognizable as a production and storage facility, as its substance has been greatly changed through additions and renovations. Uses range from a restaurant in the lower price segment to the rooms of a driving school to simple apartments for large foreign families. The conversion of the property to upscale "studio living" is conceivable. Whether this can be represented in the private sector depends on the development of the community as a whole. An amortization of the investment is more likely in the medium to long term. "

- Various authors, on behalf of the Vienna University of Technology

Paul Profitlich & Sons, Tobacco Dressing and Dyeing

Paul Profitlich & Sons --- Clemens Fels tobacco goods finishing and dyeing works
legal form	one-man business
founding	1873
resolution	between 1961 and 1965
Seat	Uncle
Branch	Tobacco products and fur finishing

Through his marriage in June 1853 to the French G. Adrienne Clerc (* 1828 in Paris; † 1904 in Unkel) in the Paris suburb of Chalmaison , Paul Profitlich (born December 31, 1821 in Münstereifel; † June 15, 1902 in Unkel) acquired the Participation in a local fur factory. The couple had five children. After the end of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/71, he was given the choice of either adopting French nationality or leaving the country. Then Paul Profitlich came back to Unkel with his wife.

With the construction of the railway on the right bank of the Rhine and the connection of Unkel with its own train station in 1870, it became interesting for companies to set up production facilities in Unkel. When Paul Profitlich received the building permit and the concession for his fur processing company on January 9, 1873 , he created around 60 new jobs (later there were at times significantly more); together with the Schwenzow concrete goods factory, there were around 100 at that time. Many of those around Unkel used this resident winemakers to switch from their previous high-risk occupation to a probably safer factory job. The wages of the workers at Profitlich averaged 2.50 to 3 marks per day, which was considered a good salary. The fur industry, and with it the fur finishing industry, is a seasonal industry, the skins are mainly produced during the winter and must be available to the furriers for processing from spring . In addition, the industry is exceptionally badly affected by economic, fashion and other influences. The annual number of employees therefore fluctuated, and it was only possible in particularly good times to stretch the work so far that the employees had work in the tobacco preparation facility throughout the year.

Johann Joseph Westhofen (* 1824; † 1906) recalled:

“After leaving school, I worked at home in agriculture for 2 years. Then I worked at Paul Profitlich's fur factory in Unkel. Until 1881, (then) there was no more work. Now we 3 Breitbachers were looking for work on foot. Jos. Küppen, house painter (?) Fell ill in Cologne and died in Breitbach in 1887. Nikola Prinz went on a ship in Düsseldorf, later he worked in Westphalia a. is lost. I traveled to Gelsenkirchen u. I worked in the brewery for almost a year - on Hochstrasse (?) with Heinrich Holthaus. Then the money was too little u. there I have in Bulmke (?) on the blast furnace…. (?) (Hüllenhof) worked in the locksmith's shop as an unskilled worker.

Also, when there was nothing to do in Unkel in winter, I worked for several months on concession (?) As Schlüber (?) In the earth. When there was work again at Mr. Profitlich's in Unkel, I started again there. "

- Johann Joseph Westhofen, transferred from the manuscript by Paul Kunert

Around 1890, rabbit skins could only be dyed well in France and Belgium (Chapal, Détré, Dolat companies), despite a number of excellent tobacco processing companies at the Pelzzentrum Leipziger Brühl . The only German company that was able to refine Kanin into a good, usable product at the time was the Paul Profitlich company in Unkel. The "distinctive tones", which are even more rarely requested in Germany, came from Paris and London. Unkel had acquired his knowledge in France. Only the restriction of import options and the shortage of materials during the First World War (1914 to 1918) forced the Leipzig smokers' chemists to develop a real, deep black. Additionally sheared, it was valued as a mass product “Sealkanin” (also known as “Seal-Elektrik”) nationwide, as being particularly valuable in the fur industry.

Profitably himself described the work in his tobacco finishing and dyeing shop: “The heads, paws and tails of the skins that I receive in a raw, dry state are first removed or cut off. The latter go to France to make felt, while the heads and paws of winegrowers and farmers are fetched for fertilizers. ”Then the furs were first treated with naphthalene to destroy the vermin, then soaked in water, scraped off and coated with a saline solution. Before drying, the workers preserved them with rapeseed oil . The skins were then dyed and mainly exported to France.

In 1892 Paul Profitlich was elected from the third department as community leader. After his death in 1902, the eldest son Alexander initially ran the company, but couldn't get on with it. He was replaced by the second son Ernst (Ernest) Severin Profitlich (* December 10, 1855, † February 19, 1919, married to Johanna HM Reussner), who ran it until 1917. This successfully expanded the company.

When the male labor force became scarce in the First World War, women and girls had to work profitably in the fur-finishing and dyeing works instead, in order to provide the soldiers on the Eastern Front with warm clothing. In the war year 1917, the operations manager Clemens Fels († 1961) took over the Paul Profitlich & Sons company.

In 1922 the company advertised under the company name Gesellschaft Profitlich mb H., vorm. Ernst Profitlich : “Profitlich colors are the best! Seal-Elektrik, Biberette, Skunks, Schwarz, Alaska. ”In a second advertisement it was pointed out that the company was the oldest plant in the industry in Germany.

Six years after the end of the Second World War (1939–1945), the company is still listed in the 1953 fur industry directory under its old name and address, Paul Profitlich & Sons, Frankfurter Straße 45. From the following year, 1954, it traded instead as "Rauchwaren-Aufichterei und Färberei Clemens Fels". There is still an entry for her in the specialist address book from 1957 - Clemens Fels died in 1961 - and the Clemens Fels company is no longer listed in the address book from 1966 at the latest.

A descendant of Paul Profitlich in the 4th generation, with the same name (born April 6, 1979 in Unkel; † August 4, 1953 ibid), was also a tobacco retailer in the fur industry. In 1951 he submitted a building application for a house on Rheinbüchel 19. Paul Profitlich II apparently lived there for a short time until his death, his widow Klara, nee. Strauchmann until around 1956, after which the house was sold.

Demand for 1780.65 marks from "Mr. Paul Profitlich, Unkel" in the ledger of the tobacco shop Naoum Dedo in Leipzig, 1879

The factory premises

Ernst Profitlich with daughter Ada, who attended a boarding school for "higher" daughters in Remagen and probably proudly shows her testimony (1894)

Sketch of the site on the west side of the property (1909)

The former company premises including the Villa Profitlich are bordered on the Rhine side by Günther-Lauffs-Promenade, in the north by Von-Werner-Straße (at that time still "Unterste Gasse"), in the east by Frankfurter Straße and on the south side by Lühlingsgasse.

In April 1873, a quarter of a year after the building permit was granted, the operating permit was also issued, so large parts of the company building must have already been standing. Paul Profitlich had the factory buildings towered over by two large industrial chimneys built step by step. In 1903 and 1909, extensions were built, to the west of the factory building, which is still standing today, there were engine rooms along what is now Von-Werner-Straße, and on Lühlingsgasse there were auxiliary buildings such as offices, fur drying rooms and a residential building. The last major expansion was an elongated factory hall in the middle of the site.

The company expansions, among other things the workers should get better sanitary facilities, did not proceed without contradictions. The wealthy Unkeler villa owners feared unpleasant smells from their properties and even filed a lawsuit. These were above all the Cologne entrepreneur and publisher August Neven Dumont , the English engineer Yates and Freiherr von Hilgers. However, the court ruled in favor of the company. When Ernst Profitlich, the son of the company founder, took over the company in 1902 and wanted to expand it, protests broke out again. Profitlich wrote to the mayor: "I ask you to consider whether 80 workers deserve as much consideration as the couple of villa owners who spend a few summer months here and pay their taxes outside." The building permit was granted, but only subject to conditions.

In the building at Frankfurter Strasse 45, at the corner of Von-Werner-Strasse 1, Clemens Fels still operated the fur dye factory until the 1920s.

His daughter Renate, married Lehmacher, sold the corner building in 1983 to Dieter Rechmann, who opened an installation company for plumbing and heating here. Johann Behrendt's leather ball factory was here before him; In the 1950s, the corner bar was home to Götze's quick laundry with hot iron; in the 1970s the laundry and dry cleaning company Breyer; until 2011 a flower shop (Janine Lepère-Walger) and most recently a driving school. ^{As of 2016} - There was a travel agency next to the gate entrance, next to it the restaurant “Papillon”, then it was called “Moni's Pub”, then “Bine” and then “Bei Bine”.

The daughter Adrienne, called Ada (* January 20, 1884, † March 3, 1967, married in 2nd marriage to the public prosecutor Max Hattingen) inherited the western part of the building with the Rhine villa (public prosecutor Hattingen proved to be exceptional in the early years of National Socialism with integrity and courage.).

Another daughter, Hertha (* 1900, † 1988), who had been married to the Krefeld silk manufacturer Hans Walter Hollender since 1920, inherited the eastern building on Frankfurter Strasse (the company G. Hollender Söhne was a specialist in fur lining silk until after 2000 ) . In the meantime, the area has been rededicated for residential purposes, and there are also shops, restaurants and businesses there. The old brick walls behind the villa are partly still there, a brick building in the northeast of the area is still preserved as it was originally, the inner courtyard can be entered through an archway from Frankfurter Strasse and a narrow passage from Lühlingsgasse. The artist, carpenter and object designer Andrea Schwank has her workshops here.

• The former factory premises in 2018
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literature

• Ulrich Maximilian Schumann : Wilhelm Freiherr von Tettau - 1872–1929: Architecture in the crisis of liberalism . gta Verlag, Zurich 2002, ISBN 3-85676-101-2 , pp. 101-105. (also dissertation ETH Zurich, 1999) [not yet evaluated for this article]

Web links

Commons : Villa Profitlich  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Commons : Paul Profitlich & Sons  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h} Wilfried Meitzner: Handout for city guides in Unkel , Version 2. Geschichtsverein Unkel e. V. (Hsgr.), Unkel 2016, pp. 32–33.
2. ^ ^{A b c} descendants of Paul Profitlich (family tree).
3. ↑ ^{a b c d e} genealogy of the Unkel factory owner family Profitlich (as of July 2018).
4. ↑ Conception and feasibility study of non-profit regional legal forms and regional financial products . April 27, 2015, PDF, p. 19. ISBN 978-3-9503087-4-7 . Last accessed November 13, 2017.
5. ^ ^{A b c d} Horst-Dieter Küsters: Rich summer visitors moved in front of the Kadi . In: General-Anzeiger , November 3, 2003, p. 8.
6. ↑ ^{a b c} Rudolf Vollmer: Unkel am Rhein. Chronicle of a city . Önel, Cologne 1995, p. 188. ISBN 3929490072 .
7. ↑ Dieter Wieland: Organization of the tobacco market . CB-Verlag Carl Boldt, Berlin, Frankfurt 1972, p. 260. ISBN 3-920731-01-8 .
8. ↑ heimatverein-rheinbreitbach.blogspot.de: Transcription of the Westhofen Chronicle . Last accessed on November 12, 2017.
9. ^ Philipp Manes : The German fur industry and its associations 1900-1940, attempt at a story . Berlin 1941 Volume 2. Copy of the original manuscript, p. 1 ( G. & C. Franke collection ).
10. ↑ Two advertisements in: Der Rauchwarenmarkt No. 3, Berlin, January 5, 1922, p. 4.
11. ↑ Winckelmann specialist address book for smoking goods and Fur industry and the furrier trade for Germany 1953, p. 80.
12. ↑ Winckelmann specialist address book for smoking goods and Fur industry and the furrier trade for Germany 1954 , p. 73.
13. ↑ Winckelmann specialist address book for smoking goods and Fur industry and the furrier trade for Germany 1957 , p. 122.
14. ↑ Winckelmann specialist address book for smoking goods and Fur industry and the furrier trade for Germany 1966 .
15. ↑ www.grin.com, Benjamin Klaus: The history of the community Unkel in the years of the Weimar Republic . III.2.1.1. The "fur factory". Thesis, 2005. Last accessed on November 11, 2017.
16. ↑ https://epub.ub.uni-muenchen.de , Konrad Repgen (Hsgr.): Publications of the Commission for Contemporary History at the Catholic Academy in Bavaria in conjunction with Dieter Albrecht, Andrea Kraus, Rudolf Morse . Series B: Research , Volume 6: The Morality Processes Against Catholic Religious Members and Priests
17. ↑ Winckelmann 1st table 2007 . Winckelmann Verlag, Frankfurt am Main
18. ^ Paul-Georg Custodis: Unkel . Rheinische Kunststätten Heft 558, Rheinischer Verein für Denkmalpflege und Landschaftsschutz, Cologne 2015, p. 26. ISBN 978-3-86526-111-3 .
19. ↑ www.siebengebirge.com: Unkel . Last accessed November 12, 2017.

Coordinates: 50 ° 36 ′ 1.3 ″  N , 7 ° 12 ′ 53.5 ″  E