Von der Leyen (silk weaver family)

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Coat of arms of the Lords of the Leyen

The von der Leyen family founded the textile industry in Krefeld with silk weaving , which became world famous in its heyday in the 18th century.

The family was raised to the Prussian nobility in 1786 and in line with Prussian barons von der Leyen zu Bloemersheim in 1816 . The latter line is still based at Bloemersheim Castle today .

Family history of the "von der Leyen" in Krefeld

The tribe series begins with Peter von der Leyen, who is mentioned in 1579 in Radevormwald , where the Leye district still exists today. The family was Mennonite and worked as a trimmings maker and trader. During the Thirty Years' War , Mennonites were expelled there for the first time in 1638, including temporarily the widow Anna von der Leyen and her son Adolf . After the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, the Catholic Duke von Berg, Philipp Wilhelm von Pfalz-Neuburg , persecuted Anabaptists and Mennonites again in his domain , so that many of them fled, including Adolf von der Leyen from Radevormwald in 1656. He went to Krefeld , which was under the rule of the Calvinist Orange and where he continued trading in silk goods .

In 1720 Peter von der Leyen founded a company for the production of silk ribbons and velvet goods, and in 1721/1724 the half-brothers Friederich and Johann, Adolf's grandsons, also began dyeing silk goods. The factory became - in competition with Cologne companies - a supra-regional manufacturer. In 1731 the brothers Friedrich and Heinrich founded a new company. In 1763, half of the 6,082 residents of Krefeld were already working in the Leyen family business, plus many people from the surrounding towns. In 1768 more than 3,000 people were employed and over 700 looms were in operation, with a working day of 12 to 18 hours being the norm.

  • Peter von der Leyen (1697–1742)

  • Friedrich von der Leyen (1701–1778)

  • Heinrich von der Leyen (1708–1782)

  • Friedrich von der Leyen (1732–1787)

  • Conrad von der Leyen (1730–1797)

  • Johann von der Leyen (1734–1795)

The global company "Friedrich and Heinrich von der Leyen" held numerous privileges , such as the Prussian silk monopoly , and otherwise enjoyed the protection of the Prussian kings Friedrich Wilhelm I and Friedrich II. The latter stayed with his staff after the victory over the French at the Hückelsmay in June 1758 with the von der Leyens.

The family built numerous residential and factory buildings in Krefeld, for example on Friedrichstrasse, as well as the later House Floh in 1766/76 for Johann von der Leyen (1734–1795) and from 1777 to 1781 Haus Leyental (Leyentalstrasse 1). Some of the houses survived the devastation of World War II . In 1760 the “von der Leyensche Foundation” was founded to support needy members of the Krefeld Mennonite Church . In 1768 the Krefeld Mennonite Congregation received its first organ through a donation from the family. In 1772 the Kiekhorst house near Neukirchen-Vluyn was acquired and a new rococo-style country estate was built in its place , which has since been called Leyenburg Castle and which was expanded and redesigned in a classicist manner in 1832 . It remained in the family's possession until 2001.

In 1786, the year Frederick the Great died, the brothers Conrad, Friedrich and Johann von der Leyen were raised to the Prussian nobility .

In 1792, during the first French occupation of General La Marlière , Conrad von der Leyen was taken hostage along with several other prominent Krefeld citizens in order to extort the payment of a total of 300,000 guilders from the city. According to tradition, a large part of the money could be stolen from the general by his hostages in a card game.

The core of the Krefeld town hall on Von-der-Leyen-Platz, built in 1794 as a residence for Conrad von der Leyen

From 1791 to 1794 Conrad von der Leyen had the master builder Martin Leydel build a “precious residence” on the western moat. Soon the house was commonly called the City Palace; it is reminiscent of the White House built at the same time (from 1792), but is considerably larger; In 1860 it was sold to the city of Krefeld and is still used today as the town hall. The square in front of the building is called Von-der-Leyen-Platz .

In October 1794, French revolutionary troops occupied Krefeld. This marked the beginning of an extraordinarily difficult time for the Krefeld economy due to high war burdens and taxes as well as the interruption of trade routes. The Prussian areas on the left bank of the Rhine were annexed by France in 1795.

Friedrich Heinrich Freiherr von der Leyen (1769–1825), the silk baron

In 1800, Friedrich Heinrich von Friedrich (father's name) von der Leyen became mayor of Krefeld. In 1801, Krefeld was conquered by France and made the capital of the arrondissement of the same name in the Département de la Roer . In 1802, freedom of trade was introduced in Krefeld under French law. In 1803 Friedrich Heinrich bought the Bloemersheim Castle near Neukirchen-Vluyn with his war-damaged farm and only one year later the secularized and destroyed Haus Meer monastery in Meerbusch ; both are still owned by the family to this day. At the same time, Napoléon Bonaparte visited Krefeld and stayed with the silk baron . Under his chairmanship as mayor, the Chambre consultative de manufactures, fabriques, arts et métiers , today's Chamber of Commerce and Industry, was founded in Krefeld. In 1805 he became a deputy of the legislative assembly in Paris , in 1813 he was promoted to Baron de l'Empire and in 1816 also to the Prussian baron with the name of von der Leyen zu Bloemersheim . After the end of the French era and the continental blockade in 1815, the companies could no longer grow to their old prime. Friedrich Heinrich died in 1825.

In 1828, silk weavers at the von der Leyen company rebelled against wage cuts. The 2nd Westphalian Hussar Regiment No. 11 put down the insurgents. Karl Marx described the Krefeld silk weaver revolt as the "first workers revolt in German history".

When the Rhenish Knighthood was founded, the von der Leyen zu Bloemersheim family was a founding member in 1837. In 1857, Gustav Heinrich Freiherr von der Leyen, the last silk producer and silk merchant in the family, died who was no longer successful in reviving the company. His widow Mathilde sold the industrial assets, withdrew to her country estates and died in 1903. Her son Friedrich Ludwig von der Leyen († 1935) made a living in the region in political, charitable and other public areas. His son Joachim Freiherr von der Leyen fell in 1945 in the final phase of the Second World War and his widow Huberta took over the management of the businesses in Bloemersheim and Haus Meer. The son Friedrich Heinrich Freiherr von der Leyen took over the management in 1970 and intensified the fields of fruit growing, agriculture and forestry. In 1992, the agricultural and fruit growing company Schloss Dyck / Nikolauskloster was leased. Today the farms are managed by Friedrich Freiherr von der Leyen zu Bloemersheim.

coat of arms

Coat of arms of the barons von der Leyen

The coat of arms of the Messrs. Von der Leyen shows three golden stars next to each other on the blue and silver shield above, and below a natural-colored crane holding a stone in its raised claw on a green lawn. Through the stone of the guarding crane it can be interpreted as a talking coat of arms , since Leye means among other things stone . On the helmet with blue-silver covers three (blue, silver, blue) ostrich feathers. Shield holders are two crowned black eagles ( reminiscence of Prussia, as a royal sign of grace).

The baronial coat of arms is square with a red heart shield , in it three (2: 1) black shingles (also called Leyen ). Field 1 and 4 like the simple noble coat of arms, field 2 and 3 in gold a black rock (also called Leye ). Two helmets on the shield; on the right as with the noble coat of arms, the second with black and gold covers shows a black eagle flight (also reminiscent of Prussia). Shield holder also two crowned black eagles.

Known family members

More from the Leyens

  • see von der Leyen (disambiguation)
  • There is no relationship between the Krefeld silk weaver family, who were ennobled in 1813 (the untitled von der Leyen and baronial von der Leyen zu Bloemersheim ) and the noble family of barons from the Moselle, from 1711 imperial counts and from 1806 princes von der Leyen , who from 1806 to In 1815 the sovereign Principality of von der Leyen ruled. In the vicinity of the Moselle there were also several other noble families who called themselves "von Leyen" or "von der Leyen", but all differ in their coat of arms ( von der Leyen from Ürzig , von Leyen from Ockenfels , von Leyen from Burg Layen in Rümmelsheim ).

Web links

Von-der-Leyen-Platz in Krefeld
Commons : Von der Leyen  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Krefeld - The King of Looms , rp-online.de of May 13, 2011
  2. ↑ 400 years of the Mennonites in Krefeld ( Memento of the original from February 23, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (pdf) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www1.theologie.uni-hamburg.de
  3. ↑ Krefeld - The uprising of the silk weavers , rp-online.de of May 13, 2011