Forest houses

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Coat of arms of the Waldthausen
Family coat of arms at Waldthausen Castle

Waldthausen is the name of a patrician and industrial family that has been based in Essen since the middle of the 17th century, coming from the Hamelin area . It had a great influence on the development of economic life in the Rhenish-Westphalian industrial area. Beginning in the textile industry, mainly wool trade, the profits were invested in coal and steel . The involvement in banking grew at the same time.

Over the years, the number of family members and branches grew significantly. Although they were sometimes active in the same areas, they always cooperated with one another within the family. What kind of reputation the family earned in Essen can be seen. a. This can also be seen from the fact that in 1828 of 104 members of the Verein Gesellschaft , an association of leading Essen citizens, nine came from the Waldthausen family. In 1913 they were behind the von Stumm family of mining entrepreneurs , but ahead of the Count von Hochberg , who were also mining industrialists, and the Prince of Pless , Count von Hochberg, in 11th place among the richest families in the German Empire.

The nucleus of the wool trade

Kord Walthausen, one of the cousins ​​of the Braunschweig-Lüneburg chancellor Jobst von Waldthausen (1508–1592) from Hameln, who was also ennobled by Emperor Maximilian II in 1556 by Emperor Karl V , was a great-great-grandfather of the Hamelin , later Essener Justus Walthausen. In 1672 the male line of the chancellor expired. At first only she had led the nobility, not the rest of the, probably less wealthy, relatives. The pharmacist Justus Walthausen, an eligible descendant of Kord Walthausen, who was also ennobled as the Chancellor's cousin in 1569, was the progenitor of the Essen branch of the family. His descendants remembered this around 1884, when Friedrich Albert Waldthausen, with family history research begun in 1879, proved that he had been awarded the nobility. Consistent public use of the title of nobility in the Essen branch of the family only gradually resumed in 1887, after Julius Waldthausen and Bruno Waldthausen, at their request from Wilhelm I on June 11, 1886, as King of Prussia, on January 6, 1887, their nobility confirmation had achieved. The other Agnat Oskar Waldthausen received confirmation of nobility in 1904.

Initially, the Waldthausen family tried their hand at various commercial businesses after they settled in Essen with the pharmacist Justus Walthausen in 1679. Companies were founded, merged and dissolved again. One tried it with colonial goods (coffee, sugar, ...), a dye works or the trade in vitriol oil or wood. Over time, however, the focus of the wool trade crystallized more and more. The wool trading house founded by Justus and Wilhelm thus became a starting point for the economic success of the Waldthausen. In 1820 the wool shop was transferred to the Essen "Wilhelm & Conrad Waldthausen wool shop". Conrad Waldthausen's sons, Ernst and Julius, later took over their father's business. In 1920 the 100th anniversary was celebrated.

There are few direct reports about the business processes of the founding companies of the Rhenish-Westphalian industry. With the help of business documents such as cash books and copy books with the business correspondence, however, the living conditions and business developments can be understood. Karl Mews and Otto-Ernst Krawehl carried out relevant research for the Waldthausen family; their descriptions can be read in the Essays on History (Volume 41 and Volume 116).

Around 1800 the cloth making trade was widespread in the Ruhr as far as the Bergisches Land . The wool merchants covered the need for wool. They bought the wool as it came after the sheep were sheared in the strongholds of sheep farming. At that time it was Silesia and Saxony . The wool merchants traveled for weeks to the wool markets in stagecoaches. Forwarders then transported the bales to the wool merchants' warehouses. Due to the arduous journey, such a shopping trip usually only took place once a year. After the warehouses were full, the wool merchants went on their travels again, this time to make acquisitions with their customers, the cloth makers. One of Conrad Waldthausen's main customers was the Scheidt cloth factory in Essen-Kettwig .

The economic situation was not easy at that time. The wool merchants had to spend a good part of their time collecting their outstanding debts. To make matters worse, there was no single currency. The wool merchants received thalers , Brabanters , French kroner , ducats and many other types of currency for their goods . But bills of exchange or goods were also paid for. The latter meant that the wool merchants also had to operate a cloth trade. The payment term was often twelve months. Those who paid immediately received a six percent discount .

The money in turn had to be invested so that the value of the income could be increased up to the shopping trip. Many banking relationships followed from this. At that time, interest rates of three to four percent were common for savings deposits. It was in the nature of things that the forest houses also invested the money themselves because of the higher profit. They lent money to the financially needy pioneers in the growing industry ( Krupp , Stinnes , ...). In this way, several of the Waldthausen banks were built over the years.

This mix of different businesses brought stability to companies in these otherwise troubled times. It was also one of the reasons for the extraordinary economic success of the Waldthausen family.

Real estate and property

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The Ruhr Museum is a more than 100-year history, one of the oldest museums in the Ruhr area . When it became too tight for the museum in the Krupp company’s former single home at Essen West train station , the decision was made to outsource the local history collections. In 1936 the city of Essen acquired the "Waldthausen Villa" from the banker Albert von Waldthausen . The National Socialists founded Haus Heimat in the villa in 1937 for the purpose of exhibiting the collection . Most of the historical holdings were lost with the destruction in World War II . Today's Waldthausenpark is located on the property.

Until the Second World War, the Waldthausen family had a company headquarters in the Stadtgarten on Brunnenstrasse. After the war, she sold the building that had been erected around 100 years earlier to the city of Essen. First, the city set up a small printing company there. Tax cards and election notices were printed on mailing machines. From 1982 the Folkwang Music School used the centrally located building. After the music school moved to larger premises in the Weststadthallen in 2003, after a renovation phase, the Verwaltungs-GmbH of the Initiativkreis Ruhrgebiet moved into its quarters in the building now known as Alfred-Herrhausen-Haus.

In Essen- Bredeney , Fritz von Waldthausen had the architect Oskar Kunhenn build a spacious villa on the Markuspfad in 1922 . Surrounded by an enclosure wall, the almost square building stands on a plot of around 3,000 m². The two-story villa is protected as a monument . Marianne , the daughter of his adopted daughter Asta von Kretschmann, lived there for a few years with her husband Richard von Weizsäcker , who was personally liable partner of the private bank Waldthausen & Co. founded by Fritz and Ernst von Waldthausen from 1958 to 1962 .

In 1950 the Society found its new quarters in a former Waldthausen villa at Hohenzollernstrasse 40. Initially for rent, the building was bought in 1959 by the “Aktiengesellschaft Bürgerheim”. Around 170 members, mostly bankers, entrepreneurs and medical professionals, meet in the clubhouse today. An in-house restaurant takes care of your physical well-being .

Country estates

Julius von Waldthausen (1858–1935) acquired Bassenheim Castle near Koblenz; it is now inhabited by his great-grandson Karl von Waldthausen- Osten and his family. Martin Wilhelm von Waldthausen (1875–1928) had Waldthausen Castle built near Mainz from 1908–10 (sold in 1941). Bruno von Waldthausen acquired the three castles in Gersfeld (Rhön) at the beginning of the 20th century and had a new Art Nouveau villa built there in the park in 1907; these properties and the associated forest estate are still owned by the family.

social commitment

Over the course of their business successes, the Waldthausen family has never lost sight of the fact that the basis for their trade is founded in a good environment. So you have always seen yourself responsible for the positive development of the city of Essen.

  • In 1852 an association was founded with the aim of building a theater in Essen. Alfred Krupp and Friedrich Waldthausen were among the founding members of this initiative .
  • After the death of Kaiser Wilhelm I, the desire arose to erect a memorial to him in Essen. Almost 13,000 citizens responded to the appeal for donations in 1888 and collected 77,296 Reichsmarks . The largest individual donors were Krupp and Waldthausen, who each contributed 20,000 Reichsmarks. After the City Council of Essen approved a further 100,000 Reichsmarks, the bronze sculpture of Emperor Wilhelm on horseback was unveiled in 1898.
  • In 1890 the Historical Association for the City and Abbey of Essen was founded. One of the co-founders was Albert von Waldthausen . In 1906 he donated 30,000 DM in order to have the part-time city archivist Konrad Ribbeck released from school work for three years. He was supposed to work up the "history of the city of Essen" on a scientific basis.
  • In 1902 a donation from the Waldthausen enabled the central city library to be founded. In a commercial building at Kettwiger Strasse 8, the “Municipal Book Hall” was opened with an inventory of 4,000 books. The book collection grew rapidly, so that it was soon necessary to move to a larger domicile on Hindenburgstrasse. There, too, space soon became scarce. Julius von Waldthausen then made a building available on Chausseestrasse and also took over the costs for the renovation.
  • In October 2004 the 150th anniversary of the Huyssens Foundation Hospital was celebrated. In addition to Krupp and Baedeker, the von Waldthausen family also got involved financially for the hospital.

Today there are two foundations in Essen with the participation of the Waldthausen family:

  • Eugen-und-Agnes-von-Waldthausen-Platzhoff-Museum-Foundation (Foundation objective: promoting the sense of art)
  • Julius-von-Waldthausen-Stiftung (Foundation objective: to promote medical auxiliary professions)

Known family members

Final resting places

One of the tombs of the Waldthausen family in the Bredeney cemetery

Most of the members of the Waldthausen family originally found their final resting place in the cemetery at Kettwiger Tor near the main train station. This cemetery had to give way in 1955 on the occasion of the expansion of the Ruhr Expressway. The vast majority of the Waldthausen family's graves were moved to the Bredeney cemetery on Westerwaldstrasse in a long row in field 22. A few graves came to the Ostfriedhof on Saarbrücker Strasse. There the graves of the Waldthausen family can be found in fields 5 and 6.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Rudolf Martin, Yearbook of Property 1913
  2. Appendix 1 to BV IX - meeting on November 30, 2004; List of monuments of the city of Essen, p. 3 ( digitized version )