Wilhelm Büchner (pharmacist)

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Wilhelm Ludwig Büchner (born August 2, 1816 in Stockstadt am Rhein , † July 14, 1892 in Pfungstadt ) was a pharmacist , manufacturer and politician . He was the brother of the prominent Alexander , Georg , Luise , Ludwig and Mathilde Büchner .

Life

Wilhelm took a passionate interest in the fate of Georg who, as co-author of the “ Hessischer Landbote ”, a rebellious early socialist pamphlet, had to flee the absolutist ruled Darmstadt. Wilhelm is said to have had himself arrested and interrogated in Georg's place on the day of his escape in February 1835 and thus made the escape possible in the first place. Georg wrote a detailed letter to his brother from his exile.

Wilhelm Büchner (around 1840)

Wilhelm attended grammar school in Darmstadt and finished his apprenticeship as a pharmacist in Zwingenberg in 1834. In 1836/1837 he studied in Heidelberg with Leopold Gmelin , one of the founders of modern chemistry . In 1838/1839 he continued his studies in Giessen with Justus von Liebig , where he passed his state examination as a pharmacist.

In 1841 he founded a small chemical factory - initially in the garden of his parents' house on Grafenstrasse in Darmstadt . Büchner experimented with the production of artificial colors . He knew the work of the alchemist Johann Konrad Dippel and Christian Gottlob Gmelin . Büchner managed to simplify the production of an artificial blue color, ultramarine . He is said to have put the first successful result of his experiments on his mother's mahogany table, red-hot, with the words “there we have the million”. In 1845 he moved production to the site of the former Krappfabrik in Pfungstadt . Wilhelm Büchner married his cousin Elisabeth Büchner in Gouda, Holland, in February 1845 and brought the substantial dowry into the company. The Darmstadt friend, Emanuel Merck, took over the initiation of the real estate business .

The blue color, which was used as a dye and for bleaching laundry, had customers all over the world, and the company received numerous medals and awards for the quality of its products, including at the Paris World Exhibition . With the rise of the company, Büchner's prosperity also increased, in 1863 the foundation stone for a villa was laid according to the plans of the Darmstadt architect Balthasar Harres ( Pfungstadt ). When the political situation allowed, the brothers Ludwig and Wilhelm erected a suitable burial place for their brother Georg in Zurich, and Wilhelm placed the old tombstone in his garden.

From 1849 to 1850 Büchner was a member of the second chamber of the state estates of the Grand Duchy of Hesse for the constituency of Zwingenberg . In 1852 he became a member of the "Academie nationale agricole, manufacturière et commerciale". In 1862/1866 and again from 1872 to 1881 he represented the constituencies of Wald-Michelbach and later Gernsheim in the Hessian state parliament. From 1877 to 1884 he was a member of the Reichstag in Berlin . There he represented the constituency of the Grand Duchy of Hesse 4 ( Darmstadt - Groß-Gerau ) and belonged to the faction of the Progressive Party . He belonged to the Liberals. His resistance against Otto von Bismarck is well known , especially against the "nationalization" of social welfare and his commitment to popular education. In 1878 he was against the socialist laws .

In 1878/1879 he was one of the founding members of the Association for the Promotion of the Welfare of Workers " Concordia ", an association of progressive industrialists and politicians who exerted considerable influence on social legislation .

In Pfungstadt he worked for many years as a community representative. He initiated the establishment of the first kindergarten, the "two-class toddler school" from 1868. In 1870 the Büchner couple set up a “pension fund for disabled workers” on the occasion of their silver wedding anniversary, which was later converted into a company health insurance fund.

Wilhelm Büchner (around 1885)

The opening of the " Secondary Railway " to Eberstadt in 1886 ( Pfungstadtbahn ), which made it easier for him and his friend, the brewer Justus Hildebrand, to export, was largely due to his commitment, as was the elevation of Pfungstadt to town in the same year .

In 1882 Büchner handed over the management of the company to his son Ernst , in 1890 Ernst incorporated the Pfungstadt company into the company "Vereinigte Ultramarinfabriken". The founding of this joint venture was a reaction to the emerging "petrochemical industry", the further boom of which finally led to the company going out in 1893. Wilhelm Büchner had died shortly before, on July 14, 1892, in Pfungstadt.

On February 15, 2008, the “Private FernFachhochschule (PFFH) Darmstadt” in Pfungstadt named itself “ Wilhelm Büchner Hochschule ” on the occasion of its tenth anniversary .

literature

  • Heiner Boehncke , Peter Brunner, Hans Sarkowicz : The Büchners or the desire to change the world. Societäts-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2008, ISBN 978-3-7973-1045-3 .
  • Matthias Gröbel: Georg Büchner's siblings in the revolution of 1848/49. In: Georg Büchner Yearbook. Vol. 12, 2009/2012 (2012), pp. 371-406, doi : 10.1515 / 9783110280593.371 .
  • Matthias Gröbel, Manfred HW Köhler, Thomas Lange, Cordelia Scharpf: “Human progress in human development.” Georg Büchner's siblings in their century (= sources and research on Hessian history. Vol. 167). Self-published by the Hessian Historical Commission Darmstadt and the Historical Commission for Hesse, Darmstadt et al. 2012, ISBN 978-3-88443-322-5 (therein a detailed article by Manfred HW Köhler on Büchner's activities in the Landtag and in the Reichstag).
  • Wolther von Kieseritzky: "... away with reaction politics, away with inner Bismarck". Wilhelm Büchner and progressive liberalism in Hesse. In: Yearbook on Liberalism Research . Vol. 26, 2014, pp. 255-270.
  • Jochen Lengemann : MdL Hessen. 1808-1996. Biographical index (= political and parliamentary history of the state of Hesse. Vol. 14 = publications of the Historical Commission for Hesse. Vol. 48, 7). Elwert, Marburg 1996, ISBN 3-7708-1071-6 , p. 93.
  • Klaus-Dieter Rack, Bernd Vielsmeier: Hessian MPs 1820–1933. Biographical evidence for the first and second chambers of the state estates of the Grand Duchy of Hesse 1820–1918 and the state parliament of the People's State of Hesse 1919–1933 (= Political and parliamentary history of the State of Hesse. Vol. 19 = Work of the Hessian Historical Commission. NF Vol. 29) . Hessian Historical Commission, Darmstadt 2008, ISBN 978-3-88443-052-1 , No. 98.
  • Hans Georg Ruppel, Birgit Groß: Hessian MPs 1820–1933. Biographical evidence for the estates of the Grand Duchy of Hesse (2nd Chamber) and the Landtag of the People's State of Hesse (= Darmstädter Archivschriften. Vol. 5). Verlag des Historisches Verein für Hessen, Darmstadt 1980, ISBN 3-922316-14-X , p. 77.

Web links

Commons : Wilhelm Büchner (pharmacist)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ see Hessisches Staatsarchiv Marburg (HStAMR), Best. 902 No. 849, p. 91 ( digitized version ).
  2. ↑ Specht, Fritz / Schwabe, Paul: The Reichstag elections from 1867 to 1903. Statistics of the Reichstag elections together with the programs of the parties and a list of the elected representatives. 2nd Edition. Carl Heymann Verlag, Berlin 1904, p. 262 f.
personal data
SURNAME Büchner, Wilhelm
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Büchner, Wilhelm Ludwig (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German pharmacist, chemist, manufacturer and politician (DFP), MdR
DATE OF BIRTH August 2, 1816
PLACE OF BIRTH Stockstadt on the Rhine
DATE OF DEATH July 14, 1892
Place of death Pfungstadt