Wilhelm Biernatzki

Jan Jelles Friedrich Wilhelm Biernatzki (born April 20, 1855 in Schöneberg , † February 29, 1940 in Voorde ) was a German farmer, journalist and association official.

childhood and education

Wilhelm Biernatzki was a son of the writer Karl Biernatzki and his wife Charlotte, née From. He had five sisters and three brothers, including Johannes Biernatzki . In 1859 the parents returned from the Berlin area to the duchies and settled in Altona . Biernatzki grew up here and studied together with his brother Karl at the Christianeum from the winter semester 1863/64 to 1866 . After a long illness, he moved from the Quinta there to Theodor Thurn's private college for boys, which had existed since 1865.

Biernatzki went for confirmation and then completed an agricultural training at the Vester Hæsing farm on Fyn . This could possibly be related to his uncle Hermann Biernatzki , who at the same time bought the Pehmen farm on Lake Plön . After the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War in 1870/71, he moved to the Bousset farm in Einfeld . In 1872 he worked as an agricultural assistant, initially in Mecklenburg, then on farms in Schleswig-Holstein and four years on the Waterneverstorf estate near Conrad von Holstein .

Biernatzki recommended an agricultural degree from Holstein. Since he did not have a school leaving certificate, the Prussian Ministry of Culture issued him a special permit. According to the register of the University of Kiel, Biernatzki studied from the winter semester 1879/80. Perhaps he has already attended lectures there as a guest auditor. This could be the reason why he himself claimed to have studied from 1876. At Kiel University, Biernatzki started the “Agronomic Society” together with fellow student Peter Jacob Johannssen . The purpose of the organization was to maintain contacts between practicing farmers and agricultural economists trained at universities. The society did not exist for much longer than a year. It offered lecture evenings and excursions and interested numerous people, especially farmers. As a student, Biernatzki got to know several influential people in agriculture in Schleswig-Holstein. He completed his studies in the summer semester of 1882.

Activities from the author

Biernatzki's brother Karl had been publishing the magazine Der Norddeutsche Landwirth in Kiel since 1881 and has since employed Wilhelm Biernatzki as editor; from September 1882 he was solely responsible. The farmer competed since 1876 with the agricultural weekly newspaper for Schleswig-Holstein , which was the organ of the Schleswig-Holstein Agricultural General Association. As an independent magazine, Der Landwirth positioned itself quite critically with regard to the organizational form of the association and its activities.

From 1881 Biernatzki represented the agricultural and economic association for Schönkirchen and the surrounding area at the general meetings of the general association. There he tried hard to influence. As a freelance worker, he spoke paid for meetings of local clubs. At the end of 1882 he faced the election of general secretary of the general association based in Kiel. In the vote for the post, which is endowed with an annual salary of 5,000 marks, he received only a third of the votes. The position went to the Hildesheim economics councilor Carl Boysen . At a general meeting in July 1883, Biernatzki failed when trying to enforce his magazine as the official weekly. The support of Georg Ahsbas, among others, did not help him .

In the field of agricultural journalism, Biernatzki had already gained national recognition at this time. His contributions have appeared in the Journal für Landwirthschaft from Berlin, in the Deutsche Landwirthschaftliche Presse from Berlin, in Fühling's Landwirthschaftlicher Zeitung (Berlin and Leipzig) and regularly in daily newspapers. These included the Kreuzzeitung , the Daily Rundschau , the Hamburger Nachrichten and the Itzehoer Nachrichten .

In July 1883 Biernatzki took over the editing of the Norddeutsche Landwirthschaftliche Zeitung . The trade journal was published by his brother's publishing house and followed the "Internationale Landwirthschaftliche Thier-Ausstellung Hamburg 1883". The newspaper was intended for a national readership, while the Norddeutsche Landwirth was intended for those interested in the region. In addition to agricultural topics, Biernatzki took over the editing of the Schleswig-Holstein yearbooks. Journal for economic culture, social endeavors and contemporary public life (1884/85), which he also published - his subject area now extended well beyond agriculture.

In 1882 Biernatzki published The Breeding Book Management for Cattle with Benno Martiny from Berlin . Carl Petersen in particular had started an initiative at the national level at the end of the 1870s to set up a general German herdbook. Biernatzki and Martany's monograph therefore dealt with a very topical subject. In 1883 they both published the text What does cattle breeding mean and what should cattle breeding associations? . Also in 1883, Biernatzki directed the large animal exhibition in Hamburg. He was therefore a proven expert on questions about livestock breeding and organization.

Working as an association official and in finance

In July 1885, the General Association appointed Biernatzki to be the manager and herd book manager of the Schleswig-Holstein Association of Cattle Breeding Associations. The newly created association had joined the general association. In this position, Biernatzki planned the provincial animal show of June 1886 in Kiel. It was the general state animal show, which was no longer divided into the horse and cattle show categories. In the main category cattle, it was the largest such event that had been seen on mainland Europe up to that point.

Since January 1885, Biernatzki also ran the business of the "Association of Agricultural Consumers Associations of the Schleswig-Holstein Agricultural General Association". The association existed since September 1884 and had its seat in Neumünster . In addition, Biernatzki received expense allowances as assistant to the General Secretary of the General Association. At the end of February he gave up the Norddeutsche Landwirth and the Norddeutsche Landwirtschaftliche Zeitung . Instead, he co-edited the Landwirtschaftliche Wochenblatt and transferred its printing from the Schmidt and Klaunig printing company in Kiel to his brother Karl's printing company.

Around 1886 Biernatzki bought a country house in Voorde. In 1886 he took over the chairmanship of the "Agricultural Association for the Parish of Groß Flintbeck" and was therefore able to continue to take part in general meetings of the General Association as a delegate.

As part of the international animal exhibition in Hamburg, the agricultural cooperatives had established the Reich organization “General Association of Agricultural Cooperatives e. V., Darmstadt ”, also called“ Organization Haas ”. It was the first agricultural association of cooperatives to operate nationwide. In 1887, the Biernatzki organization transferred the chairmanship of the fertilizer commission. In the context of the so-called “Thomas Meal War” at the end of the 1880s, as chairman, he assumed an important national position in the nationwide boycott of associations and cooperatives who wanted to achieve lower prices for phosphate fertilizer producers.

In the early years of his main occupation as managing director of the consumer association, Biernatzki was unable to significantly strengthen the association system in Schleswig-Holstein. Only 34 consumer associations belonged to the association, in the districts of Norderdithmarschen, Eckernförde, Segeberg and Sonderburg there were no associations at all. At the end of the 1880s, members were unable to increase sales. Only 16 people entitled to vote attended the 7th Association Day in December 1890. Biernatzki stated in the annual report that the reference associations wanted to develop into a customer cartel that wanted to take action against the cartels of manufacturers and rural traders, but did not make any progress.

Biernatzki also tried to set up the dairy farm in a uniform manner, which he did not succeed at first. In May 1891 he planned to set up the "Revision Association of the Schleswig-Holstein Agricultural Cooperative". Due to the insufficient number of participants at a meeting of the cooperative in Neumünster, he was unable to implement the project. The regional dairy associations had existed for many years and were obviously not really interested in such an association with which they would have given up their independence. So Biernatzki could not achieve a uniform organization of the cooperatives in this area. In February 1891 he ran again as general secretary of the General Association. Ernst Kirstein from Berlin won the election with five sixths of the vote.

Biernatzki's efforts to unify the cooperative organizations in the movement of money and goods were more successful. Appropriate approaches existed in Schleswig-Holstein for a long time, for example at the end of 1884 by Peter Christian Hansen . The established private rural savings bank associations could not make any changes due to their established structures. In January 1895, Biernatzki founded the “Savings and Loan Fund Quickborn”, almost on his own initiative. This offered short-term credit transactions and handled the current account transactions. In December 1895, the "Schleswig-Holsteinische Landesgenossenschaftskasse eGmbH Kiel" was also established, which was the headquarters for other savings and loan funds. From this the present day nature of the Raiffeisen banks developed.

In January 1898 the "Schleswig-Holstein Main Agricultural Cooperative eGmbH, Kiel" was founded. Participants in two founding meetings elected Biernatzki as a managing member of the board (director). The “House of Farmers” (later: “House of Agricultural Cooperatives”) was built under his leadership. The house served as the central administration of the three cooperative organizations led by Biernatzki. Before the First World War , Biernatzki built up fertilizer component factories that belonged to the association. He also structured the purchasing of artificial fertilizers and feed materials. Its main task was to expand the system of rural savings and loan funds. In 1900 the 100th branch was opened in Bilschau . At that time there were also 100 agricultural cooperatives in Schleswig-Holstein. In 1913 there were already 360 savings and loan funds in the state.

retirement

In 1918 an apparently mentally disturbed domestic worker murdered Biernatzki's wife. This may have been one of the reasons why he resigned from all management positions two years later. He then went back to Voorde. Here he published until the end of his life.

Honors

In 1902 Biernatzki received the Order of the Crown, 4th class. Five years later he was appointed economics councilor. In 1913 he received the Red Eagle Order, 4th class, and in 1926 the Freiherr-von-Heintze Medal.

literature

• Hartwig Moltzow: Biernatzki, Wilhelm . In: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Volume 10. Wachholtz Verlag, Neumünster 1994, pp. 46-50.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Hartwig Moltzow: Biernatzki, Wilhelm . In: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Volume 10. Wachholtz Verlag, Neumünster 1994, p. 46.
2. ↑ Hartwig Moltzow: Biernatzki, Wilhelm . In: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Volume 10. Wachholtz Verlag, Neumünster 1994, pp. 46-47.
3. ↑ ^{a b c d} Hartwig Moltzow: Biernatzki, Wilhelm . In: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Volume 10. Wachholtz Verlag, Neumünster 1994, p. 47.
4. ↑ Hartwig Moltzow: Biernatzki, Wilhelm . In: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Volume 10. Wachholtz Verlag, Neumünster 1994, pp. 47-48.
5. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h} Hartwig Moltzow: Biernatzki, Wilhelm . In: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Volume 10. Wachholtz Verlag, Neumünster 1994, p. 48.