Wilhelm Grevel

Friedrich Wilhelm Alexander Grevel (born September 13, 1835 in Essen , † November 15, 1918 in Düsseldorf ) was a German pharmacist, politician and local researcher in Essen.

Live and act

Wilhelm Grevel was born in Essen as the son of a pharmacist and moved with his parents to Sterkrade when he was a child . Until 1852 he attended grammar school in Dortmund and studied pharmacy in Breslau . In 1860 he bought and took over his uncle's pharmacy in Steele am Markt (today Kaiser-Otto-Platz) and later relocated it to the east in the direction of Königssteele .

From 1863 until he moved to Düsseldorf in 1891, Grevel was a city councilor for the then city of Steele. At times he was an unpaid alderman and member of the district council. In addition, he was chairman of the mining board of the Johann Deimelsberg colliery , member of the supervisory board of Gutehoffnungshütte and from 1866 a member of the Essen Chamber of Commerce.

Grevel was a co-founder of the historical association for the city and monastery of Essen . As a multiple author of the articles on the history of the city and monastery of Essen , he dedicated himself in particular to the history of the Essen gun industry, the iron and cast steel industry, the steel glassworks, coal mining and the development of the city of Essen.

In 1890 Wilhelm Grevel was granted honorary citizenship of the city of Steele, which he refused because his services to the city of Steele were not so outstanding to justify such an honor . At the beginning of 1891 he gave up the pharmacy and moved to Düsseldorf, where he spent his old age.

On his death in 1918, Grevel donated his private book collection, one of the largest on Rhenish and Westphalian history, to the Essen City Library. This collection has since formed the core of the library's local history holdings. During the Second World War , the books in the Grevel collection were relocated and so survived the bombing of Essen. The collection has been integrated into the entire inventory of the city library since 1950 and forms an essential part of the library's old inventory.

In Essen- Frohnhausen , Grevelstrasse near Gervinuspark is named after him.

Works

• Family tree of the Grevel family. Norden, Soltau 1893. Digitized
• Family tables of the Lueg family. Düsseldorf 1899. Digitized edition of the University and State Library Düsseldorf

literature

• Konrad Ribbeck: On Wilhelm Grevel's 80th birthday; In: Essener contributions 36 (1917), pages 1 to 8 including a list of his writings
• Ferdinand Schmidt: Wilhelm Grevel in memory of 1835–1918; In: Heimatblätter for the industrial area 1 (1919/1920), page 3f.
• Wilhelm Sellmann: Wilhelm Grevel, thoughts on his 150th birthday on September 13, 1985; In: Essen Yearbook 1988, pages 37-40
• Klaus Wisotzky: 125 years of the historical association for the city and monastery of Essen; In: Essen contributions 117 (2005)
• Erwin Dickhoff: Essen heads . Ed .: City of Essen - Historical Association for City and Monastery of Essen. Klartext-Verlag, Essen 2015, ISBN 978-3-8375-1231-1 .