Wilhelm Riedel (cloth manufacturer)

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Wilhelm Riedel Signature of Wilhelm Riedel

Ferdinand Wilhelm Riedel (born June 13, 1829 in Cottbus , † January 23, 1916 in Berlin ) was a German cloth manufacturer and benefactor . Coming from a humble background, he founded his first company in Peitz in 1853 . In 1861 he moved to Berlin, where he was able to expand his business significantly, so that at the end of his business life he owned several cloth factories. In retirement he was involved in charitable causes in his hometown Cottbus. So he first set up a foundation that provided widows and orphans with free living space. Other foundations followed later to give young people from poor backgrounds a good start in their professional lives. He also provided free living space for poor old people. In 1903 he was made an honorary citizen of Cottbus for his commitment . Parts of the buildings erected by his foundations still exist today. They are used by the Riedelstift senior center, which is run by the Arbeiter-Samariter-Bund .

Life

Childhood and youth

Wilhelm Riedel was born in Cottbus in 1829 as the eldest of five children of the cloth appreter Ferdinand Riedel and his wife Charlotte. His father died in 1838 after a two-year illness. In the following years, his mother had to support the family with sewing. So that she had enough time for this, Wilhelm had to take on various housework. He also earned some money on the side, including running errands for his teacher. Riedel's mother later married a nail blacksmith and moved with him and the family to Forst . But her new husband also died after about a year. The family stayed in Forst and moved into a small rented apartment there. Since Wilhelm Riedel was a very good student, his teacher and pastor wanted to prepare him for the teaching profession. However, Wilhelm refused because he could not earn much money in this profession. Even in those years he had the dream of later owning a factory.

In order to support his family financially, he worked for the Carl Ortmeyer cloth finishing company at the age of 12 . There was his task, carding brush. In order to be able to pursue this activity, he was initially released from school half a day. His mother later obtained a full day release. In 1843 he began his apprenticeship in the same company, which he finished as a journeyman in 1846. At the age of 19 he went hiking for over a year and worked in Brandenburg an der Havel , Schwerin and Hamburg , among others . In Hamburg he was introduced to better society by the son of his boss there. Riedel, who was otherwise very frugal, spent all of his earnings, so that he needed part of his savings at the Forster Sparkasse and the financial help of a relative in Berlin for his return to Forst. In Forst he got his old position back with his teacher. Later he was employed by Wilhelm Klaschke from Cottbus, where he was supposed to set up a finishing facility. At the age of 21 he became a works manager at Adolf Graß in Forst. During this time he married Auguste Stamm, the daughter of a glazier from Forst.

The manufacturer

Peitzer years

The former fortress headquarters in Peitz was the first company location in Riedel. Today it is a listed building.

On June 13, 1853, Wilhelm Riedel was spoken to foreman. At the start of his independence, his boss Graß had given him a clipper . Riedel had rented the former command building of the fortress in Peitz , where he erected it. In doing so, he followed the advice of his teacher, Ortmeyer, who pointed out to him that a “capable appreteur” was needed in Peitz. Wilhelm Riedel began working in Peitz on the day he was appointed master craftsman. Business was very good. Wilhelm Riedel was already debt-free after a few years and was even able to expand his business to include a spinning mill , which is why he moved to Carl Schultz's factory. In a fire on July 29, 1859, Riedel and his employees were able to save loose machine parts. Riedel's workshop was not insured against fire. Since there had already been two major fires in Cottbus and Forst, both of which were triggered by spinning mills, the Magdeburg fire insurance company increased the premiums significantly. Unlike Schultz, Riedel spent a long time looking for cheaper insurance. Although he had found one before the fire, the contract had not yet been concluded. Despite these circumstances, Riedel acquired machines for a new finish just one day after the fire in a Guben cloth factory that was in liquidation . For his new factory he leased rooms in the Peitzer iron and steel works. Some time later he was able to reopen the spinning mill, using parts that had been saved from the fire for the new machines. However, the heat had made these parts soft and less resistant, so that the quality of the yarns produced decreased significantly. In addition, Riedel saw himself exposed to the envy of his fellow men for his success. Therefore, he followed the advice of his cousin, who was successfully working as a partner in a finishing company in Berlin and suggested that he try his luck in Berlin as well. Riedel sold the Peitzer spinning mill; he continued with the finishing. He passed the management on to his mother's third husband, Neumann, whom she married in 1845 and who had previously worked for Riedel's teacher, Ortmeyer.

Berlin years

Riedel's factory premises at Köpenicker Straße 50

In 1861 Wilhelm Riedel moved to Berlin. Here he initially worked in Georgenkirchstrasse. Later he rented the building of a former silver smelter at Brunnenstrasse  123. In 1864 his mother died. His stepfather was now noticed by excessive alcohol consumption and was no longer able to run the Peitzer business properly. Riedel also sold the remaining finish in Peitz. In the years to come he was able to expand his business further. First he expanded his factory on Brunnenstrasse to include a fulling mill and a dye works . In 1868 he acquired the Just'sche shop at Neue Königsstraße 30 and signed a ten-year lease for the factory premises. However, since the dye works there only produced stained goods, he looked for a new location and found it at Köpenicker Strasse 50. The property was directly on the Spree. This enabled him to use the soft water of the Spree and thus save money. Competitors who had not built on the Spree had to buy tap water because well water was too hard . Among other things, he generated the capital required to acquire the property with the help of blanket production for the Prussian Army in the Franco-German War . The fabrics for this brought in the same price as dyed fabrics, even if they were not dyed, and were therefore good business. The new dye works opened on July 13, 1871. It was built by master bricklayer Gause, who was Riedel's neighbor on Neue Königsstrasse and his father's friend. After the owner of Riedel's property in Neue Königsstrasse had sold it to a stock corporation, Riedel was threatened with eviction from his factory. The ten-year lease had only been agreed orally. For this reason, Riedel needed a new factory to accommodate the 132 machines. However, he could not raise the money for it. Thereupon his friend Gause helped him, who built the factory for a small down payment on the property in the Köpenicker Straße. It opened in July 1873.

The start-up crisis also brought Riedel's business into trouble. He was counted among the daring speculators and was considered unsafe. He was offered raw materials to run his business, but at higher prices. This treatment led to his decision to put his business into liquidation . At a creditors' meeting, however, his customers and business friends from before 1871 advised against it. Instead, they persuaded the creditors to defer Riedel for a year. As a result, Riedel's business went much better again and after four years he was free of debt. In 1881 he planned to build another factory. However, since the city of Berlin was planning a riverside street on his property in Köpenicker Strasse, for which he would have had to cede a 17-meter-wide shoreline, there was no longer enough space on this property for his new factory. He then bought factory buildings in Mühlenstrasse on the other side of the Spree. They were also intended to serve as a means of relocating the factory on Köpenicker Strasse in case the Uferstrasse was built. However, this did not happen in the next 30 years.

In 1889 an investigation was initiated against the Riedels dye works in Köpenicker Strasse. She had discharged sewage containing corrosive substances into the Spree and is said to have been responsible for the death of fish in fish boxes below the orphan's bridge . Fifteen years later, the dye works were still discharging water contaminated with textile fibers into the Spree.

Towards the end of his business life, his son Richard took on more and more tasks. He was the last living child of seven daughters and two sons of the Riedels. After a year of service with the Guard Dragons , he went to England to expand his knowledge of the cloth industry. It was there that he met his future wife. After an accident in which a one meter wide wooden disc fell on his head from about 18 meters, Wilhelm Riedel withdrew from business life for a while on the advice of his doctors. To this end, he took part in a five-month social trip to Egypt and the Orient organized by Carl Stangen . In his absence, business continued well. For this reason he finally handed over the management of his company to his son Richard in 1888 or 1890. He and his wife retired to his property at Hohenzollernstrasse 18 in Berlin. His son ran the dye works on Köpenicker Strasse until the 1930s.

The benefactor

After he retired, Wilhelm Riedel gradually built up various foundations in his hometown Cottbus to support poor people. He financed this through a share of the profits of his company, which he himself referred to as a retirement pension.

Riedelstift for fatherless orphans

As a child, Riedel had already promised his mother that he would later build a house in which poor mothers could live with their children for free. He kept this promise after the end of his business life. He bought a plot of land in Cottbuser Bellevuestraße 44/45 (today's Bautzener Straße) and had a house built on it. He donated this property to the city of Cottbus as a Riedelstift for fatherless orphans in 1896. In the deed of gift of June 13, 1897, he decreed that poor widows with many children could live in the twelve apartments of the house free of charge. The oldest child was not allowed to be 12 when moving in. In addition, the family had to move out again when the youngest child reached the age of 10. In addition to the apartment, the families were also able to cultivate one twelfth of the undeveloped land as a garden. Riedel also decreed that when selecting beneficiaries, relatives of him or his wife should be given preference, provided they showed the same neediness and worthiness. In addition to the property, he donated 5,000 marks. The interest on this amount should be used to pay the pen's administrative costs. He appointed the magistrate of Cottbus to be the administrator of the monastery , which should also decide on the admission and whereabouts of the families. At the beginning of the foundation, 12 widows with a total of 54 children moved into the house.

Dowry foundation and savings association

In 1902 Wilhelm Riedel set up another foundation. It should give the orphans who lived in his monastery a good start into adult life. To this end, he donated 30,000 marks in the form of Cottbus city bonds. From their interest, 900 marks a year were to be distributed among two to three children of the monastery. Children who had shown themselves to be worthy through special school or social achievements were to be benefited. The money was kept at the Cottbuser Sparkasse until the recipient became economically independent. However, the payment should only be made if the recipient has proven to be worthy in the meantime. To this end, Riedel recommended to have a management certificate sent to you annually by former residents who were no longer resident in Cottbus.

Riedel also decreed that a family festival for the monastery residents should take place on his birthday on June 13th. The cost of this should also be paid for from the interest on the bonds. The beneficiaries of the dowry foundation should also be announced at the festival. For this family festival, he recommended a twelve-point program that included a toast to the founder and his family as well as the thanks of a small child for the festival in poetry.

In order to encourage the children of the monastery to save, Riedel founded a savings association that held a meeting with accounting every year. To motivate the members, Riedel gave each male member 10 marks if his savings balance was 90, 190, etc. marks and each female member 15 marks for savings of 85, 185, etc. marks.

Riedelstift for honorable arms

In 1903 Riedel donated a further 40,000 marks to the city of Cottbus. With this money, the Riedelstift Foundation for the honorable poor was established. For 35,000 marks, they built two residential buildings with twelve apartments each on the foundation site in Bellevuestrasse. The apartments were available free of charge to single poor people aged 65 and over. There was one house each for women and men. In addition, if there was insufficient demand, it was possible to let younger people move in. Riedel decreed that the beneficiaries should have led a respectable life and explicitly excluded "unclean elements" and alcoholics . The maintenance of the houses and gardens on the foundation site was to be borne by the interest on the remaining 5,000 marks. In addition to helping the elderly, Riedel saw in this foundation the possibility of a reminder for the residents of the Riedelstift for fatherless orphans to take care of their retirement provision in good time. The women's home was full from the start. In the men's home, however, there were usually a few apartments available. The reason for this is said to have been the inability of many old men to run their own household.

Teaching building and workshop building

The grounds of the Riedelstift around 1910. The workshop building can be seen on the right.

On the grounds of the monastery, Riedel built a teaching building for over 40,000 marks, which was opened on October 3, 1904. According to Riedel's will, lectures on economics should take place in this building. The speakers should be remunerated with 50 marks. The money for this came from the interest of another 25,000 marks donated by Riedel. The building also housed a library and two apartments that were available to members of Riedel's family free of charge. One of the things you should do is manage the library.

In addition, he built a four-storey workshop building for 70,000 marks, which he donated to the city of Cottbus in 1907 as an independent workshop building of the Riedelstiftungen self-help . Workshop rooms should be rented out on favorable terms. These were primarily intended for former male residents of the Riedelstift for fatherless orphans who had obtained their master craftsman examination or other qualifications for independent business operations. But the husbands of former residents were also entitled to use. If they were not available in sufficient numbers, it was possible to rent the workshops to other young masters from poor backgrounds. In principle, the workshops should only be available to men whose lifestyle was characterized by dignity, trust in God and hard work. In addition to the workshops, an exhibition room was also to be built in the workshop building in which the tenants could present their products. The rental income from the workshop building was to be used to maintain it and to expand the foundation. The management of internal affairs of the house should be carried out by a tenants' association.

Riedel saw in his foundations a "school of life", a chain of support measures, the success of which should be shown in the workshop building. His work can therefore also be regarded as an early form of promoting entrepreneurship .

death

Wilhelm Riedel died in Berlin on January 23, 1916. He was buried in the family grave of honor in the Cottbus south cemetery. He had already had his parents reburied there. The grave of his wife Auguste, who died in 1899, is also there.

Honors

Wilhelm Riedel was made an honorary citizen of Cottbus on February 4, 1903 . In addition, in 1993 a street in the Sandow district was named after him, which until then had been called Otto Thieles , a communist from Guben and a victim of the Kapp putsch .

Further development of the Riedelstift

Today's administration building of the Riedelstift in Bautzener Strasse, which was already built by Wilhelm Riedel.

In 1930 the Riedelstift only served as accommodation and care station for 69 destitute seniors. Replacement new buildings were built in the 1930s, so that in 1940 the number of residents had risen to 208. In World War II, a nursing department was destroyed. In the GDR , the Riedel pen was as Feierabendheim continue to operate. About 300 pensioners lived there, most of whom were still able to cope with their own lives. After an extensive reconstruction in 1986, the Riedelstift offered space for 170 residents.

The Arbeiter-Samariter-Bund , newly founded in Cottbus in 1990, took over the monastery in 1993. In 2000 the facility was renovated and renamed the Riedelstift retirement home . In 2002 the Auguste house was completed, which is available for assisted living and which was named after Wilhelm Riedel's wife. Further extensions followed between 2005 and 2007, including the Bellevue building for assisted living, the name of which is reminiscent of the establishment of the monastery in what was then Bellevuestrasse. In 2017, for the 120th anniversary of the Riedelstift, it was renamed the Riedelstift Senior Center . In 2017 the Arbeiter-Samariter-Bund employed around 90 people in Cottbus.

literature

  • Siegfried Kohlschmidt: Wilhelm Riedel - manufacturer and benefactor of the poor . In: Lausitzer Land & People. Issue 17, September 2002 ( online memento from October 17, 2007 in the Internet Archive ).
  • M. Kunert: Riedelstiftungen "Self-Help" - A life picture of Wilhelm Riedel . Publishing house of the Riedelstiftungen, Cottbus.
  • “I wanted to become a master, and that's where saving is a pleasure” . In: The CB Magazine. Edition January 2016, pp. 20–21.
  • 120 years of the Riedel Foundation - Part 1 Wilhelm Riedel . In: Magazine of the Arbeiter-Samariter-Bund RV Cottbus / NL eV January 2017 edition, pp. 6-7.

Web links

Commons : Wilhelm Riedel  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ M. Kunert: Riedelstiftungen "Self-Help" - A picture of Wilhelm Riedel's life . P. 9 and 65.
  2. ↑ M. Kunert: Riedelstiftungen "Self-Help" - A picture of Wilhelm Riedel's life . P. 12.
  3. ↑ M. Kunert: Riedelstiftungen "Self-Help" - A picture of Wilhelm Riedel's life . P. 14 f.
  4. ↑ a b c M. Kunert: Riedelstiftungen "Selbsthilfe" - A picture of Wilhelm Riedel's life . P. 29 f.
  5. ↑ M. Kunert: Riedelstiftungen "Self-Help" - A picture of Wilhelm Riedel's life . P. 31 f.
  6. ↑ M. Kunert: Riedelstiftungen "Self-Help" - A picture of Wilhelm Riedel's life . P. 34 and 37.
  7. ↑ M. Kunert: Riedelstiftungen "Self-Help" - A picture of Wilhelm Riedel's life . P. 47 f.
  8. ↑ M. Kunert: Riedelstiftungen "Self-Help" - A picture of Wilhelm Riedel's life . P. 49.
  9. ↑ M. Kunert: Riedelstiftungen "Self-Help" - A picture of Wilhelm Riedel's life . Pp. 49, 53, 74.
  10. ↑ M. Kunert: Riedelstiftungen "Self-Help" - A picture of Wilhelm Riedel's life . P. 74.
  11. ↑ a b c M. Kunert: Riedelstiftungen "Selbsthilfe" - A picture of Wilhelm Riedel's life . P. 50.
  12. ↑ M. Kunert: Riedelstiftungen "Self-Help" - A picture of Wilhelm Riedel's life . P. 51.
  13. ↑ a b M. Kunert: Riedelstiftungen "Selbsthilfe" - A picture of Wilhelm Riedel's life . P. 55.
  14. ↑ M. Kunert: Riedelstiftungen "Self-Help" - A picture of Wilhelm Riedel's life . P. 57 f.
  15. ↑ a b c d M. Kunert: Riedelstiftungen "Selbsthilfe" - A picture of Wilhelm Riedel's life . P. 60 ff.
  16. ↑ M. Kunert: Riedelstiftungen "Self-Help" - A picture of Wilhelm Riedel's life . P. 65.
  17. ↑ a b M. Kunert: Riedelstiftungen "Selbsthilfe" - A picture of Wilhelm Riedel's life . P. 63.
  18. ↑ M. Kunert: Riedelstiftungen "Self-Help" - A picture of Wilhelm Riedel's life . P. 66.
  19. ↑ a b M. Kunert: Riedelstiftungen "Selbsthilfe" - A picture of Wilhelm Riedel's life . P. 67.
  20. ↑ a b M. Kunert: Riedelstiftungen "Selbsthilfe" - A picture of Wilhelm Riedel's life . P. 72 ff.
  21. ↑ a b c M. Kunert: Riedelstiftungen "Selbsthilfe" - A picture of Wilhelm Riedel's life . P. 69 ff.
  22. ↑ M. Kunert: Riedelstiftungen "Self-Help" - A picture of Wilhelm Riedel's life . P. 71 f.
  23. ↑ Karin Winklhöfer: The water quality of the Berlin Spree between the founding of the empire and the First World War . Dissertation at the Free University of Berlin, 2014, p. 76 ( fu-berlin.de [PDF; 26.0 MB ]).
  24. ↑ Karin Winklhöfer: The water quality of the Berlin Spree between the founding of the empire and the First World War . Dissertation at the Free University of Berlin, 2014, p. 249 ( fu-berlin.de [PDF; 26.0 MB ]).
  25. ↑ a b M. Kunert: Riedelstiftungen "Selbsthilfe" - A picture of Wilhelm Riedel's life . P. 75.
  26. ↑ a b M. Kunert: Riedelstiftungen "Selbsthilfe" - A picture of Wilhelm Riedel's life . P. 76 f.
  27. ↑ a b M. Kunert: Riedelstiftungen "Selbsthilfe" - A picture of Wilhelm Riedel's life . P. 78.
  28. ↑ a b Hannelore Vetter: Inventory of three blocks in the area between the Spree, Michaelkirchstrasse, Melchiorstrasse and Fritz-Heckert-Strasse . Berlin January 1991, p. 83 ( archive.org [PDF; 8.5 MB ]).
  29. ↑ M. Kunert: Riedelstiftungen "Self-Help" - A picture of Wilhelm Riedel's life . P. 105.
  30. ↑ a b c d M. Kunert: Riedelstiftungen "Selbsthilfe" - A picture of Wilhelm Riedel's life . P. 80 ff.
  31. ↑ a b M. Kunert: Riedelstiftungen "Selbsthilfe" - A picture of Wilhelm Riedel's life . P. 85 ff.
  32. ↑ M. Kunert: Riedelstiftungen "Self-Help" - A picture of Wilhelm Riedel's life . P. 88.
  33. ↑ M. Kunert: Riedelstiftungen "Self-Help" - A picture of Wilhelm Riedel's life . P. 86.
  34. ↑ a b M. Kunert: Riedelstiftungen "Selbsthilfe" - A picture of Wilhelm Riedel's life . P. 89.
  35. ↑ M. Kunert: Riedelstiftungen "Self-Help" - A picture of Wilhelm Riedel's life . P. 91.
  36. ↑ a b c d e M. Kunert: Riedelstiftungen “Self-Help” - A picture of Wilhelm Riedel's life . P. 93.
  37. ↑ a b M. Kunert: Riedelstiftungen "Selbsthilfe" - A picture of Wilhelm Riedel's life . P. 97 ff.
  38. ↑ M. Kunert: Riedelstiftungen "Self-Help" - A picture of Wilhelm Riedel's life . P. 101.
  39. ↑ M. Kunert: Riedelstiftungen "Self-Help" - A picture of Wilhelm Riedel's life . P. 105 ff.
  40. ↑ M. Kunert: Riedelstiftungen "Self-Help" - A picture of Wilhelm Riedel's life . P. 108.
  41. ^ A b Siegfried Kohlschmidt: Wilhelm Riedel - factory owner and benefactor of the poor . 2002.
  42. ↑ M. Kunert: Riedelstiftungen "Self-Help" - A picture of Wilhelm Riedel's life . Pp. 78 and 112.
  43. ↑ M. Kunert: Riedelstiftungen "Self-Help" - A picture of Wilhelm Riedel's life . P. 112.
  44. ^ Dieter Dreetz, Klaus Gessner, Heinz Sperling: Armed struggles in Germany 1918–1923. Military Publishing House of the German Democratic Republic, 1988, pp. 150–151.
  45. ↑ Between the Neißebrücke and Ostfriedhof. In: Lausitzer Rundschau . January 27, 2007, accessed August 17, 2017 .
  46. ↑ a b c Michaela Lorenz: 120 years of "Riedelstift" . In: District window Sandow - Spremberger Vorstadt - Sachsendorf - Madlow . January / February, 2018, p. 10-11 .
  47. ↑ a b c 120 years of the Riedel Foundation - Part 2: The Riedelstift senior citizens 'home becomes the Riedelstift senior citizens' center . In: Magazine of the Arbeiter-Samariter-Bund RV Cottbus / NL eV June 2017, p. 6–7 ( archive.org [PDF; 3.3 MB ]).
  48. ↑ Ulrike Elsner: Senior Center with Tradition. In: Lausitzer Rundschau . June 14, 2017. Retrieved November 6, 2017 .
  49. ↑ a b c 120 years of the Riedel Foundation - Part 3: The ASB expands the Riedel Foundation . In: Magazine of the Arbeiter-Samariter-Bund RV Cottbus / NL eV September 2017, p. 6-7 .
This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on January 23, 2018 .
personal data
SURNAME Riedel, Wilhelm
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Riedel, Ferdinand Wilhelm (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German cloth manufacturer and benefactor
DATE OF BIRTH June 13, 1829
PLACE OF BIRTH cottbus
DATE OF DEATH January 23, 1916
Place of death Berlin