Wilhelm Tell von Fellenberg

Wilhelm Tell von Fellenberg (born October 9, 1798 in Hofwil near Münchenbuchsee , † March 22, 1880 in Merzig ) was an agricultural reformer and entrepreneur .

Wilhelm Tell von Fellenberg

Life

Wilhelm Tell von Fellenberg is the eldest son of the Swiss pedagogue and agronomist Philipp Emanuel von Fellenberg . Growing up in Hofwil near Bern , he studied history in Heidelberg , Jena and Berlin . During this time he got to know the Prussian and Thuringian lands through many walks.

After a short teaching activity at his parents' Hofwil estate, where he met the daughter Anna Rosalie Virginie of the ceramic entrepreneur Johann Franz Boch-Buschmann , he went to Paris to study further . On May 27, 1829 he married Virginie Boch-Buschmann in Siebenbrunnen in Luxembourg . From 1831 he managed the Diemerswil campaign for his father . In 1833 he moved to his wife's home in Mettlach / Saar , where he lived until his father's death in 1844. Then he returned to Hofwil and took over the management of the model farm set up by his father. However, he gave up this management in 1848 and after a one-year stay in Mettlach moved to the Sonnenberg estate near Bern, which he had previously bought. He lived here with his family until 1855. In 1855 he left Switzerland for the Saar , where he settled permanently in Merzig in 1858 .

His main focus in the new home was the improvement of agriculture . Equipped with extensive knowledge from his parents' estate, which had already given him the presidency of the oldest agricultural association in Europe, the Economic Society of the Canton of Bern , he developed active reform activities. The meadow construction in particular had done it to him. In Besseringen he built a meadow building school in 1844, but it did not last long. Due to the need to drain the meadows, he founded a clay pipe factory in 1856, which quickly grew to a significant size and later, since 1879 in the Boch company, became a well-known terracotta factory .

He quickly won comrades-in-arms with his ideas, such as the Catholic priest Johann Matthias Deutsch (1797-1858), who, influenced by Fellenberg, founded an agricultural school in Merchingen in 1846 . This institution was also granted only a short period of activity. Fellenberg promoted the "local agricultural department" of the Merzig, Saarburg and Saarlouis districts , which his friend Pastor Johann Matthias Deutsch ran, and the agricultural association for the Saar region. As a councilor of the city of Merzig, he influenced Prussian politics and gave impetus for a policy that felt responsible.

Wilhelm Tell von Fellenberg is described by contemporaries as a philanthropist who devotes his life and work to fellow human beings. He based his life's work on an evangelical understanding of religion; he wanted to strengthen people's morality through meaningful, fruitful work. In doing so, he set an example. His interaction with Catholic reform forces and local entrepreneurs is interesting. Strong social and economic impulses arise here, which should influence the lower Saar region even after his death.

He bequeathed his fortune to a foundation from which the Merzig District Hospital emerged. His places of residence and work, such as Fellenberg Castle in Merzig, now form the cultural center of Merzig.

Works

• Ideas and principles for a plan for improving the country's culture , Kaiserwerth 1844.

literature

• G. Schreiber: Wilhelm von Fellenberg - A memory sheet . Ziegler'sche Buchdruckerei, Merzig 1881.

Web links

http://www.museum-schloss-fellenberg.de/