Wilhelm Zais (politician, 1772)

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Wilhelm Zais (born December 12, 1772 in Cannstatt , † June 5, 1840 in Cannstatt) was a German manufacturer, city councilor in Cannstatt and member of the state parliament in the Kingdom of Württemberg . He was a brother of the architect Christian Zais and the uncle of the Wiesbaden hotelier and Nassau delegate Wilhelm Zais . On August 7, 1800, he married Helene Kersten, the daughter of Abraham Kersten in Elberfeld.

Entrepreneurial activity

Wilhelm Zais's youth were moved. After entering the commercial profession, he worked first in Frankfurt am Main, then in Siegen, Berlin, Elberfeld and Brussels, from where he was often sent to Paris. During one of his visits he was unfortunate enough to be suspected of being an English agent and imprisoned for two months. Only through the efforts of the Württemberg ambassador was he set free again.

Now he settled in the Elberfeld, which he already knew. After joining the Kersten bank in Elberfeld, later by Heydt-Kersten & Sons, now taken over by Commerzbank, he soon gained general respect and married the daughter in 1800.

As a banker in Elberfeld, Wilhelm Zais naturally recognized that there was good money to be made in dyeing. The dyeing was proven in the area of ​​Wuppertal at the beginning of the 18th century and in 1804 there were 15 Turkish red dyeing works in Barmen and Elberfeld. From there he brought the idea to Cannstatt and combined it with fabric factories. So that he did not lack madder for coloring, he published calls for its cultivation.

Zais, who also worked as an innkeeper, had already set up a "Turkish-red" dye works on the "Bellevue" near Cannstatt in 1802. The Württemberg King Friedrich I bought the complex from him in 1806 for 18,000  florins in order to have a country house built there. In 1808 Zais entered into a partnership with the businessman Johann Christian Kylius and together they ran a dye works for cotton yarn, which was initially set up in Stuttgart-Berg near the old customs house. After separating from Kylius, Zais founded a cotton factory in Cannstatt in 1812, which was moved to the "Mühlgrün" in Cannstatt in 1838. There he had a five-story factory building by the well-known architect Nikolaus Friedrich von Thouret reached. After his death, the factory was continued by his three sons Adolph, Wilhelm and Albert Zais. The Neckar Zeitung reported in 1824 on the establishment of the "Elberfelder Fire and Life Insurance Company" by Wilhelm Zais.

He also helped his brother Christian Zais in Wiesbaden. He intended to build a modern bath house, for which around 250,000 guilders were estimated. Christian Zais should, however, identify the means available before the start . He proved this by showing stones and wood as deposit capital and presenting a guarantee certificate from his brother Wilhelm. Christian Zais did not see the completion of his "Vier Jahreszeiten" hotel building project and so Wilhelm Zais and his friend Julius Simon von Nördlinger from Stuttgart submitted a request to the Duke of Nassau that the bathhouse could be completed under government protection.

Political activity

Zais was politically active at the municipal and state levels. He was an opponent of the German customs union , as he feared considerable disadvantages for the Württemberg economy. In 1833 he was elected to the Württemberg state parliament, after some sharp public attacks, he withdrew from politics in 1836.

Trivia

Zais owned the house "at the foot of the Kahler Stein" in Cannstatt (later Landhaus Bellevue , in the area of ​​today's Wilhelma car park) until 1806 , before Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm von Württemberg (later King Wilhelm I) and his wife Katharina used it as the Crown Prince's residence related.

In his house he used the progressive Meissner method to heat the apartment with warmed air. "One of the most excellent London fortepiano and a very excellent harp are the main instruments of the two artful daughters and in this rare combination, even more in combination with singing, gave the friends of harmony some pure pleasure". Konrad Kocher , the piano teacher of the two daughters, therefore visits the Zais family with piano maker Johann Baptist Streicher . Demoiselle Zais played a Clementian sonata quite well ".

In the autumn of 1837 Johannes Wichelhaus made a trip to Baden, Karlsruhe, Schaffhausen etc. via Tübingen to Stuttgart, "where he met relatives in the Zais family. On his mother's side he was descended from the von der Heydts in Elberfeld.

For his daughter Pauline (1802–1828), who died early, Zais had a classical grave monument built on the Stuttgart Steigfriedhof , which has been preserved to this day. Next to it is his tomb, designed as a pyramid and with the slogan after Sirach: I thank the one who gave me wisdom, I made up my mind to work hard for it, I wrestled for it from my heart and was diligent to act on it

literature

  • Frank Raberg : Biographical handbook of the Württemberg state parliament members 1815-1933 . On behalf of the Commission for Historical Regional Studies in Baden-Württemberg. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 3-17-016604-2 , p. 1060 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Prof. Pfleiderer, From Cannstatt's Past. An important pair of brothers from the previous century, the building artist Christian Zais and the leader of industry Wilhelm Zais, Cannstatter Zeitung of March 27, 1933
  2. ↑ Hans Otto Stroheker, Courage to risk justified Cannstatter textile industry, Cannstatter Zeitung of April 18, 1981, p. 5
  3. ↑ Gisela Schmockel, The monopoly of whitewashing, Bergische Blätter, 7/1994, pp. 20-21, Wuppertal
  4. ^ Request for the madder building, correspondence sheet of the Royal Württemberg Agricultural Association, Stuttgart; Tübingen, March, 1822, pp. 279-280
  5. ^ Wauschkuhn, Friedrich-Franz: The beginnings of the Württemberg textile industry within the framework of the state trade policy 1806-1848. Hamburg, 1974. pp. 72f.
  6. ↑ Hans Otto Stroheker, The Badestadt Cannstatt at the time of Dr. Heinrich Ebner's and what remained of her, Verlag Jan-Michael Meinecke & Claus Ebner, Munich, ISBN 3-925313-14-1
  7. ↑ Main State Archives Stuttgart / E 221.
  8. ^ Neckar Zeitung, Stuttgart April 13, 1824
  9. ↑ Wolf Heino Struck, Wiesbaden im Biedermeier, Franz Steiner Verlag, Wiesbaden 1981
  10. ↑ see above Prof. Pfleiderer in Cannstatter Zeitung
  11. ^ Illumination of Mr. Zais' opposition to the Prussian Customs Association, Stuttgart, 1833. o.A. passim.
  12. ↑ HESPERUS, No. 73, Monday March 27, 1826
  13. ^ Uta Goebl-Streicher, The travel diary of the piano maker Johann Baptist Streicher 1821–1822, Hans Schneider Verlag
  14. ↑ Dr. theol. A. Zahn, from the life of Johannes Wichelhaus, former professor of theology in Halle an der Saale, Stuttgart 1892
personal data
SURNAME Zais, Wilhelm
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German manufacturer and member of the Württemberg state parliament
DATE OF BIRTH December 12, 1772
PLACE OF BIRTH Cannstatt
DATE OF DEATH June 5, 1840
Place of death Cannstatt