Zumstein (merchant family)

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Small letter from Immenstadt of April 17, 1789 to Mr. Nicola zum Stein & Vincent in Stifft Kempten . At the bottom left two-line addition Logirt im Land Haus .
Zumsteinhaus in Grünenbach
The Zumsteinhaus (green shutters) in Kempten near the St. Lorenz Church (painting by Franz Sales Lochbihler around 1815)

Zumstein (occasionally also zum Stein , French : De la Pierre or Delapierre ) is the name of a trading family that came from Gressoney in the Aosta Valley and settled scattered north of the Alps in the 18th century . They moved back in the 19th century. The Zumsteins traded goods between the south and north of the Alps . The family was also called Savoy , Savoyaden or Welsche referred.

The Zumstein family originally came from the Aosta Valley, which had a population surplus. The families in the valley discovered the hiking trade as a sideline and the Aosta Valley became known as the valley of hikers .

history

In 1784 the trading company "Vinzenz und Nikolaus zum Stein" was approved to set up a warehouse in the prince monastery of Kempten . The local Kramer guild did not like it, the administration of the monastery gave the requirement to limit itself to the wholesale trade. Before the move, the trading family could be found in Memmingen . They kept their warehouse in the inn Bauerntanz. The merchant family lived there for several decades, but later got into problems there. Local merchants in Memmingen accused the Zumstein family of not sticking to agreements and thus competing on the local market. The company name is initially [Johann] Nicolaus Zumstein & Co. , from around 1776 Nicolaus Zumstein and Vincent and from 1798 after the departure of business partner Vincent Nicolaus Zumstein and Sons . According to the exchange of letters, the family's contact dates back to the 1740s, when a Nicolaus Zumstein (the elder) bought fabrics in a factory in nearby Grönenbach .

The Zumstein company traded in silk in particular until the 19th century. Cotton goods were also traded. Fabrics such as pile , muslin , yarn , silk scarves and silk ribbons were purchased in large quantities, particularly from manufacturers in Northern Italy and Switzerland. Some orders have relatively large amounts of money. The banking business was done through the Augsburg bank Obwexer. The transport connection to Switzerland ran via Lindau, where freight forwarders brokered the orders. There were also trade relations with Reichenberg in northern Bohemia , as evidenced by letters. In the 1780s, Nicolaus Zumstein stayed at Lake Constance during the trade fair. From Apolda in Thuringia , in turn, stockings were delivered in wholesale quantities. Buyers were retail sellers in the Upper Swabian region. Nicolaus Zumstein (the younger, 1757–1832) also regularly went to the St. Vitus Mass in Ulm, where he stayed for two weeks or more. In Ulm it was one of the most important traders because of its large trading volume.

The headquarters were generally inns. In Memmingen the house to the ship , then the peasant dance and later the country house in Kempten. Apparently, Johann Joseph and Johann Nikolaus Zumstein, the sons of Nicolaus Zumstein, first built their own permanent accommodation in 1802 with the Zumsteinhaus in Kempten. Retail branches were opened in Immenstadt , Grünenbach , Gestratz , Oberstaufen , Konstanz , Kempten and Rorschach .

In 1823 the Zumstein family set up a foundation for the Catholic Gottesackerkirche for “education and support for the teaching foundation of poor Catholic boys in the Neustadt” and finally “for the Catholic school fund there”. The two brothers Johann Joseph and Johann Nicolaus Zumstein were the only Zumstein to be buried in the Catholic cemetery in Kempten. When Johann Nicolaus Zumstein passed away in 1832, part of the property went to a poor fund . A distinction was made between the former collegiate town and imperial town, even if both towns were united as early as 1818. The poor fund of the abbey city received 1000 guilders, the imperial city 500 guilders. The descendants then lived again in Gressoney in the Aosta Valley. The last descendant who lived at least for a short time in Kempten was Josef Aquilino Zumstein. In 1908 he came to Kempten to do an internship at the local branch of the Handelsbank. He lived in the Zumsteinhaus with Adolf Leichtle . In 1911 Josef Aquilino Zumstein also returned to Gressoney. In 1951 the city of Kempten acquired the Zumsteinhaus from a community of heirs of the Zumstein family.

The descendants today often use the French form of the surname Delapierre .

Other events

In 1746 the traveling merchant Johann Franz Zumstein was attacked and murdered by the professional criminals Christoph Zeltner and Michel Kamler on the way to the Lindau autumn market in front of the gates of the imperial city of Wangen .

Benedikt Grotz, the last court jester of the prince abbot of Kempten and later mayor of Waltenhofen , had lived for some time with the Zumsteins in the Zumsteinhaus and "on one of the two balconies he is said to have often made rough jokes on market days".

Family members (selection)

  • Anton Zumstein (1875–1973), cartographer and publisher
  • Carl Zumstein (1905–1993), government director in Lindau and consul in Bregenz
  • Johann Nicolaus Zumstein
    Sons
    • Johann Josef Zumstein (1742–1822)
    • Johann Nicolaus Zumstein (1757–1832)

literature

  • Wolfgang Petz: Kempten twice. History of a twin city. Vögel, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-89650-027-9 (= writings of the philosophical faculties of the University of Augsburg , Volume 54, historical-social science series, also dissertation at the University of Augsburg 1996), pp. 224, 272-274, 467, 477.
  • Herbert Mader: Grünenbacher Chronik from the beginning to the present Grünenbach 2000, without publisher.
  • On the history of the Zumstein house. In: Ludwig Scheller: Contributions to the local history of the community Grünenbach Band, 1959
  • Yvonne Hettich: The Zumsteinhaus. In: Kempten today & then. Kreisboten-Verlag, Kempten 2016, p. 16 f. ( online )

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Wolfgang Petz: Twice Kempten. History of a twin city. Vögel, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-89650-027-9 (= writings of the philosophical faculties of the University of Augsburg , Volume 54, historical-social science series, also a dissertation at the University of Augsburg 1996), p. 224.
  2. ↑ a b c Wolfgang Petz: Twice Kempten. History of a twin city. Vögel, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-89650-027-9 (= writings of the philosophical faculties of the University of Augsburg , Volume 54, historical-social science series, also a dissertation at the University of Augsburg 1996), pp. 272-274.
  3. ^ A b c Ludwig Scheller: On the history of the Zumstein house (after Dr. Karl Martin) . In: Contributions to the local history of the community Grünenbach . 1959. Bibliographical references would be useful
  4. ^ Royal Bavarian Intelligence Journal for the Upper Danube District. Section 879, 1832 ( online )
  5. ↑ Wolfgang Petz: From shopkeepers to wealthy merchants. In: Allgäuer Zeitung (Kempter Tagblatt), July 22, 2017, p. 28. ( online )
  6. ^ Wolfgang Petz: Almost an aristocratic palace. In: Allgäuer Zeitung (Kempter Tagblatt), July 22, 2017, p. 28. ( online )
  7. ↑ a b Friedrich Zollhoefer (Ed.): In Eduard Zimmermann, Friedrich Zollhoefer: Kempter coat of arms and signs including the city and district of Kempten and the adjacent areas of the upper Allgäu. In: Heimatverein Kempten (Ed.): Allgäuer Geschichtsfreund. 2. Delivery, No. 62, Kempten 1962, p. 369 f.