Ludwig Roselius

Gerhard Wilhelm Ludwig Roselius ( born June 2, 1874 in Bremen, † May 15, 1943 in Berlin) was a coffee merchant and founder of the company Kaffee HAG. As a patron, he supported artists like Paula Modersohn -Becker and Bernhard Hoetger and built the Böttcherstrasse in Bremen as a work of art on.

Life

Roselius was the second child of the Bremen merchant and coffee importer Dietrich Friedrich Rennig Roselius ( 1843-1902 ). His brother was the merchant Friedrich Roselius (1876-1941), his cousin was the teacher Marie Roselius (1869-1951) and his daughter, the illustrator and writer Hildegard Roselius ( 1901-1963 ).

He graduated from 1890 to 1893 a lesson in colonial goods wholesaler Ernst Grothe in Hanover, before joining the family business in 1894 Roselius & Co. in Bremen. A few years later he became the partner of the company, the first addition to coffee also led colonial goods. Roselius junior grew sales; 1901 a branch in London was established in 1902 another in Utrecht, 1903, he took over the company Friedrich Baur in Hamburg and in 1905 the establishment of a branch office in Vienna.

As Roselius senior died unexpectedly at the age of 59 years, the doctors performed the due primarily to strong caffeine consumption. His son then dealt intensively with the effects of coffee and its components on health. He developed after extensive own research, a method to extract the caffeine coffee beans. Since the Bremen coffee merchant Christian Detlefsen also dealt with this subject, it came from 1904 to cooperate. Because the success ceased not equal, Detlefsen but gave up again. So Roselius made ​​on alone, leaving in 1906 patented his method.

In 1917 he was appointed Consul General of Bulgaria with his office in Bremen.

Politically conservative stood Roselius Nazism positive about and supported Hitler, whom he had met privately in 1922 in Bremen. But that pursued by him nationalist- Nordic ideology with its belief in the irreplaceable value of the Nordic Low German race under the influence of ideologues Julius Langbehn and Herman Wirth was only partially his consent. The Böttcherstrasse should this idea world illustrate ( Roselius: " The re-establishment of Böttcherstrasse is an attempt to think German. " )

How difficult personality Roselius is classified, makes an article by Alfred Faust from 1924 clearly. Faust writes, inter alia,

Roselius was a member of the National Socialist German Law Academy and supporting member of the SS Although Hitler declared on the Nazi Party on September 9, 1936 that " national socialism this kind of cooper road culture sharply " reject, yet Roselius in 1937 was guest of honor at the opening of Great German Art Exhibition in Munich's Haus der Deutschen Kunst.

Roselius was a member of the Foundation House seafaring, the traditional exclusive organization of leading Bremer business circles and Schaffer was the renowned Schaffermahlzeit in 1930.

After the end of World War II were Roselius ' writing [ First] Nordic Thing [ in Böttcherstrasse to Bremen ] (1933 /34) and edited by him spruce for today. From the writings of Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1939 ) - both published by Anglo-Saxons -Verlag - in the Soviet occupation zone set to the list of proscribed literature.

Entrepreneurial activity

Coffee Hag

Ludwig Roselius became known for founding the company Kaffee Hag.

Wood industry

Roselius increased from 1919 to 1922 for a short time in the wood industry. In order to prevent the flow of patents and rights to the Fritz Pfleumer and his brother Hermann discovered Lignostone according to the Versailles Peace Treaty, funded and founded in Holland a Lignostone factory under license. Shortly thereafter, Hermann Röchling took over all activities Lignostone which are now operated by the Röchling Engineering Plastics, based in Haren ( Ems).

Honors

• The Ludwig- Roselius -Allee in Bremen ( through the neighborhoods Vahr Sebaldsbrück and Easter wood) was named after him.
• In Böttcherstrasse in Bremen a bust of him was issued in 1922.

Literary adaptations

• In Tancred Dorst Dramatic Arts from 2007 through Heinrich Vogeler and Worpswede colony Roselius occurs as a patron.