Johann Gottlob Nathusius

Johann Gottlob Nathusius ( born April 30, 1760 Baruth / Mark, † July 23, 1835 in Althaldensleben ) was a German businessman, entrepreneur and large landowners.

Life

Training

Nathusius was born the son of a tax collector in the Electorate of Saxony, his ancestors lived in the Upper and Lower Lusatia. From 1774, he completed a commercial apprenticeship in Berlin. Studying it was not possible for financial reasons. However, he read economics literature. After completing his apprenticeship in 1780 he was first employed as clerks before it four years later found a job as an accountant in the Magdeburg trading house Sengewald.

Business

After the death Seng Ewald 1785, he took over together with Johann Wilhelm Richter, the company, which changed its name now under the name Richter & Nathusius.

The falling with the accession of Friedrich Wilhelm II state tobacco monopoly took Nathusius so that he eventually dominated the Prussian state with its tobacco production. Already in 1787 he founded the busy tobacco factory 60 workers. When the monopoly was temporarily reinstated, he was the first general factory director.

1801 worked at Nathusius, who had become the wealthiest citizens of Magdeburg, 300 workers. Nathusius in this period were also the cultivation of chicory, which served as a coffee substitute, a. This resulted in a sometimes very important for the region industry developed.

After his marriage in 1809 he acquired in 1810, first the secularized convent Althaldensleben and a year later the Baroque castle Hundisburg. Much later, he acquired more goods in Königsborn and Meyendorf. Purchased goods Nathusius used for the cultivation of agricultural products, which he then processed further with your own company. Nathusius founded the first industrial company in Germany, which consisted of more than thirty commercial enterprises - including market-gardening to Althaldensleben, grain and oil mills, a pasta factory, a distillery, a starch factory, fruit wine and vinegar factories, a beet sugar factory and a brewery, brickworks and quarries, a stoneware factory, the porcelain factory Nathusius, as well as a machine factory in Hundisburg. The structural changes initiated by him in and around the Greater Haldensleben developed from an agrarian to an industrial region.

Political action

During the existence of the Kingdom of Westphalia, he represented the newly formed Department of the Elbe in the imperial estates in Kassel.

After the defeat of Napoleon Nathusius stood for political and economic reforms and belonged to the bourgeois opposition. He was a member of the provincial Saxon Landtag.

Horticulture

In addition to his business, he devoted himself to horticulture and had large gardens create an international model. A garden was created in Magdeburg- Werder. A large landscape park in the English style, he had to create between Hundisburg and Althaldensleben. In Althaldensleben was at his instigation a double church.

Family

Johann Gottlob Nathusius married in February 1809 Luise Wilhelmine Engelhard ( 1787-1875 ), a daughter of the director of the Electorate of Hesse Kassel War College, Johann Philipp Engelhard and the Engelhard Philippine significant poet, born Gatterer ( 1756-1831 ). The couple had eight children: Hermann (1809-1879), Louise (1811-1891), Gottlob Engelhard (1813-1829), Philipp (1815-1872), August (1818-1884), Wilhelm (1821-1899), Heinrich (1824-1890) and Johanne ( 1828-1885 ).

Nathusius in the literature

The work Nathusius ' found its way into the works of several well-known poets and writers: Johann Wolfgang Goethe in " Wilhelm Meister ," with Karl Immerman in " The epigones " and Clemens Brentano in " Kommanditchen ".

Awards and honors

Johann Gottlob Nathusius should be raised to the peerage due to its contribution to the development of agriculture, trade and industry; he refused to do so, however, after the family tradition with the dry remark: "It is better to draw off, as that can be distinguished ." 1840 and in 1861 his sons were then raised to the peerage. Nathusius was carrier of the Iron Cross on the white band and red Eagle Order 3rd class with ribbon.

The city of Magdeburg has a street named in his honor (Johann - Gottlob - Nathusius - ring). Also in Haldensleben there is a Johann- Gottlob - Nathusius Street.