Johann Jakob Langen

cf.: http://langenscherfamilienverband.de/johann_jakob_langen.htm

&: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Jakob_Langen

&: http://www.deutsche-biographie.de/sfz70474.html

Johann Jakob Langen (born December 17, 1794 in Düssel , † August 27, 1869 in Cologne ) was a German sugar manufacturer.

Career

He was the son of the teacher Johann Jakob Langen and his wife Anna Maria Hölterhoff. He first took up the profession of his father. For several years he worked as a teacher in various locations in the Bergisches Land , most recently in Arnberg near Elberfeld. On April 1, 1816, he joined the Solingen company "Schimmelbusch & Joest" as a private tutor and office assistant. Carl Joest also offered Langen a position in his company as an office assistant in order to increase his income. After the marriage in July 1817, the Langen couple also jointly ran a small convenience store in the immediate vicinity of the company and the apartment. Hermine Zanders already died in March 1825. In May 1826, Johann Jakob Langen married Johanna Gustorff, a close friend of his first wife, the daughter of his Solingen schoolmaster, whom he had known since his early youth. Langen's main occupation became increasingly commercial in the company, and at the end of 1821 Langen was appointed procurator. From his second marriage with Johanna Gustorf u. a. Eugen Langen , who was to become one of the most important technicians and industrialists of the Rhineland in the second half of the 19th century.

In 1832, JJ Langen took over the commercial management of the sugar refinery of "Schimmelbusch & Joest", which was founded in Cologne in September 1831. Since January 1, 1841, it has been managed by the company "Carl Joest & Söhne". Since 1833 Langen was involved to 20% in the profits of the refinery. Because of his activities Langen moved to Cologne in November 1832. Since 1821, eight factories have already established themselves in the Rhineland metropolis, which now process the colonial cane sugar imported via Holland. The inclusion of steamboat between Rotterdam and Cologne favored the new industry. The sugar refineries initiated industrialization in Cologne. The decree of the Rhine Navigation Act of 1831 and the associated abolition of the right of transshipment for the port of Cologne favored the establishment of further operations in Cologne. Under the leadership of Langen, the company "Schimmelbusch & Joest" rapidly developed into the leading Cologne sugar refinery in Cologne. In 1836, the vacuum boiling was introduced here. With three steam boilers, the company was one of Germany's most modern boilers. In 1839, the company was at the top of all Prussian Siedereien with a processing volume of 90,000 cents with 130 employees. The success of the early years owed the refinery primarily its commercial director JJ Langen. [1] Further company acquisitions and start-ups

In July 1843, Langen acquired the "Friedrich-Wilhelms-Hütte" near Troisdorf in order to become active as an independent entrepreneur. In 1844 he left the company of Carl Joest and bought in March 1845, the relatively small Cologne sugar refinery of "Schleußner & Heck", which he continued with his sons (see Eugen Langen ). Despite numerous initial difficulties, he managed to expand and expand the company. The Troisdorf "Friedrich-Wilhelms-Hütte" (in which 1854 already three sons were included as partners) was on 30 June 1858, when the financial requirements for a further expansion Langens funds exceeded, into a public limited company under the company "Siegrheinischer Mine and Hütten-Aktienverein ". In July 1845, he acquired together with Gustav Mevissen , Friedrich Wiesehahn and Friedrich Giesler mining rights on hard coal fields northwest of Essen. This was the first step in the founding of the Kölner Bergwerks-Verein , the first mining company of the Ruhr district, which was finally founded and licensed in 1849 with its headquarters in Cologne.

Langen's house bank was the Schaaffhausensche Bankverein , which stopped its payments on March 29, 1848. He was one of the bank's biggest creditors. At least 170 major entrepreneurs in the Rhineland had their funds deposited at Schaaffhausen - a catastrophe for the regional economy. The family chronicle handed down that the bank had the order, on March 25, 1848, the sum of 20,000 thalers as a customs payment of the company "Langen & Sons" for imported cane sugar forward. At the very last moment Langen should be successful, for this a change in the Kgl. Bank branch to get discounted. At the end of April 1848, under certain conditions, the Prussian government was prepared to rescue the private bank by reorganizing it into a stock corporation. When the AG was finally founded on August 28, 1848, Langen immediately took over the mandate as a member of the Board of Directors and held the chair between 1852 and 1857.

As head of the sugar refinery of Schimmelbusch & Joest, Johann Jakob Langen had already got to know the leading figures in Cologne's business life. In April 1836 he became a member of the Chamber of Commerce, to which he then belonged until 1859 with the exception of 1844. The chamber contributions on sugar production and trade almost all come from his pen. From June 1848 Johann Jakob Langen was president of the Cologne Chamber until 1856. As chairman of the chamber, he gave an expert opinion especially on customs policy. It was obvious that, as a manufacturer in a branch of industry relevant to Cologne at that time, he considered the questions of protective tariffs or free trade, which were heavily debated in public, from the point of view of promoting indigenous industry. In the opinion of Langen, the protective tariff should not be regarded as a mere maintenance duty; after a certain period of building up one's own industry, foreign competition should gradually be reduced. When Gustav Mevissen was elected president in 1856, he thanked Langen in the first meeting he had chaired for his "prudent and active leadership during his many years in office, a difficult period of office." Although until 1859 member of the chamber, he devoted himself mainly to the leadership of his company. In 1857, he also handed over the chairmanship of the supervisory board of the "Schaaffhausensche Bankverein", which he took over in 1857, to Mevissen. Pfeifer & Langen Tomb of the Langen family at the Cologne cemetery Melaten

When in 1851 the first Cologne beet sugar factory was founded by Emil Pfeifer and Carl Joest in Cologne-Ossendorf , Langen fought one-sided, almost bitter, on the side of the "colonial sugar refiner", demanded a higher taxation of the beets and better import conditions for cane sugar. With this attitude, he deliberately opposed the sugar production from local beets and thus contributed to obstructing the competition. Since Johann Jakob Langen died on 27 August 1869 in Cologne, he could not live to see that his most famous son Eugen Langen together with Emil Pfeifer and his son Valentin founded the beet sugar factory " Pfeifer & Langen " on 19 April 1870. Langen, who was also city councilor and member of the Cologne Commercial Court for a long time, left his eight surviving children a fortune of 480,000 thalers.

His tomb is located at the Cologne cemetery Melaten (HWG, between Lit.E + F).