1758 - Hüttengewerkschaft
Münster canon Franz Ferdinand von Wenge had to use all his powers of persuasion on his sovereign, Archbishop Clemens of Cologne. But not until after making the Archbishop’s administrators all manners of promises, giving them money – and finally, six excellent Westphalian hams – did he get permission to start up the first charcoal blast furnace and foundry in the St. Antony Ironworks on October 18, 1758. At this moment, the industrial age of iron processing began in the Vest Recklinghausen area of Germany’s Ruhr region. Where the name “St. Antony” comes from, however, still remains unclear. St. Antony – the saint held responsible for recovery of all types of lost objects – and theoretically, of an iron mine as well – might be an appropriate patron just as much as the ironworks’ builder Jean Antony von Graes.
Admittedly, progress at St. Antony was very slow at first. The high phosphorus content of the local ore made it resistant to forging. Then there was the cumbrous administrative red tape, difficulties in obtaining raw materials, a lack of know-how by workmen and last but not least, an underdeveloped market. In the first years, von Wenge operated the St. Antony Ironworks with an employed master craftsman at his own risk.
The hammer mill established in 1766 enabled iron bars and shotgun barrels to be forged. One year later, a second blast furnace and ore washing facility had to be set up due to great demand for the ironworks’ products. Unfortunately, attempts in 1771 to fire the blast furnaces with hard coal instead of charcoal – supplies of which were dwindling – failed. Miners did not yet know that to do this, hard coal must first be converted to coke.
In the 1790s, not only the St. Antony Ironworks, but also the later established, neighboring ironworks “Gute Hoffnung” (1782) and “Neu Essen” (1791) were fighting to stay afloat. Franz Ferdinand von Wenge died on September 5, 1788 at the age of 81. The grandson of his sister Johanna Robertine von Hövel inherited St. Anton, but let the lease run out and finally sold the ironworks.
When Gottlob Jacobi – hardly 20 years old – took over the Neu Essen Ironworks in 1791, the young mining industry experienced a new type of entrepreneurial leadership. Wherever he could, Jacobi sought after technological progress and kept his eye on developments in foreign countries – including England, Belgium and Upper Silesia. This is how he found his like-minded partners: the brothers Franz and Gerhard Haniel and their brother-in-law Heinrich Huyssen. They too had recognized the great potential in mining and the iron and steel industry.
In 1805, the four partners bought the St. Antony and the Neu Essen Ironworks. Three years later, they also bought the Gutehoffnungshütte in Sterkrade. In April 1810 they signed a deed of partnership: the “Hüttengewerkschaft und Handlung Jacobi, Haniel & Huyssen” was born. Each of the partners, Gottlob Jacobi, Franz Haniel, Gerhard Haniel as well as Heinrich Huyssen obtained one-quarter interest in all ironworks. The so-called JHH became the legal predecessor of the later Gutehoffnungshütte. For the first time, both production and processing of iron and iron goods were in one hand. The first ironworks company of the Ruhr region was born.
The business success of the Hüttengewerkschaft (united ironworks) brought about a dramatic increase in the number of workers it employed. In 1813, all three ironworks together had employed 162 people. In 1836 they employed 710 people, but by 1864, the workforce had skyrocketed to 5,000. The employees came from the Rhineland, Westphalia and Sauerland. In addition, however, workers from Hessia, Pomerania and East and West Prussia had come to settle in the area as well. This presented the Hüttengewerkschaft with increasingly pressing social problems, which demanded answers by the company’s leaders. Franz Haniel and his Director Wilhelm Lueg set milestones in social history. In 1818 they established a “bread and dining institution” to supply workers with healthy foodstuffs.
In 1832, long before the national health insurance law of 1883 regulated Germany’s healthcare system, the Hüttengewerkschaft set up one of the first “Support Funds for Local Workers”. It created the first elements of a social security scheme, which was above all important for supporting widows and invalids or other emergency cases. In 1844, the company constructed the first housing development for workers in the Ruhr region: “Eisenheim” in Osterfeld. Lueg and Haniel even supplied the workforce with fresh beer – instead of with the customary but unhealthy brandy. They also helped employees save money by setting up the first company savings and loan, which opened its doors on August 15, 1842. Once again, the Hüttengewerkschaft had recognized the signs of the times and set the pace of progress in the burgeoning industrial age.
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