Wilhelm Gottlieb was born on May 15, 1850, in Wilczak,[1] then a suburban commune of Bromberg, today a district of Bydgoszcz. He was the son of Johann Gottlieb, a carpenter, and Caroline Wilhelmine née Fenske.[1]
He left Bydgoszcz/Bromberg in his youth to learn the trade of a dyeing. He lived, among others, in Charlottenburg, near Berlin. In 1878, he returned to his hometown and set up a small dye workshop in Prinzen Straße (present day Władysława Łokietka street).[2]
Kopp factory advertising, 1928
In 1883, Wilhelm bought from Wilhelm Borchert a larger dyeworks and dry cleaning house established in 1830, in Posener Straße (at today's 32 Poznańska street). He upgraded the old facility by installing steam engine power. Unfortunately, the factory burned down ten years later due to the carelessness of one of the workers in the laundry, igniting gasoline, then used as a cleaning agent.[1]
Following this accident Wilhelm Kopp established a new factory in a tenement house on Wełniany Rynek, which operated 10 years.
In 1903, Kopp purchased a new plot on Berliner Straße, constructing there from scratch a large dyeing plant. The result was an impressive four-story factory building, giving directly Młynówka river, a water channel feeding the watermills in the area.
With its growing activity in the 1910s, Kopp's company was one of the largest dyeing firms in eastern German Empire. It had branches in nearby cities (Chełmno, Grudziądz, Inowrocław, Toruń) and employed around 60 people.
Wilhelm Kopp ran the company on his own almost until his death, on November 28, 1919, in Bydgoszcz. In May 1919, he had extended company's ownership to his wife and their eldest son, Wilhelm, and later the company became the joint property of the other children.
In practice, the business was run only by three brothers, Wilhelm Rudolf Albert, Julius Otto Friedrich and Feliks Ernst Max.
Wilhelm Kopp was married to Hermine Friederike Auguste née Heudtlass. They had 9 children.
Feliks Kopp (1884-1961)
Kopp dyehouse 1907
Feliks Ernst Max was born on February 15, 1884, in Bromberg. He was one of the youngest sons of Wilhelm Kopp.
After finishing primary school, he attended realschule in downtown and graduated in the spring of 1902. After completing his education, he entered the family dyeing business.
Initially, he worked as a commercial manager in the facility along Mill island. During this period, the company experienced a growing prosperity and extended its network in the region.
After the demise of Wilhelm Kopp, Feliks, together with his brothers Wilhelm Jr. and Juliusz took over the direction of the company, on behalf of all their siblings.
He married Erna Ada née Deylitz in 1930. They had 2 sons, Joachim Lothar (born 1931) and Tilo Manfred (born 1935). The family lived in a tenement house at 3 Mickiewicza avenue.[3]
Rowing club "Frithjof", 1917
In addition to the family business, Feliks took part in the social life of the German community. He was passionate about sports, especially rowing. From 1935 to 1945, he chaired the board of the German rowing club "Frithjof" (German: Ruder-Club-Frithjof), founded in 1894. With the revival of the independent Polish state in 1918, the club lost many German members who left the coutry. In addition, "Frithjof" was not allowed to take part in Polish competitions. Feliks Kopp had the club join the "Polish Association of Rowing Societies", lifting the ban. Under its lead, the rowing association achieved many successes, winning the Polish championship and representing Poland in the Poland-Hungary international competition in 1938.[1]
Feliks Kopp operated the plant in Bydgoszcz during almost the entire period of the Second World War. He left the city in January 1945, shortly before the arrival of the Red army. He eventually settled in Hamburg.
In Germany, he initiated the creation in 1960 of the "Frithjof" rowing club, which continued the traditions of the Bromberg Ruder-Club-Frithjof. He chaired the association between 1960 and 1964.
After World War II the factory was nationalized under the name "Pralchem", operating through the Polish People's Republic period. In the 1990s, the business was closed.
Since then, several projects aiming at restoring the factory building have been proposed. The brick edifice has now became one of the hallmarks of the Mill Island area.
In 2022, a Polish estate agency, "NK Polska Development", purchased the edifice to build 52 apartments, with service and commercial areas on the ground floor. The construction is supposed to be delivered in 2025.[4]
Fragmentary family tree
Johann Gottlieb Kopp (1850-1919) married Caroline Wilhelmine née Fenske
Wilhelm Gottlieb Kopp married Hermine Friederike Auguste née Heudtlass
Luise Auguste Charlotte (1871-?)
Wilhelm Rudolf Albert (1875-?)
Karl Gustav Emil (1877–?)
Julius Otto Friedrich (1879-?)
Anne Emme Olge (1881-?)
Paul Robert Johannes (1882-?)
Feliks Ernst Max (1884–1961) married in 1930 Erna Ada née Deylitz
The Villa Aronsohn is an historic house in downtown Bydgoszcz, at 1 Śniadeckich street.
Bernardyńska street is an historic axis of Bydgoszcz Old Town. It bears many historical buildings, of which several are listed on Kuyavian-Pomeranian Heritage list.
The Ignacy Jan Paderewski Pomeranian Philharmonic has been at its present site in Bydgoszcz, Poland, since 16 November 1953. The Pomeranian Philharmonic is the musical center of Kujawy-Pomerania Province and also features an outdoor art gallery. It is registered on the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship Heritage List.
The Arthur Rubinstein Music Schools Group is an association of music schools of primary and secondary education which seat is located in the building at Szwalbego Street 1 in Bydgoszcz.
Mikołaja Reja Street is a historical street of downtown Bydgoszcz.
Carl and Wilhelm Blumwe were successful German entrepreneurs, industrialists and businessmen in Bromberg from the second half of the 19th century. Their buildings and realizations are still standing today in the city.
The sculpture The Archer stands in the Jan Kochanowski Park in Bydgoszcz, facing the Polish Theater.
Ludwig Buchholz's Tannery was a leather complex factory which operated from 1845 to 1992 in Bydgoszcz. The plot and the administrative building are now used by the Private University of Economy of Bydgoszcz.
The Franke family was an important Prussian family of Bromberg, whose members were entrepreneurs, industrialists and businessmen from the 1820s to the eve of the First World War. Some of their edifices are still standing today in the city.
Świętego Floriana Street is located in the downtown district of Bydgoszcz, Poland. Despite its short length of roughly 200 metres (660 ft), it features many notable buildings in a variety of architectural styles, including Eclectic, Art Nouveau and early modernist. The street is named after Saint Florian.
Lewin Louis Aronsohn (1850–1928) was a German banker of Jewish origin. As a liberal politician, he was a member of the regional parliament of the Province of Posen, the Prussian House of Representatives and the Prussian Constitutional Assembly. In 1918, he has been given the title of Honorary Citizen of Bydgoszcz.
Bogdan Feliks Raczkowski was an influential engineer, builder and urbanist in Bydgoszcz from the 1920s till the outbreak of World War II.
Stefan Jan Klajbor was an architect and a cultural personage of Bydgoszcz during the 20th century.
Emil Warmiński was a Polish physician, social and national activist and founder of the Polish House in Bydgoszcz.
Heinrich Ernst Dietz, generally called Heinrich Dietz or Henryk Dietz, (1840–1901) was a Prussian rentier, member of the Bromberg city council, member of the Prussian parliament and a prominent philanthropist in the second half of the 19th century.
Hermann Ernest Georg Dietz, generally called Hermann Dietz, (1861-1944) was a German physician, a member of the Bromberg city council, a senator of the Republic of Poland and a prominent social activist in the first half of the 20th century in Bromberg/Bydgoszcz.
Teofil Magdziński was a Polish lawyer, conspirator, activist in exile who participated in several Polish uprisings of the second half of the 19th century. He was one of the most prominent politician in Bydgoszcz, representative at the Reichstag and a staunch defender of Polishness.
Bernard Stanisław Śliwiński (1883-1941) was a Polish doctor of law, insurgent during the Greater Poland uprising, Lieutenant colonel in the Polish Armed Forces infantry, district commander of the state police, Mayor of Bydgoszcz and recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Order of Virtuti Militari.
The Karbid Wielkopolski or Greater Poland Carbide Factory is a defunct firm (1906-1949) which was established in the northern district of Smukała in Bydgoszcz, Poland. It produced carbide: the facility, where a Nazi transit camp was set up during WWII, is survived today by a dam feeding a hydroelectric power plant on the Brda river.
The Peterson family was a family whose several members had a historical importance in the city of Bydgoszcz, Poland. They were influential from the beginning of the 19th century till the 1930s in the area of politics, engineering and entrepreneurship.
References
1 2 3 4 Błażejewski, Stanisław; Kutta, Janusz; Romaniuk, Marek (2006). Bydgoski Słownik Biograficzny. Tom VII[Bydgoszcz Biographical Dictionary. Volume VII] (in Polish). Bydgoszcz: Kujawsko-Pomorskie Towarzystwo Kulturalne. pp.66–68. ISBN83-85327-70-3.
↑ Derenda, Jerzy (2006). Piękna Stara Bydgoszcz. T1[Beautiful Old Bydgoszcz. T1] (in Polish). bydgoszcz: Towarzystwo Miłośników Miasta Bydgoszczy. p.432.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
