THE SCHOTTLAENDER TOMB

The tomb of Julius Schottländer (1835-1911) was built in grey granite in Egyptian style, with an inscription slab made of red granite. The tomb is laid out in a rectangular shape with a mono-pitched roof, with columns decorated with lotus capitals and a bas-relief shaft. The architrave is decorated with floral ornamentation and the coffered ceiling with a meander motif.

Julius Schottländer was an entrepreneur, philanthropist, owner of real estate and country estates in Lower Silesia, a Portland cement factory in Opole, a bank, and the Wrocław department store “Pod Swietym Hieronimem” (currently the “Hieronimus” office building). Schottländer also held many honorary positions, including member of the Representative Assembly from 1876 to 1899, chairman of the board of the Wrocław Jewish Community (Synagogengemeinde zu Breslau) from 1900, patron of today’s Karkonoska Street (until 1934), and honorary citizen of Münsterberg /Ziębice. He founded the Jewish Welfare Institution in Breslau/Wrocław, the Southern Park and the City Park in Ziębice. He was also the leaseholder of a mineral water bottling plant in the well-known spa town of Karlsbad (today Karlove Vary, Czech Republic).

Schottländer was born on 16 March 1835 in Münsterberg /Ziębice, where his father Löbel (1809-1880) was a grain and wool merchant, and together the two of them created their family’s financial power, becoming the embodiment of social and economic advancement. Julius began trading independently at the age of 15. Hoping for better growth prospects, he moved to Breslau/Wrocław, where from 1860 onwards he ran a commercial enterprise dealing in grain brokerage and wholesaling. Leasing the middle mill from the city in 1864 turned out to be a more profitable investment, especially after its modernisation, the installation of a so-called American continuous mill, and the opening of an oil mill and refinery. Schottländer continued to expand his business by also running his own banking company, and following the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, his social standing and, above all, his financial standing were strong enough for him to sign a contract to independently victual the entire 3rd Army, which was the crowning achievement of his financial success. He discontinued his banking business in favour of land and real estate trading, areas in which he felt the most confident. When it came to investments, he was gifted with a strong sense of foresight and excellent intuition.

From 1866 onwards, he was the owner of the Partynice knight’s estate, and in the following years he further pursued his investments by acquiring the estates of Kowale, Suchy Dwór, Bledzów, Wysoka, Stary Śleszów and Biestrzykowice near Wrocław. In 1871, the Silesian Property Trading Society, a joint-stock company, was established on his initiative, with Schottländer and representatives of Wrocław’s business elite sitting on its board of directors. The company sought out attractive land by purchasing plots in the city centre (at Świdnicka Street), on its southern suburbs and in the area of Przedmieście Szczytnickie. Schottländer also acquired peasant farms in Oltaszyn, Oporów and, in 1877, land in Borek, with the total area of his estate totalling two thousand hectares of land. Julius applied for the creation of a family fideicommissum out of these estates, which was probably the only Jewish land ordinance in Prussia.

He was also the owner of property in the area around Grunwald Square. Two of the streets located on his land took their names from his children: Paulstrasse (today’s Michał Wrocławczyk Street) and Gertrudastrasse (today’s Benedykta Polaka Street). Many years later, some of the tenements located in these streets, built mainly for lower-income tenants, still belonged to Schottländer.

In 1890, he donated part of his land to the city as green space, amounting to about thirty hectares in total, including twenty-five hectares for the organisation of the Southern Park, in exchange for connecting Borek to city infrastructure: gas, water and sewage networks, following tough negotiations with the city council since the 1880s. In the end, an agreement was reached, and the Southern Park was created on a twenty-five-hectare site. In 1897, Borek, on which a residential estate had been built, was incorporated into the city limits, undoubtedly contributing to the urban development of Wrocław to the south. It was here that the Schottländer family had their residence – a representative palace in Partynice, built between 1878 and 1882 in Neo-Renaissance style and surrounded by a park and garden (the so-called Villa Hartlieb). Schottländer also located his charitable foundations in the area: the Jewish Welfare Institution for the elderly, founded in 1896, and the Jewish Nurses’ Home nearby. In order to make this suburban area more attractive, Schottländer also decided to modernise the hippodrome by commissioning the construction of a new horse racing track at Partynice. In his hometown of Ziębice, he founded a municipal park with a water tower (the so-called water castle).

Julius died on 1 January 1911 at the age of 76. Crowds of local residents, together with representatives of the municipal authorities of Wrocław, Ziębice and Karlovy Vary, as well as many organisations and charities, bid him farewell. His wife Anna, née Galewski (1846-1911), who died 19 days after her husband’s death, on 20 January 1911, was also buried in the tomb.

Anna and Julius’s son, Paul Schottländer (1870-1938), the heir and administrator of the family estate, doctor of philosophy, and honorary senator of the University of Wrocław, is also buried in the family mausoleum. Born in Wrocław on 14 February 1870, Paul Schottländer studied natural sciences at the University of Wrocław, as well as in Leipzig, Heidelberg, Bonn and Halle, obtaining his doctorate in 1892. Faced with higher necessity, however, he abandoned his personal scientific aspirations, taking over some of his father’s responsibilities in the administration and management of the family’s landed estates. He continued his father’s philanthropic activities, in 1911 making a significant donation to the University of Wrocław for the directional training of deep-sea explorers in zoology.

The lower part of the inscription panel bears the inscription ‘In memoriam’, commemorating representatives of successive generations of the Schottländer family, affected by the hostile policies of the National Socialists.

Dimensions (cm): 650 x 850 x 340

Author: Dr. Renata Wilkoszewska-Krakowska