Kalvenes Street Houses No. 25 and 27 (former Boju Street No. 27 and 29)

27 and 29 Boju Street in the 1920s

Kalvenes Street Houses No. 25 and 27 in 2014

Back in the middle of the 19th century, Boju Street № 25 and № 27 (not to be confused with the current № 27 Kalvenes Street, which also includes a plot of land on the former № 29 Boju Street!) formed one undeveloped plot of land - former hay meadows belonging to the town, the boundaries of which are marked in the Town Plan of 1797, correspond quite precisely to the boundaries of these two plots of land also in the Plan of Aizpute in 1936.

In order to cover the town's outstanding debt to Dr. Johann Heinrich Blumenthal (1734-1804), the Council had given the meadows as a pledge to the doctor's heirs. They, in turn, had transferred their pledge rights to Emil von Lieven (1813-1881), the owner of Jaunlaža (Neu-Lasche) Manor. On August 21, 1853, the Town Treasury entered into a land transfer agreement with Lieven, according to which a square or plot of land for the construction of a town hospital (former № 29 Boju Street) was separated from the hay meadow next to the miller Dietrich Miller's house (№ 23 Kalvenes Street). Town Treasury did not pay Lieven anything for the plot of land, but the remaining part of the hay meadow was granted the status of a plot of land (№ 27 Boju Street), for which Lieven had to pay a Town Tax of 6 Silver Rubles a year.

At the same time, Town Treasury undertook to leave the path from Jelgavas Street, which led along the Miller’s plot to Boju Street through that meadow (known to Cūku (Pig) Street for old inhabitants of Aizpute, nowadays - Kurzemes Street), to prevent damage to Lieven, which could rise when the community created new trails through his fields and hay meadows.

On November 20, 1858, the owner of Jaunlaža (Neu-Lasche) and Korele (Koralle), Emil von Lieven, sold to Millermaster Hermann Ludwig Neumann a plot of land of about 2⅓ Lofstelle in № 27 Boju Street between the newly built alms-house (№ 25 Kalvenes Street) and the town's former infirmary house № 29. No later than 1859, the buyer had to build a mill here. The purchase amount was 200 Rubles plus the buyer must grind up to 500 pieces of grain from Lieven’s manors every year.

After the miller's death, his property was inherited by his wife and children in 1864. Following the inheritance agreement of 1865, the mill and craft were inherited by the miller's son, Christoph Neumann, from whom on September 27, 1902, 0.86 ha of real estate owned by him as a mortgage within the town limits with all buildings and accessories, including scales and some component of a windmill (большой баланс ветряной мельницы) was bought by Gertrude Lindenberg for 6,000 Rubles as co-owners together with Ludolf Mülhausen, whose part Lindenberg bought out in 1907. Thus, it is quite clear that the Gertrude Lindenberg Cardboard Factory shown in the photo was built not earlier than 1903. The oldest evidence of the operation of this factory is an official form in Russian, dated February 1904:

Gertrude Lindenberg Steam Cardboard Factory in Aizpute
Manufacture of pharmacy paper products
Printing house and mechanical engineering factory

Thus, it is clear that the widespread view that the Gertrude Lindenberg Cardboard Factory has been in this place since 1890 is wrong. Equally erroneous is the idea that the Gertrude Lindenberg Cardboard Factory was founded in 1890, although such a year can be found not only in her factory advertisements and forms, but also in the early 20th century newsletters about factories and plants in the Russian Empire. However, neither in the official publications of the empire for the last 10 years of the 19th century, nor in the reports of the local government of Aizpute until 1904, there is no such factory. Not in Aizpute or anywhere else.

Apparently, Gertrude Lindenberg has been a wonderfully enterprising woman. Not only did she know clearly what she wanted, but she also had a clear strategy and tactics for the best way to achieve what she wanted.

When Johann Friedrich Lindenberg, a 39-year-old pharmacist, son of merchant, born in Jelgava, started working as the manager of a Lichtenstein pharmacy in Aizpute, his wife Gertrude Wilhelmine, who was born in Tartu (Dorpat), was only 26 years old. When Lindenberg became seriously ill with pneumonia 2 years later and died, the 28-year-old widow was left alone with two young children - the eldest boy was 3 and a half years old and the youngest 6 months old. She may not have lacked a means of subsistence, but they could not be inexhaustible, so she had to think about where to invest them so that they could make a profit. During their two years in Aizpute, the Lindenbergs were probably acquainted with the most active fellow citizens of the small town of German society, including a Zunft master bookbinder and printing house owner on the opposite side of Lindenberg, Ludolf Mühlhausen who had already obtained permission to establish his own printing house in 1890.

Although the permit was issued only for the printing house only on 28 December 1890, which means that it could only be put into operation in 1891, but the Mühlhausen cardboard company (at his printing house), which employed 3 young boys and 12 young girls, had started work only since 1893, although 1890 was advertised as the year of founding the Gertrude Lindenberg Cardboard Factory. We believe that it happened this way.

In 1898, when Gertrude Lindenberg became a widow, Mühlhausen had a book printing house, a book and stationery store, and a pharmacy paper and cardboard factory in Aizpute, now № 21 Atmodas Street (the printing house and factory were probably in some backyard building). He sold it to Johannes Dörmann in 1900, who established the former Mühlhausen factory in the same year in the property bought from Aizpute Credit Union on № 15 Kuldīgas Street.

The standard report on the sanitary condition of the cities and towns of the empire, completed in 1901 by the doctor Haller of Aizpute, contains a section on factories. Haller wrote in it that there is only one small cardboard factory and leather tannery in Aizpute. Here, in March 1903, Dörmann sold this small factory to Gertrude Lindenberg for 6,000 Rubles (it is possible that a Purchase and Sale Agreement had been concluded with Dörmann as early as 1902, but in 1903 it was entered in the Land Register), now she owned a printing house, a box factory and a machine repair shop. Her company employed two Class I "prikazčiki" (managers) Friedrich Bennson and Ludolf Mühlhausen.

For the first time in the official publication, the name of Gertrude Lindenberg appears in the 1904 "Вся Курляндская Губерния" (The Whole Province of Courland) published in Jelgava, in the section on factories in Courland Province it is mentioned that there is a box factory with kerosene engine in Aizpute. Owner - Gertrude Lindenberg, employees: 9 men, 20 women, 12 children. In addition, she also has printing lithography. It is believed that this information published in 1904 refers to 1903 and the old factory on Kuldīgas Street.

Thus, it becomes clear that 1890 was taken from Mühlhausen as the year of the founding of her factory in order to promote her factory as a company with long experience, although Lindenberg had nothing to do with that year. On December 31, 1902, she received a production permit for her old factory on Kuldīgas Street.

The book “Фабрично-Заводскiя Предпрiятiя Россiйской Имперiи” (Factories and Enterprises in the Russian Empire), published in St. Petersburg in 1909, mentions that L. Mühlhausen was a Manager of the Ģ.Lindenberg Cardboard Factory founded in 1890. The factory employs 150 workers and produces cardboard products for pharmacies.

The G.Lindeberg-owned cartonboard factory, managed by Ludolf Mühlhausen, is also mentioned in the 1909 Inspection Report of the Aizpute Industry and Trade Enterprises, which states that the factory has 120 employees and the printing house 10 employees.

In 1912, the cardboard factory employed 61 male workers aged 13 to 73.

In 1916, the German Magistrates' Court in Liepaja confirmed Friedrich Benson as the curator of the company of absent Gertrude Lindenberg. The factory consisted of 1 brick factory building and 2 more wooden buildings. The factory has 6 work halls, 2 office rooms, 3 living rooms and a warehouse. According to the information available to the Magistrates' Court, the factory is closed.

On August 25, 1917, with the signature of F. Benson, an invoice of a cardboard factory for 2,400 bread cards was submitted to the Town Council.

In February 1920, the factory Manager was Mühlhausen.

In 1924, Gertrude Lindenberg declared: “I have reopened my bookbinding department like it was at peacetime.”

In 1932, Lindenberg had a cardboard factory, a sawmill, a steam mill, a clothes dyer, a rolling mill and a printing press. According to the information provided by the head of Liepāja - Aizpute District in 1932, the Gertrude Lindenberg factory has the following industries: mill, cardboard, stamp labels, printing house, paper products, engine, locksmith, sawmills, paint shops.

In 1934, the factory had 19 industrial premises and 1 five-room apartment.

In 1937 there was a 3-storey brick building of the cardboard factory with extensions, 1 single-storey brick residential building, 2 single-storey wooden residential buildings, 1 wooden single-storey shed.

Only the phone number is shown in Aizpute on the handsome forms that were in use in the 1930s, printed in the offset printing house G. Lindenbergs in Latvia, the name of the factory is "Pharmacy Cardboard Factory Gertrude Lindenberg in Aizpute-Latvia". The address of the warehouse and office was in apartment 4, 8 Mārstaļa Street, Riga. In 1936, Gertrude Lindenberg sold the Riga branch of the factory at apartment 1, 15 Mārstaļu Street, to her son Wilhelm Karl Konstantin Lindenberg for 8,000 Lats.

In the 1930s, the factory exported its cardboard products to Lithuanian customers in Kaunas, Klaipeda, Kretinga, Kėdainiai, Marijampolė, Mažeikiai, Palanga, Panevėžys and Siauliai.

On December 20, 1938, Lindenberg bought out the land on which her company was located for 120 Lats and became a full owner of all real estate, so that two days later she could sell it to Latvijas Kredītbanka (Latvian Credit Bank) for 42,000 Lats, acquiring only 4,219.08 Lats in cash due to mortgage debts. As a result, Credit Bank became not only the manager of the company, but also the owner. Prior to this Purchase-Sale transaction, the Board of Latvijas Hipoteku banka had issued an opinion that the actual value of the property is 70,000 Lats...

On December 23, 1938, the new employer, the Latvian Kredītbanka Aizpute Cardboard Factory, hired Wilhelm Lindenberg, the youngest son of Gertrude Lindenberg, the former Technical Manager of the factory. The employer paid him a monthly salary of 250 Lats, a factory apartment and electric lighting, as well as twenty cubic meters of firewood per year for heating.

W. Lindenberg received the final calculation on October 17, 1939, and on November 14, 1939, he left for Germany with his wife and two daughters.

Gertrude Wilhelmine Lindenberg, who lived and managed her suburban property “Kalngali”, Aizpute Parish, with her eldest son Jānis (Johannes) Hugo Wilhelm Lindenberg, left with her son and five-year-old grandson Nikolai just a month later.

During the German occupation, the name of the factory was “Ostland-Faser-Gesellschaft m. b. H. Kartonagenfabrik Hasenpoth '. The factory was managed by Reinis Krastiņš, director of Liepāja Paper Recycling Factory. In 1946, the name was even longer - “Pulp and Paper Industry Board under the Latvian SSR TKP Aizpute Cardboard Factory No. 7 ', which has worked since at least 15 May 1945.

Today, the former Gertrude Lindenberg factory building is the property of JSC "Kurzemes atslēga 1" (Key of Kurzeme), which is no longer used for production purposes.

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