Informative for local history researchers and genealogists - © 2021
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The Property of Chamber of Commerce of the Memelgebiet in 1929 I.
Das Börsengebäude The commercial center building About 1770 the rapidly development of the shipping traffic and the timber trade on the one hand increased the need for a sufficiently spacious commercial center building, on the other hand gave the possibility of obtaining the remedies for it. By a common decision the merchant guild introduced a voluntary export tax on wood, wheat, rye, barley, oats, pulses, flax, hemp and flax seed. The first levy was taken in 1776, and that resulted with an amount, so that the construction of the commercial center building already could start at the end of the same year. In 1777 the building was finished. The floor plan was an equilateral octagon of 40 feet in diameter. The height was 16 feet. The walls were half-timbered and paneled with planks, outside and inside. At every of its four sides the roof had a frontispiece. Altogether, the making cost about 5 000 guilders. |
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Many years after the erection the negotiations persisted, which had to check the possession of land, because both, the town as well as the government demanded the rights of ownership. The government at first queried the export tax's use for that purpose, and denied the merchant guild the competence to this. While the nineties communication with the authorities slowly began to work and the proprietorship of the merchant guild was conceded. Because of the numerous new public buildings in the town, which were built after the great fire in 1854, it was urgent to build a new commercial center building for to substitute the old one, which in the meantime was in decrepit condition. The trade in Memel flourished, within these years the number of the members of the merchant corporation had reached its maximum. On May 17th, 1856 the foundation stone was set, in 1857 the building by and large was finished. It was the present commercial center building's eastern half . Almost the complete front at commercial center street was occupied by the commercial center hall. |
| Source: | Die Selbstverwaltung der Kaufmannschaft in Memel - Der Grundbesitz der Industie- und Handelskammer 1929. SONDERSCHRIFTEN DES VEREINS FÜR FAMILIENFORSCHUNG IN OST- UND WESTPREUSSEN e.V. Nr. 16, Nachdruck Hamburg 1970 |
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