History of the Huguenots

Around 300 years ago, the ancestors of the Huguenot Andre family lived in St. Gilles in the Languedoc region, on the western branch of the Rhone, which flows into the Mediterranean not far away.

Within a 50 km radius of St. Gilles are the historically significant cities of Montpellier and Nimes to the west, Arles and Avignon to the north, Aix-en-Provence to the east and Marseille to the south.

In these regions, as in other parts of France, the teachings of the reformer Jean Calvin (1509-1564) spread around the middle of the 16th century. With his thesis of predestination, the predetermination of human life, he differed fundamentally from the Reformation of Martin Luther.

Calvin's followers were able to draw the conclusion from his statements that, despite all predestination, they could also gain certainty of salvation and election in the afterlife from successes in life.

It is not surprising that many members of the aristocratic upper class and large sections of the aspiring bourgeoisie in particular were prepared to accept this new doctrine, while the rural population remained fairly unimpressed.

The followers of Calvin were soon referred to as Huguenots in France. This term can be traced back to the French "corruption" of the word "Eidgenossen" (hugenots). Confederates because this Reformation movement would have started in Geneva, the free imperial city and the cities of Fribourg and Bern.

Religious turmoil in France

The Huguenots were considered heretics by the French royalty and had to be fought against. Although the Catholic French kings of the time suppressed and persecuted the Protestants in their own country, they always placed the advantage of France above their religious convictions in foreign policy when they allied themselves with rebellious Protestant princes or even with the Ottoman sultans in the fight against the Catholic German emperor.

However, the Huguenots were not prepared to capitulate to their persecutors. They joined forces and put up resistance. Initially they fought for freedom for their faith, later for their economic existence and for power in the state.

Some of the terrible events of that time can be found in the old French Bible from 1588, which the Andre family brought back from their French homeland.

There is a handwritten note:

On April 20, 1545, the town of Cabrieres in Provence was sacked and 22 villages in the surrounding area were also burned to the ground. And everyone was sent to their deaths, men, women and children alike.

On May 1, 1562: other religious massacres in Provence.

In September 1562, God gave the faithful a happy victory over the papists in St. Gilles in Languedoc.

The devastating blow against the Huguenot ruling class was to be the infamous St. Bartholomew's Night, the "Paris Blood Wedding", the sad climax of the ongoing and bitter battles on August 24, 1572. During the banquet to celebrate the marriage of the legitimate pretender to the throne, Henry V Navarre (later Henry IV) from the Bourbon dynasty, who was himself a Huguenot, to the Catholic sister of the French kings Francis II, Charles IX and Henry III, Margaret of Valois, a terrible massacre began among the Huguenots in Paris. 3000 people lost their lives. There were also further riots in the province, to which around 20,000 people fell victim and of which the entry in the old Andre family Bible bears witness.

The fighting raged and claimed victims on both sides. The country suffered terribly and inflation reached an all-time high. However, the Borubone Henry IV was a pragmatic ruler who was keen to strike a balance. He adhered to the principle: "The prince should not try to fathom which religion is better and should renounce violence". Henry (le bon) realized that a Protestant king could not rule France from Paris, which was still in rebellion, and drew his own conclusions. In 1593, he converted to the Catholic faith; Paris was "worth a mass" to him.

After his arrival in the capital, the turmoil that had cost countless lives on both sides for forty years gradually came to an end. However, the first Bourbon king generously accommodated his former Huguenot friends. The "Edict of Toleration of Nantes" issued in 1598 granted them religious freedom and equal rights. From then on, the Huguenots formed a kind of state within the state.

However, this was not compatible in the long term with the absolutist claim to power that developed in the following century under Louis XIII and the cardinals Richelieu and Mazarin who ruled for him, and even more so under the "Sun King" Louis XIV. A ruler who equated himself with the state (L'etat, c'est moi) could not and would not accept the special rights of a confessional minority.

As a result, Louis XIV took ruthless action against the Huguenot minority in his own country. Protestants were denied access to all public offices and liberal professions such as doctors, lawyers, notaries and printers. In 1686, he revoked the protective provisions of the Edict of Nantes without replacement. He ordered his Protestant subjects to renounce their Huguenot faith.

The abolition of the old protective provisions caused the Huguenots extreme hardship and had a devastating effect on the economic power of France itself. If they wanted to keep their faith, they had to give up their bourgeois existence, often as specialists in technical, commercial and craft professions, in their ancestral homeland, leave everything behind and leave the country. However, they were forbidden to do so under threat of severe punishment (execution or lifelong exile on galleys). Nevertheless, the number of people who fled France for the sake of their faith is estimated at around half a million out of a total population of around 19 million at the time.

Escape of the Andre family

For the Huguenots in southern France, Provence and Languedoc, the Rhone upriver, with Geneva as their escape route, was the gateway.

The Andre family from St. Gilles also decided to take this route in the fall of 1687. A family member, Gilles Andre (1673-1748), later recorded this event in an entry in the family Bible:

'The thing that forced Gilles Andre to leave France was the persecution practiced by King Louis XIV against the Reformed in 1685. And when God granted him the grace to leave on October 12, 1687, he happily left the kingdom with his whole family, his stepfather and mother and three brothers, one of whom was called Jean Andre. They arrived in Geneva and undertook the journey to Germany...

We can only speculate about the hardships and privations of the refugees during the winter. They probably had no clear idea of their destination at the beginning. Their immediate destination was initially the Protestant cantons of French-speaking Switzerland. Once they had reached Geneva or Lausanne, they were finally safe from the French henchmen.

Despite the helpfulness of their Swiss brethren, Switzerland could of course only be a stopover, as the number of refugees was too high. The Swiss authorities forced the majority of the Huguenots who had arrived to continue their journey to Germany.

Gilles Andre's family also moved on north from Geneva in the winter of 1687/88. If an entry in the family bible is to be interpreted correctly, Pforzheim was a staging post for them. The reason for the deviation from the direct route from Basel to the Rhine-Main region was probably military conflicts during the War of the Palatinate Succession. French troops devastated the country and systematically burned towns and villages. The destruction of Heidelberg Castle and the German imperial tombs in Speyer Cathedral were the sad highlights of French expansion.

Gilles' mother, Francoise Andre-Heraud, died on January 28, 1688.

Alone with his four children, the stepfather continued his journey from Pforzheim to Frankfurt am Main. From here he arrived in the community of Seulberg in the small Landgraviate of Hesse-Homburg. The hardships and privations of the escape sapped the children's strength. On February 18, 1688, Gilles' 14-month-old stepbrother Henri died, followed shortly afterwards by his 12-year-old brother Jean on March 13.

Of the six members of the family who had fled St. Gilles in the fall of 1687, only three were able to find a new home in the Main region.

Over the next few years, they earned their living as silk weavers or stocking weavers. Gilles Andre, who had learned the trade from his stepfather, later also practiced his profession in Offenbach for a time. In 1699, his name appeared in the register of members of the newly founded French Reformed congregation in Offenbach.

In the same year, he married Judith Gerain, who also came from a Huguenot family, in Frankfurt. Eight children were born to the couple, the first six were born in Frankfurt, the two youngest in Offenbach, where the family moved in April 1709.

On May 31, 1709, Gilles Andre was entered in the merchant register in Offenbach "in order to share in the privileges (of the local Huguenot community)".

Gilles Andre (*1673 +1748)
Marc Andre (*1705 +1751)

The religious refugees from France were not received enthusiastically everywhere. Count Johann Philipp von Isenburg, whose family had already adopted the Reformed faith in 1597 and who resided in Offenbach Castle, was one of the rulers willing to accept them.

The Isenburg region was admittedly small and could only take in a limited number of "Refugies" (refugees). In order to settle the Huguenots in the long term, Count Johann Philipp granted his new citizens far-reaching privileges, which were also to apply to later immigrants and their descendants. In addition to a genuine desire to help, the Count may also have considered that their craftsmanship and commercial skills would give a boost to Offenbach, a small residential town with only around 800 inhabitants.

Further French refugees arrived in Offenbach in the course of 1703. They were mainly well-funded tradesmen and craftsmen, mostly wool weavers, hosiery weavers, hatters and gold workers, who soon developed a lively activity. For Gilles Andre, a resident of Frankfurt, the privileges granted by the neighboring residence were attractive enough to move his residence from the Free Imperial City to Offenbach in 1709. Gilles Andre's diligence and skill as a self-employed silk weaver soon brought him a certain prosperity. After some time, he built a spacious house at 54 Herrnstrasse to the north, which he and his descendants lived in until 1784. At the age of 75, Gilles Andre, who had once fled because of his faith, died in Offenbach on August 21, 1748. His wife Judith survived him by 14 years and died on April 17, 1762.

Of Gilles Andre's eight children, only Marc, born in 1705, survived his father. In January 1737, he married Marie Julienne Pfaltz from Mannheim in Offenbach. All later members of the Andre family came from this marriage. As a silk manufacturer, Marc Andre apparently became a very wealthy man who was able to finance a large residential and school building for his French Reformed congregation next to the church at Herrnstraße 25. In 1751, just 3 years after his father, Marc Andre died at the age of 46.

Johann Andre (*1741 +1799)

Marc Andre's eldest son Johann Andre was of particular importance to Offenbach and the world of music. Only 10 years old at the time of his father's death, he showed an extraordinary musical talent at an early age. At the age of 16, he joined his family's business to "learn the trade".

He continued his musical education at the same time. However, his mother soon sent him to Mannheim so that he could complete his commercial training there. At the time, Mannheim was the most important musical metropolis of the era and of Europe.

As a composer and conductor, Johann Stamitz (1717-1757) created completely new foundations for an orchestral tradition; the changed compositional structure of the instrumentation, the different use of strings and winds in contrast to the Baroque composers, who had practically given both groups the same music to play, became style-defining for the rest of European music. Here the young Andre had the opportunity to attend numerous operas and concert performances and to expand his musical knowledge.

He returned to Offenbach at the age of 20. Alongside his work in the silk factory, he soon tried his hand at his own compositions. He wrote short songs and a piano sonata.

The Offenbach silk weaver achieved his first musical success with his comic opera "The Potter", which was performed for the first time in Hanau on January 22, 1773. His entire musical oeuvre eventually comprised thirty operas and singspiels, as well as overtures and numerous arias and songs, which were quite popular at the time but are largely forgotten today.

The differences at the time were probably resolved when Goethe often came to Offenbach in 1775 in order to be closer to the 17-year-old Frankfurt banker's daughter "Lili" Schönemann. From the spring, she lived with her relatives, the family of snuff manufacturer Nicolaus Bernard, in Offenbach's Herrnstraße. Goethe took advantage of the hospitality of Johann Andre, who lived in the house opposite, and stayed with him.

Goethe also wrote about Offenbach at the time, his time there with Lili and about his host Johann Andre in "Dichtung und Wahrheit":

... Even then, Offenbach am Main showed the important beginnings of a city that promised to develop in the future. Beautiful buildings, splendid for the time, had already appeared; Uncle Bernard, as I shall call him by his family title, lived in the largest; extensive factory buildings adjoined; d'Orville, a younger, lively man with amiable characteristics, lived opposite.

I stayed with Johann Andre,...was billeted with him. Lili's piano playing completely captivated our good Andre to our company. All this, however,...served the lovers only to prolong their togetherness; they knew no end to it, and good Johann Andre was easily set in uninterrupted motion by the alternating seduction of the two, in order to prolong his music repeatedly until after midnight. The two lovers thus assured each other of a valuable, indispensable presence.

As is well known, the love story between Goethe and Lili came to an abrupt end: without saying goodbye, Goethe unexpectedly left for Switzerland. After his return in the fall, the engagement was broken.

Johann Anton Andre (*1775 +1842)

Johann Anton was born on October 6, 1775 as the 5th child of Mr. and Mrs. Andre in the old house in Herrnstraße. He spent most of his childhood and youth outside Offenbach. His father encouraged his musical talent, which soon became apparent. In the following years, during the French Revolution, Johann Anton commuted between Mannheim and Offenbach and devoted himself intensively to his musical education.

In 1793, the unrest caused him to spend most of his time in Offenbach and he took on work and responsibility in his father's publishing company. For professional reasons, and also to visit a wide variety of composers, he traveled extensively as far as Austria.

Johann Anton took over his father's business in 1798/99. Equipped with a thorough musical education, he followed in his father's footsteps. He composed over 100 works and wrote a textbook on the art of composition.

In 1799, Anton Andre bought the composer's musical estate from Mozart's widow for 3,150 guilders.

"...Mr. Andre, who through his stay here was able to assess the value and wealth of this estate, has since bought it from me and has thus become the most legitimate owner, not of a remnant, but of an almost complete collection of perfectly correct and completely authentic works in the original manuscript from Mozart's earliest youth until his death.

Mr. Andre has requested this declaration from me, he has a right to it, it is in accordance with the strictest truth; I hereby give it to him.

Vienna, March 13, 1800 Constanze Mozart"

Mozart's "Musikalischer Spaß für zwei Violinen, Viola, zwei Hörner und Baß" was one of the first Offenbach prints in the new lithographic process.

In 1803, the Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt, Ludewig X, awarded him the title of Court Kapellmeister. In 1813, Prince Carl Ludwig Moritz von Isenburg-Birstein appointed him "Fürstlich Isenburgischer Wirklicher Hofrat".

Two encounters were to be of decisive importance for Johann Anton Andre's life and the development of his publishing company:

- he acquired the entire musical estate of W. A. Mozart, who died in 1791, from his widow Constanze

- He began working with the inventor of lithography, Alois Senefelder

Andre was able to persuade Senefelder and his employee Gleißner to move to Offenbach. There were ten copper and tin printing presses in the printing shop. Half of them were replaced by lithographic bar presses and the workers were trained accordingly. Turnover soared. Soon there were ambitious plans to expand the company to other countries. Branches managed by the brothers Philipp Henri and Peter Friedrich were founded in London and Paris, and others were planned for Berlin and Vienna. However, these ventures were not successful in the long term. Although patents were granted, they offered little protection against imitators and competitors.

At Andre'schen Notendruckerei in Offenbach, lithography replaced printing with copper and tin plates. Johann Anton Andre endeavored, as he put it, to give his editions "all possible typographical beauty". Although Andre's music publishing house was primarily concerned with reproduction and music printing, this invention quickly extended to the fine arts and artistic lithography.

The turn of the 18th and 19th centuries marked the end of Offenbach's "classical era". One reason for this was the Napoleonic Wars, which had a negative impact on trade and commerce as "sponsors" of cultural enterprises, while Offenbach also changed its character. For many entrepreneurs, Offenbach was the more attractive location compared to the industrially hostile commercial city of Frankfurt. The former princely residence developed into an industrial city.

In addition to his actual publishing work, his musical studies and compositions, Johann Anton Andre was increasingly preoccupied with the Mozart manuscripts in his possession. By studying them intensively, he apparently failed to capitalize on this treasure. Another publishing company, which had obtained copies, beat him to it by publishing Mozart's compositions. Property rights in the sense of today's "copyright" or "TM" (for TradeMark) were difficult to assert at the time.

Anton Andre was in Munich in 1811. He visited Alois Senefelder and learned of the latter's intention to publish a work in which all manners of lithography would be shown in a series of sample sheets with descriptive text. Andre wanted to have the book published by his Offenbach publishing house. In the same year, Senefelder traveled to Offenbach to start work, but failed due to the high costs. Senefelder's "Vollständiges Lehrbuch der Steindruckerey" was not published until 1818 in Munich and Vienna. It is questionable whether Andre was still financially involved in its publication.

Since 1813, Senefelder had been working on the production of artificial slabs to replace the heavy Solnhofen limestone slates. Together with Andre, he wanted to set up a "stone paper and stone sheet factory" in 1828. In a written agreement dated October 19, the following was agreed: "Mr. Senefelder will be responsible for managing the production and Mr. Hofrath Andre will be responsible for selling the product..." The project was not realized.

As a result of his efforts, the "Thematic Index" of Mozart's original manuscripts finally appeared in 1841, a kind of precursor to the famous Köchel Index.

Johann Anton Andre died on April 6, 1842. 8 of his 15 children survived him. He had achieved great things for his family, his company, for music and for his home town during his lifetime. In the "Hessian Biographies" published later, he was honored as follows:

"Despite this extensive activity as a publisher, writer, composer and teacher, however, Anton Andre still found time to work for the public good."

Carl August Johann Andre (*1853 +1914)

Gustav Adolf Andre (*1855 +1910)

In 1880, the transfer of the "Musikalienverlag und Klavierhandlung" to the next generation was arranged. The two sons Carl August Johann and Gustav Adolf became the successors.

In the following decades, both brothers prudently and energetically continued to run the long-established company, with Carl August initially focusing more on commercial matters and Gustav Adolf on the publishing business. In keeping with family tradition, both were highly gifted musically and earned merit in promoting the Offenbach concert scene.

In 1894, the business operations of the two Andre brothers expanded considerably as a result of family circumstances. In 1828, the uncle of the two brothers had acquired citizenship of the "Free Imperial City of Frankfurt" until 1866 and was granted a license to operate an "art and music shop", which was later joined by an efficient piano factory. There were close personal and economic ties between the Andre companies in Offenbach and Frankfurt.

After the death of his unmarried uncle, the Andre company in Frankfurt passed to the brothers Carl August Johann and Gustav Adolf. Both brothers were joint owners of both companies. From then on, Gustav Adolf preferred to work in the Offenbach business, while Carl August commuted to Frankfurt every day.

Shortly before the First World War, Gustav Adolf died in 1910 at the age of 55, followed by his brother Carl August in June 1914 at the age of 61. Three years earlier, Carl August had published his "Confessions" in French and, against the spirit of the times and out of conviction of his Huguenot origins and tradition, had campaigned for Franco-German understanding.

In 1910, the management of the company passed to Gustav Adolf Andres' widow, Aurelie, who ran the publishing house together with Carl August Andres' widow, Elisabeth, from 1914.

Hans Andre (*1879 +1951)

and his successors

After the death of the Andre siblings, the two businesses in Offenbach and Frankfurt were continued by the surviving widows in the difficult circumstances of the war and post-war period. It was an advantage that other reliable relatives, the great-grandsons of Johann André, Ludwig and Ferdinand Andre, were active in the company.

Initially, none of the heirs wanted to take over the management of the company until Gustav Adolf's son Hans Andre, who had experienced the First World War as a professional officer, trained as a publishing clerk and joined the publishing house. During these years, he managed the long-established music publishing house and music shop prudently and successfully.

The old Andre houses in Domstrasse were damaged by bombing raids between 1943 and 1945, and the printing workshop was completely destroyed. The house acquired by Hans Andre in Frankfurter Straße, Offenbach's main shopping street, survived the Second World War relatively unscathed.

Hans Andre died on January 6, 1951 at the age of 61. As his son Hans-Günter (1924-1946), originally intended as his successor, had died as a prisoner of war in Russia, it was once again the turn of the women: The widow Friederike Andre and her sister-in-law Elfriede Andre, both of whom had worked in the company for many years, successfully continued to run the business. They were joined by Ute-Margrit Andre, representing the next generation, who then managed the company together with her husband August Thomas-Andre after the death of her mother and aunt. Son Hans-Jörg now represents the seventh generation in the publishing and music business founded by Johann Andre in 1774.

In the more than 230 years of its existence, the Andre company has experienced ups and downs, but thanks to its respective owners, managing directors and employees, it has overcome the difficulties and always flourished again. No other family-owned company in the city of Offenbach can look back on such an age, tradition and continuity.

Offenbach has, of course, changed enormously in the 230 years since the company was founded and even more so in the 300 years since the first Huguenot refugees settled here. Today, as then, the city has benefited in many ways from the influx of foreigners, who, despite all their special characteristics, have integrated themselves into the life of the city.