Faber-Castell family


The Faber-Castell family, originating from Stein near Nuremberg, Germany, is an entrepreneurial noble family which founded the Faber-Castell AG in 1761. A.W. Faber, the original name of the company, is the oldest company brand in the USA.

History

Founded in 1761 by Kasper Faber, AW Faber Bleystiftwerke made pencils. One of his successors was Johann Lothar, Freherr von Faber; his granddaughter Baroness Ottilie married Alexander Graf von Castell-Rüdenhausen in 1898. From them originates the new company name Faber-Castell. In 1905, Alexander von Faber-Castell introduced the pencil mark "Castell" for particularly high quality pencils. Swiss billionaire Paul Sacher, majority shareholder of the pharmaceuticals company Hoffmann-La Roche, was father to Katharina and Cornelia von Faber-Castell.
Roland von Faber-Castell was the last sole heir of the Faber-Castell fortune. The Count successfully merged the companies Faber-Castell and Johann Faber. Roland was CEO of Faber-Castell for 50 years. Count Roland's first wife, Alix-May von :de:Frankenberg-Ludwigsdorf|Frankenberg-Ludwigsdorf was born into the Cologne-based banking dynasty Oppenheim. The marriage was disrupted through antisemetic attacks, because her grandfather, prominent banker Eduard von Oppenheim was a born Jew.
Eduard married Amalie Heuser, from a Protestant family and converted to Lutheranism.
Yet, Roland and Alix-May were victims of constant attacks. In 1935 Graf Roland and Alix-May divorced after the magazine Der Stürmer criticized her luxurious lifestyle and the words 'Die Oppenheim, das Judenschwein, muss raus aus Stein' were written on the family's castle,.
Furthermore,, son from Roland's second marriage with Katharina Sprecher von Bernegg, was CEO and the owning family's representative for nearly 40 years in the eighth generation. In that context, Graf Anton-Wolfgang bought out many of his siblings and their children in order to gain decisive power.
He worked for a long time with his younger brother, Andreas Graf von Faber-Castell, for the family business. Andreas acted from Australia and dealt largely with the Asian market. A son from the first the marriage of Roland von Faber-Castell and his wife Alix-May, was Hubertus von Faber-Castell. Hubertus was a pioneer in Chinese commercial television and has been awarded, as the only European in history, the honorary citizenship of China's capital city Beijing. The mother of Hubertus was, among other things, co-owner of Europe's biggest private bank, Sal. Oppenheim Jr & Cie. His son, Patrick Graf von Faber-Castell, married the German actress Mariella Ahrens under a large media presence at Faber-Castell castle, in 2007.
Patrick von Faber-Castell and his siblings, Floria-Franziska of Hesse and Caroline Gotzens, own one of the most important collections of silver and jewellery in Germany. Most of the pieces are available to the public in various German museums. The majority of the private collection has been recorded by the Kunstmuseum Köln and published under the name "A Rhenish Silver Treasure - Jewelry and Equipment from Private Ownership".

Family members