The Blase Family

This family plot is a crypt. The cigar manufacturer August Wilhelm Blase and his family are buried here. The only full-scale sculpture in the cemetery is titled “The Mourner.” The woman gazes into the distance with her hand resting on her heart. Since 1916, the association “Freundeskreis der Förderer der Friedhofskultur in Lübbecke e.V.” has been responsible for maintaining the historically protected burial site.

His father, August Blase, founded a cigar factory in 1863 with five employees at the Danzelstätte in Lübbecke. The company soon moved into a new building on Ostertorstraße. A branch office was opened in Gehlenbeck that same year. Blase realized early on that the company could only grow through home-based production and branch offices in the villages. The founder died in 1910. His sons Wilhelm and August continued to run the company, which became a corporation in 1930. In 1931, the younger son, August, died, followed by Wilhelm Blase in 1933. August Wilhelm Blase, the grandson of the company’s founder, took over management of the company. After his death in 1963, the heirs sold their shares to Melitta manufacturer Horst Bentz. Cigarillos are still produced today in the industrial park in Lübbecke.

The name “Blasekreuzung” on the B 239 commemorates the major company that at one time employed over 6,000 workers.

Behind the grave site lies the grave of Heinrich Scholle. He was a warehouse manager at the Blase cigar factory and a founding member of the Lübbecke SPD in 1906.