The Blase Family
The Blase Family
This family burial plot is a crypt. Here lies cigar manufacturer August Wilhelm Blase and his family. 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 listed grave site.
His father, August Blase, founded a cigar factory in 1863 with five employees at the Danzelstätte in Lübbecke. Soon after, the company 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 work 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. Even today, cigarillos are still produced in the industrial area of Lübbecke.
The name “Blasekreuzung” on the B 239 commemorates this significant company, which at times employed over 6,000 workers.
On the back of 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.</poi>