Agneta Wilhelmina Johanna van Marken-Matthes (4 October 1847 – 5 October 1909) was a Dutch entrepreneur. She and her husband were involved in the manufacture of yeast throughout their lives, and were engaged in the co-operative movement, taking care of their workers. Matthes and Van Marken created living quarters for workers in her hometown, Delft in South Holland, named Agnetapark after her. These are considered a model for the co-operative development and construction of garden cities (self-contained communities) for workers. Matthes founded and ran a Delft perfume factory, Maison Neuve, to take advantage of a by-product from the yeast factory.
Life
Family and childhood Agneta Wilhelmina Johanna Matthes was born on 4 October 1847 in Amsterdam in the Netherlands. "Matthes, Agneta Wilhelmina Johanna (1847-1909)", Digitaal Vrouwenlexicon van Nederland, Huygens ING, 2013. Retrieved on 11 January 2014. Agneta Matthes was the daughter of Jan Willem Frederik Matthes, an insurance agent. She and her sister, Sara Elizabeth Marken-Matthes (1849–1902), grew up in upper middle-class circumstances. Matthes was taught privately, and spent 1862 to 1864 in Utrecht in a boarding school. When she returned to Amsterdam, she studied piano and dance, and took art classes and religious instruction. Matthes' sister Sara Elizabeth, who was affectionately known as Nora, married Zionist politician Arnold Kerdijk (1846–1907), the founder of the Free-thinking Democratic League, in 1876. He was a Member of the House of Representatives of the Netherlands between 1877 and 1901. Sara Elizabeth and Arnold lived at the Spoorsingel in Delft and had four children. Agneta maintained a close relationship with them, Nora named her first-born daughter after her sister "Agneta".
Marriage
In 1865, Agneta met Jacob Cornelis van Marken, known as Jacques, who studied technology and sociology at the Polytechnical School of Delft, a precursor of the Delft University of Technology. During his studies he took a study tour to Austria-Hungary and found a new method of producing yeast, which fascinated him. Later, when he heard a baker in Delft complain about the varying quality and poor availability of yeast in the Netherlands, he recalled the method which he learnt during his tour, and decided to produce industrial baker's yeast of consistently high quality.
On 7 October 1869 the couple married just before the first yeast factory in the Netherlands, the Nederlandsche Gist & Spiritusfabriek NV, opened. The factory is now part of the multinational chemical company Koninklijke DSM. is regarded as one of the Dutch pioneers in the development of industrial food production because of his concept of factory production.
Their marriage was registered in the Delft population register on 10 November 1869. Their first home was a modest apartment on a canal, but they moved frequently after that. As of 2012, all of their homes are still standing and all are classified as historic buildings. Their last home, to which they moved on 3 June 1885, was a villa in Agnetapark, Delft. When Matthes learnt that their marriage would be childless, she decided to dedicate her life to her husband's business and career, and participated in the establishment and management operation. She accompanied her husband to the factory every day, having her own office. She also continued to have private lessons. In addition to administrative activities, their main interests were personnel policy issues. Matthes and van Marken maintained close contact with the employees of the factory and their families, which appealed to the couple's sense of community; they wanted to be part "of a larger whole". Agneta Matthes shared her husband's belief in progress, and they both promoted the personal development of their employees.
Husband's infidelity and children
In 1886, when Jacques van Marken was in France at a spa, Agneta Matthes found a letter from Maria Eringaard requesting the child support that he owed for their children, which led to Matthes discovering that her husband had begun a relationship with Eringaard in 1871 when she was aged 15, and that he had four children by her. Matthes solved the financial problems discreetly. She did not tell van Markem that she knew about the affair until 1889, when Eringaard died of tuberculosis, as had two of her children.
Van Marken and Matthes took care of the three surviving children, Cornelis, Clara, both adolescents, and Anna, a young child. Officially they were foster children, but it was an open secret (officially secret but widely known) in Dutch society that van Marken was their father. With the consent of Matthes, van Marken planned to adopt them, but his religious father vetoed the adoption. Jacob Cornelis Eringaard, the eldest illegitimate son of van Marken, later headed the Gist & Spiritusfabriek and pursued the social interests of his father and his wife. The daughter of Jacob Cornelis, Erry Anna Eringaard, was married in 1932 to the diplomat and publisher Daniel Johannes von Balluseck (1895–1976).
Activities and services
Legal situation and sources of information Because legally, married women were required to have the approval of their husbands to do business, Agneta Matthes acted "for and on behalf" of her husband. Also because of this, extensive records of the business ventures and career of Jacques van Marken exist, while only a few sources mention the activities of Matthes. It is unclear, therefore, to what extent Agneta was responsible for ideas. She undoubtedly had operational control of the perfume factory, Maison Neuve. She undertook an empirical analysis of the housing needs of 48 working families, equipped Agnetapark significantly, and was influential at least during the early years in the management of her husband's other companies, especially in matters of personnel.
Start-ups
Matthes and van Marken, who was called a welfare engineer by his contemporaries, developed a premium wage system for his factory workers of the Nederlandsche Gist & Spiritusfabriek NV (1869), under which all employees could receive bonuses of two to 20 percent of their salary in addition to their basic salary "for good work and because of zeal". The company paid up to ten percent of its profits as a dividend to its employees. In 1880, the engineer, Gerhard Knuttel, a grandnephew of van Marken, established a "Concerns van het Personeel" (human resources management), the first such institution in the Netherlands. "Gerhardus Knuttel (1851–1932)". Instituut voor Nederlandse Geschiedenis. Retrieved on 29 June 2012. Due to van Marken's health problems, François Gerard Waller, his nephew, was entrusted with the management of the factory in 1886.
In 1873, Agneta Matthes founded her own business, the Delft perfume factory, Maison Neuve, where her husband acted pro forma as owner because of the legal issues. The factory used the ethanol by-product of the yeast production of Gist & Spiritusfabriek.
Agneta concentrated on the perfume factory in the following years, and collaborated with the Delft porcelain manufacturer De Koninklijke Porceleyne Fles, which created perfume bottles for her products. She participated in international exhibitions, where her perfume brand, PMN (Parfumerie Maison Neuve), won several prizes and gained recognition for her company. She won the bronze medal of the 1878 on the Paris World's Fair. In Australia, her perfumes won first prize at the international perfume fair. She sold the company in 1886 with profit. In 2022, the trademark rights were reclaimed by Agneta’s family, who, under the leadership of Wibo Schepel and Birgitte Catijn Delisle, reintroduced the perfume brand as a niche fragrance in a limited edition. Notably, a year later, Van Marken’s original company, Royal DSM, merged with the Swiss family-owned Firmenich, a leading specialist in perfumes and beauty products, forming dsm-firmenich.
True to Agneta’s pioneering spirit, Maison Neuve will be presented at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, within the Dutch pavilion. Just as in 1880, during the first World Expo in the Asia-Pacific region, the brand will showcase its iconic, hand-painted Delft Blue bottles. For this special occasion, dsm-firmenich Master Perfumer Wessel-Jan Kos created the fragrance New Dawn—a stunning signature scent that highlights the innovation and creativity of Dutch entrepreneurship.
In 1883, the couple became interested in margarine, a young industry in the Netherlands at the time. With private capital and a legacy from Matthes' mother, they founded the Nederlandsche Oliefabriek NV, and built a factory next to the yeast factory. In 1885, they took over Delftse Lijm & Gelatinefabriek NV. Jacques van Marken officially acted as sole manager. To operate a purchasing co-operative in Agnetapark, they founded the Co-operative Winkelvereeniging in 1873. In 1892 they also founded a printing company, which now is owned by the Koninklijke Drukkerij GJ Thieme. In all these companies, Matthes was instrumental in decision making, planning and organisation. The couple pursued the same personnel policy as in the Gist & Spiritusfabriek. In 1878, they established the first works council of the Netherlands, called, "de Kern" (the kernel). At the height of their success in 1885, when they employed approximately 1,250 employees, their companies were collectively known as, the Delftsche Nijverheid (Delft Industry). Hofland. Van Marken en de Delftsche Nijverheid. p. 4.
Factory journal On 24 June 1882, the first issue of an internal newspaper of the factory, called, Fabrieksbode ("messenger of the factory"), was published. It was the first magazine of that kind in the world. "KB ontvangt complete editie oudste bedrijfsblad ter wereld". Koninklijke Bibliotheek – Nationale bibliotheek van Nederland. 2001. Retrieved on 29 June 2012. Agneta helped her husband with other publications, such as his 1881 book, La question ouvrière à la fabrique néerlandaise de levure et d'alcool. Essai de solution pratique (The Labour Problem in the Dutch Yeast and Alcohol Factory. Attempt at a Practical Solution), and another in 1894, L'Organisation Sociale dans l'industrie (The Social System in the Industry), which was printed in two editions and translated into English and German. The full extent of Matthes' participation is not known, but she was certainly in charge of the translations.
Social welfare
Agnetapark
In 1881 the couple began work on a housing quarter for their workers that followed the principles of the garden city movement. With financial support from Matthes' mother, they purchased a plot of land for 16,000 guilders. Wijkkrant Hof van Delft. Delft.nl. May 2007. Retrieved on 12 August 2012. in Hof van Delft, then a rural, sparsely populated village well outside the Delft city limits. From 1882 to 1884, the area was developed in the style of an English landscape garden, crisscrossed by streams, after the plans of landscape architect, Louis Paul Zocher, son of Jan David Zocher. Eugene Cowl, an architect, designed 48 row houses, other buildings, and a villa for Matthes and van Marken. The facility was named Agnetapark, after its founder. The residential park featured individual multi-story apartments with private entrances, private bathrooms, and private garden areas. Matthes and van Marken established a corporation for the development of the settlement, and gave the park to its workers in 1870 as a co-operative, in order to prevent speculation.