José Erasmo Janer Gironella (1833-1911) was a Spanish entrepreneur and politician. As a businessman he is considered to have been a member of the textile-industry-related Catalan bourgeoisie, which enjoyed the peak of its power in the mid-19th century; Janer represented this group during its declining phase. Politically he earned his name as a Carlist and headed the Catalan branch of the party between 1902 and 1910.
Family and youth
Some scholars consider the Janer family past an illustration of social history in Catalonia, its rise and decline demonstrating patterns of change within the local ruling strata.the author who studied family patterns among the Catalan wealthy notes that a group of families – including the Gónimas and the Janers – took advantage of social mobility opportunities of the late 18th century and emerged as new bourgeoisie related to the textile industry; "in the 19th century this extremely tight kindred moved their wealth into land and other status markers. They held political power through the Junta de Comerc and the municipal administration. Yet in the next generations their situation and circumstances changed radically"; according to the author, the endogamous marriage pattern first contributed to the rise, and then to the fall of the Gónima-Janer and other merchant families, Gary Wray McDonogh, Good Families of Barcelona: A Social History of Power in the Industrial Era, Princeton 2014, , see esp. pages 148, 159 and 161 Erasmo's paternal grandfather Domingo Janer Sunyer (1762-1807) was son to a provincial doctorDomingo Janer Sunyer's father – his name not referred – originated from Igualada, Anna Vallugera Fuster, El mercat artístic a Barcelona (1770-1808). Producció, consum i comerç d'art [PhD thesis Universidad de Barcelona], Barcelona 2015, p. 875, also Reis Fontanals, Erasme de Gònima, l'Oberkampf català, [in:] Barcelona Quaderns d'História 17 (2011), p. 222 and commenced his career as a petty merchant from Esparreguera;Rosa Creixell, Teresa-María Sala, Retrat de família: els secrets dels Gónima, [in:] Barcelona Quaferns d'Historia 12 (2005), p. 182 rising to prosperity, he was ennobled in 1795.see the graph in Wray McDonogh 2014, p. 160 He married heiressnamed Josefa Gónima Coll (1767-1802), Wray McDonogh 2014, p. 160 to an emergent Gónima textile fortune;the Gónima industrial empire was founded by her father Erasme de Gónima (1746-1827), who "exemplified the rapid social mobility possible for late 18-th century industrialists in Barcelona. Born a weaver in provincial Catalonia, by his death he was a noble", Wray McDonogh 2014, p. 158. He is considered one of the greatest textile industrialists of his time and compared to a French-Swiss tycoon, Christophe-Philippe Oberkampf, see Fontanals 2011 both died prematurely. Their only son and the future father of Erasmo, Erasmo Janer Gónima (1791-1862), inherited the hugely successful business in 1821; at that time it was crowned with the largest European textile factory which employed some 1,200 workers.Fontanals 2011, p. 235 Himself representative of a new strata of commerce and industry tycoons which started to surpass landed aristocracy and old urban bourgeoisie,"his descendants, however, did not enter the economic and social world of either the old landed aristocracy or the new bourgeoisie. The result was an endogamous group "between" the other two categories. Elite social marginality reflected economic change within a new milieu". Wray McDonogh 2014, p. 158 in the mid-19th century Janer Gónima brought the family to business and political climax. Member of executive boards of countless economic organizations,Janer Gónima was e.g. in the first Junta of Societat Econòmica d'Amics del País (1822), the first Junta of l'Institut Agrícola Català de Sant Isidre (1851), in the executive board of Comisió de Fábriques, in Junta de Comerç and numerous other bodies. He was also director of Teatre Principal in Barcelona, Fontanals 2011, pp. 233 and passim, Erasme de Janer i de Gónima entry, [in:] Gran Enciclopédia Catalana online, available here he held key positions in municipal administration, served as alcalde of Barcelona in 1846 and as a provincial deputy in the 1850s.Janer Gónima served in Junta Superior Gubernativa de Barcelona in 1835, as mayor of the city during a few months in 1846, as a Moderate Party deputy to Corts de Barcelona in two strings of 1852-1854 and 1856-1858, Ramon Arnabat Mata, Revolució i contrarevolució a Catalunya durant el trienni liberal (1820-1823) [PhD thesis Universitat Pompeu Fabra], Barcelona 1999, p. 202 In the mid-19th century he shut down the textile factoryJaner Gónima he sold the textile manufacturing business to Salvador Juncadella in 1856, Jaume Artigues i Vidal, Les fàbriques d'indianes com a model d'espai fabril, [in:] Barcelona Quaderns d'Historia 17 (2011), p. 273 and re-focused the family business on finance,Janer Gónima was among co-founders of a few insurance and re-insurance companies, especially Caja de Ahorros y Monte de Piedad de Barcelona railwayse.g. he engaged in construction of the first railway lines from Barcelona, first to Mataró and then to Tarragona, Creixel, Sala 2005, p. 189 and commerce.Fons Gónima-Janer. Ariu Biblioteca de Catalunya [information leaflet], Barcelona 2011, p. 2
In 1813 Janer Gónima married Josefa Gironella Ayguals, daughter to another Barcelona textile industry tycoon.Josefa Gironella Ayguals was daughter to fabricant d'indianes Josep Gironella and granddaughter to Cristóbal de Gironella Pujols, the founder of the dynasty. He was member of the register of commerce, director of Junta de Comerc and a "ciutadá honrat" of Barcelona after 1780; the family was ennobled in 1780, Wray McDonogh 2014, pp. 159-160. For a review of the Gironella family rise to power see La finca de Gironella, [in:] Historia Sarria service, available here The couple had 5see the genealogical tree in Wray McDonogh 2014, p. 160 or 7see the genealogical tree in Janer Gironella entry, [in:] Geneanet service, available here children; out of two sons, it was José Erasmo who became heir to the family wealth.José Erasme Janer Gironella is referred as "heir in the fourth generation" to the Gónima/Janer fortune, Wray McDonogh 2014, p. 159. It is not clear what happened to his brother Erasme. In one genealogical chart Erasme appears to be the oldest of the siblings, Wray McDonogh 2014, p. 160, yet it is not clear whether he died in early infancy, entered a religious order or for any other reason did not inherit the family fortune At unspecified time though probably in the 1840s he frequented the Piarist college of St. Anthony in Barcelona,Josep Erasme de Janer i Gironella entry, [in:] Escola Pia Sant Antoni service, available here to complete education while studying law at Universidad de Barcelona and graduating most likely in the mid-1850s.La Defensa 19.03.11, available here Gradually getting engaged in running the family business, in 1864 José Erasmo married Dolores Milá de la Roca Vilaseca;Dolores Milá de la Roca died in 1910, her birth date is not known, El Correo Español 30.07.10, available here her family, also ennobled merchants, became landowners rather than engaged in potentially profitable but risky urban ventures.Wray McDonogh 2014, p. 159 Basking in inherited opulence the couple settled in the Janer family residence in Barcelona, in the iconic building known as Ca l'Erasme.Josep Erasme de Janer i Gironella entry, [in:] Escola Pia Sant Antoni service, available here; the iconic Ca l'Erasme is considered one of two best examples of Catalan bourgeoisie architecture, Sílvia Canalda i Llobet, Carme Narváez Cases, Joan Sureda, Cartografías visuales y arquitectónicas de la modernidad: Siglos XV-XVIII, Barcelona 2011, , p. 123. Ca l'Erasme was refurbished and decorated with new works of art to celebrate the 1864 marriage of José Erasme; he sold the mansion half a century later
José Erasmo and Dolores had 7 children, though only two of them married: the second oldest sonthe oldest son Erasme Janer Milá de la Roca (1866-1886) entered the Jesuit order and died prematurely and the family heir Ignacio Janer Milá de la Roca became a locally known historian and writer,the second-oldest son Ignacio Janer Milá de la Roca (1869-1919) in 1894 married Soledad de Durán de Brichfeus, descendant of two lines of the minor nobility. Her father, although the mayor of Barcelona, had sold off much of the family property. Wray McDonogh 2014, p. 159 while Mercedes wed a Carlist politician Dalmacio Iglesias. Another daughter María de los Angeles became a Carlist propagandist.Mercedes Janer Milá de la Roca (1864-1945) was the oldest of the siblings. For a homage information see Janer y Milá de la Roca (María de los Angeles de), [in:] Tradición Viva service, available here. In 1936 she was nominated head of the Carlist feminine organization in Catalonia, Robert Vallverdú i Martí, El Carlisme Català Durant La Segona República Espanyola 1931-1936, Barcelona 2008, , p. 261 José Erasmo and Dolores had 5 grandchildren;four – Erasme, Enrique, María de las Mercedes and María de los Dolores Janer Durán - were the children of Ignacio Janer Milá de la Roca and Soledad Durán; one – María de las Mercedes Iglesias Janer - was the daughter of Mercedes Janer Milá de la Roca and Dalmacio Iglesias, for her marriage see La Vanguardia 19.10.35, available here both grandsons were youth Carlist activists during the Second Republic yearsEl Siglo Futuro 13.07.35, available here and requeté volunteersfor Erasmo see e.g. In Memoriam Montjuich 1936, [in:] Requetés service, available . For Enrique see e.g. Aram Monfort i Coll, La depuració franquista dels advocats de Barcelona (1939–1945). Una aproximació a l'Iŀustre Coŀegi d'Advocats de Barcelona de la postguerra, [in:] Franquisme & Transició 1 (2013), p. 139 during the Civil War. The older one, Erasmo Janer Duran, was executed by the Republicans;César Alcalá, La represión política en Cataluña (1936-1939), Madrid 2005, , p. 129 the younger one, Enrique Janer Duran,Enrique Janer Durán (birth data unknown, died 1990) in 1927 married Concha de la Llave y Valarino (died 1971), La Vanguardia 08.05.27, available here survived the war to become a lawyer;as lawyer and municipal official Enrique Janer Duran served as treasurer of the post-war Junta de Abogados in Barcelona and was involved in expropriation of possessions of the executed Carrasco y Formiguera, La Vanguardia 28.05.95, available here since the early 1940s till the late 1970s he held various mid-range positions in the Barcelona city council,he first entered Comisión Gestora, as during early Francoism municipal governing bodies were appointed and not elected, see Los hombres del nuevo poder, [in:] Barcelona en posguerra service, available here from secretary of the ayuntamientoLa Vanguardia 18.06.39, available here to teniente auditor,La Vanguardia 01.07.39, available here jefé de secciónLa Vanguardia 14.07.57, available here and head of the transport department.La Vanguardia 22.04.72, available here, for transición period see also La Vanguardia 27.05.78, available here; in 1974 he was rewarded for the longtime service, La Vanguardia 31.12.74, available here As neither Erasmo nor Enrique had sons,La Vanguardia 25.07.71, available here the Janer line has extinguished. The nephews of José Erasmo, José María and Erasme Lasarte Janer, became known in local Catalan realm respectively as a writer and as a painter.
Conservative to Carlist (1864-1876)