Abraham von Schönberg

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Abraham von Schönberg (born March 11, 1640 in Freiberg ; † November 4, 1711 ibid) was a Saxon statesman , chief miner and reformer of mining and metallurgy in Saxony .

Life

Abraham von Schönberg came from the old noble family of those von Schönberg and was the son of Rittmeister Abraham von Schönberg auf Frauenstein and Rechenberg and Anna Maria, born von Bünau († 1667). Abraham was the youngest of eight siblings and was born in Freiberg, where his mother and children had fled from Frauenstein from the chaos of war. His father died before he was born, so that he came under the guardianship of Nicol von Schönberg .

Abraham von Schönberg grew up in poor circumstances; the family's property had been pillaged and burned by the imperial troops between 1632 and 1634 and by the Swedes in 1639. Schoenberg experienced the two-month Swedish siege of Freiberg by General Torstensson . In 1647 the mother was able to sell the Frauenstein and Rechenberg estates and was no longer dependent on the support of the relatives. In the same year his guardian took him to Oberschöna . Until he started his studies, Abraham von Schönberg lived with his guardian Nicol von Schönberg, who was the war commissioner of the Ore Mountains from 1644 to 1650 and from 1651 he was the governor of Lauterstein and Wolkenstein.

In 1656 von Schönberg enrolled at the University of Jena and from 1659 continued his studies in political science, philosophy and law at the University of Wittenberg . After completing his studies, he went on a cavalier tour and then received training in the mountain field in the Annaberg and Schneeberg mountain areas. After his appointment to the Mining Commission , von Schönberg worked in the Saxon mountain state and organized the revival of the mining industry, which had collapsed since the Thirty Years' War. One of the responsibilities of Schönbergs was the mandate issued by Elector Johann Georg II in 1667 on the production of pit cracks , which obliged the mines to keep cracks and to deposit a pit crack with the Mining Authority. To accommodate the cracks, in 1679 he had the house of the late Freiberg tithe Friedrich Schönlebe bought as a mining office and a crack archive set up there.

On April 11, 1668 he was appointed vice miner captain and two years later miner captain and official captain in Freiberg and Grillenburg. In 1669 he married Agnes von Schönberg (1647–1693), the daughter of Hanns Georg von Schönberg auf Wingendorf and Oberschöna, with whom he had two children, Maria Margaretha (1676–1677) and Johannes Abraham (1678–1680).

In the autumn of 1670 von Schönberg fell ill with progressive muscle paralysis in his thighs, which he tried to alleviate through several spa stays in Karlsbad . After the chief miner Caspar von Schönberg died on September 1, 1676, Abraham von Schönberg succeeded him in office a week later. 1681 he took over the function of the District Chief of the Erzgebirge circle .

In 1675, von Schönberg drafted a new mountain order for the Electorate of Saxony, the introduction of which was prevented by the stalls due to the expansion of mountain jurisdiction. Then in 1693 he published his detailed mountain information on the mining and smelting system , the content of which came to a large extent from his draft of the mountain regulations. After the death of his wife Agnes, he married Eleonora von Ende in 1694, a widowed von Neitzschütz (1658–1702), who brought the manor Borthen into the childless marriage. From 1697 von Schönberg was paralyzed to the sick bed, from which he continued his official business.

One of his successes was the Bergstipendienkasse, founded in Freiberg in 1702 to finance a well-founded training course for mining specialists, which is a predecessor of the Freiberg Bergakademie . After his second wife died, Abraham von Schönberg married Auguste Christine von Thümen († 1730) for the third time in 1703. This marriage also had no offspring.

In 1710 the general smelting administration in Freiberg was established according to his plans. Together with Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus , Johann Friedrich Böttger and Gottfried Pabst von Ohain , von Schönberg worked on the development of a process for making porcelain from kaolin clay. His successor as the Saxon chief miner was Hans Carl von Carlowitz .

After his death, Superintendent Christian Lehmann read out an autobiography written by Schönberg at the request of the deceased , through which a lot of information from Schönberg's life has survived to this day. His tomb is in the cloister of Freiberg Cathedral. With his death, the Frauenstein line of the Schönbergers expired.

Abraham von Schönberg had five sisters and two brothers. His sister Agnes Eleonore married Heinrich Haubold von Einsiedel , and Catharina Sybilla was the wife of the Wittenberg court judge Christian von Loss. His brother Caspar Abraham von Schönberg († 1703) worked as Chancellor in Saxony-Weißenfels .

Abraham von Schönberg: detailed mountain information, for the useful message in front of everyone, the bey to create the mountain and smelting being. Fleischer, Leipzig 1693

Works

  • Draft for new mountain regulations for the Electorate of Saxony , with expert opinion and counter-expert opinion, 1675–1689
  • Comprehensive mountain information, for the useful message in front of all who create the Bey for the mountain and smelting being. Fleischer, Leipzig 1693. ( digitized and full text in the German text archive ) ( digitized by ETH )
  • Christianum Berwardum / Abraham von Schönberg: Redens-Arten bey Berg-Wercken and Schmeltz-Wercken , Fleischer, Leipzig 1693

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Schönberg, Abraham von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Saxon reformer of mining and metallurgy
DATE OF BIRTH March 11, 1640
PLACE OF BIRTH Freiberg
DATE OF DEATH November 4, 1711
Place of death Freiberg