Albert Borchers

Albert Borchers around 1920

Albert Borchers with his wife Antonietta

Georg Wilhelm Albert Borchers (* 15. March 1864 in Eickeloh ; † 26 February ¹ 1929 in Freiberg ) was a Saxon mining administrator .

Live and act

Borchers was born the son of the Protestant pastor Rudolph Borchers (1820-1887) and his wife Thekla von Stoltzenberg (1830-1920). He had twelve siblings. After completing elementary school, he went to the grammar school in Ratzeburg and later to the Matthias Claudius grammar school in Hamburg-Wandsbek , where he passed the Matura examination in 1884 . He refused his father's request to study theology. Instead, he enrolled in the same year as a student at the Bergakademie Freiberg , after having previously completed an internship at the Himmelfahrt Fundgrube . His teachers were u. a. Carl Gustav Kreischer ( mining studies ), Max Carl Ludwig Schmidt ( mine sheath studies ), Albin Weisbach ( mineralogy ) and Alfred Wilhelm Stelzner ( geology ). He received his diploma as a mining engineer in 1888.

First he completed further practical work at the Gouley mine in the Aachen coal field . In August 1889 he took a job in the North Bohemian lignite mining area . As early as 1891 he moved to Freiberg as a mountain trainee at the mining office at the time . Numerous promotions followed: in 1892 he was transferred to Zwickau as the first assistant to the mining inspector , where he became mining inspector in 1895. Here he also met his wife Antonietta, daughter of Oberbergrates Heinrich Richter (1842–1929) and his wife Pauline nee. Richter (1847–1887), whom he married on August 31, 1897. The marriage resulted in 2 children. In 1898 he became a board member of the Freiberg I mining inspection and in 1901 of the Zwickau II mining inspection. In this role, on April 17, 1901, he was awarded the office and title of miner by the king . In 1906 he finally went back to Freiberg, where he was first ministerial councilor, in 1913 Oberbergrat and in 1920 superintendent of mines. On June 1, 1924, he finally became mining captain and became head of the Saxon Mining Authority .

In addition to his work at the Mining Office or Oberbergamt, he was involved in several associations. He was a member of the board of the Association for Germanness Abroad and of the Freiberg Antiquities Association . He put on an extensive collection of mining antiquities, which can be found today in particular in the Freiberg City and Mining Museum and in the prayer room of the German Museum in Munich. As a result of this collecting activity in particular, Borchers published several treatises on the history of the mountain , especially on mining .

Albert Borchers was the guest of honor at the Bergparade on February 12, 1929 in Johanngeorgenstadt. Here he contracted pneumonia, from which he died.

On February 12, 1929, he took part in a mining parade in Johanngeorgenstadt , the only place in the Ore Mountains that maintained this mining tradition at that time. In doing so, he contracted pneumonia and died a few days later.

Honors

Borchers was awarded the Knight's Cross, First Class, with the Crown of the Albrecht Order on May 20, 1918 . He was also a holder of the War Merit Cross .

Fonts (selection)

• Supervision of the mining operations at the hard coal works in the Zwickau mining inspection district. In: Yearbook for mining and metallurgy in Saxony. 1892, pp. A64 – A73 ( PDF; 19.9 MB )
• New devices to prevent the conveyor racks from being set down too hard when driving the rope. In: Yearbook for mining and metallurgy in Saxony. 1902, pp. A146 – A153 ( PDF; 30.7 MB )
• The development of the mining industry in Saxony over the past 25 years. In: Yearbook for mining and metallurgy in Saxony. 1915, pp. A3 – A7 ( PDF; 16.4 MB )
• Forgeries of Erzgebirge antiquities. In: Messages from the Freiberg Antiquities Association. Freiberg: Freiberger Altertumsverein, Volume 48, 1913, pp. 96-98 online .
• Miners. In: Messages from the Freiberg Antiquities Association. Freiberg: Freiberger Altertumsverein, Volume 54, 1923, pp. 18-23 online .
• He wrote several songs by the Freiberg fraternity "Glückauf".

literature

• Roch: Obituary for Miner Captain Borchers . Born in 1929. In: Yearbook for mining and metallurgy in Saxony . 103rd volume, p. 1 (portrait), 3–8 ( tu-freiberg.de [PDF; 17.9 MB ]).
• Walther Herrmann : Mining Captain Borchers . In: Messages from the Freiberg Antiquities Association . No. 59 , 1929, pp. 3 (portrait), 5–9 .
• Carl Schiffner : From the life of old Freiberg mountain students . First volume. Ernst Mauckisch, Freiberg 1935, p. 359 .

Web links

Commons : Albert Borchers  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Albert Borchers in the Saxon Bibliography

Remarks

¹Roch says February 26th ½11. This is exactly in line with the obituary notice sent by the family. In the literature, however, there is predominantly the indication of March 1, 1929. However, this is the date of the cremation at 12.45 pm.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Frank Teller: Mining and mining town Johanngeorgenstadt (1654-1945) . Förderverein Pferdegöpel Johanngeorgenstadt e. V., Johanngeorgenstadt 2001, p. 179 .