Albert Christian Weinlig

Albert Christian Weinlig (born April 9, 1812 in Dresden , † January 19, 1873 in Dresden) was a physician, scientist, publisher, university lecturer and Saxon ministerial official and interior minister. His work has significantly promoted various technical innovations, standardizations and economic developments in the Kingdom of Saxony and beyond. The German Reich owed it to him to take targeted steps that led to a uniform metric system of measures and weights and to a progressive patent law.

Albert Christian Weinlig

Family relationships

The family had lived in Dresden from the 17th to the 19th century. His great-grandfather Christian Weinlig (1681–1762) was mayor of Dresden , his great-uncle Christian Ehregott Weinlig was cantor at the Kreuzkirche .

Albert was born Christian Weinlig, the second of five children in the family of the late cantor at Leipzig Thomas School , Christian Theodor Weinlig , and his wife Charlotte Emilie, sister of the lawyer Georg Carl Treitschke . The favorable family conditions enabled him to develop positively since his youth. His father was originally a lawyer and was able to give up this profession through an inheritance to devote himself to music. To this end, he pursued musical studies in Italy between 1806 and 1808 . His mother was the daughter of the Court and Justice Councilor Dr. Karl Friedrich Treitschke and his wife Friederike Elenore Charlotte Treitschke geb. Lindemann. The mother was on friendly terms with the sister of the poet Theodor Körner .

Due to a family member's mishap, the father lost his fortune and had to seek employment. This led to his taking over the post of Kreuzkantor in Dresden in 1814 . In 1823 he was appointed Thomaskantor in Leipzig , where his father also made close acquaintance with Richard Wagner .

Life

Weinlig spent his childhood and youth in Dresden and Leipzig. At the age of four he learned to read from his father, which he became fluent in a year later. His father's professional activity made extensive home music lessons possible. The parents noticed early on the unusual ability in mental arithmetic, and the father's mineralogical interest aroused the child Albert Christian Weinlig's interest in scientific matters.

When he moved to Leipzig, Weinlig became a student at the Thomas School. His special talents caused him some difficulties. There he was rated as talented and interested in many things, but also as “flighty” and with “hard work that cannot be praised” (1826). He also shows special talents in the subjects of Latin , Greek and history . His friendship with Julius Ambrosius Hülße began during his school days .

Studies and career entry

University of Leipzig, Augusteum , built 1831–1836 (photo around 1890)

In the spring of 1829 Weinlig and his friend Hülße left the Thomas School and began their studies at the University of Leipzig . Weinlig chose medicine and natural sciences, and he also attended lectures in philosophy and languages. He defended his dissertation entitled De contagiis in universum et de infectione recens natorum in 1833, thereby completing his medical bachelor's degree . At the age of 21 he was entrusted with practical tasks by Johann Christian Gottfried Jörg as a junior doctor in the maternity hospital in Leipzig. Weinlig later worked as an assistant doctor in the Jacob Hospital and in his private practice.

Editorial activity and industry promotion

Weinlig's pronounced interest in science remained unsatisfied in his medical profession. Therefore, in 1835, together with Julius Ambrosius Hülße, he took over the publication of the Polytechnisches Zentralblatt . As the sole publisher, he published the Pharmazeutische Zentralblatt from 1830 , which later became well known as an important departmental organ under the changed title Chemisches Zentralblatt . Between 1839 and 1840 Weinlig wrote two books that dealt with scientific questions in chemistry. Shortly afterwards, in May 1840, he received his doctorate in philosophy (subject: Industria Romanorum digestorum et codicum locis nonnullis explanata ) and in October of the same year he qualified as a private lecturer . The title of his habilitation thesis was Examen theoriae electro-chemico-atomistico . He then received the instructor for mineralogy , geology and technology . In his lectures, there was a development from initially natural sciences to technical and state-theoretical aspects. Concrete topics of his lecturing activities at the Leipzig commercial school from 1842 and 1843 demonstrate the enormous diversity of his knowledge and in particular were general technology , theory of agriculture , elements of mechanical engineering , railways and steam shipping . As a result, his work on the mechanical theory of nature appeared .

The Polytechnic Society of Leipzig , of which Weinlig was director, organized an industrial exhibition every two years at the Leipzig Michaelism Fair . In this context, there was contact for the first time in 1840 with the Ministry of the Interior, which took over the promotion of this industrial fair.

When Julius Ambrosius Hülße, now a professor at the Chemnitz Business School , traveled to the 10th Paris Industrial Exhibition in 1844 on behalf of the Royal Saxon Government , he had previously asked Weinlig to accompany him, which was finally confirmed. The aim of this visit was to report on essential technical inventions and innovations as well as the procurement of models, samples and asking prices from the manufacturers that could be reached. After the strenuous return journey, Weinlig reported to the secret government councilor Karl Gustav Adalbert von Weissenbach about the impressions he had gathered.

Chair in Erlangen

Döderlein, a friend and colleague in Erlangen

In 1845 he was appointed full professor at the University of Erlangen . There he took over the chair for political economy . This happened on the recommendation of Georg Hanssen at the University of Leipzig, who turned down his own appointment for this position.

In Erlangen , the university could only offer him a small salary, hence a simple way of life, and the city could not offer him the cosmopolitan social environment that Leipzig is used to. Weinlig benevolently integrated the professors. In this circle Weinlig became friends with the theologian Johann Christian Konrad von Hofmann , the philologist Johann Ludwig Christoph Wilhelm von Döderlein and with Ernst Adolf Theodor Laspeyres , Heinrich Schmid and Eduard Joseph Schmidtlein as well as with the high school teacher Schäfer.

The contact with the theologian Hofmann in Erlangen shaped his political convictions and the aversion to political parties. During the pre- March period, he consolidated his position that Germany's position under international law as a federal state was represented by a multitude of individual states with diverging special political aspirations and that little could be hoped for from him . In his opinion, the larger questions of politics and legislation must be withdrawn from a solution by the individual states . He was also skeptical about the functionality of the individual states, about which he said that they could not even produce the necessary amount of talent and statesmen, let alone continuously deliver .

Saxon State Service

The death of the Saxon government councilor von Weißenbach made it necessary to fill the position of the department director . The then Interior Minister Johann Paul Freiherr von Falkenstein first favored Julius Ambrosius Hülße. His work at the Chemnitz industrial school, which was already important for Saxony at the time, seemed so indispensable that Georg Hanssen in Leipzig was asked whether he could recommend Weinlig. The positive evaluation of the request led to a preliminary interview for appointment to the Saxon civil service. The University of Erlangen had tried to avert Weinlig's departure by requesting the Bavarian government for a salary increase of 200 thalers a year, but this did not meet with a positive interest in Munich .

On November 1, 1846, the 34-year-old Weinlig took up the position of director of the department for trade, commerce, factories and agriculture at the Ministry of the Interior in Dresden. As an expert on questions of customs and trade policy as well as economic statistics, as a young civil servant he became a valued colleague among his superiors and ministerial staff. The habits of internal ministerial processes initially alienated Weinlig. As a result, at the beginning of his civil service career, he maintained friendly contacts mainly outside of his daily environment, for example with August Ludwig Friedrich Wilhelm Seebeck , the director of the Technical Training Institute in Dresden. In the early years of his civil service career, Weinlig laid important foundations for structures that he would later develop himself. In this context, he was entrusted with drafting laws and regulations. In particular, there were regulations for the inspection of steam boilers and their security police supervision (issued in 1849), the trade regulations to be created, the reorganization of the trade schools, the establishment of chambers of commerce and an organizational plan for arable farming schools to be created . The importance of the planned agricultural schools at the time is measured by the fact that Weinlig traveled to Württemberg , Baden and Nassau on behalf of the Interior Minister to visit the facilities there. As a direct consequence, he initiated the establishment of an agricultural department at the Chemnitz industrial school.

Revolutionary years and ministerial duties

Old station building in Chemnitz (1854)

In the years of the revolution from 1848 to 1849, Weinlig was confronted with the effects and the containment of growing unemployment through his work. On the basis of his recommendations, Saxony endeavored to alleviate the need by means of railway, road and other road works. On the other hand, the rampant insolvency in the companies and the standstill of the granting of loans were relatively helpless, especially since further goods production did not seem sensible because there was a lack of buyers. During this period, the construction of the Chemnitz – Riesa railway line was secured and continued by state payment advances. Weinlig made a special effort to maintain the Chemnitz industrial site. This was about the plight of printers, weavers and mechanical engineers. His friend and commercial school director Hülße had sufficient detailed knowledge and contributed significantly to the analysis through his advice. On May 2, 1848, the Ministry of the Interior decided to send the experienced government councilor Weinlig to Chemnitz as extraordinary government commissioner . There, through his remarkable communication skills, he succeeded in dissuading the revolutionary workers from destroying the factories and expanded the railway construction projects that had already started to include the expansion of the station. In cooperation with the Chemnitz city council and the governor, no violent police measures were taken, and the results of the negotiations were immediately announced on notices. The results earned him high recognition among the population. Weinlig made it clear that in his opinion Martin Gotthard Oberländer , who was at the head of the ministry, did not have the talent required to cope with the problems.

Despite the special situation in the revolutionary times, Weinlig worked on reforming the Saxon education system. The creation of a uniform “primary school” and the equation of secondary and human high schools were at the center of his efforts. Weinlig proposed that the number of mandatory weekly lessons for teachers should be set at 24. In his report of October 30, 1848 to the Minister of the Interior, he put down the results of the preliminary discussions with various school directors. It is u. a. It is recommended that the overriding principle should be that the division of the educational establishments into different directions does not begin earlier than absolutely necessary, in order not to be forced to make a firm decision too early on the profession to be chosen ... that a transition (meaning the school form ) from one to the other is not too difficult. He also speaks of the bad habit of letting the boy close all schooling at the age of 14 . These positions, which still seem progressive to this day, are supplemented by structural ideas, the effect of which can in turn be assessed as neutralizing. Nevertheless, the elementary school should continue to fulfill the role of being the only school for all those who cannot make any expenditure on education because of their living conditions and for all who have to start a practical life at the age of 14 or 15 ... His thoughts on school reform were not implemented at that time.

With the political escalation in Saxony at the end of 1848, the ad hoc cabinet also got into increasing difficulties. As a result, cabinet chairman Alexander Karl Hermann Braun resigned on February 24, 1849 . In this situation, King Friedrich August II asked Weinlig to take over the leadership of the ministry in order to enable a domestic policy that was capable of acting in this crisis phase, which was marked by severe political divergences. Weinlig was reluctant to take on this task because he was not a fan of political struggles and representation tasks. During the direct cooperation with the king it turned out that despite the unbroken trust of both sides in each other, the assessment of the political situation in Germany turned out very different. There was a fundamental divergence of opinion on constitutional rights. Weinlig belonged to the camp that campaigned for the implementation of the “basic rights of the German people” with recognition of the imperial constitution in Saxony. On this issue, there was a split across the Saxon government and its ministries. The king took a position in favor of the less progressive and liberal views represented by part of the Saxon nobility. On April 28th Weinlig tried to convince the king of the necessary acceptance of the Paulskirche constitution with a letter . There was then a personal discussion without a consensus. On April 30, 1849, he then wrote his resignation to the King of Saxony. These circumstances made it easier for Weinlig to give up his ministerial post in the same year of his appointment. This request was granted on the same day. In addition to Weinlig, cabinet chairman Gustav Friedrich Held and finance minister Karl Wolf von Ehrenstein followed the same path for the same reasons .

In the two months of his ministerial position, Weinlig dealt with the processing of draft laws. Following his previous main interests, he took on the current customs policy and on April 24, 1849 presented the Ministry of Finance with a memorandum (statement) for a new customs policy. In it he estimates that the protective tariffs necessary to maintain Saxony's iron production would not be feasible in economic life due to their theoretically required level. The decline of this branch of industry seemed to be looming.

As a follow-up to his ministerial work, Weinlig had to put up with public accusations of selfishness and treason through controlled press coverage, which were essentially based on the views of his successor Richard von Friesen .

Promotion of the trade and school system

In the Kingdom of Saxony a commission had been set up to discuss employment and commercial relationships , whose work was interrupted by the turmoil of the revolution. This body was dedicated to the many and varied changes that occurred as a result of the industrial revolution . Returning to his previous position in the Ministry of the Interior, Weinlig resumed the preparatory work that had not been carried out in April 1849 to create trade courts, trade councils, chambers of commerce and trade regulations. They had already been taken up by this commission. The time conditions made it urgently necessary to abolish the delimiting and obstructive guild rules and to replace them with modern regulations for the industrialization that was already in full swing. On June 1, 1849, the Saxon state parliament dissolved because of the irreconcilable differences on the "German Question" ( Paulskirchenverfassungs ), and two days later the old estates were called to a first meeting on July 1. As a result, a second attempt for a necessary trade regulation failed. The government did not submit the completed draft law to this restorative meeting of representatives. It was not until the Trade Act of October 15, 1861, that Weinlig's ideas received legislative power. This was combined with the liquidation of the trade restrictions by the corporate reservation regulations.

Weinlig stood in the state elections in autumn 1849 as a candidate in the 14th, 15th and 16th electoral districts ( Grossenhain , Meißen and Lommatzsch ) and was elected to the Saxon I. Chamber. He exercised his mandate until Easter 1850. It gave him the opportunity in the state parliament to comment on unfounded allegations regarding his role in the revolutionary era.

Weinlig saw no political basis for the implementation of a comprehensive Saxon school reform. So he tried all the more successfully for partial steps in his area of ​​responsibility and took on the equally overdue changes in the higher technical school system. In response to his endeavors, the Technical Educational Institute transformed into the Polytechnic School (now the Technical University of Dresden ) and brought Julius Ambrosius Hülße, the well-known Chemnitz industrial school director, to the position of director in Dresden. In 1855 Weinlig incorporated the Chemnitz foremen's school as a lower level of education in the Chemnitz industrial school and in 1862 elevated it to the status of a "higher industrial school". Due to its increased importance and profile, it increasingly took on a competitive role with the Bergakademie Freiberg .

For Weinlig, questions of school organization and budget formation were the central control instruments of his ministerial management tasks. The establishment of special technical schools that served textile processing ( knitting , white sewing , lace making and industrial lace manufacture ) in Auerbach and Annaberg is connected with his work . In doing so, he explicitly promoted vocational training for young women.

The most important financial instruments of his work included government advances that he obtained for young industrialists or companies in need. As early as 1848 he made an important experience with this, when the Richard Hartmann company in Chemnitz received such support, preserved its operational capability for the benefit of the region and was subsequently able to make a fundamental contribution to the development of the German railway system.

Industrial exhibitions

Industrial palace at the World Exhibition of 1855 in Paris

World Exhibition in Paris 1867 (oil painting by Édouard Manet )

Weinlig returned to Saxony in 1844, deeply impressed by the Paris industrial exhibition. The impressions he gained made him want to realize a similar project to demonstrate the Saxon capabilities in questions of technical innovation and industrial production. In 1850 the industrial exhibition in Leipzig , which he had prepared in a major way, opened its doors. For this he had given up his mandate prematurely because the organizational effort required all his strength. The success achieved encouraged him and many companies to make their first Saxon presentation abroad in 1851 by appearing at the London World's Fair . In England, which was already industrially developed, Saxony demonstrated the will to compete between the regions. Weinlig stayed in London for several weeks with Hülße to take a very close look at the exhibition and companies in the region. In doing so, both became aware that the comparable conditions in Germany were much more modest. In Saxony, his efforts in favor of the Saxon participation in the exhibition received great public recognition.

At the Munich trade fair of 1854, he accompanied the Saxon companies through his presence in spite of a spreading cholera epidemic . Weinlig used his stay to make contacts in the art world of Munich. Finally, King Friedrich August II also visited this exhibition and died a few days later in Tyrol after this visit .

The Exposition Universelle of 1855 in Paris attended Weinlig again on behalf of his government, winning an impression of excessive supply of luxury goods. Together with Karl Karmarsch and Ferdinand von Steinbeis , he visited the London industrial exhibition in 1862.

In the meantime, his reputation as an effective business promoter in Europe had consolidated. As a result, he was involved in the preparations for the Paris World Exhibition in 1867 in the Central Exhibition Commission , where he was responsible for the entire spatial concept, which turned out to be a particularly controversial point between the nations involved. Saxony's industry and its manufactories succeeded in attracting international attention as the dominant point in the group of the North German Confederation through their modern and artistic presentations . As an expression of special appreciation it can be seen that Weinlig, together with his adequate Prussian work partner Rudolph von Delbrück, was invited to a dinner of the French emperor, which was mainly aimed at high-ranking personalities. This can be understood as an indication of how high his unusual role was valued in the field of trade and industrial policy in Europe at the time.

Legislative processes

It deserves to be mentioned that Weinlig developed various statutory ordinances for the Federal Council of the German Customs Union and the North German Confederation in addition to Saxony . For example, the draft for the German Patent Act (first version drawn up in 1851) and the Postal Act of January 1, 1868 were drawn up by him, and the General German Commercial Code was created with his participation. Weinlig represented the Kingdom of Saxony in the Federal Council of the North German Confederation. He held this position until December 1869 and was then released from it at his own request.

Measure and weight commission

Legal gazette for the introduction of metric divisions into the traditional system of measurement in Saxony (1858)

In Saxony very early efforts were made to convert the generally applicable units of measure and weight to the metric system . For this purpose, the Ministry of the Interior created the Royal Normalaichungscommission in Dresden , whose content-related work was headed by Julius Ambrosius Hülße and was ministerially involved in Weinlig. In the adequate commission for the German Customs Union, Weinlig took over the representation for the Kingdom of Saxony, which, if he was unable to do so, had Hülße seconded for this purpose. The proposals discussed there were incorporated into the legislation of the North German Confederation. They are largely based on the rules developed by Hülße and proposed by Weinlig. The North German Order of Measures and Weight of August 17, 1868 came into force on January 1, 1872.

Head of the Statistical Office

Weinlig held a part-time position from 1850 to 1873 as head of the statistical office in the Ministry of the Interior at the Royal Government of Saxony. The specific management was incumbent on the civil servant Ernst Engel in the period from 1850 to 1858, then Weinlig directly. When he took office in the Ministry of the Interior, the official collection of statistical data developed, which was previously operated by the Statistical Association, founded in 1831 under the direction of Heinrich Anton von Zeschau . From December 1846 to the spring of 1847 Weinlig had drawn up the drafts for the statistical office to be created .

legacy

View into a machine hall of the Hartmann factory in Chemnitz (1868)

The effects of his work are very complex and multifaceted. The industrial and commercial development in the Kingdom of Saxony has been significantly influenced by its far-sighted plans and decisions. The strong development of Saxony in the most varied of sectors from 1846 until his death in 1873 coincides with his work in the Saxon Ministry of the Interior.

The spinning industry , mechanical engineering and the numerous technical schools were able to benefit in a special way . Mechanical engineering increased its capacities fivefold between 1846 and 1861 and, with a workforce of 7,843 workers (1861), offered a largely stable employment situation. This also had an impact within the exemplary development in the transport system, particularly on the Saxon railroad, the length of which increased from 441 to 1,074 kilometers between 1850 and 1870.

Weinlig's thinking and positions shaped the Saxon economic conditions between 1850 and 1870. Only a few personalities were given comparable positions to have an impact on this scale and of such importance.

The Weinlig Foundation, which was set up by wealthy entrepreneurs after his death, may have been a modest tribute to his work, which is still barely comprehensible today.

Appreciations and achievements

• Natural Research Society of Leipzig (board member)
• Polytechnic Society (Director)
• Society for the Promotion of Industry in Mulhouse (member)
• Society for the Promotion of Industry in Berlin (member)
• Society for the Promotion of Industry in Paris (member)

Works

• The Plant Chemistry, a handbook for doctors and pharmacists. Using in part Thomson's organic chemistry and using the best sources. Vogel, Leipzig 1839 ( digitized version of the University and State Library Düsseldorf ).
• Theoretical chemistry textbook. For use during lectures and for repetition for students. Voss, Leipzig 1841.
• Outline of the mechanical theory of nature. Voss, Leipzig 1843.
• On the necessity and usefulness of technological and mechanical instruction in business schools. Breitkopf and Härtel, Leipzig 1843 (article).
• About invention patents with special consideration of the existing patent legislation and an expected general German patent law. In: Archives of Political Economy and Police Science. New series, Vol. 1 (1843), pp. 247-268 ( digitized at the Internet Archive ).

literature

• Karl Theodor von Inama-Sternegg :  Weinlig, Christian Albert . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 41, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1896, pp. 508-510.
• Paul Domsch: Albert Christian Weinlig. A picture of life based on family papers and files. Treatises and reports from the Technische Staatslehranstalt in Chemnitz, issue 2 April 1912.
• Siegfried Moltke, Wilhelm Stieda (ed.): Albert Christian Weinlig in letters from and to him. German publisher, Leipzig 1931.
• Karlwilhelm Just: The Weinlig family around 1550 to the present day. Breslau, Dresden, Rhineland. Starke, Limburg (Lahn) 1967.

Web links

• State Statistical Office of the Free State of Saxony: History of official statistics in Saxony . on www.stla.sachsen.de
• Literature by and about Albert Christian Weinlig in the Saxon Bibliography
• Overview of Albert Christian Weinlig's courses at the University of Leipzig (winter semester 1840 to winter semester 1844)
• Weißenbach, predecessor of Weinlig

Individual evidence

1. ^ Siegfried Moltke, Wilhelm Stieda (ed.): Albert Christian Weinlig in letters from and to him . Deutscher Verlag, Leipzig 1931, p. XVIII. ("[...] on the morning of January 19, 1873 Albert Christian Weinlig slumbered gently over there.")
2. ^ Paul Domsch: Weinlig, p. 14
3. ↑ Josef Matzerath : Aspects of Saxon State Parliament History - Presidents and Members of Parliament from 1833 to 1952 , Dresden 2001, p. 53
4. ^ Margrit Seckelmann: Industrialization, internationalization and patent law in the German Empire, 1871-191 . V. Klostermann, Frankfurt am Main 2006, ISBN 3-465-03488-0 , p. 113–114 ( limited preview in Google Book Search [accessed September 13, 2010]).
5. ^ Paul Domsch: Weinlig, p. 71
6. ↑ Moltke / Stieda (ed.): Weinlig, S. XVI, 524-528
7. ^ Paul Domsch: Weinlig, p. 83
8. ^ Paul Domsch: Weinlig, pp. 71-72