Albert Förster (stonemason)

Albert Förster (* 1832 in Saubsdorf , Austrian Silesia ; † 1908 ) was a stonemason and founder of the granite industry in the Sudetenland . He was appointed court stone mason master in 1901. His descendants further developed the company he founded, which in the 1930s became one of the largest stonemasonry companies in German-speaking countries.

Company history

After learning to be a stonemason in Troppau ( Opava ), Albert Förster went into business for himself without a journeyman in Zuckmantel ( Zlaté Hory ). He then did 16 years of military service and in 1867 opened a stonemason with four journeymen in Zuckmantel. Thanks to his technical, organizational and commercial competence, he gradually developed this company with its headquarters in Zuckmantel, with several hundred employees, into one of the largest stonemasons in Austria-Hungary . In addition to his location in Zuckmantel, he owned factories and quarries in Friedeberg ( Žulová ), Gurschdorf ( Skorošice ), Setzdorf ( Vápenná ), Rotwasser ( Stará Červená Voda ), Groß-Kunzendorf ( Velké Kunětice ), Saubsdorf, Niklasdorf ( Mikulovice ), Endersdorf ( Ondřejovice - a district of Zuckmantel) and in Oberlindewiese ( Lipová-Lázně ).

He was the first to polish the Silesian granite with machines and to successfully use the stone waste in the quarry to make paving stones. He recognized in good time that the traditional stonemason training, which was limited to the production of stone stairs, gravestones and cattle troughs in Silesia, could not cope with the developing construction tasks of the early days and he advocated the establishment of a training center for stonemasons in Friedeberg. From 1886 to 1909 he generously made space in his stone works in Friedeberg available to the State College for Stone Processing in Friedeberg. In 1909, after a state takeover, the school was housed in its own newly built school building.

In 1901 he was awarded the title of master stone mason for his achievements . When he died in 1908, his son Wilhelm took over the business, who died early in 1909. His sons Edgar and Walter took over the company, which in 1938 employed around 1,800 workers in several factories and quarries in the Freiwaldau district and was one of the largest stonemasons in Germany that ever existed.

After the Second World War, the company existed in Salzburg in Austria as Albert Förster OHG, natural stones, building and industrial supplies continued with a stone factory and broke Untersberg marble in quarries .

literature

• Ernst Hetfleisch, Franz Kriegler: Friedeberg. Grandfather. History and fate of a Sudeten Silesian town, ed. vd Heimatsortsgemeinschaft Friedeberg, Heiligensetzer, Augsburg 1974.