Badische rifle factory
The rifle factory was the first company to be founded in 1809 in the monastery of St. Blasien, which had been closed since 1806 . As a Badische rifle factory it was continued on October 10, 1813 by contract of the partners with the Baden Ministry of War . The place St. Blasien at that time consisted only of the monastery, the Meierhof and some remaining servants in the former monastery buildings. Weapons from St. Blasier's production are exhibited in the museum in St. Blasien and in the Military History Museum in Rastatt . As far as is known (1989) there is only one other M 1816 cavalry pistol in an American private collection.
history
The mechanic Henry Duggli from Zurich was one of the first to get interested in the vacant building . After receiving approval from the government in Karlsruhe, he started production in August 1809 in the leased south and west wings of the former abbey. As early as 1809/10 he had to deliver 6,000 infantry rifles and a few hundred pistols to the Baden War Ministry . For this purpose, he had hired specialists from the Mutzig weapons factory , who lived in the north wing, who had to return home in 1810. The rifle factory remained and was taken over by Johann Georg Bodmer , who arrived in St. Blasien shortly after Duggli on September 11th. On November 6, 1810, he involved the financier and investor David Seligmann (who later called himself Baron von Eichthal). Together they set up a machine factory for the production of spinning machines , and at the same time they began to set up the spinning machines themselves. In January 1811 David von Eichthal came to St. Blasien. Through clever negotiations he was able to take over the monastery (except for the cathedral) with practically no lease, later (1821) he acquired the entire building.
The stock corporation Société St. Blaise / St. Blasische Gesellschaft operated three factories at the same time, the gun factory, the machine factory and the spinning mill with a bleaching plant . The St. Blasien cotton spinning mill had 12,000 to 15,000 spindles in operation (in 1840 there were already 28,000), and in 1822 it processed around 4,000 quintals of American cotton which resulted in around 13,000 kilograms of yarn . Children were preferred as workers (200 out of 800 workers were children under 15 years of age). The water power was provided by seven water wheels on canals that were fed through the Alb . In 1832 a positive pressure turbine by the inventor Benoît Fourneyron was installed. With an output of 40 hp and 2300 revolutions, it was the first continental overpressure turbine.
The head forester of St. Blasien, Gerer, was involved in the company from the beginning, but, like Charles Albert, ceded his shares to David von Eichthal in 1812. He took more and more "liberties" - his father had been raised to the hereditary nobility of baron in 1814 and in 1815 he received the rescript from the Grand Duke . From 1818 to 1822 Eichthal and Bodmer also argued more and more violently. Bodmer was subject to the financially stronger and finally left the company in 1822. David von Eichthal persistently refused to recognize the newly founded Bailiwick of St. Blasien (around 250 people), eventually founded his own "factory community" (around 700 people) and was elected mayor. In 1845 up to 600 workers were employed in the spinning mill, including around 300 children who, after their ten-hour working hours, received some lessons in the evening from the factory teacher, who was a factory clerk during the day. In 1843 David von Eichthal sold the hammer forge and the iron foundry to the grand ducal domain management and thus concentrated exclusively on textile production. On September 18, 1845, at the age of 70, David von Eichthal gave the company away to his son-in-law, district master builder Joseph Berckmüller from Karlsruhe, in order to save parts of the company from bankruptcy. Berckmüller had worked as a factory director in St. Blasien since his marriage in 1829, before moving back to his home town of Karlsruhe in 1844 after a major drop in sales as a result of many Swiss competing companies, to enter the state service there. David von Eichthal had to take out large loans as early as 1840.
Although Berckmüller, together with the main creditors, attempted a rescue as the St. Blasien spinning mill , bankruptcy was initiated in 1851.
production
Bodmer began manufacturing weapons in 1813, initially with financial support from the French court mechanic Charles Albert, after he had received an extensive order from the Baden War Ministry. The GUNSTOCKS from walnut wood built Schnefler in Menzenschwand . From 1822 onwards, captain von Althaus of the Baden body grenadiers was in charge of the military supervision of arms production. From 1813, 193 workers were employed in the rifle factory. The inventor Bodmer had set up 14 machine tools here that were completely new, they filed, milled and drilled the forged lock parts at the same time. This was the first time that Eli Whitney's idea of the principle of interchangeability of parts was used industrially in Europe. The Badische Army was first from here with percussion rifles supplies after nearly identical French system, the previous flintlock rifles peeled off. Shotguns, hunting rifles, rifles, pistols, sabers, bayonets and other weapons were made for the Baden military as well as for free sale. Up to 10,000 rifles were manufactured every month, which was only possible with Bodmer's machines.
Attached was a small iron rolling mill, a hammer forge and foundry. It was located on the site (today Aebi Schmidt , snow plows) of a sawmill on the Alb (from 1818) for which iron chippings were obtained from the Kutterau ironworks belonging to the company and from the Albbruck ironworks , and from the Tiefenstein ironworks until 1840 . Local ores were used for smelting, mainly floor ore from Kandern and Klettgau . There was also a file-cutting shop , which was run by an Englishman who also trained the locals. The in-house economy took care of the workers; 18 women and 27 men were employed there. After the sale on March 27, 1843, the Baden ironworks management had the unprofitable ironworks dismantled and brought to Albbruck in 1861. In 1866, Franz Moldenhauer acquired the closed plant and had a nickel smelter built with a stamping mill and roasting furnace for smelting nickel ores from the Friedrich August mine . In 1877 the operation of the nickel smelter was stopped.
Résumé
After Bodmer retired as an inventor, it wasn't long before the company stagnated. On the other hand, von Eichthal accused Bodmer - probably rightly - of using too much capital for developments. Although the company was the largest of its time, the competition grew quickly. Spinning mills now sprang up across the country. Eichthal was always looking for subsidies and discounts. In 1840, before he took out the loan, the factory had been valued at 1.5 million guilders. In 1851 its value was estimated at 185,748 guilders. The auction was won in 1851 by the banker JE Obermayer from Augsburg and only brought in 87,000 guilders. In 1852 he made an association with Carl Wilhelm Grether from Schopfheim . In 1855, 296 workers were employed, 170 of them children. In 1869 the spinning mill still had 284 workers. Grether bequeathed the factory to his son-in-law Ernst Friedrich Krafft , who rebuilt it after the fire of 1874 and in whose family it remained until the Great Depression. After the difficult beginnings, the earnings for the workers in the otherwise barren and remote Black Forest were good.
literature
- Johannes Gut , lost and found, surprises during the construction of the St. Blasien district museum . In: Heimat am Hochrhein, yearbook of the district of Waldshut 1989 . ISBN 3-877-99-093-2
- Rudolf Metz , geological studies of the Hotzenwald . With excursions, especially in its old mining areas. Schauenburg, Lahr 1980, ISBN 3-7946-0174-2 .
- Bernhard Steinert , The post-monastery St. Blasien in the 19th century . In: Heinrich Heidegger, Hugo Ott (eds.), St. Blasien 200 years of the monastery and parish church. ISBN 3-7954-0445-2
- Wolfram Fischer, The beginnings of the St. Blasien factory (1809–1848) In: Heinrich Heidegger, Hugo Ott (ed.), St. Blasien 200 years monastery and parish church. ISBN 3-7954-0445-2
- Hans-Joachim Harder, Military Research Office (Hrsg.): Military History Manual Baden-Württemberg , ISBN 3-17-009856-X
- Exhibition catalog 1983, The Thousand Year St. Blasien, 200th anniversary of the cathedral. 2 volumes. ISBN 3-7617-0221-3
Individual evidence
- ↑ Johannes Gut, Lost and Recovered, Surprises during the construction of the St. Blasien district museum . In: Heimat am Hochrhein, yearbook of the district of Waldshut . 1989, pp. 62-63.
- ^ Bernhard Steinert, The post-monastery St. Blasien in the 19th century . In: Heinrich Heidegger, Hugo Ott (eds.), St. Blasien 200 years monastery and parish church , p. 316
- ↑ Die Acht mit Herz (Badische Zeitung) No. 23 1987
- ^ Rudolf Metz, Geologische Landeskunde des Hotzenwaldes , p. 652
- ^ Elisabeth Spitzbart: Karl Joseph Berckmüller. Braun, Karlsruhe 1999, ISBN 3-7650-9052-2 , p. 116 f.
- ↑ Wolfram Fischer, The beginnings of the St. Blasien factory (1809–1848). In: Heinrich Heidegger, Hugo Ott (eds.), St. Blasien 200 years monastery and parish church , p. 339
- ↑ Wolfram Fischer, The beginnings of the St. Blasien factory (1809–1848). In: Heinrich Heidegger, Hugo Ott (eds.), St. Blasien 200 years monastery and parish church , p. 340
- ↑ Hans Joachim Harder, Military History Handbook Baden-Württemberg , p. 94