Barthold Jonas Beseler the Elder

Barthold Jonas Beseler the Elder (born October 13, 1721 in Bramstedt , † May 26, 1803 in Rendsburg ) was a small German blacksmith and bell founder.

Live and act

Barthold Jonas Beseler the Elder was a son of the dyer Barthold Beseler. By 1745 at the latest, he settled in Rendsburg and joined the artillery. He also learned how to cast guns. On August 29, 1768 he acquired citizenship and in 1757 the royal Danish privilege to cast guns and bells.

Beseler the Elder opened his own foundry in Rendsburg and on May 19, 1758, cast his first bell for a church in Wilster. In doing so, he founded the Beseler family of bell founders , who cast bells and guns in the following generations until 1871. Most bells no longer exist today due to destruction during the two world wars.

Beseler the Elder married Catharina Elisabeth Habel, who died on August 26, 1760. In his second marriage he married Anna Elisabeth Wommelsdorff (1734–1786) on March 6, 1761. He had eight children. The son Barthold Jonas Beseler the Younger later continued to run his father's foundry. The son Cay Hartwig Beseler became a well-known dikemaster.

literature

• Herbert Beelte: Beseler, Barthold Jonas the Elder . in: Schleswig-Holstein Biographical Lexicon . Volume 2. Karl Wachholtz Verlag, Neumünster 1971, p. 55