Benjamin Olitzsch

Benjamin Olitzsch (* in Dresden ; † May 29, 1682 in Batavia ) was a Saxon mining official and leader of an expedition of Saxon miners to the East Indies.

Life

After studying law, Olitzsch went to work in the Saxon mountain state. He received an appointment to the electoral council and worked until 1680 as a mountain commissioner at the Oberbergamt zu Sachsen . During this time, the Saxon mining industry still suffered from the consequences of the Thirty Years' War and was not very profitable.

In 1680 Olitzsch entered the service of the Dutch East India Company in order to take over the position of a miner for a gold mine in Sumatra . For this project he selected suitable miners . Together with his family, a servant and 22 mountain and hut people, he set out on the journey overseas on July 26, 1680. His expedition, which set sail from Amsterdam on November 9, 1680 with the sailing ship Sumatra , included the Freiberg marquee Johann Abraham Martini († July 15, 1681), the Wittenberg top climber Johann George Lange († November 12, 1682), the mountain clerk Elias Hesse , the Untersteiger Heber, Lange und Fahrrad from Freiberg, Baumgarten from Altenberg, Seidenglantz from Annaberg and Kaulfuß from the Seigerhütte Grünthal and the smelter Otto. Olitzschen's wife and five-year-old son Johann Friedrich died on the crossing. Three of the miners did not live to see the arrival in Batavia on June 10, 1681, where they were received in a solemn manner by the commander of West Sumatra, Johan van Leenen .

The unfamiliar tropical conditions caused the expedition to end in a fiasco. The initial enthusiasm for nature and the climate of the destination quickly gave way. After Olitzsch took over the management of the Sillida gold mine in 1681 and the East India Company had assigned 345 Malagasy and Malay slaves to the 22 German experts, the perils of the tropical conditions, with which the participants in the expedition were not familiar, became apparent. In addition to tropical fever and other illnesses from which the newcomers soon fell ill, technical difficulties also emerged. The heavy monsoon rains drowned the mines several times and the tropical wood neither charred nor could it be used for mining . Contrary to previous test results in Zellerfeld, the ores found showed only minor content and of poor quality.

Olitzsch, who was seriously ill and could only enter the mines in a carrying chair, died in 1682 and was buried with an honorary funeral. The two only survivors of the expedition, Bergschreiber Hesse and Olitzschen's second son Theodor, returned to Dresden in 1683, where they arrived in the same year. The management of the gold mines was entrusted to the Gotha "tester" Johann Wilhelm Vogel (1657–1723), who after his return in 1688 became a chamber clerk in Coburg and, like Hesse, published a travelogue about his experiences. In 1737 the Sillida gold mines were shut down.

Almost 100 years later, another Saxon mining expedition overseas took place under the direction of Fürchtegott Leberecht von Nordenflycht . This company, which began in 1778, also failed.

swell

• Elias Hesse : East-Indian travel description, or Diarium, what was in the journey of the Elector. Saxon. Raths and Berg-Commissarii D. Benjamin Olitzschens, in the year 1680 from Dreßden bit in Asiam on the Insul Sumatra Denckworthy proceeded. 2nd edition, Leipzig 1690.
• Johann Wilhelm Vogels were Fendrichs / etc. in the service of the Dutch East Indian Compagnie Diarium or Journal of his journey from Germany to Holland a. East India. Worbey added a short and detailed description of the foremost East Indian kingdoms a. Oerter / the same plants / manners / customs / beliefs / dress costumes / Müntz / measure / weight etc. Partly from personal experience / partly recorded from many discourses held with distinguished servants in India / and requests for printing have now been made by a number of good friends. Franckfurth and Leipzig: Friedrich Groschuff, 1690.

literature

• Announcements of the Freiberg Altertumsverein , issue 84, 2000