Christoph Friedrich Duttenhofer

Christoph Friedrich Duttenhofer (* 1724 ; † April 23, 1782 in Stuttgart ) was a German silk producer and expert in the time of Carl Eugen .

Christoph Friedrich Duttenhofer was a son of the Nürtingen hospital and mayor Jakob Friedrich Duttenhofer and his first wife Marie Judith, nee. Gfrörner and thus a half-brother of the general superintendent Christian Friedrich Duttenhofer .

Duttenhofer studied theology and became pastor in Oberensingen in 1751 , but soon gave rise to complaints. The synod criticized that he “took little time to study”, was “sometimes quite rough towards the young people” and in general was “quite unfriendly and loving towards his listeners”. In 1770 he was suspended from duty. In the same year his wife Katharine Magdalene, geb. Raser, with whom he had sons Johann Friedrich and Karl August Friedrich and daughter Friederike, divorced him. The occasion was the birth of his illegitimate son Immanuel Friedrich, whose mother Christine Magdalene Balz was an innkeeper's daughter.

Silk production in Württemberg in Duttenhofer's time

The reason for his suspension was Duttenhofer's lack of commitment in his actual office. This was apparently based on his strong commitment in another matter: Christoph Friedrich Duttenhofer was one of the pioneers of silk production in the country.

In 1751, a formerly private silk manufacture and plantings had passed into the hands of the government. Duke Carl Eugen assigned the task of reviving silk production in Württemberg to the councilors Christian Jakob Reinwald and Christoph Wilhelm Fink. This was associated with numerous benefits for the next 25 years: In addition to the production facilities, which had to be paid for at 5000  florins , the entrepreneurs also received mulberry plantings free of charge in Ludwigsburg , Maulbronn , in Großvillars , at individual other locations and in Stuttgart, as well as annual support of 500 florins, plus a manufacturing privilege, tax exemption and other advantages. Furthermore, it was decreed by the authorities that “between the Enz and the Neckar, the offices and subjects should be urged to take over as many mulberry trees as can be without damage according to the nature of their property, and in their fields and To transplant gardens. ”A six-storey filatorium was built in Berg near Stuttgart to recycle the expected quantities of silk , the numerous machines of which were all driven by a single water wheel. In order to increase production even further, in 1751 Cotta printed instructions on how to deal with silk worms and how to make silk and distributed them throughout the country.

But inland sales of the goods soon stalled and in 1761 the factory in Berg could no longer hold out. In large parts of the country, the Duke's ordinances were accepted only reluctantly, but individual private enthusiasts, including Christoph Friedrich Duttenhofer, devoted themselves intensively to the occupation with silk production and tried to overcome the difficulties that the keeping of the silkworms in the Württemberg climate brought himself. From 1756 these private initiatives were supported by awards from the sovereign. This was also urgently needed because the silk producers lacked sales opportunities and the entrepreneurs often reacted unwillingly to the offer of cocoons instead of coiled silk. However, reeled silk “was only supplied by Pastor Duttenhofer from Ober-Ensingen | and barber Schneider von Ober-Riexingen. ”Duttenhofer won the first two premiums.

An attempt by a company in Nürtingen to bring silk production on a better basis by laying out numerous avenues of mulberry trees failed after three years. Duttenhofer now seemed almost alone in the far hall. "Taken with a passionate predilection for silk-breeding, and filled with the most charming ideas of its statelevant influence, he created a mulberry-tree plantation and all the facilities for silk-worm breeding for himself with little means, but especially through teaching and teaching he looked for the farmer to work for the best of the cause, ”reads a contemporary report. In 1767 the government, relying on his advice in matters of silk production, sent him to Italy to study. Duttenhofer received many of the premiums that were suspended annually, which were, however, halved in 1770.

After both the sovereign in 1783 and Christoph Friedrich Duttenhofer died in 1782, the silk production in Württemberg went steeply downhill again: “The applications for the takeover of the beautiful plantation of the poor Duttenhofer widow (1787) were not received, Reinwald's sizeable filatorium in Berg one let disintegrate, and in 1803 sold for a ridiculous price (2600 florins); The last negotiations plowed with a Balderstein from Graubünden in 1808 for a larger company in the country were also unsuccessful. "

A mulberry tree planted in Oberensingen in 2000 in Duttenhofer's honor and the street name Seidenstrasse in Stuttgart remind of the time of silk production in Württemberg . Ludwigsburg also owned a Silk Road until 1911, when it was renamed Richard-Wagner-Straße. The ducal spinning and silk culture house in Ludwigsburg's Friedrich-Ebert-Straße has been preserved. Today it serves as a residential building. The former filatorium in Stuttgart-Berg, Poststrasse 44, is also still standing.

Duttenhofer's end

Christoph Friedrich Duttenhofer worked for a time in the silk production in Ludwigsburg, and for a time in the state capital in the ducal garden at the Büchsentor. Despite the recognition as a professional and although he received numerous bonuses, the suspended pastor got into financial difficulties and was ultimately dependent on the support of his son. When Karl August Friedrich Duttenhofer could no longer do this, he came to the Duke on March 16, 1782 for support and asked to take the sick father into the ducal nursing home, but this was refused. Christoph Friedrich Duttenhofer died on April 23, 1782 in the ducal hospital, an institution for the poor.

literature

• Th. Holub: The breeding of the silkworm was difficult. Pastor DUTTENHOFER and his experiments. Nürtinger Zeitung, local supplement I / 1986.
• Silk culture in Württemberg. In: JGD Memminger (Hrsg.): Würtembergische yearbooks for patriotic history, geography, statistics and topography. Born in 1832, 1st issue, Stuttgart and Tübingen (Cotta) 1833, pp. 121 to 141.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ quoted from Fritz Bürkle : Karl August Friedrich von Duttenhofer (1758-1836). Pioneer of hydraulic engineering in Württemberg. Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 1988, ISBN 3-608-91521-4 , p. 11 f.
2. ^ Würtembergische Jahrbücher für Geschichte ..., p. 124
3. ↑ [1]  ( page no longer available , search in web archives ), accessed on March 28, 2009
4. ↑ Würtembergische Jahrbücher ..., p. 134 f.
5. ↑ Würtembergische Jahrbücher ..., p. 137
6. ^ Würtembergische Jahrbücher ..., p. 140
7. ↑ http://www.muse-o.de/geschichte/geschichte_berg.html  ( page no longer available , search in web archives ), accessed on March 29, 2009
8. ↑ Bürkle 1988, p. 24