Conrad Bernhard Meyer

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Conrad Bernhard Meyer (born May 19, 1755 in Aurich ; † September 10, 1830 there ) was an East Frisian merchant , engraver and architect .

Early years

Born as the son of a farmer in Aurich, he first attended the local city school and switched to Latin school at the age of 10 . This school career did not correspond to the educational tradition of his class at that time. He had to quit school prematurely at the age of 18 because his father had bought the inn on Aurich Marktplatz, which he was to continue to run under his own responsibility. So Conrad Bernhard Meyer became a restaurateur and couldn't realize his plan to study mathematics. He married Gretje Wilken in 1774. After her untimely death, he entered into a second marriage with Dorothea Davemann.

Artist and designer

The transparent mirror according to CB Meyer

Conrad Bernhard Meyer quickly enjoyed success as an innkeeper. The inn he managed rose to the social and gastronomic center of the civil servants' city within a very short time. The basis of his success was a special commercial skill paired with his distinctive artistic ideas. He designed and built a "homage temple" for King Friedrich Wilhelm II of Prussia, a playful structure made of wood and paper (14 meters high, illuminated by 800 lamps and 2000 colored balls). He created Aurich's main attraction in 1786. This building manifests the beginning of his artistic activity in Aurich. He tried to find an engraver who would make a picture of his work of art. The excessive fee demands made him become a copperplate engraver himself, although he had not had any artistic training. Enterprising spirit and a pronounced artistic talent made him dare to try it. The results of the work were recognized and so a series of views of East Frisian cities as well as portraits of well-known East Frisian personalities followed. He quickly found buyers for his copperplate engravings . While engraving the copper plates, he invented a transparent mirror that enabled drawings to be enlarged or reduced on the plate. He was even able to sell this mirror to London and St. Petersburg .

Over time, Conrad Bernhard Meyer developed more and more into a designer of canal locks , an underground fire water system for the city of Aurich, a mechanical scaffold and improved other technical facilities.

Businessman in various industries

His success as a businessman has been changeable over the years. He was able to sell the “Schwarzer Bär” inn for a solid profit. His sawmill and trading in building materials were very profitable. He leased the gastronomy of the up-and-coming seaside resort of Norderney and bought residential properties in the moor, he built an earthenware and faience factory at the Aurich harbor, he had clay pipes made and invested in the associated tobacco trade. He organized the purchase of horses for the Prussian army, he was temporarily director of the private trek barge company for the canal connection from Aurich to Emden , he held the office of a salt factor and also set up a sealing wax factory . His business operations often turned out to be miscalculations or his family managers were incapable. Another reason was the structural weakness of Aurich, especially the (even today) inadequate transport links, so that the basis for profitable and large-scale trade was missing. In addition, there was his volatility and restlessness, which might inspire an artist, but damage a merchant of the time.

Architect and builder

Reformed Church in Aurich
Memorial stone for the synagogue built according to plans by CB Meyer

Conrad Bernhard Meyer is primarily connected to the numerous buildings in Aurich that he designed between 1799 and 1814. As a self-taught architect and builder, he shaped the image of the city of Aurich like no other.

Buildings in Aurich

The Reformed Church was his masterpiece in Aurich. He not only made the design, he even made the columns and many details in his own workshop. Conrad Bernhard Meyer had never attended a construction school, he acquired the necessary knowledge himself.

Activity as a local politician

Due to his many talents, Conrad Bernhard Meyer was appointed a leading member of the municipal building commission and as commander of the civil guard . Due to his work in other non-profit areas, he was offered the office of police mayor in 1805 , but he refused.

literature

  • From the life of a brilliant Aurich citizen, in: Ostfriesische Nachrichten, 1890, no. 26,27,29
  • Ernst Grütering: Conrad Bernhard Meyer and architecture around 1800 in East Friesland , Diss. Phil. Cologne 1928
  • Gert Schlechtriem : Conrad Bernhard Meyer. A builder of classicism in Ostfriesland , in: Ostfriesland. Zeitschrift für Kultur, Wirtschaft und Verkehr, 1957, no. 1, pp. 13-21
  • Conrad Bernhard Meyer: Exhibition catalog of Lower Saxony. State Archives in Aurich on the 150th anniversary of death (September 10 - November 9, 1980), Aurich 1980
  • Karl Gramberg: Aurich from CB Meyer up to our days , 1st book, Aurich 1992
  • Robert Noah: The Reformed Church in Aurich ( Ostfriesische Kunstführer , issue 6). Aurich 1983
  • Stefan Pötzsch: Conrad Bernhard Meyer, innkeeper and merchant, engraver and master builder. A contribution to the economic and social history of Aurich at the turn of the 18th to the 19th century , in: Collectanea Frisica. Contributions to the historical regional studies of East Frisia, ed. by H. van Lengen (treatises and lectures on the history of East Frisia, 74), Aurich 1995, pp. 341–361
  • Carl Wilhelm Hennert, Brief instructions for some geometric tools , p. 125ff contains an imprint of
  • The transparent mirror or description of a new simplified instrument from CBMeyer Digitalisat

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Gabriel Christoph Benjamin Busch , Handbook of Inventions , Volume 12, P. 109f of the transparent mirror digitized
personal data
SURNAME Meyer, Conrad Bernhard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION East Frisian merchant, engraver and architect
DATE OF BIRTH May 19, 1755
PLACE OF BIRTH Aurich
DATE OF DEATH September 10, 1830
Place of death Aurich