David Möllinger

David Möllinger

David Möllinger (born January 24, 1709 in Dühren , † May 24, 1787 in Monsheim ) was a large German farmer and entrepreneur. Because of his enthusiasm for innovation, the agricultural reformer is known as the “father of the Palatinate arable farming”.

Life

The Mennonite Möllinger initially ran a farm together with his father in Mutterstadt , before he was able to acquire his own farm in neighboring Gronau after his wedding in 1732 . In 1744 he bought a larger property in Monsheim in the town of Lining ; the size of this acquisition is unknown, Möllinger's grandchildren cultivated a total of 175 hectares of land in Monsheim .

In addition to farming, Möllinger ran a brewery , a schnapps distillery and a vinegar factory on his property ; He is said to have been the first farmer to distill potato schnapps there in 1750 . Möllinger used the waste from the brewery, distillery and vinegar factory as wet feed for animal fattening . However, the amount of feed was no longer sufficient when he was commissioned by the Count of Leiningen-Dachsburg-Falkenburg-Heidesheim with the weekly delivery of an ox . With the support of the Count, Möllinger bought further areas on which he began to grow Esparsettes in 1769 . He was the first farmer in the region to fertilize these areas with lime , probably inspired by appropriate fertilization attempts by Alsatian Mennonites. According to Schwerz , Möllinger was also the founder of manure fertilization in the Palatinate, for which he used the manure from his up to 80 oxen.

Thanks to the improved supply of nutrients, Möllinger was able to dispense with the previous doubts about farming on its land and thus significantly increase its yields. A clearly structured work organization and written bookkeeping were necessary to manage his estate, both of which were also innovations.

reception

Möllinger became well known during his lifetime because of his agricultural successes. Johann Heinrich Jung-Stilling , at that time professor of agriculture, technology, factories and trade as well as cattle medicine at the University of Heidelberg , referred to Möllinger in his lectures in 1785: “What is possible through agriculture, that small jog in Switzerland and still proves sublime, important and instructive, our Palatinate and perhaps the Holy Roman Empire ore builder, the venerable Möllinger. ”Since the 1780s, Möllingers Gut has been the destination of numerous visitors, mainly from southwest Germany, who came to find out about modern cultivation methods. A guest book created in 1785 recorded more than 350 visitors by 1805.

Möllinger's innovations were quickly adopted by the farmers in the area. A contemporary source reports that “(s) an example (...) was already followed in the 1780s, (...). In the 1790s, farmers who stuck to the old began to grow potatoes and clover. "

Streets in Monsheim and Rödersheim-Gronau were named after Möllinger . A memorial plaque was put up on his estate at Hauptstrasse 34 in Monsheim.

literature

• Hildegard Frieß-Reimann: Mennonite agricultural reformers . In: Michael Simon, Hildegard Frieß-Reimann (Hrsg.): Folklore as a program: Updates at the turn of the millennium . Waxmann Verlag, Münster 1996, ISBN 3-89325-449-8 , p. 61-74 .
• Erich Hehr: David Möllinger . In: Hartmut Harthausen (Hrsg.): Pfälzer Lebensbilder . tape 1 . Palatinate Society for the Advancement of Science, Speyer 1964, p. 67-88 .
• Frank Konersmann: The guest book of the Mennonite farming family David Möllinger Senior 1781-1817 . Verlag der Rheinhessische Druckwerkstätte Alzey, 2009, ISBN 978-3-87854-218-6 .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Frank Konersmann: Agricultural production, trade, trade. Studies on the social type of peasant merchant in southwest Germany on the left bank of the Rhine (1740–1880) . In: Frank Konersmann, Klaus-Joachim Lorenzen-Schmidt (ed.): Farmers as traders . Lucius & Lucius, Stuttgart 2011, ISBN 978-3-8282-0542-0 , p. 78 f .
2. ↑ Felix Zillien: David Möllinger: Father of the Palatinate agriculture . In: District Alzey-Worms (Hrsg.): Alzey-Worms: Heimatjahrbuch Landkreis Alzey-Worms . tape 24 . District Adult Education Center Alzey-Worms, Alzey 1989, p. 99-101 .
3. ^ Christian Neff: Möllinger, David (1709–1786) . In: Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia . 1957 ( online [accessed January 24, 2009]).
4. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Frieß-Reimann, p. 68
5. ↑ quoted from Frieß-Reimann, p. 69
6. ↑ Frieß-Reimann, p. 69
7. ^ Gunter Mahlerwein: Changes in village communication in the late 18th and first half of the 19th century . In: Werner Rösener (Ed.): Communication in rural society from the Middle Ages to modern times . Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, Göttingen 2000, ISBN 3-525-35472-X , p. 350 .