Faience manufacture Wrisbergholzen
The faience manufactory Wrisbergholzen has been producing since 1737 in what is now the Wrisbergholzen part of the municipality of Sibbesse , district of Hildesheim . The manufactory initially produced faience products and later also earthenware . Baron Rudolf Johann von Wrisberg had the factory built in 1736 near the previous building of Wrisbergholzen Castle . After the shutdown in 1834, it was inhabited by castle staff. The building is considered to be the only preserved faience manufacture from the 18th century and the only preserved pre-industrial factory building in northern Germany . An association has been running the building maintenance and renovation since 1984.
Building description
The factory building, which was built in 1736, has remained almost unchanged in its original spatial structure. It is a two-story half - timbered house with a C-shaped floor plan. The entrance is located in the middle and has a lintel as a carved decorative beam with the coat of arms of the Wrisberg family and the year 1736. The ground floor has an area of 340 m² and is 3.5 m high. On the ground floor, next to a spacious hall, there is the 4 m high combustion chamber in which the kiln used to be . The large furnace stretched over the two floors to the roof. The preserved foundation walls of the combustion chamber were archaeologically exposed in 1990.
In the two laterally protruding wings of the building, there was an apartment for the manager and the master distiller on the ground floor. On the first floor there were rooms for storing the goods as well as a work room for lathe operators and painters. The building has a basement in the right wing. The 2 m high cellar with a barrel-shaped stone vault made it possible to store the clay in a moist environment , as a small watercourse with gutters was passed through the room.
Emergence
Count Johann Rudolf von Wrisberg (1677–1764), then President of the Higher Appeal Court in Celle , originally intended to set up a tobacco pipe factory in Wrisbergholzen. The plan failed due to the lack of kaolin as the basic material. However, clay was found in the vicinity, which was suitable for firing faience products. Since there was enough firewood in the forests of the count's estate to run the kiln, the factory was built. Inquiries were made beforehand and contact was made with the Braunschweig faience factory , founded in 1707, to study the kiln there. The building was built in 1736 on the site of the kitchen garden , which was part of the previous building of Wrisbergholzen Castle. The builder Erich Joachim Bütemeister from Moringen was commissioned with the construction, and from 1740 he was also in charge of the new construction of Wrisbergholzen Castle and the estate. Although there was a large kiln inside the factory, a second kiln for smaller fires was put into operation behind the building in 1739.
production
When the manufactory began producing as "Porcellain Fabrique" in 1737, initially faience products were made. In the first 40 years these were mainly large-format wall tiles , which were difficult to manufacture at the time because of their size. With this product, the Wrisbergholzen manufacture rose above the performance of other German companies, such as the Münden faience manufacture . The manufactory logo in Wrisbergholzen were the initials WR .
The most outstanding example of large-format tile production is the furnishing of the tile room in Wrisbergholzen Castle . 680 of the total of 800 blue and white tiles with emblematic motifs based on literary models from the 16th and 17th centuries come from the factory and completely cover the walls of the room. All emblem tiles are unique and were painted by the painter Johann Christoph Haase († October 18, 1749) from 1746.
Large-format wall tiles made of Wrisberg wood were used in the destroyed Ruthe Castle near Sarstedt , in the garden hall of the episcopal palace in Münster and in the royal bathhouse in Bad Rehburg .
Towards the end of the 18th century, the manufactory began producing earthenware of varying quality. For the most part, inexpensive products were produced for everyday use. These were faience jugs , plates , flower pots and ink pots with simple patterns. The cheap mass-produced goods were sold in the area and in nearby towns (Braunschweig, Göttingen, Hildesheim, Holzminden). For more financially strong customers there were more elaborate products such as vases and sculptures with Chinese motifs. A tall lidded vase, which the artist Johann Schröder painted around 1740, was the first faience exhibit in 1889 at the August Kestner Museum in Hanover , which was founded in 1889 . Overall, the manufactory gave the place Wrisbergholzen great economic importance during the 18th century.
Between 1815 and 1825, Louis Gerverot , long-time head of the Fürstenberg porcelain factory , was director of the Wrisbergholzen factory. When he took over the position in 1815, the company was in a desperate state with only rare earthenware fires. After that, the situation improved and the company continued to work for 18 years.
Decline
In 1834 the manufactory stopped production. It had been in production for nearly 100 years, which is an unusually long production period. This proves that the company flourished economically despite the competition from the southern Lower Saxony region. The reason for the decline, as with other faience manufacturers, was the onset of the industrial age . The factories with predominantly manual production processes were no longer competitive with factories. In addition, the factory goods were cheaper and more durable.
After the closure in 1834, the building was used for residential purposes for employees of Wrisbergholzen Castle, including gardeners and foresters. After the Second World War , it was used to accommodate up to eight refugee families who had left their home in the east of the German Reich as displaced persons . The lack of maintenance meant that from 1964 only one apartment in the house was habitable and the state of construction deteriorated steadily.
today
In 1984 the Association for the Preservation of Architectural Monuments was founded in Wrisbergholzen and took over the building that was in the possession of the castle owner and was in great need of restoration. Since then, the association, which has around 20 active members, has been working on a voluntary basis with the preservation of the historical buildings in the entire ensemble of Wrisbergholzen Castle, in particular with the former faience factory. Over the years, the members of the association repaired the factory building themselves and have been maintaining the associated property ever since. During the first work, mud was removed from the basement and large amounts of bulky waste were removed from the premises. The preservation also takes place within the framework of research work and through international exchange projects. The association set up a small exhibition in the building with found objects (vessels and shards) from the excavations and restorations. He also offers guided tours, especially on the Open Monument Day .
See also
literature
- Hela Schandelmaier: Lower Saxon faience. The Lower Saxony manufactories Braunschweig I and II, Hannoversch Münden, Wrisbergholzen (= faience. 1 = Kestner Museum Hannover. Collection catalog. 11). Kestner Museum, Hanover 1993, ISBN 3-924029-20-2 .
- Leuphana University of Lüneburg, Institute for Urban and Cultural Research, Dept. Cultural Geography: Faience factory in Wrisbergholzen in: Industrial culture in the Leinebergland region. Project report. , Pp. 71–73 ( online , pdf)
Web links
- Description of the faience manufacture by the Association for the Preservation of Architectural Monuments in Wrisbergholzen
- Description with photos
- Description of the manufacture and the Wrisbergholzen palace complex
Coordinates: 52 ° 1 ′ 48.5 ″ N , 9 ° 54 ′ 49.6 ″ E