Friedrich August Bretschneider

Friedrich August Bretschneider

Friedrich August Bretschneider (born February 13, 1805 in Delitzsch , † July 22, 1863 in Löbau ) was a German master baker . He was the founder of the König-Friedrich-August-Tower on the Löbauer Berg .

Live and act

Bretschneider was born in Delitzsch in 1805. From 1828 at the latest he lived in Löbau. On August 5, 1828, he married Erdmuthe Gottliebe Schmidt. Their father was the owner of a bakery on the Löbauer Altmarkt. Bretschneider took over his father-in-law's business and became a master baker. From 1850 there were plans in the city to build a lookout tower on Löbauer Berg , but these were discarded due to a lack of financial means. Bretschneider was one of the proponents of the tower project. On November 28, 1853, he presented his own ideas for the realization of the observation tower to the then mayor of Löbau, Karl Hartmann. Bretschneider offered the city to finance the project entirely with its own funds. He tied a number of conditions to this offer, such as the type of construction of the tower, the companies involved in the construction and unrestricted use of the land, including an inn on the tower for 15 years. The Löbauer city fathers agreed to the proposal, construction of the König-Friedrich-August-Tower began in May 1854. Bretschneider reckoned with construction costs of around 5000 thalers . When the tower opened in September 1854, however, the costs had totaled 25,000 thalers. Bretschneider was forced to sell many of his possessions and go into debt. He died in 1863 at the age of 58.

Bretschneider published the book Der Löbauer Berg und der Friedrich-August-Thurm by Emil Borott in 1854, in which, among other things, the construction of the tower was reported.

Commemoration

Bretschneider house on Löbauer Altmarkt

In July 1862 there was a fire in the house of Bretschneider's bakery. The fire quickly spread to neighboring houses and streets and could only be extinguished after many hours. The master baker's house was rebuilt and completed in 1865, two years after his death. The building was named Bretschneider House in honor of Friedrich August Bretschneider . The house is now a listed building. The history of the observation tower and its founder is shown in the passage to the inner courtyard.

There was a memorial stone for Friedrich August Bretschneider not far from the observation tower. On the occasion of his 200th birthday on February 13, 2005, he was transferred to the old cemetery in Löbau. There it was placed on the original plinth of Bretschneider's grave. The original gravestone was damaged during the GDR era and has since disappeared.

Next to the König-Friedrich-August-Turm a memorial plaque commemorates the founder, on which, among other things, Bretschneider's motto, “The further the view, the freer the heart” can be read.

During the Turmfest 2014, the life story of Friedrich August Bretschneider was presented as a play under the name “Welch 'Splendor!” With the support of the Löbauer City Archives and the City Hall. You cast iron! "

literature

• Ingrid Seltmann: Famous personalities of Upper Lusatia . tape 1 . Oberlausitzer Verlag, Spitzkunnersdorf 2009, ISBN 978-3-933827-81-4 , p. 67 f .
• Emil Borott: The Löbauer Berg and the Friedrich-August-Thurm . Verlag von FA Bretschneider, Löbau 1854, p. 24–31 ( digitized version ).

Web links

Commons : Friedrich August Bretschneider  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ The König-Friedrich-August-Turm - a very rare cast iron object. (No longer available online.) Löbau City Administration, archived from the original on June 2, 2016 ; accessed on June 2, 2016 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
2. ↑ The Bretschneider House. loebaufoto.de, accessed on June 2, 2016 . 
3. ^ Löbau, Alter Friedhof - FA Bretschneider Memorial. loebaufoto.de, accessed on June 2, 2016 . 
4. ↑ Banker plays tower financier. In: Sächsische Zeitung, edition of August 11, 2014 ( online ).