Friedrich Wilhelm Stantien

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Friedrich Wilhelm Stantien (born May 9, 1817 in Stolbeck , † July 14, 1891 in Memel ) was a mining entrepreneur in Samland . Together with Moritz Becker, he introduced the industrial mining of amber in East Prussia .

The entrepreneur

Sources (shipowners, fishermen, ship servants, innkeepers) contradict each other about Friedrich Wilhelm Stantien's initial professional career. In any case, it is certain that from 1852 at the latest , he systematically searched for amber , initially on his own property and later on a meadow near Prökuls . In 1854 he leased the right to excavate in the Curonian Lagoon to Bernstein and in return took on the obligation to maintain the fairway. In 1858 he became a partner in the company Stantien & Becker , which was founded in the same year and which henceforth mined amber on an industrial scale, including setting up an amber excavation in Schwarzort in 1862 . Amber mining was later continued on the west coast of Samland . Stantien was regarded as the "engineer" of the flourishing company, while Becker covered the commercial side and took care of sales channels in particular.

According to some sources, Stantien is said to have been "pushed" out of the company by his partner Becker in 1871. It is more likely, however, that he was still a co-owner of the company in 1883 and only sold his shares later (see, among others, Becker 1896). According to unsecured sources, he is said to have received two million marks from Moritz Becker for this.

family

Stantienite from Bitterfeld; Collection: Natural History Museum Mauritianum Altenburg
Beckerite from Bitterfeld, natural form, size: 54 mm; Collection: Natural History Museum Mauritianum Altenburg.

Friedrich Wilhelm Stantien was the son of the bargeer Friedrich Stantien and his wife Anne Marie Stantien born. Pratz. He was born with Friederike Dorothea. Schink married, with whom he had at least one son and four daughters, most of whom found their livelihood in agriculture. Through the partnership in Stantien & Becker and the proceeds from the sale of these shares a few years before his death, the family lived in an economically secure situation.

Beckerite and Stantienite

Two of the accessory resins (varieties of amber that are not succinite) that occur in the Baltic Sea region together with Baltic amber (succinite) were named after the owners of the company "Stantien & Becker" as stantienite and beckerite . Both amber varieties are also found in Bitterfeld .

literature

  • K. Andrée: The amber - the amber country and its life. Stuttgart 1951.
  • M. Becker: Memorandum on the judgment of the Royal Regional Court of Stolp. Berlin 1896.
  • R. Klebs: Amber and its history. Koenigsberg 1889.
  • W. Tesdorpf: Extraction, processing and trading of amber in Prussia from the time of the order to the present. Jena 1887.

Web links

Individual evidence

Most of the information in this article has been taken from the sources given under literature; the following sources are also cited:

  1. ↑ a b c A. Brekenfeld: The entrepreneurs Friedrich Wilhelm Stantien and Moritz Becker. In: Amber - Tears of the Gods. Bochum 1996
  2. ^ R. Klebs: Extraction and processing of amber. Königsberg 1883. Quoted in Brekenfeld 1996.
personal data
SURNAME Stantien, Friedrich Wilhelm
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German entrepreneur in amber mining
DATE OF BIRTH May 9, 1817
PLACE OF BIRTH Stolbeck , now part of Tilsit
DATE OF DEATH July 14, 1891
Place of death Memel