Georg Christian Heinrich Rosentritt

Georg Christian Heinrich Rosentritt (born September 29, 1759 in Dürkheim ; † May 2, 1846 in Rappenau ) was the discoverer of the Rappenau salt warehouse and the first administrator of the Bad Rappenau salt works, which brought about the independence of the Baden state from French salt imports and which is now the spa in Bad Rappenau goes back. In 1836 he was made the first honorary citizen of Rappenau.

biography

Rosentritt was the son of the Electoral Palatinate saltworks inspector in Dürkheim , Berthold Christian Rosentritt, and his wife Susanna Henrietta. After completing his geology studies in Heidelberg and Göttingen, he was technical director of the small grading saline in Soultz unterm Walde (Soultz-sous-Forets) and head of the mines in neighboring Lobsann, both in northern Alsace, from 1787 to 1821, i.e. for 34 years located, been active. He had a wealth of experience when he returned to Germany at the end of 1821, applied for the concession to test drillings at Rappenau that same year and, on the night of September 10-11, 1822, a few days before his 63rd birthday, the bath Rappenauer Salzlager discovered.

In the Neckar valley, rich salt deposits had been discovered in drilling in the Württemberg and Hessian areas since 1816 , and the grand ducal government of Baden sought to extract salt in the Baden area as well. Previous wells had been unsuccessful, and the Baden state had put out a high premium for the discovery of rich brine . On November 8, 1821, Rosentritt received the required concession and was successful in drilling the following year. Together with Friedrich Arnold and the head of the Baden Ministry of Finance, he wrote a memorandum in March 1823 on the conditions under which the delivery of 80,000 quintals of table salt from the Rappenau salt works by the end of the year. J. , which convinced the Baden government in April 1823 to build the Bad Rappenau salt works .

Rose step tomb in the cemetery in Bad Rappenau

Rosentritt received the office of saltworks administrator in Rappenau, he managed the saltworks until 1835. He was responsible for drilling the first five boreholes of the saltworks. His wells had hardly reached drilling depths until then. Borehole 5 of the salt works was 214.55 meters deep and pierced the entire thickness of the salt seam, the thickness of which could thus be proven to be over 30 meters. The salt pans in Rappenau and Dürrheim made the Baden state independent of the previously necessary, expensive salt imports from France.

During his time as salt works manager in Rappenau, Rosentritt also undertook test drillings for lignite and gypsum between what is now the Rappenau districts of Babstadt and Treschklingen . In 1836 he was made the first honorary citizen of Rappenau.

After his time in Rappenau, Rosentritt, now very old, was in England, where he also carried out test drillings for salt deposits. His English ventures were not only unsuccessful, but also led to a lawsuit against the British state, in which Rosentritt lost all of his fortune. He died single and impoverished in 1846 at the age of 86 in Rappenau and was buried in the local cemetery.

In 1932 his tomb was decorated with old chisels and drill rods. The Rosentritt Clinic , one of the spa clinics there , is named after him in Bad Rappenau today .

literature

• Michael Konnerth: The Rappenauer Saline and its history . City of Bad Rappenau, Bad Rappenau 1990
• Jean Claude Streicher: Rosentritt and the mines of Lobsann (1788–1821) . City of Bad Rappenau, Bad Rappenau 2003