Georg Christoph von Utterodt

Georg Christoph von Utterodt , also Georg Christoff (* around 1650 on Gut Schmerbach ; † 1714 ) was the princely Saxon mining captain and mountain ridge in Ilmenau and the counting Stolberg mining captain in Straßberg and the landlord on Schmerbach and Schwarzhausen .

Live and act

He came from the Thuringian noble family von Uetterodt . Before 1677 he was a chamberlain in Henneberg . On November 15, 1677 he married Margarethe Magdalena Susanne von Herda (* June 2, 1656; † November 21, 1703).

At Utterodt's instigation, mining in Ilmenau was resumed from 1680. From 1684 Utterodt was in the service of Duke Johann Ernst II of Weimar in Ilmenau . In 1686 he is named in the official files as a supporter of the Sturmhaider factory and inspector of the Martinröder tunnel construction . At a conference of the Saxon representatives of the mining industry from Saxe-Gotha , Saxe-Coburg , Saxe-Meiningen , Saxe-Saalfeld , Saxe-Jena , Saxe-Zeitz and Saxe-Weimar on March 17, 1686 Utterodt was also involved. His proposal for consolidation was unanimously rejected, just as a later proposal in this regard was not implemented. His request for permanent employment and a decent salary had to be suspended for lack of instruction from the MP. The minutes of the meeting show that Utterodt did the work alone, without assistants. On February 19, 1687, he made his proposal a third time and again underlined the advantages it would bring. After Sachsen-Zeitz approved the proposal, the others also agreed. In the course of this, he was appointed mining captain by Duke Wilhelm Ernst . Between 1688 and 1699 Utterodt dug the first artificial trenches and ponds in the area of Frenbach and Manebach .

According to a later assessment by Goethe, he led the Ilmenau salt mining "economically into a catastrophe, but technically to a new boom". He earned merit with the improvement of the graduation systems - although some of his suggestions were only implemented in 1711, long after he left the service in Saxony.

Mining in the Straßberger Revier existed since at least 1438, possibly also since 1279. The first smelting works for silver is documented for the period from 1511 to 1566. The first water management systems in the Rödelbachtal are documented from this time. Already in the second half of the 16th century the ore deposits near the surface were exhausted and mining largely came to a standstill. Mining was then completely stopped by the Thirty Years War . It was not until 1663 that new trade unions were formed and some pits were encouraged. However, silver ore was not extracted again until 1700. At this point in time, the water management of the Straßberg district was still as it was in 1610.

In 1701 Utterodt, coming from Ilmenau , took over the post of Straßberg miner. Together with the financial expert Johann Jeremias Gründler (1681–1753), initially hired as a joint Stolberg-Stolberg and Stolberg-Roßlaischer tithe , he united all the mines into a large union with 1024 kuxes of 20 thalers each . The union was renamed Straßberger Consolidierte Bergwerk and in 1704 received a privilege from the sovereigns. The first day of sale, New Year's Eve 1705, had to have been prepared excellently, as all but 57 Kuxen shares were sold on that day. Large investors together held 924 Kuxes. With the exception of the Stolberg counts Christoph Friedrich and Jost Christian, who each held 50 kuxes, these came exclusively from Hamburg and the Duchy of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg . The remaining stock, reduced to 24 Kuxen, was taken over by Utterodt himself on March 17, 1706. Under Utterodt's leadership, the main mines, Blessing God , God's Help , God Certainly Helps , Trust in God (later renamed Grube Glasebach ), also the neighboring corridors and the mines are operated by Hayn and Schwenda . There were also driving, art and conveyor shafts. The Trust in God pit was sunk to a depth of 60 m under Utterodt's direction - the sinking to 216 m was carried out under his successor.

From 1703 to 1704 Utterodt had the Schindelbruch artificial moat built from the Gräfingründer pond to the lazy puddle pond . By 1707, six artificial ponds with a total of approx. 380,000 m³ of storage space as well as two further artificial trenches were added. The shingle Brücher Kunstgraben could all Straßberger supply ponds with water after installation and is the oldest Kunstgraben the Lower Harz Pond and grave system . He also had the Hüttenstollen , a deep tunnel from Selketal out ahead with the mine water pits Getreuer Bergmann , God helps certainly , Good luck and Zum Schwarzen Hirsch to solve . Under Utterodt's leadership, the Straßberg district became the most important mining district in the Harz from 1704.

From the winter of 1707/1708 at the latest, massive financing problems became apparent. This was primarily due to the additional tunnels and shafts required and the associated mining technology for draining the pits. After a plan for the rescue of the union, essentially based on halving the Kuxen, by Gründler and Dr. Jakob Waitz , Princely Saxon tax collector and mayor of Gotha - for his part one of the major investors, prepared Gründler and Utterodt in the course of 1708 for the Straßberger Trades Day . Investors were given the benefit of concentrating the existing capital on the extraction of galena and the drainage of the pits, while at the same time shutting down the smelting plant. In view of the large quantities of silver-containing ore and apparently insufficient smelter capacities, the trade day, which began on July 8th, ended financially on August 10th. By 1713 the Utterodt family had completely sold their 84 (old) kuxes. Several other large investors also withdrew by 1713, including the Counts of Stolberg, whose shares were taken over by the new mountain director Christian Zacharias Koch . Utterodt's activity in Straßberg probably ended in 1709. The mining area and with it the Lower Harz pond and ditch system was taken over by Christian Zacharias Koch after the proclamation of mountain freedom in 1712 and led to its prime.

Nothing is known about Utterodt's whereabouts. He died in 1714. Utterodt was considered to work quite unselfishly, his annual salary as a princely Saxon miner was a comparatively modest 150 thalers.

Individual evidence

1. ^ ^{A b} Duke Friedrich I of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg (edited by Roswitha Jacobsen. With the help of Juliane Brandsch): Diaries 1667–1686: Commentary and register . In: Thüringisches Staatsarchiv Gotha (ed.): Die Tagebücher 1667–1686 . 2nd volume. H. Böhlau, Weimar 2003, ISBN 3-7400-1033-9 , p. 848 ( excerpt [accessed December 24, 2011]).
2. ↑ ^{a b c} Otfried Wagenbreth: Goethe and the Ilmenau mining . Ed .: City of Ilmenau, Tourist Office Ilmenau Information. 2nd Edition. Technical University Bergakademie , Freiberg 2006, ISBN 3-86012-286-X , p. 140 ( excerpt [accessed December 24, 2011]).
3. ↑ Geologisches Jahrbuch , Volume 47, Page 434, Prussische Geologische Landesanstalt, 1926 ( excerpt )
4. ^ Paul Lehfeldt, Georg Voss: Grand Duchy of Saxony-Weimar-Eisenach. District court districts Grossrudestedt and Vieselbach , in: Architectural and Art Monuments of Thuringia , Part 4, Volumes 1–3, page 27, Verlag G. Fischer, 1891 ( excerpt )
5. ^ Jean-Claude Hocquet and Rudolf Palme (eds.): The salt in legal and commercial history . Congress files / International Salt History Congress, September 26 to October 1, 1990, Hall in Tirol. Berenkamp, ​​Schwaz 1991, ISBN 3-85093-006-8 , pp. 470 ( excerpt from google books [accessed on December 24, 2011] contributions. Partly German, partly English, partly French, partly Spanish).
6. ↑ ^{a b c} Harz Journal 2010. Volume 62 2010 by Harzverein für Geschichte und Altertumskunde eV (ed.)
7. ↑ Wilfried Ließmann: Historical mining in the Harz . 3. Edition. Springer, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-540-31328-1 .

literature

• Wilfried Ließmann: Historical mining in the Harz , page 316 u. 324, ISBN 978-3-540-31328-1 ( excerpt )
• Karl Heinemann: Goethe's Works , Volume 30, Bibliographical Institute, 1908
• Johann August Friedrich Schmidt: Historical-topographical description of the mining town of Ilmenau , Verlag Wilhelm Richel, Ilmenau 1839, page 21 ( digitized version )
• Johann Karl Wilhelm Voigt: History of the Ilmenau mining industry together with a geognostic of the same area , self-published by the son, Sondershausen a. Nordhausen 1821 ( digitized version )

Web links

• Homepage of Straßberg
• The Lower Harz pond and ditch system