Georg Hubmer

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Georg Hubmer, the "Rax King"

Georg Hubmer (then written as Georg Huebmer ), (born April 11, 1755 in Gosau ; † March 20, 1833 in Naßwald, municipality of Schwarzau im Gebirge , Lower Austria ) was an Austrian alluvial entrepreneur , founder of the Naßwald Rotte in a side valley of the Höllental , as well the builder of the longest tunnel in Austria at the time .

Life

Georg Hubmer was born in Gosau am Dachstein in the Salzkammergut in 1755 as one of five children in what was then a secret Protestant family, where he also spent his childhood. At the age of 17 he and his older brother Johann left Gosau without leaving school and worked as lumberjacks in Lower Austria's Waldviertel , at Ötscher and on the Herrenalpe near Lunz am See .

Former riding stables from the 17th century, which Hubmer converted into a residential and farmhouse; since 1906 property of the city of Vienna and seat of the forest administration

In 1784 he and his brother Johann applied to bring the cabbage wood from the forests of Count Hoyos around Rax , Schneeberg and Nasstal through the then impassable Höllental to supply the ironworks in Hirschwang owned by the Innerberger Main Union with the necessary heating material. Both received this order as the best bidder and settled with other woodworkers and their families from Gosau, Goisern and Hallstatt in the area of ​​what is now Hinternaßwald , today a group of the cadastral community of Schwarzau in the mountains . On the Nassbach and Schwarza rivers they built the wood and water giants, Klausen and wooden rakes necessary for bringing wood, and secured the operation of the ironworks for many years.

As early as 1797, when the construction of the Wiener Neustädter Canal began, both brothers recognized the possibility of bringing the firewood urgently needed in the rapidly growing imperial capital and royal seat from the Schwarza or Leitha to Vienna . Only after Johann Hubmer's death in 1799 and years of delays in the completion of the canal was Georg Hubmer able to organize the transport of timber over a distance of around 125 kilometers in 1808, now as a business partner of Johann Ernst Graf Hoyos . The logs covered about half of the distance floating freely via Preinbach, Naßbach, Schwarza and Kehrbach, for the other half Hubmer organized the wood transport with 30 of his own ships on the Wiener Neustädter Canal.

Evangelical parish church in Nasswald , founded in 1826 by Georg Hubmer

1817 Hubmer received by Emperor Franz II. (I.) the exclusive Schwemmprivileg on the Traisen river and brought firewood along the way to Vienna.

After the forest area around Naßwald had largely been cut down, Hubmer had to move to more and more distant forests in the Mürz catchment area , which have no connection to the Schwarza. As a result, from 1811 and after an interruption from 1822, Hubmer had a 430-meter-long flood tunnel blasted through the separating, 1134 meter high saddle of the Gscheidl . In 1827, according to Hubmer, the tunnel workers digging from both sides at the same time met exactly. Hubmer, who could only read and write very poorly, had accomplished a pioneering engineering feat thanks to his knowledge based on decades of experience. By diverting several streams through the tunnel, the wood could now be drifted over to the other side of the watershed .

In 1826 Georg Hubmer, who in the meantime had become prosperous with his Huebmer'schen Schwemm-Compagnie and for whom up to 400 forest workers worked, had a Protestant school and prayer house built in Naßwald. For his Naßwald people he was also an employer, health insurance company, pension scheme, judge and legal representative, he became the "father of Naßwald". The name "Raxkönig" came about after Ottokar Janetschek's novel.

Georg Hubmer's tomb in the cemetery in Naßwald , Lower Austria.

Georg Hubmer's tunnel is buried today, but part of the second, 760-meter-long flood tunnel, which his grandson Georg Hubmer had blown up, can still be seen today, as can the remains of the former flood channels on the Gscheidl. However, a memorial in a replicated woodcutter's hut in “his” wet forest is reminiscent of the “Rax King” Georg Hubmer.

literature

Web links

Commons : Georg Hubmer  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

proof

  1. Lit. Lange, 2007, p. 60.