Linden rifle lock factory
The rifle lock factory in Linden near Hanover , also known as the locksmith's factory or lock factory , was a state-sponsored arms factory for the production of rifle locks in the 18th century .
history
After the Elector of Hanover Georg Ludwig ascended the English throne as George I in London and thus established the personal union between Great Britain and Hanover , he had a poster to recruit foreign professionals such as “Commercianten , Traders, manufacturers or other useful craftsmen ”. Printed patents for foreigners promised numerous advantages and support for those willing to settle, through which, in particular, many religious refugees fleeing France, the Huguenots , could be recruited.
By the beginning of the 1730s at the latest, the Hanoverian war chancellery planned to set up a local rifle factory in order to become more independent of foreign arms imports and at the same time to reduce the costs of military equipment. For this purpose, the war chancellery sent the chief master armor and designated director of the rifle factory Johann Bernhard Fischer to Liège in order to find suitable masters in cooperation with a gunsmith working there and to recruit for the Hanoverian electorate by promising economic advantages and personal support.
The Hanoverian rifle lock factory, founded in 1729/31 and in which Johann Bernhard Fischer was involved, was temporarily housed in Fischer's Linden house, which the war chancellery rented from Fischer on September 4, 1732 for six years.
Also in 1732, the "armourier de la cour", who belonged to the Huguenot gunsmith family from Cressy in Normandy , the court armorer Abraham Houel II , took over the management of the Linden " rifle-lock factory ". However, he died in Linden as early as 1734.
In 1736, the recruited workers working in the Linden locksmith's factory complained to the war chancellery that despite the tax exemption patent renewed by King George I in 1730, Count von Platen was now demanding a protective thaler from them. But despite the request of the war chancellery to the Secret Council Chamber of Hanover to obtain justice for the Linden workers, the Council Chamber agreed with Graf Platen, since the patent issued by the king was valid for cities and towns in the country, but not against a court lord in his villages.
The rifle lock factory in Linden was closed in 1736. The workshop equipment was initially transferred to Lonau and Osterfeld am Südharz and finally relocated to Herzberg am Oberharz in 1738 to the Herzberg rifle factory .
Archival material
Archives from and about the Linden rifle lock factory can be found, for example
- in the Lower Saxony State Archives (Hanover location)
- as a lease agreement between the chief armorer Fischer and the war chancellery dated September 4, 1732, archive signature HStA H, Hann 47 I, no. 103 , vol. V, p. 100
- as a letter from the Secret Council Chamber to the War Chancellery dated July 23, 1736, archive signature HStA H, Hann 47 I, No. 103 , Vol. V, p. 69
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d Wolfgang Glage: The Herzberger rifle factory and the production of fine rifles , in this: The art of gunsmithing in Hanover , accompanying document to the exhibition in the Historical Museum on the Hohen Ufer from December 10, 1978 to January 21, 1979 in Hanover, Langenhagen : Hartwig Popp KG, pp. 29-30
- ^ A b c d e f g Johann von Diest: Economic policy and lobbyism in the 18th century. A source-based reassessment of the mutual influence of government and economy in Brandenburg-Prussia and Kurhannover (= rulership and social systems in the early modern era , Volume 23), also dissertation 2014 at the University of Potsdam, Göttingen: V&R unipress, [2016], ISBN 978 -3-8471-0603-6 and ISBN 3-8471-0603-1 , pp. 69f. u.ö .; Preview over google books
- ↑ Wolfgang Glage: The major Hanoverian gunsmiths , in ders .: Die Büchsenmacherkunst in Hanover , pp. 15-18; here: p. 17
- ↑ Wolfgang Glage: Gunsmith and Rustmeister in Hanover - names and dates , in ders .: Die Büchsenmacherkunst in Hanover , pp. 25–28