Becker glassworks
The Becker glassworks was founded around 1850 as a sheet glassworks in Neuhaus im Solling and mainly produced flat glass until it was closed in the 1920s . The hut built by a member of the Becker family of glassmakers was the forerunner of the nearby Georgshütte in Boffzen .
business
The first buildings of the Becker glassworks were built between 1848 and 1850. The glassmakers came from Bohemia, Thuringia, Hesse, Westphalia and the neighboring town of Mühlenberg, where a glassworks burned down in 1841. The quartz sand required to melt the glass was extracted near the hut. From around 1900 the sand came from the sand washer on Langenberg, where 10 miners were employed. To transport the glassware from the glassworks in Neuhaus to Fürstenberg train station in Boffzen, the company had 10 horses. The glass ovens were fired with wood until they were replaced by wood gas firing in 1870. At that time, the hut had 10 glass melting furnaces, nine of which were made of white glass and one of colored glass. In 1910 the glassworks cooperated with the Glashütte Grünenplan in the manufacture of spectacle lenses and watch glass lids. In 1920 only four glass melting furnaces were still in operation, which was due to the economic crisis after the First World War .
history
The founder of the glassworks was Norbert Becker from Westphalia (1799–1879), a member of the Becker family of glassmakers. Members of the family had been active in glass production since the beginning of the 15th century and are mentioned in the Spessart Letter as the oldest glassmaker's order in 1406. In the 15th and 16th centuries, the name can be traced to glassmakers in the area of the Kaufunger Forest . In addition to the glassworks in Neuhaus, Norbert Becker founded the Rottmünde glassworks in Solling above Boffzen in 1856 . Later his son Ludwig Wilhelm Becker (1839–1913) took over the glassworks in Neuhaus and the Rottmünde glassworks. In 1872 he founded the Georgshütte in Boffzen.
After the First World War, the Becker glassworks, like other glassworks in the area, got into an economic crisis due to a lack of coal, a lack of orders and inflation. The owner at the time, August Becker (1872–1938), sold the ironworks, which was in financial distress, in 1922 for around 33,000 marks to Deutsche Spiegelglas AG (DESAG) and managed it as their employee. The location in the densely wooded Solling had the advantage of a cheap supply of firewood for heating the glass melting furnaces. Due to the general economic crisis, DESAG closed the Becker glassworks as an external operation in 1925. Until then, the company had between 70 and 85 employees. Even a 1926 repurchase of the hut by the previous owner August Becker could not prevent the final cessation of production in 1928. The factory buildings were only demolished in 1981. From 1982 residential buildings were built on the former Hüttenplatz. Some of the glassworks' buildings have been preserved, such as the former manor house, the cutting room, the packing hall and part of the horse stable. In the townscape there are still some earlier residential buildings of the glassmakers.
literature
- Johannes Laufer: From glass manufacture to industrial enterprise (= contributions to economic and social history. 75). Steiner, Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-515-07045-1 , pp. 265-267 (dissertation University of Göttingen 1995).
- Björn Lohnert: The glassworks. In: Boffzen community (ed.): Chronicle of the Boffzen community. [856-2006; 1150 years]. Beverungen 2006, OCLC 552036988 , p. 197 ff.
Web links
- Glashütte Becker & Co. in the list of German glassworks in 1913
Individual evidence
- ↑ Georg Norbert Becker ( Memento of the original from October 23, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. at Verein für Computergenealogie eV
- ↑ Ludwig Wilhelm Becker ( Memento of the original from October 22, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. at Verein für Computergenealogie eV
- ↑ August Becker ( Memento of the original from October 23, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. at Verein für Computergenealogie eV
Coordinates: 51 ° 45 ′ 7.8 " N , 9 ° 31 ′ 13.8" E