Hans Greiner (glassmaker)

Hans Greiner (* around 1550 in Langenbach ; † before 1609 in Lauscha ), called Schwabenhans, was a German entrepreneur and glassmaker.

Hans Greiner was born around 1550 in Langenbach (today part of the Schleusegrund community ). Around 1571 he married Margarethe Mosert (1554-1618), the wealthiest farmer's daughter in the town. After his father's death, he succeeded him as master glass and smelter at the Langenbach glassworks , which he managed until it fell in 1589.

In 1590, Hans Greiner and his colleague, glass master Christoph Müller (around 1545 – around 1628) built the Marktiegel-Hütte Lauscha 1 in the area of ​​the Pappenheim marshal . Probably because of differences with the authorities, both glass masters soon gave up this hut, which was then torn down. From 1595 Greiner and Müller operate the Lauscha 2 glassworks in the area of ​​the Sonneberg office , which belonged to the Duchy of Saxony-Coburg . On January 10, 1597, Greiner and Müller received a hereditary feudal letter from Duke Johann Casimir von Sachsen-Coburg , which awarded them half of the hut, as well as “3 houses, 1 cutting mill, 30 acres of Rodeland, 42 acres of Meadowrod for 12  florins annually Hereditary interest ”.

The city of Lauscha emerged from this glassworks, which is now world-famous for its Christmas tree decorations . The glassworks itself, as the motherworks, became the model for numerous start-ups in Thuringia , mainly by descendants of Hans Greiner.

Hans Greiner had eleven children. He died in Lauscha before 1609. One of his descendants, who was also called Hans (Hanß Jacob) Greiner and is said to have come from Augsburg, built a glassworks in Bavaria in the 17th century, first in Konstein near Wellheim and then in Solnhofen in 1649 , while his son Kaspar continued the family business in Konstein . His son, again a Hanß Jakob Greiner, was born in Konstein in 1648 and died as a master glassworker on March 1, 1707 in Walkersbach .

literature

• Rudi Greiner-Adam: The Schwabenhans and his descendants: The founders of Lauscha and Limbach. Hildburghausen 1997.
• City of Lauscha (Ed.): Festschrift 400 years of Lauscha. Sonneberg 1996.
• Gerhard Greiner: The Swabian Hans Greiner 1465-1532. Family history of the Thuringian Greiner as a genealogical line over XI / XII generations. Rödental 1988.
• Walter Greiner: In the footsteps of glassmakers from modern times to ancient times. Self-published. Sonthofen 2005.