Hermann Eugen Müller

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Hermann Eugen Müller, around 30 years old

Hermann Eugen Müller (born May 21, 1877 in Esslingen am Neckar ; † February 24, 1967 in Neuenhaus , Grafschaft Bentheim ) was a German mining and surveying engineer . He pioneered the state lignite and energy industry in Saxony . The stages of his professional life took him from the problematic “Margaretha” mine in Espenhain (1903–1907) to a successfully renovated lignite works in Niederlausitz (1907–1916) to the head of the state energy supply in Saxony (1916–1933 and 1945–1947) .

Live and act

Training and first professional activity

One of his Freiberg diplomas
The "Margaretha" lignite works in Espenhain (around 1905)
HE Müller in Kausche with his new devices (around 1910)

Hermann Eugen Müller was the son of the tannery and leather goods factory owner Georg Müller (1842–1909) and his wife Lina, née Keppler (1843–1919). He attended high schools in Esslingen and Cannstatt . He used a break from school to acquire manual skills. From 1897 to 1901 he studied at the Bergakademie Freiberg . During his studies he became a member of the Freiberg fraternity of Glückauf . Müller was an exceptional student and after taking the pre-exam he was already an assistant to the professors for mining, depository, mechanics and mechanical engineering. He passed his diploma examinations as a surveyor and surveyor (1900) and as a mining engineer (1901) with the grade “Excellent”.

After working as a management assistant, he became head of the “Margaretha” lignite underground mine in Espenhain south of Leipzig in 1903 . Although he was able to eliminate the permanent risk of accidents caused by floating sand by introducing the natural flushing method he had developed , the mine was not profitable and he saw no future for underground lignite mining. As early as 1904 he submitted to the Saxon Ministry of Finance the far-sighted idea of ​​a state energy supply based on the extensive lignite deposits south of Leipzig, the full use of which would only be possible through opencast mines. His proposal was initially rejected as impracticable.

In 1907 Müller moved to the “Mariannensglück” lignite works in Kausche, south of Cottbus , in Prussia . In addition to the operation of underground pits, lignite has also been mined here since 1901. Under his leadership, the loss-making company turned profitable within a year. With the electrification of the entire company and the first use of an electrically operated bucket chain and a cutting chain excavator , he became known in specialist circles far beyond the Prussian Lower Lusatia.

Head of energy supply in Saxony

Müller had remained connected to the Saxon government as a consultant for the implementation of his old proposal, which in the meantime had resulted in a legislative, financial and secured project with extensive mine field purchases. In order to realize it, the Saxon government brought him to Dresden in 1916 under pressure from the War Ministry to take over the management of the work for a nationwide energy supply based on lignite. It soon became clear to Müller that a state coal and electricity company managed purely under civil service law could not lead to success. That is why he was given special rights in its management. Over the course of seven years, the company succeeded in laying the foundations for a nationwide non-profit electricity supply.

Hotel Grand Union Dresden,
seat of ASW from 1923

Favored by inflation and the introduction of the Rentenmark , it was possible to found a joint stock company in 1923 , the joint stock company Sächsische Werke (ASW), of which Müller became director. The administrative headquarters of the ASW was in the former Hotel Grand Union opposite the Dresden main train station. The entire shareholding remained with the state. As part of the Dawes Plan , Müller was able to obtain two bonds totaling 33 million US dollars from the National City Bank in 1924, so that no government funds were required for further investments. These contacts led to a two-month invitation to the USA in 1928 , during which the ASW representatives studied the state of technology in the USA and presented the Saxon successes at the International Conference on Bituminous Coal in Pittsburgh .

At the beginning of the 1930s, the state's task of supplying Saxony with nationwide electricity, in particular through the “ Hirschfelde ” and “ Böhlen ” lignite and large power plants, had largely been achieved. Müller was particularly involved in the site development in Böhlen. In doing so, he laid the foundation for the large-scale brown coal industry south of Leipzig. After the National Socialists came to power in May 1933, a campaign of defamation against the executive board of the ASW was launched, during which directors were brought to the Hohnstein concentration camp for interrogation and Müller was temporarily placed under house arrest and finally released.

Activity after 1933

In 1928 Müller bought a farm in Grund , about 20 km west of Dresden, in order to pursue his hobby, the breeding of Karakul sheep , in his limited free time, supported by others . After his forced release in 1933, it became his main occupation.

In 1936 Müller went to Turkey and worked there as the government's top advisor on mining matters. During repeated exploratory trips through the entire country, he discovered the largest lignite deposit in Turkey near Seyitömer / Kütahya in western and a significant iron ore deposit near Divriği in central Anatolia . The importance of this field research together with Turkish mineral explorers was to be more protected for the country's energy generation in the event of a military conflict than on the basis of the coal deposits on the Black Sea. There were close professional and personal connections to the director of the Institute for Deposit Research and Exploration (MTA) Nadir Hakki Önen Bey (1900–1980), who, as Freiberg's top student, had an excellent command of German. Nadir Önen summarized his assessment of Müller's achievements for his host country in a letter to the family in 1968 with an unusual appreciation: “Turkey will hardly find an economic advisor again who can answer the questions of energy and heat supply to all branches of the economy, industry and Agriculture as mastered as Mr. Müller could. "

In 1942 he returned to Dresden and in 1945 experienced the destruction of the city and the decline of his sheep farming in Grund, including the sale of his farm. After the war he agreed to organize the most urgent work to rebuild the electricity supply in Saxony as ASW chief director. Since the ASW headquarters had been destroyed, Müller temporarily set up offices in his private home in Dresden. The companies in the coal and electrical industries were transferred to Soviet joint-stock companies (SAG) on August 1, 1946 .

At the age of 71, Hermann Eugen Müller retired in 1948 and moved into a smaller house he had bought in Grund. He was denied an honor for his services to Saxony in the GDR. In 1963, at the age of eighty-six, he moved with his wife near his son to Neuenhaus in Emsland and worked on his memoirs. Here he died a few months before his 90th birthday.

family

In 1903 Hermann Eugen Müller married Elly, née Braun (1883–1911), who died after eight years of marriage. From 1920, his second wife was Martha, née Kuhlmann (1889–1976). The son Georg (* 1921), who also became a mining engineer, and the daughter Elsbeth (* 1924) come from this marriage.

Posthumous appreciation

Stele in Böhlen about the work of HE Müller (2016)

A late appreciation of the life's work of Hermann Eugen Müller took place in March 2016 with the inauguration of a stele for the industrial culture adventure trail Böhlen-Lippendorf in the Saxon town of Böhlen , which documents his life's work as the "founding father" of the industrial area.

literature

  • Fritz Hönsch: Hermann Eugen Müller - a little-known pioneer of the state lignite and energy industry in Saxony . In: Sächsische Heimatblätter , Volume 59, Issue 4, Chemnitz 2013, pp. 352–356.
  • Fritz Hönsch: Die Aktiengesellschaft Sächsische Werke and its general director Hermann Müller , In: Sächsische Heimatblätter, Volume 60, Issue 1, Chemnitz 2014, pp. 82–92.
  • Fritz Hönsch: The "Margaretha" mine in Espenhain and its mining director Hermann Eugen Müller . In: Heimatblätter - contributions from the Altenburger and Bornaer Land. Issue 15, Borna 2014, pp. 50–72.
  • Fritz Hönsch: The “Mariannensglück” mine in Kausche and its mountain director Hermann Eugen Müller . In: Niederlausitz Studies. Issue 40, Cottbus 2014, pp. 99–110.
  • Fritz Hönsch: The Böhlen industrial complex , Engelsdorfer, Leipzig, 2011, ISBN 978-3-86268-442-7 ( reprint of the dissertation A Pädagogische Hochschule Potsdam 1968, 189 pages, illustrations, table of contents , content ,).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Willy Nolte (Ed.): Burschenschafter Stammrolle. List of the members of the German Burschenschaft according to the status of the summer semester 1934. Berlin 1934. p. 339.
  2. ↑ Measurement table sheet No. 42 Section Borna, edition 1908 (online SLUB Dresden)
  3. ↑ A pit called Marianne. In: Lausitzer Rundschau of February 14, 2014. Retrieved on November 19, 2016 .
  4. ↑ a b Ingrid Hönsch: An unusual miller in the Niedermühle von Grund. Heimathefte Mohorn / Grund, Issue 6, 2014
  5. ↑ letter in the private archives of Fritz Hönscn
  6. ^ Fritz Hönsch: Die Aktiengesellschaft Sächsische Werke and its general director Hermann Müller , p. 92.
  7. ↑ Claudia Carell: Böhlen discovers his industrial pioneer . In: Leipziger Volkszeitung. Borna-Geithain region from March 20, 2016
  8. ↑ CD-ROM DNB 102677084X , original October 24, 1968: 235 pages; 95 pages with glued-in illustrations DNB 481627928
personal data
SURNAME Müller, Hermann Eugen
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German mining and surveying engineer
DATE OF BIRTH May 21, 1877
PLACE OF BIRTH Esslingen am Neckar
DATE OF DEATH February 24, 1967
Place of death Neuenhaus , County of Bentheim