Johann Carl Free Life

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Johann Carl Free Life (1774–1846)
Memorial plaque on his home in Freiberg
Johann Carl Freiesleben's grave in Freiberg
Monument in Freiberg

Johann Carl Freiesleben (born June 14, 1774 in Freiberg , † March 20, 1846 in Niederauerbach ) was a Saxon mining captain .

Live and act

He came from a miners family from Freiberg and drove his first shifts as a high school student . After graduating from high school, he attended the Bergakademie Freiberg from 1790 to 1792 , where Abraham Gottlob Werner promoted free life. At the Bergakademie he met Alexander von Humboldt , Christian Leopold von Buch and Ernst Friedrich von Schlotheim , with whom he went on several educational trips. Free life remained friends with von Humboldt throughout life.

Free life studied law at the University of Leipzig from 1792 to 1795 . From there he undertook explorations in the Harz Mountains . After completing his studies, he went on a trip to Savoy and Switzerland with Humboldt . After his return he got a job in 1796 as Mining Authority Assessor in Marienberg and 1799 as Mining Master of the Mining Authority Johanngeorgenstadt .

In 1800, Freieleben was appointed to work as a mountain commissioner , chief mountain bailiff in Thuringia and director of the Mansfeld mines in Eisleben . Here he presented several publications on improving copper slate mining .

When Eisleben was assigned to the Kingdom of Westphalia in 1808 , he returned to Freiberg and became an assessor of the local Oberberg- und Hüttenamt and later promoted to the Bergrat. After the death of the chief miner Sigismund August Wolfgang von Herder , he took over the management of the Saxon Mining Authority from 1838 to 1842 .

The University of Marburg awarded him a doctorate in 1817 and the Academy of Sciences in Berlin appointed him a corresponding member in 1828. In 1818, Freieleben donated 212 pieces from its geognostic mineral collection from the Freiberg area to the Prussian mountain school in Eisleben .

Free life died on a business trip in the brass works in Niederauerbach in Vogtland, which he ran . He was buried in the Donatsfriedhof in Freiberg.

The mineral Freielebenit and the fossil fish Palaeoniscum freilebeni , a ray- finned fish from the Permian period, were later named after the researcher. He himself discovered the mineral Covellin, which he called blue copper glass , near Sangerhausen in 1815 .

Fonts (selection)

Free life left numerous publications. He is said to be the founder of the stratigraphic part of geognosy for northern Germany.

  • Mineralogical remarks on the Shimmering Fossil from the Baste near Harzburg: particularly with regard to its geognostic occurrence , Leipzig 1794
  • Remarks about the resin
    • Vol. 1: Miners' remarks on the strangest part of the Harz Mountains , 1795 ( digitized version )
    • Vol. 2: Mineralogical remarks on the occasion of a trip through the strangest part of the Harz Mountains, 1795 ( digitized version )
  • Geognostic contributions , 6 volumes, Freiberg 1807/15
  • Systematic overview of the literature on mineralogy, mining and metallurgy from 1800 to 1820 , 1822 ( digitized )
  • Magazine for the oryctography of Saxony - A contribution to the mineralogical knowledge of this country and the history of its minerals , Freiberg 1828
  • On the occurrence of salty fossils and the salt and mineral springs in Saxony , Freiberg 1839
  • The Saxon ore veins arranged in local order according to their formations
    • Vol. 1: The Altenberger, Annaberger and Freiberger Refiere , Freiberg 1844 ( digitized )
    • Vol. 2: The Johanngeorgenstädter, Marienberger u. Schneeberger Refiere , Freiberg 1845 ( digitized version )
  • On the occurrence of the combustible fossils in Saxony , Freiberg 1845 ( digitized version )
  • On the occurrence of gold and mercury ores in Saxony , Freiberg 1846
  • From the occurrence of silver ores in Saxony
    • Vol. 1: On the occurrence of solid silver, horn ore , silver black and glass ore , Freiberg 1847
    • Vol. 2: On the occurrence of brittle glass ore, white gold tiger ore , red gold tiger ore and some other silver ores , Freiberg 1847
  • From the occurrence of copper ores in Saxony , Freiberg 1848
  • Contributions to the history, statistics and literature of the Saxon ore mining, with special consideration of the duct formations , Freiberg 1848 (from the estate edited by Hermann Müller ) ( digitized version )

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Andreas W. Daum: Alexander von Humboldt . CH Beck, Munich 2019, p. 27-28, 34, 61 .
personal data
SURNAME Free life, Johann Carl
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Saxon miner captain
DATE OF BIRTH June 14, 1774
PLACE OF BIRTH Freiberg
DATE OF DEATH March 20, 1846
Place of death Niederauerbach