Johann Christoph Weller

Johann Christoph Weller (* 1647 in Sankt Joachimsthal , Bohemia ; † December 20, 1721 in Eger ) was a German mining and hammer mill operator .

Life

Weller was born as the son of a wealthy Protestant trading family in Sankt Joachimsthal ( Bohemia ). Shortly after his birth, his family had to leave Bohemia as part of the Counter-Reformation and settled in Oberwiesenthal in Saxony . From there he came to the Margrave of Bayreuth in 1672 , where Margrave Christian Ernst recruited investors to revive the mining industry, which had been ruined by the Thirty Years War .

Weller was able to quickly get hammer mills, mines and blast furnaces going again in Arzberg . In the nearby Egertal he built the most modern hammer mill in the whole country (today, as Wellerthal, which is named after him, a district of Selb ). It consisted of a blast furnace and 22 water-powered plants. Bar iron , sheet metal and cast iron parts were produced . At times up to 300 people lived and worked there.

Weller also took over hammer works in other places, in Weißenhaid and Weidenberg as well as in today's Karches . He became so important that he frequented the margravial court and was able to marry his daughter to the court squire Samuel von Paschwitz. He was knighted as Johann Christoph Weller, Edler of Molsdorf for Weller valley, reached the status of an imperial council and was in the state of a kingdom knight collected. At times he owned more than 40 mines, plus blast furnaces and hammer mills.

When, after the margrave's death in 1712, his successor, Georg Wilhelm, took over, a number of irregularities were noticed in Weller's business conduct: he had not paid taxes for many years, evaded customs duties and levies and organized smuggling on a large scale. Therefore, he fell out of favor at the margravial court and fled the country. Weller acquired Ottengrün Castle in the Upper Palatinate region, so that he was safe from the margravial authorities there. From this exile he had to watch how his works in the margravate were run down by his heirs.

Weller spent the winter of 1721 seriously ill in the house of his son-in-law, the mayor of Cheb, Johann Joseph Werndl von Lehenstein . There he was forced to accept the Catholic faith while still on his deathbed.

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1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h} Blickpunkt (based on Dieter Arzberger: Wellerthal - the shine and decay of an unusual hammer mill), read on February 27, 2019