Johann Jürgen Gundelach

Johann Jürgen Gundelach , also Gundlach (* around 1672 in Holstein ; † June 30, 1736 in Ueckermünde ) was a German glassmaker who worked in Mecklenburg and Western Pomerania . The later founding of the village Ferdinandshof and the construction of the Trinity Church go back to his work .

Life

Johann Jürgen Gundelach came from the glassmaker family Gund (e) lach , who came from Hesse and settled in Holstein and Mecklenburg in the 17th century. In 1705 he built a glassworks in Bolz near Sternberg . He also owned glassworks in Feldberg , Schlicht and Conow.

On December 21, 1705 he signed a contract with the Swedish Pomeranian government in Stettin for the construction of glassworks in the then unpopulated forest area on the western edge of the Ueckermünder Heide . The contract ran from 1707 to 1727 and included an annual lease of 300 thalers. At the beginning of the contract period, the first glassworks on the Scharmützelberg was put into operation. He had recruited his workers himself from Mecklenburg, Holstein and Thuringia. In the contract he had committed the deforested during operation of the glassworks forest to make reclaimed . The development of the glassworks was severely affected by the plague from 1708 to 1710 and the occupation of Swedish Pomerania by Russian troops in 1712. The workers fled to Mecklenburg or Brandenburg, the abandoned glassworks was dismantled by the Russians.

In 1715 Gundelach paid the last lease to the Swedish government, then the southern part of Western Pomerania came under Prussian administration. Work on the glassworks was resumed. However, due to a lack of workers and the ban on cutting beech wood, she soon had to be hired for a year. In 1719 he had an arable farm built on the deforested areas. At Easter 1720 Gundelach was able to conclude a new contract with the Prussian administration, which essentially corresponded to the contract with the Swedes of 1705. He received the privilege of being the only manufacturer of fine glassware made from chalk glass for Western Pomerania. From 1722 to 1723, as agreed, he had a second glassworks built on the Johannisberg near today's Wilhelmsburg . In 1723 Gundelach had a church built on the Scharmützelberg, which was consecrated in 1726. He reported on the construction in a chronicle he had created himself, which was added to the church records of the Ferdinandshof parish.

In the following years, the general tenants of the glassworks in the Mark Brandenburg achieved that no goods from Pomeranian glassworks could be imported into Brandenburg, which meant that Gundelach lost an important sales market. He had extended his lease until 1733, but then gave it up.

He died on June 30, 1736 in Ueckermünde and was buried on July 3 in the Trinity Church. He remained unmarried throughout his life.

literature

• Kurt Haase:  The Vorpommersche Amt Königsholland 1730-1818 . In: Society for Pomeranian History and Archeology (Hrsg): Baltic studies . New series vol. 66, NG Elwert, Marburg 1980, pp. 40-43 ( digitized version ). ( Digitized version ).
• Municipality of Ferdinandshof (ed.): 300 years of Ferdinandshof in Western Pomerania. Festschrift. Ferdinandshof 2006. pp. 7-11.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Ulrich von Oeynhausen: Glassworks in Mecklenburg. In: Yearbooks of the Association for Mecklenburg History and Archeology. Volume 70, 1905, p. 286 ( digitized version ).