Johann Paul Stecher

Johann Paul Stecher (born February 12, 1662 in Erdmannsdorf ; † September 21, 1737 in Schönebeck ) was bailiff and mining factor in Rothenburg (Saale) , Berlin upper mill inspector, leaseholder of the salt works in Schönebeck, founder and leaseholder of the royal salt works in Halle (Saale) , Domain councilor, heir , feudal lord and court lord on Beuchlitz and Schlettau .

Life

Stecher comes from a Saxon miller family that can be traced back to the 16th century in the area around Chemnitz .

He married Anna Elisabeth from Dössel, whose last name is unknown and who died on April 16, 1717 in Rothenburg. He had four sons and six daughters from this marriage.

With the fortune he has earned over the course of his life, he acquired land (including in Rothenburg, Cönnern and Domersleben ) and real estate (Garsena, Cönnern, Schönebeck, Rittergut Beuchlitz ). He was buried on October 21, 1737 in a hereditary burial in the crypt of the church in Beuchlitz, where an epitaph with a picture commemorates him.

Act

In 1694 Stecher was a mill tenant in Rothenburg / Saale, in 1696 a mining factor in Rothenburg, and in 1699 a mill tenant in Berlin. 1702–1708 and from 1711 to 1717 he was bailiff in Rothenburg. 1712 leaseholder of the Saale shipping. 1714–1731 tenant of the coal mines in Rothenburg and Löbejün. As early as 1700, chief mill inspector, in 1716 he was given the supervision of all royal mills in the Berlin area. In 1717 he became leaseholder of the royal salt works in Schönebeck, and in 1720 he leaseholder of the royal salt works in Halle ( list of salt works in Germany ). In 1724 he became a royal Prussian war and domain councilor.

As chief mill inspector in Berlin, where he (additionally?) Lived from 1701 to 1711, he successfully contributed to the drainage of the city and increased the grinding yield of the grinding mills through an invention of his own that was not known in detail. With the transfer of an idea of ​​the Chamber Councilor Bartholdi from Schönebeck to Halle, to divert the brine from the city to a newly built real salt factory to the west of the Saale, which competes with the Halloren , he filled the Prussian king's coffers. He saved fuel by adding preheating pans. He used the economic policy of his king to have state-owned companies run by private individuals and leased the salt pans in Schönebeck and Halle, the Saale shipping company and the nearby coal mines. Halle developed "next to Schönebeck into the second major salt supplier in the Prussian state". With co-tenants ( Friedrich von Görne , Gustav von Mardefeld , N. Burghoff, Daniel and Johann Christoph Lohse), he initially minimized his economic risk. Of course he was liable with a security deposit, with all his assets and also personally. With a school for the children of the saltworkers belonging to the saltworks, he contributed to improving general education from 1723 onwards. In 1732 he introduced the first working order, which was moderated by the Chamber because of its severity. On the part of the state, the sale of the saline salt was favored. The salt conscription of 1720 stipulated that every person over the age of 14 had to buy at least 4–6 kg of salt in state sales outlets. And with the introduction of the Prussian salt shelf in the Duchy of Magdeburg in 1726, the import of salt from outside was prohibited. At the same time, Stecher was bound to royal privileges and had to z. B. deliver 50 bushels of salt annually to August Hermann Francke's orphanage free of charge. <Dreyhaupt, p. 539>. With all the favor of King Friedrich Wilhelm I, who was his guest in Garsena in 1713 and later in Schönebeck (with the Crown Prince) <Arnswaldt, p. 21f.>, He remained sovereign and authority enough to call him in 1728 because of a wild water breakthrough to temporarily detain a brine pit in Schönebeck and to release it against a bail of 10,000 Reichstaler. Stecher was able to reduce its own costs by a third through various measures. Under his leadership, the saline in Schönebeck even overtook the one in Halle. <Heiber, p. 29>. His successor was his son Johann Christoph von Stecher (1706–1762).

literature

• Werner Konstantin von Arnswaldt : The engraver. A genealogical sketch of a family's rise. In: Quarterly publication for coat of arms, seal and family studies, ed. from the “Herold” association in Berlin, XLVI. Born in Berlin 1918.
• H. Cramer, presentation of the main moments in the legal and administrative history of hard coal mining in the Saalkkreis of the Prussian Province of Saxony up to 1851, Eisleben 1856.
• Johann Christoph von Dreyhaupt, "Pagus Neletici et Nudzici, or a detailed diplomatic-historical description of the Creyses room ...", Hall 1749.
• JG Förster, description and history of the Halle salt works, Halle 1799.
• Fritz Heiber, The Salt Sink in Schönebeck from the Middle Ages to the Present. In: New series of publications by the district museum Schönebeck, issue 2, Schönebeck (Elbe) 1976.
• Uwe Meißner, The founding and expansion of the royal Prussian salt pans Schönebeck and Halle at the beginning of the 18th century. In: Halle and the salt, a salt city in the Middle Ages and early modern times, ed. by Werner Freitag, Halle, Volume 2, 2002, pp. 79-95.
• Uwe Meißner, Die Königliche Saline zu Halle (Saale) 1719 to 1790, (Diss.), Halle, 2016 (2017).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Werner Konstantin von Arnswaldt: The engravers. A Genealogical Sketch of the Rise of a Family , p. 19
2. ↑ [Cramer, Steinkohlen-Bergbau, pp. 27-32.148ff]
3. ↑ Chronicle Berlin, accessed: January 15, 2004
4. ↑ Werner Konstantin von Arnswaldt: The engravers. A Genealogical Sketch of the Rise of a Family , p. 13
5. ↑ Uwe Meißner: The foundation and expansion of the royal Prussian salt works Schönebeck and Halle at the beginning of the 18th century, p. 92
6. ↑ Hendel, Chronik p. 432ff.
7. ↑ Heiber, p. 29