Kurt Merbach

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Kurt Merbach (born January 14, 1839 in Freiberg ; † May 30, 1912 there ) was a German metallurgical man and politician.

Life

The son of the head of the hut, Franz Theodor Merbach (1811–1847) and his wife Auguste (1814–1858), a daughter of the Schwarzenberg financial procurator Johann Traugott Lindner , studied at the Freiberg Bergakademie in 1856 after attending grammar school in Freiberg and joined the corps in 1856 Montania at. After completing his studies, he became a smelter at the Royal Ironworks in 1862. In 1865 Merbach was appointed deputy smelter, in 1869 as smelter and in 1875 as head smelter.

On February 1, 1876, he was appointed to succeed Friedrich Moritz Ihle as chief smelter. Merbach was, like his father, who was Ihle's predecessor, the highest steelworker in the Kingdom of Saxony. During his tenure, which was followed by promotions to head of smelting and finally head of smelting office, Merbach primarily focused on the introduction of innovative technologies and the expansion of the production spectrum for the continued existence of the Saxon smelting industry.

His term of office fell during the decline of Saxon ore mining. With the introduction of the gold standard , the silver price fell and at the same time the silver yield in Saxony also decreased. Between 1880 and 1890 there was a drastic drop in the price of lead . In order to preserve the smelters, which previously smelted mainly Saxon ores, Merbach now focused on processing foreign smelting material, whereby improvements in the smelting process made it possible to process inferior ores. In 1909 these cheap ores, which were good for Freiberg , finally amounted to 82% of the total amount of ore. In terms of price, their share was even 94%.

In 1886 the Parkes process was introduced at the smelting works and from 1888 the Plattner process made it possible to dissolve gold using chlorine . From 1891 a gas-flame furnace for copper stone was built and in 1898 large mushroom furnaces were built. In 1903 the gold electrolysis process was used, in 1904 copper vitriol could be obtained with the Häge process and in 1905 the Huntington-Heberlein process was introduced in lead roasting.

Hüttenwerke has been operating an anhydride factory since 1881, which uses platinum as a contact material according to a process developed by Clemens Winkler .

The expansion of the smelting facilities also led to environmental damage from smelter smoke, to reduce the risk of which the Hohe Esse was built in Halsbrücke in 1889 , which at that time was the highest forge in the world with its 140 m height.

From 1895 Merbach suffered from health problems and the loss of vision in one eye. In 1908 the director of the Oberhüttenamt went into retirement.

In addition to his work as the manager of the iron and steel works, Merbach was also involved in local politics. First as a councilor in Hilbersdorf, then for over 30 years as a city councilor and chairman of the city council in Freiberg. Merbach was a member of the Saxon Blue Paint Works Commission, the Saxon Railway Council, the District Committee of Freiberg and a member of the board of the German Tanner School . From 1884 to 1898 he was a member of the German Reichstag as a constituency member for Freiberg-Brand and was able to assert his constituency against the rising Social Democrats.

The Secret Council Kurt Merbach had been married to Margarethe, a daughter of Freiberg superintendent Bernhard Wilhelm Merbach (1807–1877), since 1867. In 1902 he was honored with honorary citizenship of the city of Freiberg, which after his death also gave his name to a street.

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personal data
SURNAME Merbach, Kurt
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German metallurgical man and politician, MdR
DATE OF BIRTH January 14, 1839
PLACE OF BIRTH Freiberg
DATE OF DEATH May 30, 1912
Place of death Freiberg