Leopold Sello

Leopold Sello

Leopold Sello (born October 25, 1785 in Potsdam ; † May 17, 1874 in Saarbrücken ) was the head of the Royal Prussian Mining Office in Saarbrücken from 1816 to 1857. His activities in the Saar district can still be felt to this day.

childhood

Leopold Sello was born as the fourth child of Wilhelm Sello and his wife Caroline Rosine, nee Calame. His father was in the service of the Prussian king as a planner and gardener. The mother's maiden name indicates her origins in French-speaking Switzerland . The Calames were stonemasons who came from Lake Neuchâtel and were among the many craftsmen who were attracted by the lively building activity of the Prussian kings. When Leopold Sello was growing up in Potsdam, the French congregation to which the Sellos belonged held their services in French. In the parish church school, the children were taught using a French-language primer. Since his family's closeness to the congregation is evidenced not least by the marriage of his sister Minna to the pastor there, it can be assumed that he and his siblings attended church school. Attendance at the Potsdam City School from 1796 to 1800 is documented. Due to the father's job, the family lived in the park of Sanssouci , on the south side of the palace garden in the house of the art mill. Two of Leopold's brothers, like their father, chose the gardening profession, but the father had other plans for him. He recognized Leopold's technical talent and the attractiveness of the modern subject of mountain science . So the father decided that the son should attend the Bergakademie Berlin , which was founded in 1770 by Friedrich II. (Prussia) .

Professional background

On November 5, 1800, Leopold Sello applied for admission to the Bergakademie. The admission was linked to the passing of an entrance examination, which he passed with flying colors. The training that Sello received from 1801 to 1803 was determined by a close connection to practice. After completing his studies, he had to complete a year of practical experience in a mountain area, for which he was sent to Silesia . His first stop was the Waldenburg coal field, where he dealt with conveyor technology. His geological studies carried out in the Glatzer district convinced the responsible mountain ridge to propose him for an important official post. In 1808 he was appointed a mountain cadet. In 1809 he attended the Saxon mining academy in Freiberg and then went on an inspection trip through Hesse and the Harz Mountains . In 1811 he was accepted into the civil service and, in addition to his work at the Friedrichsgrube, was entrusted with the management of the mining of calamine and its smelting in Tarnowitz . The assumption of these activities improved his salary, but when his predecessor , who had been appointed to the Landwehr, returned from the wars of liberation , Sello should lose this additional income. This news reached him on a business trip in Kommern near Düren . From there, he explained to his chief miner that he had now been a miner for 14 years and that "after he was 30 years old, he could hope to be ready to be able to live decently". However, the chief miner had already looked around for a new field of activity for Sello that would better suit his qualifications and in January 1816 offered him the interim management of the Saarbrücken Mining Commission. New tasks awaited Sello on the Saar.

Life and work as a mining authority director

The Second Paris Peace of November 20, 1815 regulated that the coal mines, which formerly belonged to the County of Saarbrücken, fell to the Prussian state mining industry. In Bonn he received more detailed instructions from the Oberbergamt before his trip to the Saar district. In 1816 he was confirmed as head of the Mining Authority with the title of Mining Master , after the provisional Mining Authority was replaced by the Royal Mining Authority. The first seat of the mining office was in the Prince's Palace of Saarbrücken Castle . He headed the Mining Authority for over 40 years and during this time rose to the mountain ridge (1822), the upper mountain ridge (1837) and finally the secret mountain ridge (1846).

His career now followed steadily in the Saar district. The district of the Saarbrücker Bergamt extended over all Prussian possessions south of the Moselle . It was divided into two districts, the first comprised the Saarbrücken coal district, the second included the other mines and metal mining. During the first inspection of the pits, Sello was able to convince himself of the unsatisfactory condition of the mines. He immediately improved the work in organizational and technical terms. The previous excavation through tunnels was adapted to the geological conditions and the first underground excavation shaft was built in the Saar district as early as 1826 . This upheaval took place through the use of the steam engine , as the conventional means were no longer sufficient in civil engineering.

Although Sello was able to double the production of the mines through modernization, he and his employees were aware that there were limits to further expansion due to the outskirts of the Saar district. Better ways of transporting the coal had to be found; an increase in production only makes sense if the coal cannot only be sold locally. Sello's efforts were increasingly aimed at supporting every transport project that helped to secure improved sales of the coal that was extracted. The superior authority Sellos suggested to him to get an idea of ​​the railway line opened in 1830 from Lyon to Saint-Étienne . The railroad seemed to Sello to be the best solution to the tiresome transport problem. Leading industrialists from the state came together under Sello's leadership and founded a “company for the construction of a railway from Saarbrücken to Mannheim ”. There were several reasons for the failure of the initiative. Firstly, there was a conflict of interests with Bavaria's railway plans, as the majority of the route was supposed to lead through the Bavarian Palatinate . The Bavarian government was unable to change any of the suggestions made by society, or even a positive statement from the regional president of the Bavarian Palatinate in Speyer . Second, a conflict of interest arose within society. Some shareholders now favored the Rhine-Nahe route. Sello withdrew from the committee because of this quarrel.

The Palatinate Ludwigsbahn had already been built from Ludwigshafen to Kaiserslautern when the green light was given for the Prussian connection from Bexbach to the French border. Sello now took over the chairmanship of the building commission and was able to take part in the inauguration of the route on November 15, 1852. But Sello was not only concerned with the train as a means of transport. The canalization of the Saar was also important to him. When the Rhine-Marne Canal was almost completed in 1841 , Sello planned the expansion of the river to Saargemünd and the continuation of the waterway to the existing canal. But even here he failed because of individual interests. However, after his work as the director of the mining authorities as a member of the Prussian state parliament in 1861, he campaigned for the construction of this waterway, the construction of which was then completed between 1862 and 1866. The Saar Canal is no longer of economic importance today, but was then of great importance for the sale of coal.

In addition to improving the traffic situation, the training of his miners was also important for Sello. In 1822 he established a mountain school in Saarbrücken and had another one founded in Neunkirchen (Saar) . In view of the low educational background of the pupils, the Mining Authority decided to set up additional Sunday schools in which the necessary knowledge was imparted. Sello also founded industrial schools in which the miners' daughters should be educated in household skills, cleanliness and morality, so that "the next generation will become more loyal, hardworking ... and better people". This institution, which resulted from the spirit of the striving for order, did not seem to have been particularly attractive, since the fathers of absent daughters were threatened with punishment and even with dismissal. But Sello's zeal soon bore fruit. The girls' school model was even the inspiration behind the founding of these schools in the Ruhr area in 1846 .

The most important success of his more than 40 years of activity as a mining authority manager in Saarland today was related to a circumstance that was due to the social infrastructure. Sello realized that the miners from the surrounding villages often had to travel long distances to work and therefore already appeared tired and less productive for the shift. First, the Mining Authority provided dormitories for miners who lived further away , a solution that became more and more expensive as the number of workers increased. Sello therefore proposed a different idea in 1841. In a memorandum, he suggested the construction of so-called premium houses. The willingness of miners to build their own house with their families near the mine should be encouraged. Sello estimated 25 to 40 thalers for the purchase of the building site and 100 to 150 thalers for the building of the house . The loan bore interest at 4 percent and was paid off through a wage deduction of one to two thalers. The bonus granted was used to purchase the building site. His proposal was immediately put into practice. A prerequisite for the financial support was compliance with a model building plan, which provided for two house types: a small house with 44.9 m² and a slightly larger house with 66.9 m². Sello deliberately estimated the construction costs to be low. He assumed that a house shouldn't cost the miner any more if he wasn't to live too dearly. According to Sello, however, it is also certain that any administration is more expensive than private individuals. The fact that he correctly assessed the inhabitants of his coal mining area can be determined from the following quote from his memorandum, according to which “it is the custom in the local area to help a builder with free manual and clamping services”. Over 1,000 loans had been granted by the end of his tenure. It is therefore very true that Sello's idea of ​​promoting the miner's house gave a major impetus to the high rate of ownership in Saarland today.

Political career

Sello was elected to the Saarbrücken municipal council in 1846. He was a member of the local council for almost 25 years. After finishing his professional career, he was elected to the Prussian House of Representatives in a by-election at the end of 1859. In Berlin, he primarily campaigned for the interests of his region. The further granting of the house building bonus and the construction of the Saar Canal to increase the economic power of the Saar were particularly close to his heart. In 1866 he had to resign from his post out of consideration for his health. The replacement election fell on his son Julius, who was a regional judge.

One of the four picture medallions that can be seen on the mine headquarters building in Saarbrücken is reminiscent of Sello. What is remarkable, however, is that in the whole of Saarland there is only a small side street in the Saarbrücken district of Jägersfreude that bears his name. This is astonishing, as he has helped shape the fate of the coal mining area on the Saar for over 40 years. Since 2006, the municipality of Merchweiler has also named a street in the “Kässeiters” development area after Sello (Leopold-Sello-Straße).

literature

• Sigrid Veauthier (author), Peter Neumann (ed.): Saarländische Lebensbilder. Volume 3, SDV Verlag, Saarbrücken 1986, ISBN 3-925036-05-9 , pp. 87-118.
• Ralf Banken: From Leopold Sello to Ottmar Fuchs: the heads of Prussian mining between entrepreneurship and state regulations 1816–1919. In: Journal for the history of the Saar region. 52, 2004, pp. 67-82.
• Hugo Fett: Leopold Sello (1785–1874). In: Merchweiler Heimatblätter. 20, 2000, pp. 57-60.
• Axel Lebedeff: In the footsteps of the miner Warken Eckstein . In: Merchweiler Heimatblätter. 26, 2007, pp. 7-25.