Ludwig Balthasar Müller

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Ludwig Balthasar Müller , also Balthasar Ludwig Müller (* 23. April 1662 in Hanau , † 3. February 1746 in Thalitter ) was Master of the Mint in Hanau, then from 1709 until his death in Obernberg inspector in Thalitter and the founder of copper mining in the valley of Itter in today's district of Waldeck-Frankenberg in northern Hesse .

family

Ludwig Balthasar Müller was the oldest son of the Hanau mint master Sebastian Müller. He followed his father professionally and also became a mint master in Hanau. In 1696 he married the pastor's daughter Ursula Maria Schmoll (1675-1730), with whom he had nine children. The youngest daughter, Philippine Johannette Elizabeth (* 30 January 1713) married on July 17, 1730 the Hesse-darmstädter bailiff of the Office rule Itter in Vöhl , Caspar Christian Teuthorn (1689-1772).

Life

In 1708 he traveled to the county Waldeck order on behalf of Count Friedrich Anton Ulrich at Bergfreiheit where the copper mining had ceased in 1662, and in other official Wildungen to copper to mine ores. The count enfeoffed him with all the mines in the Wildungen office. The efforts and investments made by Müller at Berg Freiheit from 1728 onwards turned out to be expensive and unproductive, and from 1730 Müller gradually parted with his shares in the mine there.

Already in 1708 learned Müller in Frankenberg the Hesse-darmstädter Bergrat hum know that in order landgräflichem in Itter valley far unsuccessfully gold panning had tried and also with a small exploratory tunnel on Kuhlenberg at Dorfitter no success had. Brumm arranged for Müller to examine the mining establishments in the Itter estate, a Hesse-Darmstadt exclave in the Waldeck county. Müller's assessment and suggestions were positive, and the landgrave's government then put him in charge of the work and appointed him mining inspector the next year, and a few years later Oberberginspektor zu Thalitter . At the same time, the chamberlain Freiherr Philipp Franz Forstmeister von und zu Gelnhausen († 1738) was appointed chief miner in the Darmstadt office of Herrschaft Itter.

Müller initially dealt with the creation of a new gold panning facility north of the scrubbing mill near Herzhausen , where the Wennebach flows into the Itter. But when he very soon discovered copper shale on the Kuhlenberg near Dorfitter and in 1709 encountered old man and meltable ores while building a tunnel , he concentrated on copper mining. He and Oberberghauptmann Forstmeister von Gelnhausen founded a mining union for which 130 Kuxe were drawn; he himself owned 30 pieces. The union operated the mine and was only supervised and directed by the landgrave government; Müller and forester von Gelnhausen, although landgrave officials, were formally enfeoffed with the mine. After considerable investments, gold panning was abandoned as unprofitable. One in the Appelau between Thalitter and Dorfitter already in 1709 abgeteufter Schacht met in 1710 on a fresh and mineable copper shale field, which was named "The goodness of the Lord." In quick succession, Müller had more shafts sunk in the Thalitter area. In doing so, he enjoyed the support of Landgrave Ernst Ludwig , who was urgently dependent on income because of his lavish courtship. Wherever Müller found new fields with minable ores, the landgrave allowed himself to be enfeoffed with them, for example in 1712 on Wolfsnabel and in 1715 on the rose garden, where the field was named "Heavenly Army". The mining patent issued on March 19, 1711 in Darmstadt for the office of Herrschaft Itter gave the mine and the union strong support. It also favors the miners who wanted to settle in Thalitter, and very soon a small mining village was built on the eastern slope of the Lorberg, opposite the old Itterburg , which was called "freedom".

As early as 1712, the mining union built its own copper smelter after the owner of the required land had been forced to surrender and financially compensated. In order to melt all of the extracted slate, the smelter soon had to be expanded to include two more melting furnaces. Business was so good that the plant had already opened up at the end of 1713 (the costs of 21 233 guilders and 20½ cruisers raised by then had been earned again) and the union was in a position to support the landgrave's government before the statutory free years had expired from 1714 to pay tithes . On this occasion the Itterische Bergtaler were struck, with the bust of Landgrave Ernst Ludwig on one side, the surroundings of the mine and the inscription "God has his rich blessings in you, Itter, want to put" on the other. At the end of 1714, the yield from these mountain talers was distributed among the trades.

Mountain church Thalitter

The old chapel in Thalitter was handed over to the mining union in 1714. Müller had it renewed and expanded, and the current mountain church was inaugurated in early 1716. At the same time, the union received the church patronage that Müller exercised. Two of the three bells bear inscriptions with which Müller inscribed himself in the local history. Barred stately church stalls were installed on the south wall , which were reserved for Müller and his family. In 1722, the Thalitter mine received a prayer and hymn book written for the mountain community, which was improved and reissued in 1756.

In view of the fact that Thalitter was the center of mining in the Amt Herrschaft Itter, the Mining Authority, which had previously been located in Vöhl , was relocated to Thalitter in 1715, and Müller became its director. In 1718 the Landgrave gave him the three-storey representative half-timbered house on the grounds of the Landgrave's dairy in Thalitter, which was owned by Landgrave Georg III. was built by the Landgraviate of Hessen-Darmstadt- Itter and still dominates the townscape today as the so-called “Big House” . The building became his residence and remained the official seat of the Mining Authority until 1868, when mining in Ittertal was stopped.

The big house , mining office and Müller's residence

Müller remained the determining figure in the copper mining of the Ittertal until his death in 1746, and he continued to be successful. New ore finds compensated for the gradual exhaustion of older fields, the construction of water solution tunnels in some pits made the use of pumps and water solution machines unnecessary, and the unification of the previously separate unions of the "Heavenly Army" and the "Rose Garden" in 1717 not only simplified this Administration, but also had the advantage that the ores from the two mines could now be charged and fused together during smelting , which saved coal and produced better copper. Average annual copper production from 1714 to 1720 was around 1112 quintals, and around 1069 quintals over the next decade. In the decade 1731–1740 the yield fell, but increased again from 1741 onwards.

Müller's wife Ursula Maria died at the age of 55 on December 30, 1730. Her burial in the mountain church of Thalitter, with all the attributes of baroque splendor that were still appropriate for the bourgeoisie, was an occasion for him not only to mourn, but also to display one's own ruling position. The interior design of the church after this event still testifies to this today. In front of the altar he had a large square copper plate placed on which the whole family appears in adoration, including the Müller coat of arms and the names and dates of all family members. A wall painting, high as a church wall between the two church windows on the north wall, repeats the motifs of the grave slab and shows the family standing around the open coffin.

Ludwig Balthasar Müller died on February 3, 1746. He was buried next to his wife in the mountain church. He had sold his Kuxen to Frankfurt trades while he was still alive . His successor in the Thalitter Mining Authority was Berginspektor Wirth.

literature

Web links

Notes and individual references

  1. ↑ http://www.teu-net.de/genealogie/geschichte/hessen/HessTeu.html
  2. ↑ http://schneewittchendorf.com/bergwer1.htm
  3. ↑ The Landgrave was involved in the company with four freikuxes and thus also directly in its income. In addition, after the company had opened up at the end of 1713, the state treasury regularly received considerable income with the usual tithe .
  4. ↑ http://www.teu-net.de/genealogie/geschichte/hessen/HessTeu.html
personal data
SURNAME Müller, Ludwig Balthasar
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Müller, Balthasar Ludwig
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Mint master in Hanau, Hesse-Darmstadt chief mining inspector, founder of copper mining in Thalitter
DATE OF BIRTH April 23, 1662
PLACE OF BIRTH Hanau
DATE OF DEATH February 3, 1746
Place of death Thalitter