Martin Kröncke

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Martin Kröncke (also Marten Kröncke ; baptized on July 6, 1705 in Neuenkirchen , Land Hadeln ; † April 26, 1774 in Berlin ) was a German educator , freemason , mint master and general mint director of the Kingdom of Prussia for a little over six years .

Coming from a modest rural background, Kröncke acquired his knowledge of numismatics largely self-taught and rose to become the most influential tax officer during the reign of King Frederick II . After the economically devastating Seven Years' War , he managed to stabilize Prussia's financial situation.

Already during Kröncke's lifetime, hardly anything was known about his biography, to which he made a decisive contribution through the consistent silence regarding his private life. The information about himself is based on only a few sources. In his home town, the Marten-Kröncke-Weg is named after him.

Life

The places where Martin Kröncke worked in the course of his life

Origin, family environment and education

Martin Kröncke was born as the son of the pastor's daughter Anna and the farmer Dierk Kröncke in Neuenkirchen - either in the Katthusen district or the neighboring district of Dörringworth - on a farm in Windweg. He was baptized Lutheran by Pastor Hector Mithobius in the name of his grandfather († 1699) on his father's side, who came from Hüll .

Martin's father died a good year after his birth on October 12, 1706 at the age of 26 or 27. The widowed mother married the widower Paul Hottendorf in 1707, who brought several children into the marriage. In 1713, however, he also died - he and three of his children succumbed to the plague . At that time Anna was pregnant with Martin's half-brother Johann, who was born in 1714 and later took over the parental farm and became (Deich-) mayor in Neuenkirchen. In the same year she married Carsten Niebuhr.

Martin Kröncke spent his youth in the state of Hadeln in the Elbmarschen , which at that time was largely self-governing and under direct imperial sovereignty. He attended the Neuenkirchen village school and was considered a very talented student. The Neuenkirchen cantors Michael von Spreckelsen and Dietrich Hincke, the latter was also the headmaster, recognized his talents and encouraged him. He left school at the age of 15.

Professional career

Beginnings on the Elbe

After he had left school, Kröncke initially worked from the age of 15 - “in keeping with the custom of the time” - as a private tutor on various farms. In addition, Hincke hired him as his adjunct . He then founded his own “hayloft school” in the house of the blacksmith Carsten Junge in Osterende - Altenbruch , which he took over and where he taught for several years. In 1727 he moved to Hamburg without any financial means and found employment in the Hanseatic city as a private tutor and tutor for wealthy middle-class families. Most of the income he earned in the process was invested in his own further education, particularly in the field of mathematics , so that he often got into precarious financial situations and suffered hunger. From time to time Dietrich Hincke sent him donations from home in the form of food parcels or clothing.

He began to deal with numismatics out of private interest , for which he quickly developed a passion. A handwritten note from Wilhelm Jesse states that Kröncke studied at the Hamburg Mint . It is unclear whether this was a full-fledged training and whether this happened after or in parallel with teaching. Jesse does not provide a source for this claim, and almost all of the Hamburg mint's written records were destroyed during the city ​​fire of 1842 . Finally, Kröncke published a brochure on coinage in which he discussed the creation of a currency that was independent of the then decisive Leipzig footing . The work received some attention in Hamburg.

Via Braunschweig to Breslau

Over the years, he managed to make acquaintances with some influential people. A Hamburg merchant friend of mine - whose children Kröncke had taught - took several copies of the script to the Braunschweig fair , where it aroused the interest of Duke Karl I and his coin commissioner Johann Philipp Graumann . The latter agreed with Kröncke's statements to such an extent that he appointed him to Braunschweig as an accountant or warder between January and March 1742 . Kröncke later rose to become a coin factor there. As such, he was responsible for the fiscal functioning of the mint and metal procurement. Together with Graumann, who explicitly praised him for his honesty, in mid-August 1748 he published the "groundbreaking" work Die Teutsche und other Völker Münzverfassungs , which no longer allowed for an account based on the Leipzig footing, and which attracted the attention of the Prussian King Friedrich II. steered towards the Brunswick mint officials.

After Graumann moved to Berlin in 1750 as managing director of all mints and general mint director , he recommended that the king be employed by Kröncke and Johann Georg Eimbkes (1714–1793) in the state mint administration. Both were given positions in Breslau in the same year : Eimbke as mint director and Kröncke as second mint wardein and mint factor. However, Eimbke quickly lost the trust of his superiors in Berlin because he exuded too little authority and, in addition, due to insufficient supervision, there was a shortfall of 1739 Reichstalers in the coin box. He was relieved of his office and transferred to Konigsberg or Kleve . On January 5, 1751, Kröncke was appointed mint director in Breslau. In the meantime, Graumann - largely inspired by Kröncke's considerations - had introduced the Graumann coin footer (also known as the 14 thaler coin footer) throughout Prussia . Sharp resistance from the ranks of the merchants and government officials, however, meant that Frederick II did not dismiss him in 1754, but he was disempowered.

Eimbke's negligence could only be fully cleared up after four years. Kröncke exchanged letters with him, at times very angry, and wrote him that he would ask God not to let him [Kröncke] become director anywhere where Eimbke had been before. A second financial scandal occurred a little over six months after Kröncke took over management. Adam Heinrich von Ehrenberg , who has worked as a mint master in Breslau since 1743, was not up to the demands that the tenfold production made on the employees and accumulated a white-boiling waste of 15,881 thalers for silver. He was therefore released in the fall of 1751, arrested and tried. It turned out that he had acted negligently and unwise, not with bad faith. Graumann called for the loss to be replaced, and the king, in view of the responsibility of the mint officials and the trust placed in them, spoke out in favor of a condemnation. Ultimately, the elderly von Ehrenberg was released from prison in June 1753, subject to certain conditions. Kröncke hired Georg Heinrich Singer (1728–1779) as the new mint master .

Kröncke led his office quite successfully, but sometimes headstrong. All other Prussian mints, for example, announced the seigniorage to the responsible minister and informed him about the work plans and the planned coins for the current year. Only from Breslau there were no reports of this kind. Nevertheless, Ludwig Wilhelm Graf von Münchow (1709–1753), the first Silesian provincial minister , praised the work of the mint director before the king. Kröncke was financially secure in his new post. The Silesian mint in Breslau had a prominent position within the Prussian coin system. This is already evident from the fact that in 1755 Kröncke earned 2,000 thalers a year, considerably more than his colleagues in comparable positions in other cities (Berlin: 600, Königsberg: 500). After the Russian armies had withdrawn from the province of East Prussia in 1762 , Frederick II ordered that Kröncke should carry out an inventory of the low-value coins in circulation there - which also included the Russian specimens. Kröncke determined that these could circulate for another year and that all state coffers would have to accept the bad coins and forward them to the mints.

General Mint Director in Berlin

Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (here around 1767/1768) advised a friend in 1765 on how he could win Krönckes favor

In October 1763 the king therefore ordered Martin Kröncke to meet in Berlin. The main topics addressed were questions that arose from the expiry of Ephraim's and Itzig's lease periods for the Prussian mints at the end of February 1764 (see next chapter ).

Kröncke's proposals met with approval and Friedrich II made him the director of the Berlin Mint and thus the Prussian general mint director with effect from December 1, 1763 , which again resulted in an annual salary of 2000 Reichstalers. The disempowered Graumann had already died in April 1762 and finance counselor Friedrich Gotthold Köppen had temporarily led the office. In order to stabilize the financial situation of Prussia, Kröncke worked out a new coin decree within a few months together with Maximilian von Fürst and Kupferberg and Ernst Wilhelm von Schlabrendorf - the budget ministers of the empire and the province of Silesia . This envisaged the reintroduction of the 14 thaler foot for Kurant coins and the 18 thaler foot for cutting coins as the main component . Frederick II signed the regulation on March 29, 1764, which came into force on June 1.

From July 1765, a correspondence between Martin Kröncke and the Breslau render Carl August Lang (n) er has come down to us. The latter approached the General Mint Director to propose him to the King for promotion and possible transfer to the Berlin Mint. Kröncke abruptly rejected the request on July 20. Langer had previously consulted his friend Gotthold Ephraim Lessing and received advice on how to proceed. After Kröncke's rejection, he turned to Lessing again and explained the situation to him in writing, disrespectfully referring to Kröncke as “the old man”. Langer mentioned that he wanted to turn to Kröncke again. The result of this new inquiry is not known. Although the king once said that he is a good mint director - but he is also a thick-headed man, this did not change the fact that he treated him with a lot of respect. A mutual trust developed between the general mint director and the enlightened absolute ruler and it is known that Friedrich II. Visited Kröncke often in his private living quarters.

Coin history and monetary policy

In Breslau before the Seven Years War

The data on the performance of the Silesian Mint in Wroclaw during the first year under Kröncke's direction are contradictory. On the one hand, the sources show that Kröncke initially failed to coin 300,000 Reichstaler in silver every quarter, as Graumann had promised the king in Berlin. Instead, it was only worth 20,000 Reichstaler in gold and just as many in silver per week. However, the king was patient in this situation. On the other hand, it can be read that the coinage under Kröncke "went well": The seigniorage in the quarter of February, March and April 1751 was 47,578 Reichstaler, with which the king was very satisfied. What is certain is that the merchants were delighted with the new thalers. You could advance 20,000 to 30,000 thalers interest-free in the form of Louis d'or a month in advance of the coin in order to receive thalers.

An initial problem was the inequality of the gold weights. After the merchants had filed complaints, the Obersteuerkasse 75 checked  Friedrich d'or and found that one was too light by half a, three by a quarter and eight by a third ace too light. The director was instructed to resolve these inconsistencies, but at the same time it was recognized that the coffers could withstand such minor differences. Kröncke defended the adjustment and stated that Friedrich d'or would only occur very rarely by half an ace too easy. He also suggested that the older gold weights might differ. The cash registers should be more careful in weighing. In his opinion - written down in an expert report in mid-April 1751 - it did too much damage to the reputation of the Friedrich d'or if “more shouting was made” about half an ace than about two or three aces with the Louis d'or . The grain of the Breslauer Friedrich d'or initially did not meet the standard either. Quality checks on samples from the first four months of 1751 showed that they did not contain 21  carats and nine grains , as prescribed by the coin standard, but only 21 carats and eight grains. This was apparently tacitly improved, since no corresponding report was sent to the king. The silver coins, on the other hand, were almost all a bit too fine. Krönckes Wardein Viedebantt excused this with the fact that it was impossible to finish piece by piece exactly according to the coin standard.

Just as throughout Prussia, in Breslau the minting of Kurant and gold coins decreased compared to that of divisional coins . In the first year of minting under the direction of Martin Kröncke, gold coins were minted in Breslau for one million thalers and silver for over one and a half million thalers. These sums fell for the period from December 1753 to December 1754 to 114,000 and 260,000 thalers, respectively. In contrast, the coin strike rose from 40,000 to 311,000 thalers in the same period. Kröncke himself proudly mentioned that the minting of the coinage did not even reach a fifth of the gold and silver Kurant production. The hoped-for positive effect did not materialize, however, because numerous groschen and sixes from other mints were in circulation in Silesia.

The mint statistics for the Breslau Mint have only survived until November 30, 1754. Nonetheless, there is an insight into Kröncke's decisions on coin politics. In Silesia there was a shortage of change, which is why the Bayreuth and Bavarian 3-cruisers and cruisers could not be dispensed with. However, they were reduced to one and three groeschels so that they could be re-stamped without loss. This served the goal of making up for the much too low coinage of coins for two years. In March, April and May 1754 Kröncke only had Kreuzer and Gröschel minted - weekly for 2000 and 1200 thalers respectively. In the following weeks it became apparent that there were too few Friedrich d'or in circulation in the Silesian money cycle, which particularly damaged the domain tenants, who were supposed to pay one-sixth of their rent with ducats and five-sixths with curant coins and Friedrich d'or. Graumann then instructed Kröncke to mint ducats again in Breslau. However, only 895 were struck, as it was almost impossible to trade with them in the countries of the Archduchy of Austria , which resisted Prussian coins.

Martin Kröncke initiated the coinage of Szostaken (6-Gröscher) and Saxon Tympfen (18-Gröscher) in Wroclaw in order to strengthen trade with the neighboring states - namely the Electorate of Saxony and Poland-Lithuania . This measure was first ended in August 1754. The spread of foreign coined tympfe, especially from Leipzig , however, wanted to reduce in Silesia, which is why they were confiscated at the borders or sent back. Since there was peace between Prussia and the Electorate of Saxony, this was not a permanently practicable solution. From May 1755, therefore, very moderate tariffs were levied on Saxon coins in Silesia. A little later, Kröncke continued to coin the tympfe. King Friedrich II had previously admitted that tympfe given by Polish people in Breslau could be accepted as payment. However, it was forbidden to continue issuing them in Silesia, since otherwise the Silesian merchants would have made themselves “commission agents of the Leipzig mint”. The Polish cattle traders in Breslau were paid for in 1755 and 1756 with specially minted tympfen and Szostaken of the Leipzig type. Later they even imitated the legend on the coins. However, the tympfe were not used - as in the rest of Prussia - as currency or change, as the Silesian merchants rejected them as such because they were minted too unevenly.

The coin political decisions of Martin Kröncke proved to be extremely successful. When the Seven Years' War broke out in 1756 , Silesia was the economically best-positioned province of Prussia and had the largest trade turnover in the empire.

In Breslau under the impression of the Seven Years' War

During his reign, Frederick II favored and promoted a thin layer of wealthy Jewish entrepreneurs and granted individual Jews various privileges and special rights. In contrast to this, he increasingly regulated and restricted the economic activities of ordinary Jewish citizens, continuously increased their taxes and duties, and prohibited them from trading in certain industries. The wealthy Jews were urged to set up factories and manufactories and at the same time to withdraw from the retail trade. All Jewish citizens of the empire were obliged to deliver silver to their respective regional coins. When the king's need for money had risen sharply at the beginning of the Seven Years' War in 1756, the Graumann coin system had been abandoned. Veitel Heine Ephraim and Daniel Itzig received the lease rights for all Prussian mints . With royal tolerance, they carried out coin deterioration , thus increasing the seigniorage and minting millions of inferior coins - the Ephraimites . These so-called “coin Jews” - of whom Ephraim and Itzig were the best known - earned 29 million Reichstaler for the king in the course of the war through manipulation. The discovery of these dubious methods brought the Prussian coinage into serious disrepute among the population. In 1762 Frederick II came to the conclusion that the attempts to introduce new coins had failed.

Ernst Wilhelm von Schlabrendorf (second from left) described Kröncke as a “headstrong man” during the Silesian coin conflict in 1763, but a few months later he worked out the new Prussian coin dictate with him

Not enough money was minted throughout the empire and in Silesia, where this lack of money was most glaring, an intense dispute broke out in the summer of 1763 over responsibility for the grievances. Ernst Wilhelm von Schlabrendorf , Budget Minister and President of the Silesian War and Domain Chamber , accused the entrepreneurs in June of ignoring his multiple admonitions to procure silver in time for Kurant minting. In addition, instead of minting thirds, they would have made smaller sorts out of the already scarce war money. He noted that almost seven million thalers had been exchanged in Berlin over the course of the year - in Wroclaw, however, barely a million. Silesia would have needed considerably more money than the Prussian capital because of its extensive trade turnover. Finance councilor Friedrich Gotthold Köppen - who served as general mint director in Berlin on an interim basis - also put the blame on the entrepreneurs. They defended themselves against the allegations and complained for their part that Martin Kröncke was negligent. In addition, they suffered high losses as a result of the increased silver prices, the opening of numerous exchange offices and the damaging change from bad to good types of coins. For his part, Kröncke also defended himself against what he considered to be unjustified allegations. He stated that he would not be able to mint faster, since 60,000 marks of low-value silver had been received, but despite all the emphatic memories only 8,000  marks piastres had been received. He went on to explain that in the first half of the year it would have been possible to strike coins worth five million instead of just one and a half million thalers without any problems if more fine silver had been made available to him. This statement prompted von Schlabrendorf to reproachfully refer to the Wroclaw mint director as a “headstrong man” because, in his opinion, Kröncke could still have minted sixths and twelfths out of silver. Finally, Köppen advised to use Saxon thirds, which they did. As a result, in the second half of 1763 the complaints about the shortage of money in Silesia subsided significantly.

The deterioration in coins, the lack of curant money and an abundance of letters on bills of exchange continued to have a very negative impact on the trading centers in Amsterdam , Hamburg, Berlin and Leipzig for several months .

Freemasonry

During his professional life, but especially later in retirement, Kröncke was one of the most important Freemasons of his time. He was active in various lodges for almost 26 years and, like many of his contemporaries, took part in the Masonic system struggle of the 18th century.

Since its foundation in 1717, the First Grand Lodge of England in London with its statute, the Old Duties , has been the supreme authority of European Freemasonry. Recognition on the part of the English was seen as legitimation for the existence of new lodges. In 1751, in the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, Karl Gotthelf von Hund and Altengrotkau formed the high level system of strict observance . The doctrine, which was based on the Templar Order and had a strict hierarchical structure, had an occult character, but was very attractive to many Freemasons, so that by the beginning of the 1770s, numerous lodges transferred to it. At the same time, from 1756 - and from 1769 in the German Empire in direct competition with von Hund's rite - the also explicitly Christian -oriented Swedish teaching system developed . From around 1782 the Strict Observance became increasingly meaningless and finally fell apart.

Traditional beginning

Kröncke's name was mentioned for the first time in a Masonic context on June 6, 1748 when he was admitted to the Braunschweig Johannisloge "Jonathan" . He is  listed in the log book with matriculation number 109. Less than two weeks later, on June 18, he was initiated into the third degree ( master ). It was quite common in those times to introduce members to several degrees in one day or at short intervals. In addition, there was another very pragmatic reason for this rapid rise: many Lodge Brothers did military service during the War of the Austrian Succession and were absent. The master of the chair, du Roy, therefore considered it absolutely necessary that the new members be admitted to the championship before St. John's Day (June 24th) - the traditional beginning of the masonry year - so that all offices are filled in the annual elections could. Other well-known members of the "Jonathan" lodge included Albrecht von Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel, who died in 1745, and Kröncke's superior Johann Philipp Graumann . In Breslau, Kröncke is mentioned for the first time in the minutes of the St. John 's Lodge "To the three dead skeletons" - which functioned as a daughter box of the Great National Mother Lodge "To the Three World Balls" - from June 24, 1751. He was a dedicated member and was absent from almost no temple work . In 1754 he was named first overseer ( French: aîné surveillant ) and from June 22, 1755 to December 4, 1760 - and already briefly in 1753 - he held the office of lodge treasurer. In this box he also met the military doctor Johann Wilhelm Kellner von Zinnendorf in the summer of 1758 , with whom he would be a close friend until the end of his life.

Change of systems and election to the grandmaster

After moving to Berlin at almost the same time, von Zinnendorf wanted to appoint Kröncke as grandmaster of a lodge to be founded there in 1763 ; the First Grand Lodge of England , however, refused the constitutional patent required for the establishment. As a result, the two friends broke with the then still dominant English teaching system . Instead, they turned to the new high degree system of Strict Observance and on August 30, 1766, Kröncke was affiliated with the Johannisloge "Zur Eintracht" , which already followed this doctrine, but did not do it until six months later at the same time as the Great National-Great National- Mother Lodge "To the Three Worlds" officially accepted. It can be assumed that Kröncke - just as von Zinnendorf did - renounced the Strict Observance a little later . On August 10, 1769 he was a founding member of the Johannisloge "To the three golden keys" , which had been re-established by Zinnendorf in Berlin based on an earlier patent based on the Swedish teaching system . In October 1770 Kröncke proposed his professional successor Georg Heinrich Singer as a candidate for admission to the lodge, which was approved.

Mainly on the initiative of Zinnendorfs, the Grand State Lodge of the Freemasons of Germany was built in Berlin at the end of 1770, initially with eight subordinate lodges. Masonic historians suspect that he, Kröncke and other members reached an agreement: According to this, it was "proof of the noble nature of the fierce von Zinnendorf, who knew how much he was superior to everyone in terms of energy" that he merely held the post took over as deputy grandmaster. Kröncke, on the other hand, was considered by his colleagues to be “the most talented and lovable of all.” On December 27th, he was elected first state grandmaster by drawing lots. Since (in all teaching systems) regular elections were only held at the beginning of the masonry year in summer, the election was initially made ad interim. Equipped with "more willpower and ruthlessness than others", von Zinnendorf was responsible for the operative business and did the main work "despite the knowledge that he could only win the highest price for someone else." This other - Kröncke - again commanded the "Modesty [...] to give way to the stronger and superior and to follow." He stayed almost completely out of business and limited himself to the moral leadership of the lodge. Not a single document written by himself has survived. As a rule, von Zinnendorf prepared all letter drafts and Kröncke signed them without changing the wording. Nevertheless, he was widely praised for that within Freemasonry

"Good government, [...] the loving and benevolent display, just like [...] the glorious Eyfer, whom [he] made known"

have. On June 17, 1771 and June 12, 1772, he was unanimously re-elected in office. Finally he resigned on June 10, 1773. His successor Ludwig Georg Karl von Hessen-Darmstadt immediately offered him the post of deputy grandmaster, which Kröncke refused.

Life in retirement

Well-known apartments of Martin Kröncke
Breslau

  • 1752–1763: In the Mint House on the Matthiasschanze

Berlin

At the beginning of 1770 he asked the king "for reasons of old age and sickly circumstances" for his release. Frederick II granted this resignation on January 29, 1770 and retired the unmarried and childless Kröncke with an annual salary of 500  Reichstalers . The General-Ober-Finanz-War- und Domainen -dirium congratulated the pensioner on March 20th and wished him “a well-deserved rest”. His successor in the office of General Mint Director was Georg Heinrich Singer (* 1724), who had also previously been director of the Wroclaw Mint.

In his last years he lived together with the mint master August Ludwig Friedrich Nelcker in his former place of work - the building of the Alte Münze in Unterwasserstraße 2 on Friedrichswerder . Among other things, he cultivated a close friendship with Friedrich Christian Göring , the then preacher at the Petrikirche and later general superintendent of Pomerania . Troschel mentioned in his funeral speech that Kröncke set up a foundation in Berlin to alleviate the plight of orphan boys. Perhaps this happened under the impression of his own childhood, when he had already lost his father and first stepfather at the age of eight. However, further details on this institution are not known. From 1771 in particular, Kröncke increasingly had health problems to create, due to which he had to gradually reduce his social activities. Johann Wilhelm Kellner von Zinnendorf took over his medical care .

At the age of 68 the former mint director died on April 26, 1774 between two and three o'clock in the morning in Berlin of a "breast disease", more precisely specified as pulmonary edema (" Steckfluss "), and was diagnosed on April 29 on the later abandoned St. Peter buried cemetery. Singer was responsible for organizing the funeral . The funeral speeches were given by the city's chief preacher August Friedrich Sack and the Freemason Christian Ludwig Troschel (1735–1802). The following day, April 30, printed the Berlin news following brief message that both memorial and obituary was:

“On Tuesday, General Münzdirector Kröncke, in the 72nd [sic!] Year of His glorious age, left this world with a breast disease. For more than 20 years he has rendered the king the most loyal and profitable service to Sr. Majesty, and his righteousness and philanthropy will make his memory unforgettable. ” Kröncke bequeathed a substantial part of his estate to his half-brother Johann; the city of Berlin benefited from other bequests and foundations.

Relations with the homeland

After moving from the Land of Hadeln, Kröncke only saw his home again on rare occasions. One of them was the marriage of his half-brother Johann, to which he traveled from Braunschweig and brought six twelve-bottle silver spoons with him as a wedding present . He stayed in the region for a few weeks and met with his former patron Dietrich Hincke and the Danish cavalry master Marcus Meden, who had acquired a farm in Dörringworth.

Despite the spatial separation, Martin and Johann always stayed in contact in their correspondence. As soon as he became prosperous and fortune in Breslau, Kröncke tried to financially support his relatives and acquaintances in the country of Hadeln. This is due on the one hand to his modest lifestyle and on the other hand to the appreciation he showed for Hincke, for example, for helping him during the Hamburg phase without being asked. When Johann was appointed mayor in October 1763 , Kröncke immediately sent him 400 and soon afterwards another 300 thalers so that he could “buy decent clothes and build a living room.” He also learned that Hincke had acquired some land and sent it him the purchase price. From Berlin he wrote to Johann that he should send his five-year-old daughter with a companion to Hamburg on a ship, and recommended an inn there to which he would send a carriage. He declared that he wanted to pay all costs and have the child educated well and expressed his intention to use her later as his sole heir. Hottendorf declined this offer.

In a letter from 1771, Kröncke spoke openly about the fact that he was “feeling the end of his days” and asked Johann to tell him how big the farm was now and how many debts he had - he explained that he would leave so much money to him to want him to be able to live in a courtyard through no fault of his own. Hottendorf then discussed with the Neuenkirchen parish clerk Götze. The latter advised him, in addition to the existing 7000 thalers of debts, to state another 5000 thalers, which he had used for the purchase of some land and the construction of a new barn. Hottendorf did not respond to this, however, but merely reported his brother's debt of 7,000 thalers. It can be assumed, however, that Götze then made independent contact with Kröncke and explained the circumstances to him, because ultimately the former general mint director bequeathed his brother 12,000 thalers. Johann Hottendorf was informed of Martin's death by Hofrat Droschel and learned that the deceased had appointed him executor ( mandate ). Later he was also sent the text of Troschel's funeral speech.

personality

In his home town of Neuenkirchen in the country of Hadeln , the Marten-Kröncke-Weg is named after the general mint director

Martin Kröncke was - at least during the last phase of his life in Berlin - very careful to keep his origins and private life covered and wanted his friends and acquaintances to judge him only with regard to his professional merits and his achievements in Freemasonry. How little even those who had frequent contact with him knew about him is illustrated by the following quote from Troschel's funeral speech:

“Of course, as is customary, I should still talk a little bit about the living conditions of our friend here; but despite all the effort, nothing of it became known, and although I had hope of finding some news from him at my request, death hurried him or he held it enough for posterity to hear of him know: that he may have been born at a time, in a place and from whatever parents it may, that he lived and died as such a man, one of his whole family, in a word, who did his whole life honor. [...] The true noble of life is not made by our forefathers, not by external circumstances, but by the amount of good deeds we have performed. "

A characteristic trait that many friends knew very well was Kröncke's religiousness. Troschel emphasized this in his funeral speech; it is unclear, however, whether it actually went beyond the normal range or whether the speaker was simply trying to give more meaning to the few details about the life of the deceased. Kröncke's belief in God was probably consistent with the old duties , the first section of which, under the title Of God and Religion, says: “A Freemason is obliged to obey the moral law and if he understands art correctly, he will neither be a stupid atheist still be an irreligious libertine . "Troschel stated:

“His daily zealous worship of religion, which he was never ashamed of but also never indulged in enthusiastic habits, was his sure guide to his true happiness and satisfaction. He gathered lessons and consolation from the best writings. He never tired of reading a Spalding and Jerusalem . "

Although Kröncke was apparently a very reserved character, acquaintances enjoyed his company. They appreciated his ethos , work ethic, personal demeanor and stimulating conversations with him. His attitude in the face of imminent death also made them respect, as Troschel explained:

“When otherwise vicious friends flee the deathbed towards the approaching hour of death, the time when so many consciences of a bystander awaken with horror, our friend's friends did not leave him. Convinced that they had never worked against his welfare, they spent the last evening of his life with him. His approaching end was edification before them, and his passing to those blessed eternity confirmed in them the thought: How good it is to have lived well in order to be able to die well. You learned to die from him! "

literature

  • Wilhelm Wald: Br. Martin Kröncke, the first state grand master of the great state box of the Freemasons of Germany. In: Circular correspondence of the Great State Lodge of the Freemasons of Germany . Volume 44, No. 16, October 1915, pp. 467-480.
  • Benno Eide Siebs : Pictures of life from the Elbe and Weser estuaries. Nordwestdeutscher Verlag Ditzen & Co., Bremerhaven 1966, pp. 36-38.
  • Kurt Asendorf : Heimatbuch Morsum. MBO Druck & Verlag GmbH, Weyhe 1986, ISBN 3-925743-02-2 , p. 476.
  • Karl-Heinz Buhse: From Hadelner farmer boy to General Mint Director Friedrichs the Elder. G. - Martin Kröncke's life and work. One try. In: Monetary History News . Volume 21, No. 112, 1986, pp. 82-88.
  • Christian Ludwig Troschel: The wise man who knows death and does not fear it. In: Karlheinz Gerlach (Ed.): Berlin Freemason Speeches 1743–1804. Peter Lang Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1996, ISBN 3-631-30386-6 , pp. 115-126.
  • Heiko Völker: Marten Kröncke from Neuenkirchen (1705–1774). From private tutor to General Mint Director Frederick the Great . In: Men from Morgenstern , Heimatbund an Elbe and Weser estuary e. V. (Ed.): Niederdeutsches Heimatblatt . No. 842 . Nordsee-Zeitung GmbH, Bremerhaven February 2020, p. 3 ( digital version [PDF; 3.4 MB ; accessed on April 18, 2020]).

Remarks

  1. Kröncke's employment in Braunschweig must have taken place between January 26th (Graumann's employment) and March 18, 1742 (Kröncke's first mention in a Braunschweig coin report).
  2. In coin technology, the term "waste" refers to the loss of metal that occurs in many ways during processing. The "white boiling point" occurs when the metal plates boil white .
  3. "Gröschel" was the popular name for small groschen - parts of the groschen. With a value of three pfennigs (= ¼ Groschen) they were minted in silver in the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation since the 16th century . In the 18th and 19th centuries, in Silesia and Bohemia, copper coins worth ¾ cruisers with this designation were minted. In the sixteenth century in southern Germany, the half-lump (= two cruisers ) was also called "Gröschel".
  4. The Silesian taxes on Saxon money with a decree of May 26, 1755: For 13,090 Reichstaler in Saxon Tympfen 32 Reichstaler and 17½ groschen had to be paid for postal money. For 4320 Reichstaler in Saxon copper money 39 Reichstaler and eight Groschen of customs had to be paid.

Individual evidence

  1. a b Asendorf (1986), p. 476.
  2. a b c Siebs (1966), p. 36.
  3. a b c d e f Buhse (1986), p. 83.
  4. Siebs (1966), p. 37.
  5. ^ Friedrich von Schrötter : The Prussian coinage in the 18th century. Coin History Part, Volume 2: The founding of the Prussian coin system by Friedrich the Elder. Size and Grauman 1740-1755 . Parey-Verlag, Berlin, 1908, p. 68.
  6. a b c d e Buhse (1986), p. 84.
  7. ^ Friedrich von Schrötter: The Prussian coinage in the 18th century. Coin History Part, Volume 2: The founding of the Prussian coin system by Friedrich the Elder. Size and Grauman 1740-1755 . Parey-Verlag, Berlin, 1908, p. 263.
  8. ^ A b Friedrich von Schrötter: The Prussian coinage in the 18th century. Coin History Part, Volume 2: The founding of the Prussian coin system by Friedrich the Elder. Size and Grauman 1740-1755 . Parey-Verlag, Berlin, 1908, p. 264.
  9. Friedrich von Schrötter et al. ( Ed. ): Dictionary der Münzkunde ., 2nd edition, Verlag Walter de Gruyter , Berlin, 1970, ISBN 978-3-11-001227-9 , p. 3.
  10. ^ A b Friedrich von Schrötter: The Prussian coinage in the 18th century. Coin History Part, Volume 2: The founding of the Prussian coin system by Friedrich the Elder. Size and Grauman 1740-1755 . Parey-Verlag, Berlin, 1908, p. 266.
  11. a b c d Siebs (1966), p. 38.
  12. ^ Helmuth Kiesel (ed.): Works and letters. Gotthold Ephraim Lessing. Volume 11: Letters from and to Lessing 1743–1770 . Deutscher Klassiker Verlag , Frankfurt am Main , 1987, ISBN 3-618-61150-1 , p. 868.
  13. ^ Edward Białek: Between Loss and Abundance - Studies of Literature and Culture. Festschrift for Louis Ferdinand Helbig . Neisse Verlag , Dresden , 2006, ISBN 978-3-934038-70-7 , p. 193.
  14. ^ Helmuth Kiesel (ed.): Works and letters. Gotthold Ephraim Lessing. Volume 11: Letters from and to Lessing 1743–1770 . Deutscher Klassiker Verlag , Frankfurt am Main, 1987, ISBN 3-618-61150-1 , p. 434.
  15. a b c d e f g Buhse (1986), p. 86.
  16. ^ Friedrich von Schrötter: The Prussian coinage in the 18th century. Coin History Part, Volume 2: The founding of the Prussian coin system by Friedrich the Elder. Size and Grauman 1740-1755 . Parey-Verlag, Berlin, 1908, p. 265.
  17. ^ Friedrich von Schrötter: The Prussian coinage in the 18th century. Coin History Part, Volume 2: The founding of the Prussian coin system by Friedrich the Elder. Size and Grauman 1740-1755 . Parey-Verlag, Berlin, 1908, p. 268.
  18. ^ Friedrich von Schrötter: The Prussian coinage in the 18th century. Coin History Part, Volume 2: The founding of the Prussian coin system by Friedrich the Elder. Size and Grauman 1740-1755 . Parey-Verlag, Berlin, 1908, p. 269.
  19. a b Buhse (1986), p. 85.
  20. Explanation of the term "coin lease". In: Homepage of the " rbb Preußen-Chronik" ( preussenchronik.de ). Retrieved September 13, 2017.
  21. Mordechai Breuer , Michael Graetz: German-Jewish History in the Modern Age, Volume 1: Tradition and Enlightenment, 1600–1780 . Verlag CH Beck , Munich , 1996, ISBN 978-3-406-39702-8 , p. 144.
  22. Selma Stern : The Prussian State and the Jews. Volume 3, Division 1 . In the series: “Series of scientific papers by the Leo Baeck Institute ”, Mohr Siebeck Verlag , Tübingen , ISBN 978-3-16-831371-7 , p. 248.
  23. ^ A b Friedrich von Schrötter: The Prussian coinage in the 18th century. Coin History Part, Volume 3: The Money of the Seven Years' War and the Coin Reform after Peace 1755–1765 . Parey-Verlag, Berlin, 1910, p. 164.
  24. a b c d Gerlach (1996), p. 126.
  25. Buhse (1986), p. 87.
  26. Wald (1915), pp. 467-468.
  27. a b c d e f Wald (1915), p. 480.
  28. a b Uta Motschmann (Ed.): Handbook of Berlin Associations and Societies 1786–1815. Walter de Gruyter Verlag, Berlin 2015, ISBN 978-3-05-006015-6 , p. 271.
  29. Wald (1915), p. 471.
  30. Wald (1915), p. 469.
  31. ^ Karlheinz Gerlach: The Freemasons in Old Prussia 1738–1806. The boxes in Berlin. Studienverlag, Innsbruck 2014, ISBN 978-3-7065-5199-1 , p. 599.
  32. Wald (1915), p. 470.
  33. Wald (1915), p. 476.
  34. Gerlach (1996), p. 122.
  35. Information on Masonic funeral speeches. In: muellerscience.com. Retrieved September 14, 2017.
  36. a b Wald (1915), p. 475.
  37. Gerlach (1996), p. 123.