Martin Kreutzhuber

Martin Kreutzhuber , also Martin Kreuzhuber , (born  October 14, 1775 in Hub near Maria Aich (today in Aurolzmünster ), †  May 28, 1854 in Burghausen ) was a German master craftsman and world traveler .

Martin Kreutzhuber in pilgrim clothes

Life

Kreutzhuber was born on the Einödhof Hub in the Innviertel near Maria Aich , spent his early childhood in Aurolzmünster (also: Auroldsmünster) in the Innkreis and was given early on by his destitute parents to the care of the village school teacher Schaler, who found his protégé to have a special singing talent . As the hardest-working of 280 students, Kreutzhuber was sent to Linz for further lessons at the expense of the school visitator, Baron von Meckenhofen . Because of the early accidental death of his sponsor, a higher education had become hopeless. Kreutzhuber's foster father Schaler took him to Fürstenzell . In Passau , Kreutzhuber became a "chapel boy" and sang in the cathedral choir until he had to spend a long time in the hospital because of a breast problem. When he returned to Auroldsmünster, he learned the craft of pottery and stove fitter .

Immediately after completing his training, Kreutzhuber went on trips, first to Budapest , Vienna and Munich , and later to Graz , where he was forcibly recruited by the Austrian military for the war against the French republican. As a soldier, Kreutzhuber went across northern Italy to Milan, took part in several skirmishes and finally deserted to Switzerland. In the spring of 1800 Kreutzhuber returned to Munich. There he received a job offer from the Walther ceramic factory in Strasbourg, which he accepted. Only ten weeks after his arrival, Kreutzhuber left Strasbourg and moved on. a. to Colmar and Lyon and to the renowned Epernay factory , where he worked for half a year. This was followed by trips all over France, u. a. to the faience factory in Marseille. Then he moved to Paris , where he a. a. For a palace of Napoleon Bonaparte he set up a few stoves, preferably in the then fashionable Dutch style. Kreutzhuber turned from Paris to Rotterdam, traveled south again mainly on foot and came to Spain via Calais and Bayonne , where he also traveled to all the major cities. Kreutzhuber returned to Paris via Lisbon and Gibraltar. On March 17, 1802, he embarked in Dunkirk for London , where he did not arrive due to a storm. Instead, the ship landed far north in Trondheim, Norway. Kreutzhuber only wants to have escaped death from scurvy by eating “raw cattle blood” and “raw chickens”.

A Spanish captain took Kreutzhuber with him to Philadelphia in the United States free of charge . a. the Bermuda , Canaries and Azores . Further stations were Cape Town , Madagascar , Madras , Java and Canton .

Returning to Paris, Kreutzhuber remained surprisingly restless, changed his whereabouts every few weeks in France, Germany and Italy and was arrested as a spy in Ancona . It was not until Ennsdorf near Steyr in Upper Austria that he accepted the position of works manager for a long time. When the city was occupied by the French, Kreutzhuber met as interpreter and negotiator u. a. to Marshal Louis-Nicolas Davout and Emperor Napoleon . Before Kreutzhuber took up his permanent residence in Burghausen on July 25, 1818, he took over countless craftsman services in Croatia, the Czech Republic, Istria and Lower Bavaria (including in his home town of Auroldsmünster and in parish churches).

With his travel bug, Kreutzhuber follows the tradition of the Enlightenment and the joy of discovery of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. However, he was less driven by scientific interests than a thirst for adventure, curiosity and the desire to perfect his craft. The many job offers from all over the world speak for his exceptional talent.

On December 18, 1838, at the age of 62, Kreutzhuber set out on foot from Burghausen on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem , allegedly because of a vow . He was sure of public attention: “A large number of curious and interested people streamed after the 53-year-old fellow citizen when he was dressed as a pilgrim, a pilgrim's hat on his head, a leather pilgrim collar, two shells on his chest and a pilgrim's staff in his right hand Carrying the travel bag on his left, walked briskly across the market square and the Salzach bridge. His wife accompanied him crying a long way. He prayed devoutly by a field chapel and then gave good lessons to many school children who had been drawn to the new sight of a pilgrim. "

He got the blessing for this trip from the Tyrolean mystic Maria von Mörl . She is said to have said goodbye to him with the words: "You travel in the name of him who created you and he will happily lead you back." a. to Cairo, where he met Muhammad Ali Pascha , the then Egyptian viceroy, as well as to Bethlehem and Nazareth. In Syria, he is said to have visited the army of the Ottoman-Egyptian General Ibrahim Pascha , as the Münchener Allgemeine Zeitung reported on November 5, 1839. He embarked for the Holy Land via Sicily and Malta and returned safe and sound to Burghausen on October 26, 1839, "with a big beard that did not go badly with his pilgrim clothes," as the Burghausen historian Bonifaz Huber noted.

Kreutzhuber's biography and travel activities are extraordinary, even adventurous, for his time and origin. Personally fearless, deeply religious, culturally and technically versatile, even though without academic education, he got to know the whole world and did not shy away from taking risks in old age.

Kreutzhuber wrote his memories together with Friedrich Wilhelm Bruckbräu .

Kreutzhuber died in Burghausen on May 28, 1854 at the age of 77 years and seven months of "old age".

The Burghauser Stadtmuseum commemorates Kreutzhuber with exhibits and shows his workshop.

literature

• Bonifaz Huber: History of the city of Burghausen . Lutzenberger, Burghausen 1862, p. 391 ( digitized version ).
• Martin Kreutzhuber: Life, hikes, criss-crosses and crossways, and wondrous adventures on land and sea. After verbal reports , Burghausen 1840 ( digitized in the Google book search).
• Heribert Scheer: Stigmatized virgins . In: Der Schlern , Vol. 58, 1984, ISSN  0036-6145 , p. 559 ( limited preview in the Google book search).
• Sven Steffens: Wandering through France and vocational training as reflected in the testimonies of German and Belgian journeymen of the 19th century . In: Mareike König (ed.): German craftsmen, workers and maids in Paris . Oldenbourg, Munich 2003, ISBN 978-3-486-56761-8 , p. 27 ff. ( Online at perspectivia.net ).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Martin Kreutzhuber: Life, hikes, criss-crosses and cross-movements, and wonderful adventures on land and sea. According to oral reports , Burghausen 1840, p. 50 ( digitized in the Google book search).
2. ^ Jaquet: Münchner Kurier für Stadt und Land. Jaquet, 1838, p. 260 ( digitized in the Google book search).
3. ↑ Bayerische Nationalzeitung, Vol. 6, No. 1, January 1, 1839, p. 7 ( digitized version ).
4. ^ Nicole Priesching: Maria von Mörl, 1812–1868: Life and meaning of a “stigmatized virgin” from Tyrol in the context of ultramontan piety . Weger, Brixen 2004, ISBN 88-85831-97-4 , p. 400.
5. ↑ Fürther Tagblatt. No. 175, November 2, 1839, p. 910 ( digitized in the Google book search).
6. ^ Bonifaz Huber: History of the City of Burghausen , Burghausen 1993 (reprint), p. 400