Martin Weigel (head miner)

Martin Weigel , signed as Martin Weygel , (* 28. October 1555 in Schwarzenberg , † 4. August 1618 in Freiberg ) was a German mine surveyor and electoral Saxon Upper Bergmeister.

Life

In his funeral sermon, the Schwarzenberg city councilor Christoff Weigel is named as the father of Martin Weigel, although Walter Fröbe already pointed out that his first name is probably incorrect. Weigel, who comes from the Ore Mountains , was sent to the Harz mines in 1568 at the age of twelve to learn the mining trade there. After 12 years he returned to the Ore Mountains, in 1582 he became a Steiger in Schneeberg . There he took over the office of Markscheider in 1590. Because he had correctly specified many heavy copies , he was elected to the mountain jury in Schneeberg in 1593 . In 1595 he went to Annaberg as a mountain master and in 1597 to Freiberg as mountain governor or mountain administrator . In 1602 he was given the office of senior miner from Saxony, which he held until the end of his life.

On May 16, 1586, in Schneeberg, he married the daughter of Erasmus (Asmus) Gräff, Margaretha (1565-1630), who had been a shift supervisor there since 1575 . Her first son received his first name: Erasmus Weigel. According to Christian Lehmann, Martin Weigel's daughter Dorothea had been the wife of the Freiberg shift foreman and knightly green hammer gentleman Balthasar Escher since 1615 .

Since the reign of Elector August (1553–1586) efforts have been made to resume salt production in the Altensalz saltworks . Martin Weigel was also involved in this in 1603. On February 27, 1605 he took part in the hereditary survey of the St. Catharina Neufang mine near Schneeberg. Furthermore, his presence when the Schneeberger pit "Fifteen weeks" was measured on December 4, 1605 is documented.

In 1615 he got into a serious dispute with the mountain bailiff Salomon Brunn in Sangerhausen about the excavation of the Tiefen Gonnaer adit . Both had two different search tunnels built independently of one another in order to find a new copper slate deposit. The disputes and the dispute over competencies lasted a year, which was not hidden from the Elector Johann Georg I of Saxony. The mining court ruled that whoever of the two miners should pay the cost of driving the tunnel who only encounters dead rock. But the solution was not that simple, because Brunn did not come across copper slate with the main tunnel, but by chance when creating a light hole . Weigel's tunnel, on the other hand, did not yield any slate. The annoyance about this is said to have contributed to the fact that Weigel died shortly after his return from another trip to Sangerhausen in 1618 in Freiberg. After Weigel's death, the funeral sermon given by Freiberg superintendent Abraham Gensreff in Freiberg Cathedral appeared in print.

Act

There are contradicting statements about Weigel's work. According to Sieber , he is said to have introduced the hand drill in 1580 and fired with powder for the first time in 1613 . According to a publication from 1732, he is said to have introduced drilling and shooting in the Freiberg pits in 1613 . According to other information, this is attributed to Caspar Morgenstern , who also comes from the Harz region .

The Schneeberger chronicler Christian Meltzer described Martin Weigel as "a figurehead of a mountain = understanding man [...] / who also happily decides on a lot of controversial mountain = things in other places / after he has become such a distinguished man from a mountain = boy."

literature

• Abraham Gensreff: Metallicus Spiritualis, clergyman Bergkman / That is: A Christian funeral sermon / about the 121st Psalm of David: Bey dem Christian Graebnusß / des weyland […] Martin Weigels / Churf. Saechs. Oberbergkmeisters: Which Anno 1618. August 4th […] fell asleep […] Freiberg 1618.
• Friedrich August Wappler: History of the Freiberg mining blasting work, a review . In: C. Menzel (Hrsg.): Yearbook for the mountain and huts in the kingdom of Saxony . Craz & Gerlach, Freiberg 1908, p. 79–81 ( digitized version [PDF; accessed on January 28, 2014]).
• Thilo Ziegler : History of the Sangerhäuser Berg- und Hüttenwerk from the beginning to modern times. Issue 18: The Deep Gonnaer Stollen. Sangerhausen 2011.

Individual evidence

1. ^ ^{A b} Siegfried Sieber: On the history of the Erzgebirge mining industry . Wilhelm-Knapp-Verlag, Halle (Saale) 1954, p. 126 .
2. ^ Stephan Schmidt bridges, Karsten Richter: The Erzgebirgschronist Christian Lehmann. Life and work . Druck- und Verlagsgesellschaft, Marienberg 2011, ISBN 978-3-931770-96-9 , p. 119-120 .
3. ^ Siegfried Sieber: On the history of mining in the Ore Mountains . Wilhelm-Knapp-Verlag, Halle (Saale) 1954, p. 69 (The drill is needed to drill the holes for shooting. It is said to have been in the Harz Mountains in 1580).
4. ↑ Manfred Bayer, Klaus Grund: On the history of Freiberg mining. (No longer available online.) TU Bergakademie Freiberg, archived from the original on February 3, 2014 ; Retrieved January 28, 2014 (with the wrong year 1643). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
5. ^ Otfried Wagenbreth : The Freiberg mining. Technical monuments and history . Ed .: Eberhard Wächtler . 2nd Edition. Deutscher Verlag für Grundstofftindustrie, Leipzig 1988, ISBN 3-342-00117-8 , 9th time table for the history of Freiberg mining , p. 104 : "1643 C ASPAR M ORGENSTERN , who came from the Harz region, introduces ... a ..."
6. ↑ Christian Meltzer: Mountainous description of the Churfürstl. Saxon. freyen and Löbl in the Meißnischen Ober-Ertz-Geburge. Bergk town of Schneebergk . Schneeberg 1684, p. 379 ( digitized version [accessed February 7, 2014]).