Nathan Mendelssohn (instrument maker)

Nathan Mendelssohn (also: Carl Theodor Nathanael Mendelssohn; * December 8, 1781 in Berlin ; † January 9, 1852 there ) was a successful mechanic and instrument maker .

Career

Nathan was the youngest child of the philosopher Moses Mendelssohn and his wife Fromet, b. Gugenheim . In 1809 he was baptized as an Evangelical Reformist and took the first name Carl Theodor Nathanael . Shortly afterwards he married the daughter of a leather manufacturer, Henriette Itzig (1781–1845), who gave birth to ten children, but only three of them reached adulthood: Arnold (1817–1854), Ottilie (1819–1848) and Wilhelm (1821–1866).

Nathan was gifted mathematically and scientifically and technically. After attending the Joachimsthal School in Berlin, he trained as a mechanic and instrument maker in Germany, Paris and London . As early as 1805 he published reports in scientific journals about his inventions. After his return he opened a workshop in Berlin in 1806, which was supported and sponsored by the state and in which astronomical , geodetic and physical measuring instruments were manufactured that could compete with the best English and French. Even Alexander von Humboldt , who was a friend of the Mendelssohn family, used scientific instruments that were built in Nathan's workshop at his expeditions. His reputation was so great that, through Humboldt's mediation , he was allowed to report on his inventions to the Academy of Sciences .

In 1813 Nathan gave up the workshop, volunteered for the 4th Churmärk Landwehr Infantry Regiment and took part in the battles against Napoleonic troops. While still in the military, he was assigned to inspect rifle factories and gunsmiths in Thuringia . Because of the associated merits, he was accepted into the civil service after his retirement from military service in 1814 and employed in the royal rifle factory in Neisse / Silesia . After the factory was privatized in 1821, he could no longer be employed, but received an “inactivity salary” until he was re-employed in 1829.

In search of a new existence, Nathan Mendelssohn and his family moved to Reinerz in Lower Silesia in the former County of Glatz in 1822 and leased a 24-acre site in the nearby Schmelzetal (also known as Weißtritztal or Grunwalder Tal ). There he built an ironworks with the support of his brother Joseph Mendelssohn . The iron stores in the Reinerzer area had been known since the beginning of the 15th century, and the company was promising. On August 18, 1823, the foundation stone for a new furnace was laid and blessed by a clergyman. Nathan's brother Abraham Mendelssohn Bartholdy and his sons Paul and Felix were also present . After the necessary buildings had been erected, the ironworks could be put into operation. The iron ores were mined in the vicinity (foothills of the Hohen Mense , Ratschenberg, Hallatsch and others). As early as 1829, Nathan gave up the business, which was located directly on the banks of the Weistritz , for reasons that were not known in detail, and sold it to the Berlin machine builder Franz Anton Egells . It is believed that the ironworks was badly damaged by the flood damage of 1827 and 1829 and that larger investments would have been necessary for the repair.

From December 1829, Nathan lived with his family in the district town of Glatz , 20 kilometers away , where he was re-employed in the civil service at the tax office and his sons were able to attend grammar school. In 1834 he was promoted to the “main office controller” in Liegnitz . Only in 1836 did he return to Berlin, where he was employed as an auditor in the main stamp and magazine administration . He carried out this activity until the end of his life.

Nathan could not achieve the fame of his siblings Dorothea , Joseph and Abraham . Although in 1839 he became a co-founder of the Polytechnic Society and its chairman and his interest and talent for technical developments and innovations remained, he did not succeed in resuming the successful technical career that had been interrupted by military service.

Like his two brothers, Nathan Mendelssohn belonged to the Society of Friends .

Publications

• Nathan Mendelssohn: Description of an improved device for the air pump. In: Annalen der Physik , 1806, St. 1, pp. 96-101

literature

• Thomas Lackmann : The luck of the Mendelssohns - story of a German family. Berlin 2005, p. 116, ISBN 3-351-02600-5
• Ilse Rabien: The Mendelssohns in Bad Reinerz. In: Mendelssohn Studies. Volume 7, ISBN 3-428-06975-7
• Advertisement from Mr. von Humboldt about the astronomical, geodetic and physical instruments that are being manufactured at N. Mendelssohn, in Behrensstr. No. 60 in Berlin . In: Annalen der Physik, 1806, p. 7

Web links

• http://www.panwitz.net/person/mendel/nathan.htm