Osemund
The Brandenburg Osemund was a very soft and tough iron that was easily malleable .
Manufacture and use
The iron was produced during the late Middle Ages and the early modern period using water-powered hammer mills . These were mainly concentrated in the rural area of the parish of Lüdenscheid . Further processing then took place in the cities.
The Osemunde iron was particularly suitable for wire drawing . Wire production in the towns of Lüdenscheid , Altena and Iserlohn was only able to develop on the basis of this raw material .
The pre-industrial trade fell into crisis due to industrial competition as early as the end of the 18th century. Wire production disappeared from the market soon after the beginning of the 19th century, while Osemund production was partially able to hold up until the middle of the 19th century.
Concept history
Many linguists have dealt with the basic interpretation of the word Osemund, but without finding a satisfactory result. The word appears as early as the 14th century without its geographical origin being clearly assigned. The closest thing to the assumption is that the term comes from the Nordic, Swedish area, where it perhaps first referred to a certain ore, but then to a particular iron quality. An interesting explanation can be found in a dissertation by Peter Saxholm from the year 1725: the word Osemund is derived from Asmuntz , the name of a son of the giant Gulla . This Asmuntz would in many sveogothischen runic writings called and applies there as the inventor of the iron.
Individual evidence
- ^ Dietmar Simon: Labor movement in the province. Essen, 1995 p. 19
- ^ Dietmar Simon: Labor movement in the province. Essen, 1995 p. 20
literature
- Dietrich Woeste: The Osemund - A contribution to the economic history of the Märkisches Sauerland and the history of iron - Altenaer contributions, Volume 16, Altena 1985 - 277 pp.
- compare the article Oßmund and Oßmundeisen at Krünitz-Online
