Saigerhütte Schleusingen
The Saigerhütte Schleusingen was a non-ferrous metallurgy plant, which was founded in 1461 and existed until the middle of the 16th century, right next to the town of Schleusingen in the county of Henneberg . In this hut, the Saiger process , which was new at the time, was used to separate silver from copper.
history
With the discovery of the Saiger process for separating silver from copper ores, which was attributed to Johannes Funcken between 1430 and 1451 in the imperial city of Nuremberg , the owners of smelters succeeded in obtaining possession of the silver contained in copper ore, which was not subject to delivery to the sovereign. The metal trade recognized the importance of the process very early on, which prompted financially strong merchants in this trade to build Saigerhütten. While the construction of a Saigerhütte was initially also carried out by individuals, it soon became apparent that the operation and maintenance of Saigerhütten by corporations, so-called Saiger trading companies , was more effective. In the case of Schleusingen, it was Nuremberg patricians, particularly those from the Semler family, who distinguished themselves when establishing the Saiger trading companies. At that time, the imperial city of Nuremberg was one of the most important European centers for metal processing.
As the first Saigerhütte in the county of Henneberg, the Saigerhütte Schleusingen was opened on November 20, 1461 by Count Wilhelm III. licensed from Henneberg-Schleusingen.
After the construction of the Saigerhütte Schleusingen, eleven more Saigerhütten were built in what is now Thuringia by 1565, which at the beginning mainly shed black copper from the county of Mansfeld . In 1470/71 the Saigerhütte Chemnitz was built as the first ironworks of this type in the Duchy of Saxony .
In addition to the Saigerhütte Schleusingen, the count's brothers Wilhelm and Ernst von Henneberg enfeoffed Martin Semler and his sons Moritz and Mathies Semler and their heirs and descendants with the hammer and hammer, named in the hell above his mill above the town of Schleusingen, including the water usage rights in the Breitenbach and the Erlau. Martin Semler came to Schleusingen from Nuremberg with Burghard Semler in 1461 to found the Saigerhütte there. He died in 1493. By inheritance, the hut fell to Marcus Semler in 1501 .
literature
- Eckart Henning : The princes of Henneberg-Schleusingen in the age of the Reformation , Cologne, Weimar, Böhlau, 1981
- Peter Lange: Saigerhütten in Thuringia. In: Copper Silver Steel - Contributions to the history of metallurgy. Published by the museums of the city of Olbernhau, Olbernhau 1988.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Peter Lange: Saigerhütten in Thuringia. In: Copper Silver Steel - Contributions to the history of metallurgy. Published by the museums of the city of Olbernhau, Olbernhau 1988, p. 15.