Rothenfelde salt works

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The Rothenfelde saltworks existed in what is now Bad Rothenfelde in the Prince Diocese of Osnabrück since the 18th century .

prehistory

Unlike the Königsborn saltworks , the Salzkotten saltworks and the Gottesgabe saltworks, the Rothenfelde saltworks have no centuries-old history or prehistory. It is true that God's gift in Rheine and Königsborn in Unna are also new foundations that fall into the 17th and 18th centuries; However, these two salt pans have a history of salt production that was not insignificant for the development of both salt pans in the 18th century. In the vicinity of the later Rothenfelde salt works, salt springs were used in older times; but there can be no question of real salt production. At the beginning of the 18th century, all that was known was that in the villages of Aschendorf and Laer , located on the slopes of the Kleiner Berg, salty springs emerged, in whose water the local farmers used to cook their meals in order to save financial expenses for the always precious salt as a seasoning to be able to.

In addition, there were brine springs at another location in the Hochstift , which were briefly expanded into a saline. On the main road between Osnabrück and Bielefeld in the county of Ravensberg , a brine spring was discovered and inspected at the so-called Holtmannschen Platz in 1539 by Sälzern from Unna. A salt works was apparently set up at this point at the beginning of the 17th century, as the then sovereign , the Duke of Jülich , enfeoffed Johann Reinhard Philipson on April 8, 1607 with a salt works and salt boiler located there. With its need for firewood for evacuation, the company caused severe damage to the wood stock in the area. Switching to coal firing was not possible. Drostin Lukretia von Cappel's only coal production in Oeseder , which had a supply contract from 1609 with the salt works of Johann Reinhard Philipson, went bankrupt, with the coal being seized by the creditors. Eventually operations were stopped. Overall, however, these three brine springs, those at Aschendorf and Laer and those at Holtmannschen Platz, were still known at the beginning of the 18th century.

Works constitution and management

In 1722, the then sovereign, Prince-Bishop Ernst August II of Hanover from the ducal house of Braunschweig-Lüneburg , driven by the enormous salt poverty prevailing in his territory, commissioned the builder Johann Christian Märcker from the county of Mansfeld with the search for brine springs and the construction of one Salt works for the episcopal salt production. Since the start of the Rothenfeld saltworks, only the prince-bishop's ruler has acted as a promoter; he strove to establish a state-fiscal company. There are no indications in the sources that Ernst August II ever thought of a loan , lease or the establishment of a capitalist acquisition company to operate the Rothenfelde salt works. Ernst August II himself was elected Prince-Bishop of the Osnabrück Monastery as part of a special succession plan (so-called alternative succession ) .

With Johann Christian Märcker, the prince-bishop selected a specialist promoter who had acquired knowledge in the area of ​​saltworks, but was not considered to be such a well-trained specialist as von Beust, Korte or the officials employed in the Brandenburg-Prussian saltworks at Unna were. Märcker was not a saltworks expert by nature, but had learned mill and hydraulic engineering. In the years of his previous professional activity, however, the master builder had the opportunity to acquire some knowledge in the field of mining and salt evaporation during stays in mines and salt works in Mansfeld and in Upper Saxony. The fact that the prince-bishop's choice fell on him and not on a saltworks expert from the Hessian or Brandenburg-Prussian saltworks may have been due, among other things, to the fact that the ruler not only built a salt works in the bishopric, but also built four Waterworks and the investigation of the Borgloh coal field in the Hochstift. Ernst August II was therefore not only looking for a specialist in saltworks , but also needed a generalist who was able to take on the specialist promotional role for various business areas.

However, considering the specific requirements of the saltworks, this choice was initially not a particularly favorable one. On special advice from the sovereign, Märcker began his work at the brine springs around Aschendorf and Laer. Without a more detailed examination of these brine sources for their solderiness , Märcker began at these points with the construction of six graduation towers, two boiling houses and an artificial wheel (hydropower plant) with a total investment volume of 5,759 Reichstalers, which was at the expense of the prince-bishop's treasury. The fact that the planning and the initial preparations were carried out so hastily and scientifically poorly prepared was due, among other things, to the fact that Märcker was not only distracted by the other sovereign projects, but also by foreign orders - in Güstrow and Parchim . The result was that the builder actually only managed the work on site from 1724. It soon became clear, however, that the springs near Aschendorf and the brine near Laer, rated as more productive by Märcker, did not have the necessary solubility to justify the construction of a salt works. He had to meekly confess to his client in July 1724 that the Aschendorfer Sole had lost a lot of its solderiness and that the expenditures were beginning to turn out to be bad investments. Another suspicion - this time already in the direction of Rothenfelde - brought a new source to light; But even this brine did not have sufficient solderiness and even disappeared again after a few weeks. This attempt alone devoured another 500 Reichstaler.

When Märcker gradually became aware of the hopelessness of his undertaking at the previous points, the son of the kötter Johann Caspar Grafe made him aware of his father's salty well near Rothenfelde, where the builder finally came across the decisive brine on September 22, 1724. At a short distance from the salt works that had already been built, this brine lying in the open field had a much stronger and more productive solderiness with a salt content of 7%. In order not to have made the previous investments in the old places in vain, he had a tubular channel built between the new brine and the parts of the salt works that had already been built. For further work, Ernst August II, who may have lost confidence in Märcker's sole responsibility in view of these events, brought in a second specialist promoter in October 1724, the proven Saline expert Sievers. Experts were not hired to expand the above-mentioned canal; On the contrary, due to the financial reluctance of Ernst August II. locals were hired: The bishop kept his hand on his pocket after the costly and sometimes superfluous preparatory work in Aschendorf and Laer. So Märcker felt compelled to hire a group of farmers from Rothenfelde and the surrounding area as workers to cut the 61 rod long canal.

In the meantime, the prince-bishop's country chancellery had endeavored to bring the land required for the salt works into the hands of the sovereign. What was remarkable about this procedure was that the prince-bishop took the quickly arising disputes about feudal and property rights as an opportunity not to attempt to expropriate or confiscate fiefs with reference to mountain or salt shelves. Rather, he instructed the law firm by personal decree of March 5, 1726 to bring the required land into his hands by means of a legal transaction , i.e. by purchase. On April 6, 1726, all purchases were successfully completed. The Prince-Bishop had to raise a total of 1,050 Reichstalers for this. In 1725, full boiling was finally started at the Rothenfelde saltworks, to which an impression in the prayer book attached to the prince-bishop's hymn book expressly refers to by the Land Chancellery:

"So, in particular, the Saltz = werck bestowed on this country by your kindness, so let your gifts and gifts graciously preserve and abundantly bless them."

The operation took place in a complete graduation plant, three boiling huts with ten pans, two salt magazines and the already mentioned waterworks. In the Saline Rothenfelde, the thorn graduation was carried out from the beginning , until in 1729, when repair costs for the graduation were incurred, when Märcker pointed out that the little-appreciated gray color of the Rothenfeld salt was caused by the fire of the thorns used, this process was abandoned. In 1726, the actual management - on June 16, 1728, Johann Christian Märcker had left Ernst August II's services and thus the salt works - was transferred to the salt master Schramm from Dissen. When he arrived, an orderly management of the Rothenfelde salt works began. At the end of 1727, the main work on the salt works was completed, which caused the net profit of the salt works to rise to 3,000 Reichstaler annually for the first time in 1728. In the years 1726 and 1727, the net profit was 100 thalers per year due to the financial burdens caused by the ongoing construction activity.

A total of 22 employees and workers were working in the Rothenfelde salt works at this time. The actual operational organization was very clear. The management of the salt works was the responsibility of the salt master and salt inspector Schramm, who was also the highest salt official in the bishopric. The boiling operation was directed and monitored by the Kottenmeister (boiling master) Johann Christian Mindus ; the pans were supervised by the pan smith Andreas Banderman, while the remaining 19 workers carried out the rest of the production. Of the 20 salt workers, a total of 12 were from the bishopric of Osnabrück. The remaining 8 came from other German saltworks centers: including Halle an der Saale , Staßfurt , Schönebeck and Allendorf . Ernst August II knew how to insure himself not only on the level of operational management - Mindus came from Halle an der Saale, Banderman from Magdeburg - but also on the executive level of the salt workers of a certain tribe of specialist personnel.

Although Schramm suggested a state salt trade monopoly to his sovereign in 1726, the Prince-Bishop renounced both such a monopoly and the imposition of an import ban on foreign salt. Rather, the sale of the salt was entrusted to a set salt factor, which had to sell the salt at a fixed price both to the local population and - at an insignificantly higher price - to foreigners.

With the death of Ernst August II in 1728, the decline occurred as a result of an inheritance dispute over the Rothenfelde salt works. The cathedral chapter of Osnabrück, with reference to the Bergregal, claimed ownership of the saltworks, as did the head of the House of Braunschweig-Lüneburg, King George II of Great Britain. The now erupting legal dispute with George II was carried out by both the cathedral chapter and the newly elected Prince-Bishop Clemens August I of Bavaria , to whom the Salzkotten saltworks and God's gift were also subject. Clemens August first dismissed the salt inspector Schramm, who had made himself suspicious of the British King's party, and appointed Mindus as the new supreme salt official. But this too - just like all other foreign workers on the saltworks - refused the oath to the new sovereign, while the local workers were transferred to the camp of the new prince-bishop. A three-year dispute ensues. In the end, the saltworks were completely down due to the disunity among the workers. The Rothenfelde saltworks only started operating in 1731, after the Prince-Bishop had given up the actual ownership of the saltworks in favor of George II, who had meanwhile threatened to bring an action before the Reichshofrat in Vienna. In the meantime, Clemens August shied away from the high costs that would have caused the resumption of operations and the removal of the fallow damage. The prince-bishop's sovereignty over the Rothenfelde salt works ended after only a few years of operation. The Rothenfelde saltworks were left to King George II and his legal heirs as a free allodium with all associated land and boiling equipment.

Under the new worldly masters, Rothenfelde quickly became an extremely profitable business again. In the following decades, the necessary technical improvements were constantly made under the direction of various capable saline directors. In the years 1742 to 1752, the Rothenfelde saltworks had expanded so far that it was even able to supply the Prussian salt factory in the former county of Tecklenburg with 18,515 Berlin bushels of salt. In the 1760s and 1770s, decisive new construction and renovation measures were carried out, such as the re-establishment of a large graduation house and the equipping of the boiling houses with new boiling pans. The annual production of Rothenfelde averaged 870,000 kg annually.

Regarding the prince-bishop's rule over the Rothenfelde saltworks in the first half of the 18th century, it can be concluded that Ernst August II chose the legal form of the state-fiscal enterprise with regard to the works constitution of the saltworks. So he acted as the sole promoter and made all the necessary investments from his private box. In contrast to many other sovereigns of his time, he expressly decided against leasing or lending and completely took over the entrepreneurial risk, which was so often feared by the state. He was able to do this primarily because he did not find any established structures in the salt pans in his Hochstift that should have been taken into account with regard to the works constitution and management. In addition, Ernst August II did not get involved in the usual disputes about the enforcement of the Bergregal. Although he was helped by the fact that there was not yet a functioning saltworks in his bishopric, he did not rely on the time-consuming assertion of sovereign rights when procuring the necessary land, but chose the faster way of legal transactions, hence the Way of the quick purchase.

The whole process of this sovereign is characterized by a certain impetus in the implementation of his plans. While this was definitely beneficial in terms of time when setting up the salt works, his project suffered more damage when selecting the specialist doctorate. With the appointment of Johann Christian Märcker, Ernst August II., Who wanted to have several projects covered with this appointment, did not prove a lucky hand. But the sovereign also knew how to remedy this disadvantage by quickly appointing further specialist promoters with more specific aptitude for the saltworks. As with many state-fiscal companies, the management of the Rothenfelde salt works was organized uniformly and tightly. The highest salt official of the Hochstift was at the same time managing director and operator in personal union. Without this uniform and, in its organizational form, flat management, the rapid, full operational process of Rothenfelde would have been hardly conceivable. The Osnabrück prince-bishop also chose different paths than many of his princely contemporaries when it came to the state framework. Ernst August II completely renounced the installation of a state salt trade monopoly and the imposition of an import ban on foreign salt. In doing so, the Prince-Bishop suspended his still young saltworks from the start of its business activity on the free salt trading market and this without seriously damaging the development of his business.

literature

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