Spiegelberg mirror manufacture

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A Spiegelberg mirror

The Spiegelberg mirror manufacture was a mirror glass factory in the Juxwald , which existed from 1705 to 1794. In addition to mirrors, it also produced window and spectacle glasses, bottles, glasses, candlesticks and lanterns and smaller works of art.

history

The mirror master Johann Georg Gundelach from Darmstadt suggested the construction of the mirror glass works in the valley of the Lauter in the Juxwald in 1705. The area offered itself because of its wealth of quartz sandstone for the establishment of glassworks; The forest on the Juxkopf, with its large beech trees, also seemed favorable to such an undertaking.

The site once belonged to the Mariental monastery (Steinheim an der Murr) and was administered by the Württemberg church council after its abolition. Gundelach was able to persuade this church council and the duke to finally give up the unprofitable glassworks on the Juxkopf, which had been set up only five years earlier, in favor of a new hut in Lautertal, where white and mirror glass should also be produced. The mill master Hans Jakob Greiner from Walkersbach had failed in the old hut and was no longer able to raise the rent; a Frenchman by the name of St. Pierre had offered to build a new hut as early as 1702, but demanded such a large advance that the deal had not come off. Gundelach, who initially leased the new Spiegelhütte for ten years, actually wanted to name it “Georgsberg” after himself; However, this was rejected by the Duke of Württemberg.

The new hut was given the name Spiegelberg by decree of the Duke on September 1, 1705 , which was later transferred to the settlement that developed in the vicinity of the manufactory.

Under the rule of Dukes Eberhard Ludwig and Carl Eugen , the manufactory produced products for the Ludwigsburg Palace , Solitude , Hohenheim Palace and the Stuttgart theater, among others . In the opera house, which Carl Eugen had built in Ludwigsburg in 1764, all walls and pillars were clad with mirrors made of Spiegelberg. It was exported to Holland , Switzerland and France . Still, the operation had to be subsidized in its later years.

Shortage of wood, crises after the outbreak of the French Revolution and high administrative costs led to serious economic difficulties towards the end of the 18th century. Considerations to relocate production to the Black Forest were not put into practice. In 1792, the state parliament declared it irresponsible and ridiculous to continue to hold on to the manufacture, so that production was finally stopped in 1794. However, the sale of the remaining stocks dragged on until 1819 and the factory was not finally closed until 1820.

The end of the Spiegelhütte cost numerous residents their jobs and led to great poverty. Former factory workers tried to make a living as linen weavers, broom makers or peddlers. In the middle of the 19th century, Spiegelberg lost about half of its inhabitants when they emigrated to America.

In an effort to prevent the facility from being closed, a sample collection was apparently put together around 1785. It offers an interesting testimony to the history of the Spiegelberg mirror manufacturer.

The Spiegelberger sample collection

The sample collection from the Spiegelmanufaktur remained in the files of the Württemberg Church Council, which was dissolved in 1805 and whose holdings were transferred to the Stuttgart State Archives . Today they bear the signature A 284/88 No. 73-75. The six wooden boxes from the 18th century contain material samples that the administration of the mirror glass factory handed over to the responsible supervisory authority, i.e. the ducal church council, around the mid-1780s. This authority should decide whether the unprofitable glassworks should be closed or maintained. Three of the boxes were exhibited in 2001 as Archivale of the Month in the State Archives in Stuttgart.

The compartments of the boxes mainly contain samples of materials that were needed to make mirrors, but also finished panes and a blue glass ball, possibly one of the oldest Christmas balls in the world. In addition, the waste product glass bile was also found in the sample collection. The archaeochemist P. Kurzmann rated this find as unique and very significant. Glass bile consists of impurities that float on the glass melt . They were usually skimmed off and disposed of. Since glass bile does not stay in the ground for centuries, the find from the sample box is so far the only known case of traditional glass bile.

Individual evidence

  1. a b c Municipality of Spiegelberg - 300 years of Spiegelberg ( Memento of the original from March 24, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.gemeinde-spiegelberg.de
  2. ^ Landesarchiv Baden-Württemberg - Archives of the Month July 2001