Wilhelm Sältzer

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Johann Wilhelm Sältzer, oil, 1828
Johann Wilhelm Sältzer, pastel, 1835

Johann Friedrich Wilhelm Sältzer (also Saeltzer , Saelzer ) (born April 13, 1779 in Madelungen near Eisenach ; † July 12, 1853 in Eisenach; often mentioned as Johann Wilhelm Sältzer or JW Sältzer ) was a German architect and brickyard owner. As the Grand Ducal Saxon-Weimar-Eisenach planning councilor , he discovered a gallery of columns while examining the remains of the Wartburg , the uncovering of which prompted the restoration of the old castle ruins. During the subsequent reconstruction of the castle - until his retirement - he worked as a construction architect and site manager.

Life

Wilhelm Sältzer was born in 1779 in Madelungen as the son of the pastor and “language master” (language teacher) Christian Bartholomäus Saelzer and Henriette Juncker. Initially trained as a master mason , he studied construction and architecture . Contemporaries described him as "practically as well as art and science educated". He is also mentioned as an excellent draftsman, "whose building recordings, as we know today, show little deviations from modern, laser-based measurements" and are still considered to be building recordings of historical and practical value.

From his marriage to Maria Friederike Sommer on June 29, 1806, u. a. three sons: Eduard Sältzer took over his father's brickworks in Eisenach and worked as an architect in Eisenach. His brother Alexander Sältzer , born in Eisenach in 1813, emigrated to the United States , where he also made a name for himself as an architect. Wilhelm August, born in Eisenach on August 25, 1820 "the eighth child of JW Saeltzer", founded the August Saeltzer art pottery , a factory for stoneware .

Eisenach brickworks

In 1820 Wilhelm Sältzer founded the first Eisenach brickworks, which he built on a plot of land along the former city wall between Karthäuserstraße, today Wartburgallee, and Marienstraße, together with a house on what is now Wartburgallee 66/70. In 1827 he received a 20-year privilege from Grand Duke Carl August , which stipulated that no further brick factories were allowed to set up “in the Eisenach lowlands, that is, in the fifth district council”. This privilege was linked to the condition that Sältzer had to keep a stock of at least “50,000 pieces of brick in accordance with the regulations”. The brick factory was later continued by his son Eduard and transferred to the Eisenacher Actien brick factory .

Construction officer

View of the Eisenach market square. On the left is the classicist former community school built by Johann Wilhelm Sältzer in 1825. Colored steel engraving, 1856

From 1804 Wilhelm Sältzer worked as a construction manager in Weimar and from 1809 to 1846 as a construction officer for the fiscal construction industry in Eisenach. From 1823 to 1825 he built the first citizen school on Markt 13. In 1829 he built a morgue in the old cemetery on Schlossberg from the stones of the demolished preacher's gate, which no longer exists today. As the most modern morgue of its time, it received a certain amount of attention in Germany. Thimbles with a bell attached to the dead were put on to alert a guard present in the house if the dead turned out to be apparently dead.

Sältzer and the Wartburg

Johann Wilhelm Sältzer: Draft for the restoration of the Wartburg , 1846/1847, detail

As a grand ducal building officer, Sältzer was commissioned in 1838 to investigate the remains of the Wartburg. His discoveries gave the impetus to restore the old castle ruins. He had the palace arcades on the courtyard side opened and supplemented, carefully measured the ruins and presented very original and imaginative new building plans for the castle, characterized by a castle romance. These plans contained several elements, “actually the decisive ones, which then gave the overall composition its own almost suggestive effect”, which were incorporated into the designs of Hugo von Ritgen , who ultimately had to rebuild the Wartburg.

Fonts

  • Start of construction of the Wartburg. Floor plan with elevations . Eisenach 1840 (Wartburg Foundation Eisenach, archive, BE 36 / GK)
  • The Wartburg. An archaeological-architectural sketch , Eisenach 1846 (Wartburg Foundation Eisenach, archive, Hs. 3501)

Sources and literature

  • Weimar Classic Foundation, Goethe and Schiller Archives: Goethe's letter to Johann Friedrich Sältzer of November 23, 1814 (Goethe's outgoing letters (29), sign. 29/11, p. 128)
  • Ed. Wolff senior: Eduard Sältzer † July 14, 1880 . In: Deutsche Töpfer- und Ziegler-Zeitung , Berlin, No. 31 of July 31, 1880
  • Hans Dickel, Helmut Börsch-Supan and Christoph Martin Vogtherr : Prussia, the art and the individual , Academy, Berlin 2003, ISBN 978-3-05-003789-9
  • Ernst Badstübner: To the architectural drawings by Johann Wilhelm Sältzer. A preliminary report. Wartburg yearbook 2003.12. Verlag Schnell and Steiner, Regensburg 2004, pp. 158–170
  • Lothar Ehrlich and Justus H. Ulbricht: Carl Alexander von Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach: heirs, patrons and politicians , Böhlau, Vienna, Cologne, Weimar 2004, p. 207 ISBN 3-412-09203-7
  • Urania cultural and educational association Gotha eV (Ed.): Eisenacher personalities. A biographical lexicon , Rhino, Weimar 2004, ISBN 3-932081-45-5
  • Herlind Reiss: Villas and country houses at the foot of the Wartburg (monument topography Federal Republic of Germany, cultural monuments in Thuringia, Volume 2.1), Reinhold, Altenburg 2006, ISBN 978-3-937940-24-3
  • Grit Jacobs: Another choice, too! and Johann Wilhelm Sältzer's design for the restoration of the entire Wartburg . In: Grit Jacobs: A true picture from early times, the work of the architect Hugo von Ritgen on the Wartburg . Dissertation, Volume 1. Thuringian University and State Library Jena. Jena 2017., pp. 50 - 58. Also online: DB Thüringen , accessed on January 31, 2020
  • Grit Jacobs: Johann Wilhelm Sältzer in the catalog of architectural and design drawings of the 19th century in the Wartburg art collection . Dissertation, Volume 2. Thuringian University and State Library Jena. Jena 2017, pp. 2–4, 24, 36–47, 55, 151, 184 and 209. Also online: DB Thüringen , accessed on January 31, 2020
  • Eisenach city archive: Alfred Appelius estate depot, No. 40/2/11, 0076

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Baptismal register of the evangelical parish of Madelungen 1779. According to information from the baptismal register, the date of birth April 13, 1780, which is often used, is incorrect along with the accompanying letter. Eisenach city archive: Alfred Appelius estate depot, No. 40/2/11, 0076
  2. ↑ a b Ed. Wolff senior: Eduard Sältzer † July 14, 1880 . In: Deutsche Töpfer- und Ziegler-Zeitung , Berlin, No. 31 of July 31, 1880
  3. ↑ a b Lothar Ehrlich and Justus H. Ulbricht: Carl Alexander von Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach: Erbe, Patron and Politician , Böhlau, Vienna, Cologne, Weimar 2004, p. 207
  4. ↑ Werner Noth: The Wartburg . Koehler & Amelang, Leipzig 1967, p. 118
  5. ^ Hans Dickel, Helmut Börsch-Supan and Christoph Martin Vogtherr: Prussia, the art and the individual , Academy, Berlin 2003
personal data
SURNAME Saltzer, Wilhelm
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Saelzer, Johann Wilhelm (alternative spelling); Sältzer, Friedrich Wilhelm; Sältzer, Johann Friedrich Wilhelm (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German architect and brick factory owner
DATE OF BIRTH April 13, 1779
PLACE OF BIRTH Madelungen
DATE OF DEATH July 12, 1853
Place of death Eisenach