Glassmakers Part 6 I received some more information concerning the glassworks through an article called "Bulletin de la Societe Niederbronnonise d'Histoire et d'Archeologie: Le Village de Mattstall", from F.R. Traubmann. The founder was named Ulrich Greiner according to a letter from 1556 which says, I, Ulrich Greiner certify that Mr. Heinrich from Fleckenstein, Count and master to me and my descendants built at the glassworks and allowed us to work the Buchwald of Mattstall. In the chronik from Georges Walter the first baptism of a child happened in Soucht during the siege of the Swedish War in the year 1644. The name of the child is not known. Robert Greiner of Augsburg wrote to me in 1958 that Christoph Greiner used to be the master of the glassworks in Mattstall. He was the son of Balthasar Greiner, glaser at Neuenlautern (Wurttenberg). Neuenlautern was founded in 1505 or 1507 by Melchior and Peter Greiner. Therefore, both Greiners from Mattstall and Holbach came from Neuenlautern Glaslautern. I visited the glassworks at Mattstall two years ago. Comte Pourtales and his wife who is English, now are the owners. Above the entrance of the house I found a stone plate with the following inscriptions: God Bless my entrance and exit from now to eternity. On the left side it says: I, Johann Peter Greiner, glassworks master lived here in 1663. Page 43 On the right side Sibilla Catharina Greiner from Speier the year of 1663. Robert Greiner also mentioned other names. Johann Jacob Greiner, glassworks master married the daughter of Ebert Heinrich, glaser at Mattstall on August 14, 1659. They both returned to Mattstall. Johann Jacob Greiner was the son of Christoph Greiner, glassworks master at Mattstall. Another son, Caspar Greiner also a glaser married a girl from Landau. So much concerning the glassworks Mattstall which you can attribute to the land of the Bitscheland. The glassworks in Mattstall was operating approximately 100 years longer than the glassworks in Soucht. It was closed in 1788. The Glassworks Soucht After forty years of the already existing glassworks they had to travel farther to get wood. According to a report from Georges Walter the Munzthal Huttmaster working on the Count von Bitsche, asked the Count for permission to build a new hut. The Count supposedly told him "geht und soucht" - meaning "go out and search". This is how Chambre George tells it in his chronik. According to our elders and what I have read in our oldest Soucht church book, the name Soucht came about the following way: The glaser under the Bitscher reign had the following wish - to build a new hut on a different place and when they were asked where they want to have it, they're answer was "we don't know yet". The Count then replied "geht und soucht". They went to search for a new place and gave it the name Soucht. Before the valley was called Kammerthal. This name came from a piece of rock about Soucht. The first Huttmasters in the Soucht church book and in many other documents are Stenger, Zauter (Walter?), Kreiner (Greiner). Marcus writes in his book, "Les Verreries du Comte de Bitche", that the glassworks in Soucht was built in 1629. The founder had the first name Leonhardt (full name was Leonhardt Greiner), former huttmaster in Munzthal. There were also other glasers like Martin, Johann, Paul, Adam and Stenger - for example the already mentioned Andre Stenger and Bastien Fleckenstein and others. Page 44 It was not always possible to live in peace for the glasers during that time period due to wars and rival Counts. The already mentioned huts in Hutzenthal, Glasthal, Speckbronn and Eidenheim were victims of such wars. The new glassworks in Soucht weren't meant to be any luckier. Four years after the founding the Swedish entered the country. The Lothringer lost the battle on August 13, 1633 - the battlefield was in Pfaffenhoffen. As soon as the Soucht glassmakers were comfortable in their new Kammerthal home, they were surprised by this new war. The historian called Parisot writes, "Our land sees a lot of sorrows through the war. People are ruined, villages are burned down, and the surviving people have to face the hardest times of their lives. They kill their pets, their harvest and industry is ruined. A priest of that time writes... no tongue can speak, no feather can write, no ear can hear what we have seen. Everywhere there is hunger and death. The dead are without funerals. The few that are still alive live from acorns, roots, straw, lizards, dead animals and human flesh. Pestilence plagued the country during that time too. No one is safe from the hunger. All these are dramatic reports and if you read the book from J. Florange entitled "La guerre de Trente Ans en Lorraine", 1935, it will give you the chills. The Lothringer people did not only have to suffer through the Swedish War but also from the French troops. What happened during those horrible years from 1633 to 1638 in Kammerthal is not known. We suppose that they moved into the woods and stayed safe while the other villages of the Bitscheland were destroyed. Only God knows how many tears, how much fear and sorrow the people of the villages had to endure. (from Janet GA) ==== KUNKEL Mailing List ==== To send a message to everyone, send it directly to: [email protected], or reply to an individual message and note "send to all recipients" or whatever your system has for this option.