Porcelain

The invention of a death row inmate

Johann Friedrich Böttger (Schleiz, Thuringia, February 4, 1682 – Dresden, March 13, 1719)

As a child, Johann Friedrich Böttger was already interested in everything that had to do with chemistry. At the age of fourteen, his mother apprenticed him to an apothecary in Berlin, in the Duchy of Prussia.

He also moved in alchemical circles and in 1700, when he was 18, the story arose around him that he could make gold, that he had found the philosopher's stone.

Apparently he had also demonstrated this in a limited circle - not without some sleight of hand. This came to the attention of Duke Frederik - king from 1701 - and he needed gold, a lot of gold, and he hired Böttger.

When it turned out that the young man could not keep his promise, he fled to Dresden, the capital of Saxony, pursued by an army of a hundred men.

The Elector of Saxony, August der Starke, was a baroque monarch who spent fortunes on luxuries in his pursuit to emulate Versailles. He also found a goldmaker interesting and put Böttger to work. Again the young apothecary fell through the basket and again he ran off.

The Elector's soldiers conducted a manhunt and eventually found him in Prague.

While Böttger was sentenced to death in absentia in Berlin, he ended up in a dungeon in a remote castle near Dresden. There was nothing to make gold at home, Böttger also awaited death here. Fortunately for him, August der Starke had another project under the direction of the well-known scientist von Tschirnhaus: the manufacture of porcelain. The European nobility brought over the very expensive porcelain from China, but nobody knew the secret of its production. Could Böttger perhaps make porcelain? For example, the mysterious young man, who was now 21, was granted a stay of execution. After all, porcelain was also a kind of gold, albeit in the form of clay.

Under the supervision of two guards and with the help of three assistants – the only people he was allowed to talk to – Böttger set to work.

He worked like a modern scientist and systematically tested countless types of clay in combination with all kinds of other raw materials under high firing temperatures. He fought for his life. He quickly developed a new kind of fine red stoneware, a new ceramic material.

In between, August der Starke fought numerous wars, including with the king of Sweden. Occasionally he even became king of Poland for a while. Then again Dresden was overrun by Swedish troops.

It goes without saying that the Elector occasionally lost his attention to the weird alchemist in his dungeons.

Staring into the glowing ovens, working in harsh conditions and inhaling poisonous fumes, Böttger's health deteriorated sharply, he became almost blind, suffered from deep depressions and drowned his sorrows in alcohol.
One day, from a nobleman's estate near Colditz, he obtained kaolin, later also known as kaolin, a substance that turned white under high temperatures. With a process consisting of ten complex steps, Böttger produced the first European porcelain.

By 1708, when he was 26, he had his invention on paper. "God the Creator has turned the goldmaker into a vulgar potter," he wrote.

Shortly afterwards his only confidant and patron von Tschirnhaus died. August der Starke spent years in Poland again and poor Böttger was bullied by all kinds of greedy noblemen who enriched themselves with his work.

Witnesses who visited him during those years described a scene from hell. He and his assistants were clad only in rags. He barely saw, drank like a Templar, and babbled gibberish.

He suffered from a persecution mania, he was so afraid that someone would make off with his factory secret. Spies from Paris and Vienna hung out nearby. And the nobleman who owned the kaolin clay drove up the price.

In 1710 he had to move with all his belongings to a castle in Meissen where he had new ovens. In 1713, at a fair in Leipzig, the nobility of half of Europe was able to admire his masterpieces, including the special glaze and the fantastic color decorations.

Work that was much smarter than the Chinese examples. Although August der Starke gave Böttger the title of baron, he remained under house arrest. The Elector continued to cherish the hope that his special prisoner would one day produce gold again.

By 1714, Böttger was so mortally ill that the monarch took pity on him and released him. He had been imprisoned for twelve and a half years. He died penniless a few years later. And the Meissen porcelain, 'das Meissner Porzellan', the first European porcelain, became world famous.