The State Metallurgical Laboratory in Hamburg

The State Metallurgical Laboratory of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg was an internationally active laboratory for referee analyses of ores and metallurgical products. It was founded in 1893 as a subunit of the Hamburg Mint. Until 1973, there was unified management of the Weights and Measures Directorate, the Mint and the State Metallurgical Laboratory. From 1984 to 1991 it was part of the Institute for Inorganic and Applied Chemistry of the University of Hamburg. On September 1, 1991, it was transformed into the Institut für Angewandte Analytik (IFAA GmbH) Hamburg, which was dissolved in the mid-1990s.
A forerunner of the Staatshüttenlaboratorium was the Hamburg Bank's Probieranstalt (until 1875), which was continued by the Hamburg Mint when it was founded. And even before this tasting facility, there had been municipal wardeine and private tasting facilities in Hamburg.

Thus, the history can be divided into 5 periods:

? -1875	Hamburg Bank tasting room, from 1619 onwards there is evidence of a wardein here.
1875-1892	Hamburg Mint Tasting Room
1893-1983	State Metallurgical Laboratory of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg
1984-1991	State Metallurgical Laboratory at the Department of Chemistry of the University of Hamburg
1991-1997?	Institute for Applied Analytics (IFAA GmbH)

Thus, the laboratory existed for more than 100 years, however, not many records have survived, so that a complete list of the scientific staff and directors cannot be compiled at present.

The following personalities are known from the time before the incorporation into the university:

• Johann Carl August Bock, from 1876 Wardein, from 1895 director of the Staatshüttenlaboratorium in Hamburg,
• Carl A. L. Wilhelm Witter, 1896-1906 Wardein, from 1900 director of the Staatshüttenlaboratorium in Hamburg, around 1927 in Braunschweig, later (from 1929?) active in Halle
• Arthur Karl Graumann, 1910-1923 Wardein, 1923-1943 Mint Director in Hamburg
• Georg Günther Reissaus, approx. 1926-1929 Wardein at the state smelter laboratory of the Hamburg mint, from 1930 laboratory director of Gebr. Borchers A.-G., Goslar
• Willy Richter, from 1915 Wardein, around 1942 Director of the Metallurgical Laboratory of the Hanseatic City of Hamburg
• Christoph Winterstein, from about 1929 Wardein, 1946-1960? Head of the State Metallurgical Laboratory and last bearer of the title "Wardein".
• Erich Stolze, assistant and later successor of Winterstein
• Kurt Stratmann (Mint Director) and Sudhansu Kumar Datta (Laboratory Manager) until 1983

At the time of Dr. Graumann, the State Metallurgical Laboratory was divided into three parts:

• the chemical laboratory for chemical-analytical analyses of ores and metallurgical products
• the assay laboratory for the determination of precious metals in ores and metallurgical products
  
• the sampling institute to impartially supervise the sampling of ore shipments
  

The laboratory was divided into two spatially separate departments (A and B), each of which could control the analyses of the other department. Each department was headed by a wardein.

Walter Dannecker headed the State Metallurgical Laboratory from 1984 to 1991, when it was a part of the university. Due to the cooperation with the university, some members of the department also worked for the Staatshütte, e.g. Frank Meyberg and Klaus Naumann.

Historical documents

• Press release on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the State Metallurgical Laboratory, 1967
• Self-description of the State Metallurgical Laboratory, ca. 1985

---

Please send corrections and additions to V. Vill.