Arnold Scherrer (1877–1949)

One of the most important figures who left an indelible mark on the history of Bílinská Kyselka was Arnold Scherrer. His legacy is still evident in the bottling plant's collections, and his initials adorn the historic mineral water filling and visual quality control stands. Let's take a closer look at the life and work of this giant of healing spa springs.

Arnold Scherrer (1877–1949): The Life and Work of a Mineral Springs Pioneer

On May 20, 1949, Schaffhausen and Neunkirch lost Arnold Scherrer, a mineral spring engineer and fellow citizen who had gained considerable recognition far beyond Germany's borders. With his wealth of knowledge and extensive experience, he was probably the first expert in his field in the field of mineral spring research and collection.

Youth and education

He was born in Dresden in 1877. After his parents returned to his father's homeland of Neunkirch in 1882, he attended the local schools and the gymnasium in Schaffhausen until he passed his high school diploma. Although full of temperament, this young man was rather prudent and entered life with an open mind for all that was important, and he was especially interested in natural sciences and technology. Before starting his studies in mechanical engineering, he completed a six-month internship on the locomotives of the Baden Railway between Basel and Konstanz and then graduated with honors from the Technical University in Karlsruhe. During his studies, he did not limit himself to his own field of mechanical engineering, but also acquired a good knowledge of geology, chemistry and civil engineering. His final diploma is said to have included an unusually large number of examination subjects.

Early career and family business

At the request of his somewhat headstrong father, he joined his father's company "Adolf Scherrer Tiefbauunternehmung für Mineralquellenfassungen" in Bad Ems in 1903. His father had already been involved in the collection of mineral springs on a rather empirical basis. In Switzerland, the collection of springs was carried out in the spas of St. Moritz, Vals in Lugnez, Schuls-Tarasp, Val Sinestra, Passugg and others. In 1903, the Prussian state commissioned the Scherrer company to carry out a new collection of valuable springs in Bad Ems. This extensive work, which was constantly expanding and lasted for several years, was largely carried out by the young Scherrer as his father's assistant and representative and was so successful that the name Scherrer became known throughout Germany.

Personal life and losses

In Bad Ems, Arnold Scherrer found in Miss Maria Deller from the Hotel Stadt Wiesbaden his faithful life partner and best colleague, who shared with him many not always comfortable stays on numerous construction sites, unless the strict father ordered the local separation of the two spouses. To the great sorrow of both spouses, their only son Helmut was torn away from them at the age of almost seven. The longing for this child remained throughout their lives.

Career development and international recognition

This was followed by contracts for the collection of mineral springs in Bad Schwalbach, Fachingen, Nieder-Selters and Homburg vor der Höhe in Hesse-Nassau, Gießhübl-Sauerbrunn, Karlovy Vary and Bílina in Bohemia, Bad Salzbrunn, Landeck and Bad Warmbrunn in Silesia and Ditzenbach and Göppingen in Württemberg, to name just a few of the best known. The often very extensive construction sites were mostly under the direct supervision of Arnold Scherrer, who was accompanied by a team of good workers, including several Swiss foremen. The author of this obituary also participated as a young engineer in the works in Karlovy Vary, Gießhübl-Sauerbrunn and Bad Salzbrunn, partly independently and partly under the understanding guidance of Arnold Scherrer. Several hundred, sometimes even a thousand workers, worked on some construction sites. In addition to local workers, who were mostly used only for auxiliary work, Italians, mostly from several villages in the province of Bergamo, Hungarians with their wives for earthworks, and Polish groups for certain subcontracts were employed for rock work.

Scientific approach to collecting sources

The extraction of mineral springs was carried out on a scientific basis. First, the rock surface was exposed on a large scale in the area of ​​the spring, often requiring great excavation depths. When excavating in the rock zone of the spring, no tearing was allowed under any circumstances, as there was a risk that tearing could open other paths for the springs and thus cause the springs to disappear. Water veins emerging to the surface in the cracks of the rock surface were monitored. It was usually difficult to separate the mineral water from the groundwater. The mineral water emerging from the rock was collected in collection bells made of a material resistant to aggressive water, and the rock surface around it was carefully sealed using a special procedure, so that the mineral water could be retained in the pipes placed on the collection bells. With this retention, which was carried out with the greatest care step by step, the amount of minerals dissolved in the water, i.e. the alkalinity, increased to a certain extent, while the flow of the spring itself slowly decreased. The effort to achieve the optimum in terms of water quantity and alkalinity required a lot of patience, great expertise, extensive experience and numerous investigations. In this work, his extensive geological knowledge, for which the foundations had already been laid by Professor Meister at the Schaffhausen Gymnasium, was of great benefit to him. The rich mineralogical collection proved to be of great service to him. By re-capturing lost or declining springs, a larger flow with an increased mineral content was in most cases achieved, which promised increased income to the owners of the springs, who in former Germany and Austria were usually states or princes.

Citizenship and awards

At the personal request of the German emperor, he and his father had to obtain German citizenship in view of the large orders of the Prussian state. He did so with all reservations and while retaining his Swiss citizenship. Later, after founding his own company, he renounced his German citizenship again. How highly his achievements were valued in Germany was also shown by the fact that in 1911 he was awarded an honorary diploma from the Hygienic Exhibition in Dresden and later the honorary ring of the German Museum in Munich.

World War I and founding his own business

During the First World War he volunteered for the German Air Force, but after only about half a year he was recalled from the front by a higher order to maintain the state-owned operations of the springs near the mines. The influence of the mining operations on the neighboring mineral springs had previously repeatedly occupied him. In 1917, after his father had previously moved to Schaffhausen, he founded his own company in Bad Ems, in which his wife was his best collaborator and from 1920 his much younger brother Waldemar also worked there. After the end of the war, he was entrusted with the new collection of numerous mineral springs in Germany.

International projects and scientific activities

His reputation also took him outside Germany to work in Larvik in Norway, Preblau-Sauerbrunn in Carinthia, Talheim in Styria, Morsbronn and Sulzmatt in Alsace and Fetan in Switzerland. At the same time, studies and assessments for springs in Belgium, Poland, Latvia, Russia and Spain were carried out, as was lively cooperation on spring laws, water rights and similar matters in Europe and beyond. Two particularly important foreign contracts were work on the springs in Afyon-Karahizar in Turkey and the associated access to fresh water in the Anatolian Desert, and the new collection of thermal springs in Tiberias in Palestine. He was twice offered the title of Dr. hc and once a professorship by Turkey, but in his usual modesty he refused, stating that his greatest reward was "the health of his bubbling children", as he liked to call the mineral springs he collected.

Resistance against Nazism and return to the homeland

After he had made no concessions to the rising National Socialism, whose regulations on the operation of the neighboring lead and silver mines were slowly destroying the Ems springs, with great courage and at the expense of his company in Germany, he left his beautiful estate on Hasenberg near Ems with his wife after the outbreak of the Second World War and returned to his old homeland of Schaffhausen on September 7, 1939. As long as his already weakened health allowed him, he managed his work from Schaffhausen with extensive help from his capable wife. At this time, he was engaged in collecting springs in Bad Weißenburg in the Simmental and in assessments for the Schinznach springs and the Surpunt spring in St. Moritz. Occasionally, he delighted the people of Schaffhausen with lectures on his work in Turkey and Palestine, and with great liveliness he was able to tell an incredible amount in a short time.

Personality and legacy

Arnold Scherrer combined a variety of knowledge and sometimes seemingly heterogeneous qualities and abilities into a unique and probably unique synthesis. He was a mechanical engineer, a civil engineer, a geologist, a chemist, and in all these fields a practitioner and researcher at the same time. In his working method he could be an energetic, imaginative daredevil, but also a thorough, systematic and sober petty worker, depending on the circumstances and needs. He was not only a professional specialist, but he absorbed everything he saw and met into his living spirit. He was interested in all areas of life, art and politics, books and gardening, rocks and stamps and above all people. He was exceptionally gifted with languages. In addition to the usual European languages, he also spoke several oriental languages. He also had a very good memory, so it was always a great pleasure to listen to his stories. Despite all the successes and recognition in his life's work, he remained a modest, simple person. He was also, despite all his worldly knowledge, an honest Swiss who retained great devotion to his homeland. Despite severe suffering, he did not miss the 80th anniversary of the founding of Scaphusia in the fall of 1948, to which he belonged during his high school years and to which he always remained loyal. His last years were marked by severe suffering. Minor and frequently recurring strokes slowly managed to break his fresh vitality. All care and love could no longer stop the decline of his life force and mental energy. Surrounded by his faithful life partner, he left after a life that was rich in work and achievements.

Other obituaries and publications

Other obituaries were published in:

• Schaffhauser Nachrichten, No. 118, dated May 21, 1949, signed CM
• Schweizer Familie, No. 31, June 4, 1949. Report with picture.
• Mineralwasserzeitung Deutschland, No. 9, dated July 1, 1949, signed Georg Nave.
• Heilbad und Kurort, Zeitschrift für das gesamte Bäderwesen, No. 4, July 1949, signed by Georg Nave.
• Rhein-Zeitung (Deutschi.), No. 62, dated May 25, 1949, signed by Hch. Wießler.

List of publications:

• 1904: Das spezifische Gewicht von Mineralwasser und dessen Wirkung auf das Entstehen der Mineralquellen mit besonderer Berücksichtung der Erfahrungen, welche bei den Quellenfassungen in Ems gemacht worden sind.
• 1905: Über moderne Quellfassungen. Balneologische Zeitung, XVI. Jahrgang, Nr. 26, vom 20 September 1905.
• 1907: Zum preußischen Quellenschutzgesetz-Entwurf. Baineologist. Zeitung, XVIII. Yearbook, 1907.
• 1912: Gas und Wasser in Mineralquellen. Journal für Gasbeleuchtung und Wasserversorgung, Nr. 4, vom 27. Januar 1912.
• 1924: Vortrag anläßlich der Einweihung der Wilhelmsquelle Bad Mergentheim vom 8. August 1924.
• 1928: Über Mineralquellen und deren Fassungen. Zeitschrift für wissenschaftliche Bäderkunde, 1928, Heft 4.
• 1930: Über Quellforschungen. Verhandlungen des 57. Schlesischen Bädertages 1930.
• 1932: Wandlungen der Quellfassungstechnik im Laufe der Jahrhunderte. Zeitschrift für Kurortwissenschaft, 2. Jahrgang, 1932, Heft 4.
• 1932: Aus der Fassungsgeschichte der Schwalbacher Mineralquellen. Internationale Mineralquellen-Zeitung, Nr. 6.
• 1933: Die Geologie und die Fassung des Preblauer Säuerlings. In DIEM, K.: Der Preblauer Sauerbrunn.
• 1933: Die natürliche Grundlagen für die Fassung einiger westdeutscher Mineralquellen. Zeitschrift der Deutschen geolog. Gesellschaft, Band 85, Heft 7, Jahrgang 1933.
• 1933: Die Quellen von Afyon-Karahizar in der Türkei. Boarding school Mineralquellen-Zeitung, Nr. 8, 1933.
• 1934: The renovation of the thermal baths of Bad Warmbrunn in Schlesien. Boarding school Mineralquellen-Zeitung, Nr. 12/1934 and No. 1/1935.
• 1935: Der Preblauer Sauerbrunn. Boarding school Mineralquellen-Zeitung, Nr. 2/1935.
• 1936: Die Thermen von Tiberias. Boarding school Mineralquellen-Zeitung, Nr. 1/2, 1936.

For the other three works: Heilquellen-Technik — Contributions to the Basics of Modern Source Versions — The Warmbrunner Sources and Their Sanitation — neither the year nor the place of publication is given.