Hello and good evening! President Obama has it, Vladimir Putin has it, Queen Elizabeth has it - and our government gives it as a present to stateswomen and -men from all parts of the world, but although hundredthousands of german households have it, too: The porcelain made in Meissen. The porcelain manufactory of Meissen is the oldest in Europe and broke the monopol of the chinese and japanese porcelain in 1710... Once a young pharmacy adept from Berlin told everybody, that he was able to change silver coins into golden ones and demonstrated it on marketplaces. His name was JOHANN FRIEDRICH BOETTCHER. Kings and earls and electors needed gold in every times we look back, and Boettcher got interest by the preussian king FRIEDRICH I. as well as the saxonian elector AUGUST THE STRONG. The feud ended with a victory of August, and Boettcher, the big mouth, was arrested in the "Virgins Bastion" in Dresden, the saxonian capital, and got the order to produce gold, MUCH gold. This happened in 1701.... The poor boy believed in the "Stone of the Wisemen" and worked and worked some years, but no gold was seen...only the angry face of August The Strong... Boettcher wasn`t untalented and he was not alone. Others worked at the same direction, for example the multitalented scientist EHRENFRIED WALTHER of TSCHIRNHAUS, who tried to detect the secret of the chinese porcelain. In 1707 Boettcher got the chance to work with Tschirnhaus in the porcelain project, where he got the leading position in January 1708. The first production of an european hard - porcelain cup is documented at the 15th January 1708. It was a typical team work: To reach the right temperature for the sintering process (1400-1450 ° Celsius) they had to construct special ovens, where specialists were needed; miners from Freiberg/ Saxony sent different sorts of clay and detected the white caoline. The labors of the "porcelain command" were installed at the top of the castle mount in the Albrechtsburg (the old castle was teared down in 1400 and something and was replaced by a great chateau, the first chateau in Germany). Johann Friedrich Boettcher guided the porcelain production from the beginning of 1708 as leading scientist and Tschirnhaus as manager of the upcoming manufactory. When Tschirnhaus suddenly died in Septemebr 1708, Boettcher got the whole leading role and the manufactury process began in 1709. The "Meissener Porzellanmanufaktur" (Meissen Porcelain manufactory) was officially founded by elector August The Strong in 1710 and was installed in the chateau Albrechtsburg. The manufactory was situated there till 1863 then got a new place. The process of porcelain production was top secret and the Albrechtsburg on top of an armed hill with walls, doors and lots of guards were the right place to protect a secret. Boettcher was a prisoner till the end of his life in 1719. August the Strong was after the porcelain again interested to produce gold... One of the porcelain team, a miner named Samuel Stoeltzel, could flee from this manufactory prison and told the secret in Vienna, were they started their own porcelain manufactory in 1718. This was the beginning of the european porcelain industry. The "Staatliche Porzellan - Manufaktur Meissen GmbH" exists till today and has a personnel of 604 labourers. Till today Meissen produces one of the finest porcelains worldwide. Johann Friedrich Boettcher, the man who gave us the white gold, was buried in Dresden. His grave is unknown; we only know the cemetery. The trademark of the Meissen porcelain is the pair of crossed swords; it is one of the oldest trademarks wordwide and exists till 1731.You can see the trademark at the picture above at one of the bells. This pic above shows the porcelain glockenspiel at the tower of the Women`s church in Meissen directly at the market place. Thanks for your interest and your comments; they are always appreciated. billcody, Berlin