Eberhard Wächtler

Who is Eberhard Wächtler?

Eberhard Wächtler was a German economic historian. He was particularly notable for research in coal and steel sciences in postwar Germany.

Wächtler was born in Dresden, Weimar Republic, in 1929. After graduating from high school in 1947, he studied history, literature, philosophy and political economy at the University of Leipzig. In 1953 he graduated with a degree in history. He first worked as a research assistant in Leipzig, after which he worked as a research associate at the Institute of History of the German Academy of Sciences at Berlin until 1962. He received his doctorate in 1957 on the subject of the history of the condition miners in the coal district of Saxony-Lugau Ölsnitz from 1889-1914. He completed his habilitation in 1968 at the University of Rostock with work on historical traditions in the German mining industry from 1807 to 1871.

From 1962-1990 Wächtler was Chair of the History of Technology department at the Freiberg Mining Academy. He was considered an expert in mining history. He wrote, often jointly with Otfried Wagenbreth, a wide range of books on the history of technology, such as mining and metallurgy in the city of Freiberg.