The Development of Education in Ferrous Metallurgy at the Bergakademie Freiberg

With the lectures of Abraham Gottlob Werner on ironworks knowledge in 1788, ferrous metallurgists could obtain a specialized academic education in Germany for the first time. He was followed almost 100 years later by Adolf Ledebur, who influenced the development of ferrous metallurgy worldwide and who garnered worldwide recognition for the contribution of the Bergakademie in Freiberg to ferrous metallurgy. In the 20th Century, it was primarily Eduard Maurer – one of the inventors of the first industrially produced stainless steels – who left an indelible stamp on ferrous metallurgy in Freiberg.