Georg Merz

Merz was born on 26 January 1793 in Bichl, in Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen, now in Bavaria, Germany.

[1] At the age of 15 he went to work in the glassworks recently set up by Joseph von Utzschneider [de] in the nearby deconsecrated monastery of Benediktbeuern.

On the death of von Utzschneider in 1839 Merz, in partnership with Joseph Mahler, bought the firm.

[3] After Mahler's death he ran the business in partnership with his sons Ludwig and Sigmund.

[1] In 1882 the firm passed to Jacob and Matthias Merz, Sigmund's cousins,[3] and in 1884 the Benediktbeuern works was closed.

Illustration of the 11 inch "Merz and Mahler" refracting telescope (from "Smith's Illustrated Astronomy" 1848), Cincinnati Observatory
Refraktor Merz 160/1790 at the baron Artur Krause's Observatory in Pardubice , 1912-1930