Jakob Denner

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Jakob Denner

Jakob Denner (born September 20, 1659 old style , † February 17, 1746 ) was a Mennonite preacher and well-known representative of the Dompelaars .

life and work

Jakob Denner was born on September 20, 1659 as the son of the stocking weaver Balthasar Denner in Altona . Jakob learned the craft of blue dyeing in his youth . In his spare time he also studied mathematics and astronomy . Denner undertook major educational trips to Spain, Portugal, Italy and Moscow early on. On September 26, 1684 he was finally appointed preacher of the Dompelaars (also evergents ) in Altona in Holstein. The Dompelaars were an intra-Mennonite reform movement which, among other things, advocated baptism by means of immersion. Jacob's father had already been a representative of the Dompelaars. In the same year Denner married Catharina Wiebe from Lübeck. In the following years Jakob Denner also preached in the Mennonite congregations in Lübeck (1687 to 1694), Friedrichstadt (1694 to 1698) and Danzig (1698 to 1702). In 1702 Denner came back to Altona, where his sermons soon found an ever larger audience. Denner made contacts with the Holstein as well as the Danish nobility. At times, the later Swedish King Adolf Friedrich was also among his audience. In 1708 the Dompelaars were able to establish their own church with financial support from the merchant Ernst Goverts, which from 1732 was formally owned by Denner. The church was referred to as a small Mennonite church, Immergentenkirche or, with reference to Jakob Denner's profession, also known as the blue-bearer church. Jakob Denner was also active as a writer and has published several pietistic devotional books. A collection of 24 sermons published in Dutch in 1707 and also in German in 1730 became particularly well known. With his writings and sermons, Denner promoted the pietistic tendencies within the German Mennonites.

After Denner's death in 1746, the small community of the Altona Dompelaars soon dissolved again. The small church was used by the Herrnhutern from 1763 . Denner's connection with Catharina Wiebe resulted in six daughters and the son Balthasar Denner , who later became known as a portrait painter . Denner's daughter Catharina was married to a student of Balthasar, Dominicus van der Smissen . Denner's wife Catharina died in 1743, three years before her husband.

Works (selection)

  • Christian and edifying reflections on the Sunday and Holiday Gospels of the whole year , Altona, 1730; Philadelphia (reprint), 1860

literature

  • Robert Friedmann: Mennonite Piety Through the Centuries , Goshen, 1949.
  • JC Wenger: History of the Mennonites of the Franconia Conference , Scottdale 1938, p. 323
  • Berend Carl Roosen: History of the Mennonite community in Hamburg and Altona , Hamburg, 1886/87.
  • Hans Schröder : Lexicon of Hamburg writers up to the present , Volume 2, Dassovius-Günther, Hamburg, 1854, p. 32. No. 767
  • Ute Haysessen: Denner, Jacob . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Wachholtz, Neumünster 1982–2011. Vol. 6 - 1982. ISBN 3-529-02646-8 , pages 76-78.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ September 20th corresponds to September 30th in Gregorian, not October 1st, as incorrectly stated in the picture.
  2. ↑ Wolfgang Breul (ed.): The radical Pietism, perspectives of research . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2010, ISBN 978-3-525-55839-3 , p. 153 .
  3. ↑ Wolfgang Breul (ed.): The radical Pietism, perspectives of research . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2010, ISBN 978-3-525-55839-3 , p. 153 .
personal data
SURNAME Denner, Jakob
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Mennonite preacher
DATE OF BIRTH September 20, 1659
DATE OF DEATH February 17, 1746