Adalbert Hahn

Johann Adalbert Hahn (born February 14, 1750 in plates ¹ ; † September 23, 1825 there ) was a Bohemian chaplain and is known by the name of Father Hahn . He was affectionately called the Faust of the Ore Mountains . Many anecdotes, legends and quarrels about the magic tricks he performed have come down to us.

Life

A memorial plaque attached to the Kreuzkapelle Platten in 2014 , Hahn's last place of work as a chaplain

Adalbert Hahn was born in the Upper Mill (No. 218) on the Breitenbach in Platten as the son of the miller Johann Anton Hahn (1713-1767) and his wife Maria Rosalia († 1772) and was baptized the following day in the church of Platten. He attended the elementary school in his hometown, the Piarist grammar school in Schlackenwerth until 1766 and then the grammar school in Prague's New Town . He studied theology in Prague and was ordained a priest on June 11, 1775 . From 1776 to 1779 he was in Böhmisch Kahn near Teplitz , after which he stayed for some time in Vienna . In 1782 he was arrested for illegal treasure hunt in Purkersdorf and sentenced by the diocesan court in Prague. It is not known where Hahn stayed until 1791. In July 1791 he got a job as a chaplain in Schönlind near Schlackenwerth, where he stayed until he was dismissed in 1793. In the following years he worked in Sankt Joachimsthal , Gottesgab and early penance as a chaplain. But there were always complaints about him. He finally found a job as a chaplain in his native town in 1802. Here he worked at the Kreuzkapelle until his death. He did not live in the parish, but in the benefit house between Bärringer and later Bahnhofstrasse. As a priest, Adalbert Hahn was a staunch Catholic and strict opponent of the Protestants. Several of his magic tricks are directed against citizens from Saxony and in particular from the exiles town of Johanngeorgenstadt and Oberwiesenthal .

The only picture he has survived was destroyed in the fire in the town hall in Platten in 1892.

Stories about Father Hahn (selection)

• Why the little rooster disagreed with Saint Adalbert and how he got his calling
• Father Hahn's end
• Luther in Hell
• The storm
• The heavy rain
• The frightened meadow owner (12 variants)
• The subsequent snakes
• Soldiers from the furnace
• The Storey
• As Father Hahn quoted the devil on the "Halde"
• The wet hay
• The downpour
• The great water
• The trumped Saxons
• The missing stove
• The Giessbach

literature

• Alexis Kolb: Father Hahn, the fist of the Ore Mountains. Collected memories of the Wunderkaplan von Platten. Dux 1923.
• Johann Endt: Legends and Schwänke from the Erzgebirge. The magician P. Hahn, the miracle doctor Rölz and others. 2nd edition Reichenberg, 1925.
• Walter Loose: Legends from the Black Water Area , 3rd edition Schwarzenberg 1931.
• Wolfgang Möhrig : Miriquidis murmur. Scheßlitz 1987 and subsequent volumes.
• Otfried Preußler: It struck twelve.

Remarks

¹incorrect reference in the baptismal register entry to date of death; Confusion with his brother, the later master miller Johann Hahn, who died at the age of 66 on March 24, 1816 in Platten.