Adolf Harleß

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Adolf Gottlieb Christoph Harleß , from 1854 Knight von Harleß (also Adolph von Harleß ; born November 21, 1806 in Nuremberg , † September 5, 1879 in Munich ) was a German Lutheran theologian and a co-founder of the so-called Erlanger School .

Adolf von Harleß, “after life drawn on stone by Harald Bagge” , orig. Lithograph around 1840
Adolf Harleß, 1845.
Adolf Harleß

Life

Adolf Harleß was the eldest son of the wealthy businessman Johann Felix Tobias Harleß and his wife Maria Barbara Friederike, nee. Ziehl, as well as a grandson of the humanist Gottlieb Christoph Harleß . He was shaped by his parents in the usual, moderately rationalistic direction. At the age of 16 he graduated from high school and wanted to be a musician, which his parents objected to.

So Harleß, for whom theology and especially the pulpit were excluded, studied philosophy and law in Erlangen from 1823 , but then switched to theology , allegedly after a derogatory remark by Ludwig Döderlein . Here he was mainly influenced by Georg Benedikt Winer and then beyond theology by the personality of August Tholuck . The thoughts of Georg WF Hegel , Friedrich Schelling and Baruch Spinoza are also of great importance for Harleß . During his studies in Erlangen he became a member of the Bubenreuther fraternity in the winter semester of 1823/24 .

From 1826 to 1828 Harleß was then at the University of Halle , where he was also a member of the fraternity. Allegedly at that time he rarely slept more than three hours in order to acquire the problem of freedom in terms of the history of theology and then to be able to differentiate critical theology from fashionable speculation with a keen eye. In 1828 he moved back to Erlangen as a private lecturer in philosophy, in 1829 he became a private professor for systematic theology and in 1833 associate professor for the New Testament .

In 1834 the commentary on Pauli's letter to the Ephesians was published using Winer's methods (grammatical precision) and Tholuck's (taking into account the tradition of early church interpretation). Already here Harleß came to his experiential theological approach, which had precursors in Theodor Lehmus 'and Claus Harms ' thinking . In addition to the work of Johann Georg Hamann from afar, Christian Krafft (who had been an associate professor in Erlangen since 1818) and Karl Georg von Raumer (who was professor of natural history at that university from 1827) began to influence Harleß's thinking.

In 1836, Harleß was appointed full professor of systematic theology. During this time, in addition to Georg Benedikt Winer and the aforementioned, Gottfried Thomasius , Isaak Rust (1796–1862), Veit Engelhardt, among others, were in Erlangen. Philipp von Ammon , the son of Christoph Friedrich Ammon , Johann Wilhelm Friedrich Höfling (from 1834) and Hermann Olshausen (from 1832 for Winer) also came to the university as extraordinary officers. From 1836, Harleß was also a university preacher. Then he published DF Strauss's Critical Treatment of the Life of Jesus according to his scientific values , one of the many arguments of the time with David Friedrich Strauss . In 1837 he co-founded the Zeitschrift für Protestantismus und Kirche (ZPK), which became the forum for Erlangen theology . Furthermore, he published the Theological Encyclopedia and Methodology , with which, as with the Ephesian Commentary, he expressly placed himself on church soil: Here, in the sense of the theology of experience, Harless can only be grasped in faith . If, however, Harless then wants to find the subjectivity of faith objectively in the common faith of the church, as attested in its confessions, then a proximity to Hegel's explanations on subject and substance is unmistakable.

His polemical argument with the Societas Jesu , Zur Jesuitenfurcht , led Harleß to the brink of prosecution in 1838. In 1839 he moved to the Munich state parliament as a member of the University of Erlangen . The radically negative attitude in the so-called knee bend dispute led to heated controversies, which on the side of young Catholicism were mainly led by Ignaz von Döllinger and Joseph von Görres . As a result of the dispute, Interior Minister Karl von Abel rejected Harleß's appointment as (pro) rector of Erlangen (the rector was formally the king himself) and in 1845 he was transferred to Bayreuth as consistorial counselor .

Harleß anticipated this by accepting a call to Leipzig in 1845 . The appointment was, however, enforced against the will of the faculty by the Saxon Minister of Cultus and Public Education Eduard von Wietersheim . Here he established a branch of the Erlangen theology, which his colleagues Karl Friedrich August Kahnis , Franz Delitzsch and Christoph Ernst Luthardt were to continue. Reinhold Frank and Gerhard Zezschwitsch (the elder) became Harleß's pupils in the true sense of the word . Here he was also a pioneer in the staff of the Leipzig Mission . In 1847 Harleß also took over the parish office of St. Nicolai . In the March Revolution of 1848/1849 he organized the military resistance in Leipzig and brought his name to the third (or, according to other sources, fifth) place on the list for those intended for the gallows.

After holding several sermons in Dresden (1847 in the evangelical court church , 1849 in the orphanage church ), Harleß was then chief court preacher (comparable to today's regional bishop) in the Saxon royal seat in 1850. In 1852 he (and thus not a lawyer for the first time) was called back to Bavaria by King Maximilian II as President of the Upper Consistory . The reason for this was the ongoing disputes with Wilhelm Löhe and his followers (especially Friedrich Münchmeyer ). The disputes were sparked by the question of understanding the spiritual office from which, according to Löhe, the community grew (and not the other way around). This was not only intended to bring about an elitist Lutheranism, but ultimately the rejection of any sovereign church regime was imminent. Löhe's supporters went so far as to threaten to bring their concerns to bear in the separation if necessary.

First attempts to mediate from Erlangen (Höfling, Hofmann, Thomasius) failed. The last suggestion was to bind the Protestant clergy in Bavaria to the Lutheran creed (petition dated May 16, 1849). In the simmering dispute, Harleß, who had been friends with Wilhelm Löhe since his student days, was appointed consistorial president. Harleß has now managed to (re) integrate Löhe into the regional church. The far-reaching consequences of a split were avoided.

Specifically, the small Reformed minority of Bavaria was first made independent, creating the Evangelical Reformed Church in Bavaria , which until 1918 was still connected to the Evangelical Lutheran Church on the right of the Rhine, which was now also independent . (The United Church of the Palatinate on the left bank of the Rhine , also belonging to Bavaria, had become independent as early as 1849.) Löhe's views were tolerated, but remained limited in their effectiveness, since Harleß was able to draw the friend's attention to diaconal tasks. Then in 1853 at the Bayreuth General Synod of Harleß numerous reforms were carried out to bring together the church practices that had been dispersed since 1803 on a denominational basis. With his Bavarian-Lutheran agende, Höfling restored the ancient church service (i.e. the unity of word and sacrament service). Only against the hymnal reform, which only sought to reinstate an outdated variant of the pre-rationalist hymn book, arose nationwide protest from 1856 in the so-called “agendas storm”.

To the outside world, Harleß was able to establish an all-German Lutheranism that was stable and faithful to the Prussian Union . In 1879 Adolf von Harleß retired and died in the same year after agonizing suffering, loneliness and blindness.

Honors

Fonts (selection)

  • Commentary on Pauli's letter to the Ephesians. Heyer, Erlangen 1834 ( digitized version ).
  • Critical treatment of the life of Jesus by DF Strauss illuminated according to his scientific values , Erlangen 1836 ( digitized version ).
  • Theological encyclopedia and methodology from the standpoint of the Protestant Church. Schrag, Nuremberg 1837 ( digitized ).
  • Christian ethics. Liesching, Stuttgart 1842; 4th, verb. u. probably edition ibid. 1849 ( digitized version ); 6th, presumably edition, ibid. 1864 ( digitized version ); 7th partially presumed edition, Bertelsmann , Gütersloh 1875.
  • The book of the Egyptian mysteries , Munich 1858 ( digital copy; reprint: Salzwasser Verlag, ISBN 978-3-8460-2500-0 ).

literature

Web links

Commons : Adolf Harleß  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files
Wikisource: Gottlieb Christoph Adolf von Harleß  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hermann Meyer: Pedigree Harleß. Dinkelsbühl 1960.
  2. ↑ Ernst Höhne: The Bubenreuther. History of a German fraternity. II., Erlangen 1936, p. 87.
  3. ↑ For more see Bachmann 1905.
  4. ↑ In: Zeitschrift für Protestantismus und Kirche 1838, 93 ff. And 101 ff
  5. ↑ Court and State Manual of the Kingdom of Bavaria 1865, p. 23.
  6. ↑ Court and State Manual of the Kingdom of Bavaria 1865, p. 42.
  7. ↑ Court and State Manual of the Kingdom of Bavaria 1865, p. 132.
predecessor Office successor
Christoph Friedrich Ammon Court preacher in Dresden
1850–1852 		Karl Theodor Albert Liebner
Friedrich Christian von Arnold Senior Consistorial President of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria
1852–1879 		Johann Matthias Meyer
personal data
SURNAME Harleß, Adolf
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Harleß, Adolf Gottlieb Christoph Ritter von (full name); Harleß, Adolf von; Harleß, Adolph von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German theologian
DATE OF BIRTH November 21, 1806
PLACE OF BIRTH Nuremberg
DATE OF DEATH September 5, 1879
Place of death Munich