Ahasuerus Fritsch

Ahasverus Fritsch at the age of 42

Ahasverus Fritsch (born December 16, 1629 in Müchi , † August 24, 1701 in Rudolstadt ) was a German lawyer and hymn poet of the Baroque period .

Life

Fritsch was a son of the mayor of Mücheln. In 1631 the family was forced to flee when the city was burned down. Later he attended high school in Halle (Saale) , and in 1650 he enrolled at the law faculty of the University of Jena . In 1657 he was appointed court master by Count Albert Anton von Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt . Among the children entrusted to his upbringing was the later hymn poet Aemilie Juliane von Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt , whose poetic development he influenced by his own example.

In his legal career he made it to the office of director in 1665 and chancellor of the small state of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt in 1687 . As the first German legal scholar, he dealt with the danger of the people being influenced by the press. In addition to a large number of legal publications, he wrote religious edification writings and hymns. Here he maintained an exchange with the hymn poet Johann Hoffmann . His stanza “How wonderful is the new world” is set to music in the oratorio Der Tod Jesu by Carl Heinrich Graun .

Works (selection)

• De mendicantibus validis. Jena 1659
• 121 new heavenly Jesus songs. 1668
• Tractatus Nomico-Politicus [...] Of guild and youth law. Müller, Freyschmidt, Naumburg a. Rudolstadt 1669. Digitized and full text in the German text archive
• Beautiful heavenly songs. 1670
• Tractatus De Typographis, Bibliopolis, Chartariis, Et Bibliopegis. Hamburgi. 1675, online edition of the Saxon State Library - Dresden State and University Library.
• Discursus de novellarum ... usu et abusu. 1676; dt. udT "Use and Abuse of Newspapers", in: The oldest writings for and against the newspapers , ed. K. Kurth. 1944
• Dearest Immanuel, Duke of the Pious. 1679, hymn with six stanzas, set to music by Johann Sebastian Bach in his eponymous choral cantata BWV 123 to Epiphany
• What is it to you Emmrich, Regensburg 1686. Digitized
• Opuscula juris publici & privati. Nuremberg 1690
• Tabulae pacis inter imperatorum Romanum, Leopoldum Magnum, et imperii Germanici Status, ab una, et Ludovicum XIV, Galliarum regno, ab altera parte [...]. Gottfried Liebezeit, Frankfurt and Leipzig 1699.
• Corpus JurisVenatorio-Forestalis, Romano-Germanici, Tripartitum. Müller, Jena 1676 / Gleditsch, Leipzig 1702.
• Collected Works. Edited by MH Griebner, two volumes, 1731–32.

literature

• Bernhard Anemüller :  Fritsch, Ahasver . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 8, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1878, p. 108 f.
• Friedrich Wilhelm Bautz :  FRITSCH, Ahasuerus. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 2, Bautz, Hamm 1990, ISBN 3-88309-032-8 , Sp. 132-133.
• Wilhelm Lueken: Fritsch, Ahasverus . In: RGG ³ vol. 2, p. 1155
• Otto Groth : The history of German newspaper science . Problems and Methods . Weinmayer publishing house, Munich 1948.
• Wilhelm Klutentreter: Ahasverus Fritsch . In: Walther Heide (Ed.): Handbuch der Zeitungswissenschaft, Vol. 1 . Hiersemann Verlag, Leipzig 1940.
• Hans Renker: Ahasver Fritsch, a Pietist educator before Francke and a forerunner of Francke. A contribution to the history of pietistic pedagogy (pedagogical research and questions; 6). Schöningh, Paderborn 1916 (also dissertation, University of Würzburg 1916))

Web links

• Literature by and about Ahasverus Fritsch in the catalog of the German National Library
• Works by and about Ahasverus Fritsch  in the German Digital Library
• Publications by and about Ahasverus Fritsch in VD 17 .
• Digital copies of several works at the University of Mannheim
• Proof of digitized material