Anna Melanchthon

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Anna Melanchthon , married Anna Sabinus (born August 24, 1522 in Wittenberg ; † February 27, 1547 in Königsberg (Prussia) ), was the eldest daughter of the reformer Philipp Melanchthon and his wife Katharina Melanchthon , née Krapp.

Anna was born as the first of the four children of the Melanchthons. Melanchthon considered her his favorite child and taught her Latin. In 1534, at the age of 12, she got engaged to his father's pupil Georg Sabinus at the suggestion of her father ; on November 6, 1536 the wedding took place in Wittenberg. The couple first moved to the electoral court in Mainz and in 1538 to Frankfurt (Oder) , where Sabinus worked as a professor at the university . Problems soon arose in the marriage, for which partly the long-term tense financial situation, partly Anna's inexperience, and partly also the character of Sabinus were blamed. Melanchthon, who commented on the matter in many letters to confidants, was plunged into deep crises by feelings of guilt; In 1543 he wished for death and even thought of suicide the following year. Divorce was also considered. In January 1544, Melanchthon gave his son-in-law a letter of recommendation as founding rector of the Albertus University in Königsberg . Anna Sabinus died there in February 1547 after the birth of her sixth child Albert.

For the birth of her first child, Anna temporarily returned to her parents' house in 1537 and later often stayed there with her children. The second daughter Katharina, born in 1539, stayed in Wittenberg when the Sabinus couple moved to Königsberg in 1544. Melanchthon also brought the four remaining children Anna, Sabina, Martha and Albert to Wittenberg after the death of his daughter.

Barbara Becker-Cantarino described Anna Melanchthon as an "example of how women were excluded from the humanist ideal and profession."

literature

  • Theodor Muther: Anna Sabinus. In: Ders .: From university and scholarly life in the age of the Reformation. Lectures. Erlangen 1866, pp. 329-367.
  • Eva Hoffmann-Aleith : Anna Melanchthon . Evangelical Publishing House, Berlin 1954; 8th edition 1983 (historical novel).
  • Inge Mager : "It is not good that a person should be alone" (Gen. 2:18). On Philipp Melanchthon's family life. In: Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte 81, 1990, pp. 120-137.
  • Martin H. Jung : Philipp Melanchthon and his time. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2010, pp. 95–98.
  • Andrea König: Melanchthon and the women. In: Michael Fricke, Matthias Heesch : The humanist as a reformer. About the life, work and impact of Philipp Melanchthon. Leipzig 2011, pp. 123-160.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Date according to Stefan Rhein : Katharina Melanchthon, b. Madder. The fate of women in Wittenberg during the Reformation. In: Wilhelm Schwendemann (Ed.): Philipp Melanchthon 1497–1997. The colorful side of the Reformation. LIT Verlag, Münster 1997, pp. 40–59, here p. 49.
  2. ↑ Christine Mundhenk: A girl gets her way through . In: 95 autographs from the Reformation period on the SLUB Dresden website.
  3. ↑ Barbara Becker-Cantarino: Renaissance or Reformation? Epoch thresholds for women who write and for German literature. In: Christiane Caemmerer u. a. (Ed.): The Berlin Model of Middle German Literature. Rodopi, Amsterdam 2000, pp. 69-87, here p. 72.
personal data
SURNAME Melanchthon, Anna
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Sabinus, Anna
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German scholar, eldest daughter of the reformer Philipp Melanchthon
DATE OF BIRTH August 24, 1522
PLACE OF BIRTH Wittenberg
DATE OF DEATH February 27, 1547
Place of death Königsberg (Prussia)