Anton Kirchner

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Anton Kirchner, 1833

Anton Kirchner (born July 14, 1779 in Frankfurt am Main ; † December 31, 1834 there ) was a German Protestant pastor , historian , teacher and school reformer.

life and work

Kirchner was the son of a Frankfurt haberdashery dealer . After visiting the Municipal Gymnasium , he studied at the Erlangen University theology . After only two and a half years he received his doctorate in theology with a dissertation “ On the demonology of the Hebrews before the Babylonian exile ” .

He returned to Frankfurt and became tutor of the Manskopf family , a wine merchant who lived in the Lichtenstein house on the Römerberg . In addition, Kirchner was appointed as a teacher at the orphanage and as a preacher at the municipal “ Institute for the Insane and Epileptic ”.

Title page of the history of the city of Frankfurt am Main (1807)
Title page of the Views of Frankfurt am Main (1818, here: facsimile 1982)

From 1801 to 1811 Kirchner was editor of the Bürgerblatt and from 1803 to 1804 editor of the Frankfurter Journal . In 1804 he got into a conflict with the imperial minister-resident in Frankfurt, the Baron von Wessenberg. In a newspaper article, Kirchner described the daughter of Emperor Franz II , Maria Anna von Habsburg-Lothringen (1804-1858), born on June 8, 1804, as a girl and not as a princess . He then had to stop his journalistic activity.

Kirchner's monument in the Eschenheim facility

Also in 1804 Kirchner became parish vicar and at the same time teacher at the model school founded by Wilhelm Friedrich Hufnagel , and in 1806 professor of religion, church history and the Hebrew language at the municipal grammar school . In 1807 he became pastor at the Heiliggeistkirche , in 1823 at the Katharinenkirche and in 1833 at the newly built Paulskirche , where he gave the opening sermon on June 9, 1833.

Kirchner was a representative of theological rationalism and campaigned for societal and social reforms. In 1807 he was elected to the College of Twenty-eight , which was commissioned by Grand Duke Carl Theodor von Dalberg with the preparation and implementation of reforms. Even after the city's independence was regained at the end of 1813, Kirchner helped set up the constitutional organs. The liberal features in the Constitution Amendment Act , the Constitution of the Free City of Frankfurt , passed in 1816 , are due to his influence. A year later he withdrew from politics because he was unable to assert himself against the increasing restorative tendencies with his liberal views.

Kirchner made his most important contributions as a historian and school reformer. His “ History of the City of Frankfurt am Main ”, published in two volumes in 1807 and 1810, is the first academic examination of Frankfurt history and the existing sources; the earlier chronicles were limited to an episode-like compilation of historical events.

Kirchner did not complete his work, however. The two other planned volumes, which should cover the history from 1612 to 1806, were never completed. The main reason for this was the fierce criticism that he was exposed to after the publication of the first two volumes. In 1809 and 1810, the “ Familiar Letters on the Kirchner story of Frankfurt am Mayn from a half-wiser ” by Friedrich Siegmund Feyerlein appeared as massive criticism in two volumes . Feyerlein's legal training was reflected in such a way that he not only mocked the actual work, but also very hurtful Kirchner as a clergyman and teacher.

Kirchner rejected the first book in 1809 with the work " Anton Kirchner's examination of the views, addenda and corrections or the familiar letters of a half-wise man about the history of Frankfurt am Mayn ". But when in 1815 the well-known Frankfurt scholar Johann Karl von Fichard published the 316-page work “ Critical Remarks on the First and Second Part of Anton Kirchner's History of the City of Frankfurt am Main ”, he finally gave up.

In 1818 the “ Views of Frankfurt am Main and its Surroundings ” appeared, a historical and topographical description of Frankfurt and numerous cities in the Vordertaunus. With the two-volume work, Kirchner provided a depiction of the Free City of Frankfurt in the early 19th century that was for the first time freed from baroque gusto and, thanks to his linguistic skill, was highly entertaining. The authenticity with which an overall picture of the social life of an era was provided has seldom been achieved again in Frankfurt historiography.

Together with 29 high-quality copperplate engravings, completely dominated by the classicist taste of the time, the views are therefore one of the most popular works in Frankfurt today. The original is sold as an antiquarian at prices of several thousand euros, and affordable reprints appeared in 1926 and 1982.

In 1813, Kirchner, still under Grand Duke Dalberg, founded the White Women School , which was intended especially for the sons of the craftsman families. In 1824, with his active participation, the reforms of the Frankfurt school system that had begun in 1804 were completed. The last neighborhood schools dating from the Middle Ages (private schools with municipal licenses that could be inherited and sold) were closed and three new municipal elementary schools and a middle school were founded.

Kirchner was considered a brilliant preacher and popular speaker. He impressed contemporaries with his enormous corpulence as well as with his intelligence and wit. On June 6, 1824, Goethe remarked to Chancellor Müller:

“Kirchner's head doesn't match his torso and body. If he did not drag such a great load around with the latter, he would do much more devil stuff, be much more alive. He's a smart rogue, the smartest in Frankfurt. There is the most glaring pride in money, the heads are dull, limited, gloomy. Suddenly a light head like Kirchner appears! "

Wilhelm Hauff satirized him in his story Mitteilungen aus der Memoiren des Satan, published in 1826, in the person of the corpulent pastor Munster.

tomb

Anton Kirchner's grave is in the Frankfurt main cemetery (Gewann D 60). On Kirchner's hundredth birthday, a memorial was erected in 1879 on the Scheffeleck in the Eschenheim complex of the Frankfurt ramparts. It bears the inscription: Erected by the historian of his hometown by his grateful fellow citizens. The relief panels on three sides of the monument indicate Kirchner's areas of activity. They show the Francofurtia three times as the allegorical embodiment of the city: on the right the Ekklesia with cross and Bible in front of the tower of St. Catherine's Church, as a symbol of the preacher ; left the Klio with book and pen in front of the cathedral tower , as a symbol of the historian; in the middle the teacher of the children, as a symbol of the educator .

A school in the Bornheim district of Frankfurt and a street in the city ​​center are named after Kirchner .

Works (selection)

literature

Web links

Commons : Anton Kirchner  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Date of death according to the General German Biography and the Frankfurt Biography. Other sources, including the tombstone in the main cemetery, state January 1, 1835.
  2. ↑ Messages from the Memoirs of Satan , Part Two, Chapter 4.
  3. ↑ Guide to the graves of well-known personalities in Frankfurt cemeteries. Frankfurt am Main 1985, p. 10.
personal data
SURNAME Kirchner, Anton
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Protestant pastor and school reformer
DATE OF BIRTH July 14, 1779
PLACE OF BIRTH Frankfurt am Main
DATE OF DEATH December 31, 1834
Place of death Frankfurt am Main