Balthasar Münter

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Balthasar Münter

Balthasar Münter (born March 24, 1735 in Lübeck , † October 5, 1793 in Copenhagen ( Denmark )) was a Protestant pastor , enlightener , court preacher in Gotha and Copenhagen and hymn poet .

Life

Münter's father was a respected businessman in Lübeck, Münter attended the Katharineum in Lübeck under Rector Johann Daniel Overbeck and then studied theology in Jena from 1754 . In 1757 he completed his habilitation here as a private lecturer and was adjunct in the philosophical faculty in the following year . In addition to a few academic dissertations, he wrote on general oratory . He gave prominent speeches in the Masonic Lodge for Hope , which were printed in five collections of five speeches each in the years 1759-1762.

Soon afterwards he received a call from the Duke of Gotha , who gave him a position as court deacon and orphanage preacher in the royal seat. In 1763 he was transferred to Tonna as superintendent at his request , accepting the condition of preaching once a month to the ducal family in Gotha.

In 1765, as a result of a guest sermon held in his hometown of Lübeck, he was appointed chief preacher at the German St. Petri Church in Copenhagen. In 1769 he became a member of the Danish Royal Academy of Sciences. He remained in this position until the end of his life.

Münter was not only very effective as a pulpit speaker, but also made a great contribution to the education and poor system of his community in the spirit of the Enlightenment .

On the other hand, Münter was also controversial during his lifetime. In 1772, for example, he was commissioned to prepare the secret cabinet minister of the Danish kingdom Johann Friedrich Struensee as pastor and confessor before his execution, although as a declared opponent of Struensee he was included in the plans to overthrow Struensee. From March 1st to April 28th, Münter held a total of 38 interviews with the imprisoned count, which were supposed to prove that the atheist Struensee had returned to Christianity. The conversations published shortly afterwards, which gave the impression of careful preparation and conscientious writing, became a bestseller and translated into many European languages. Contemporary thinkers in Germany such as Johann Wolfgang Goethe , Gotthold Ephraim Lessing and Matthias Claudius doubted the authenticity of this conversion even then. The basis of the doubts were the circumstances that there were no other witnesses apart from Münter for the conversations reported and that the cited written statements by Struensee about his conversion and his guilty consciousness only became known through Münter's book. Other written sources in Struensee's handwriting that would support Münter's statements have not survived. In addition, Struensee's allegedly handwritten description of his conversion differs considerably from the style of the defensive documents that Struensee verifiably wrote himself and that he had submitted to the investigative commission set up against him at about the same time. Finally, the conversations also contain some comments on the spread of diseases that are incompatible with Struensee's previously published scientific views.

Münter used the extensive income from his writings to invest in shares in the Danish-West Indian trading company, which was heavily involved in the Atlantic triangular trade and thus in the slave trade . His shareholder letter, signed by Heinrich Carl von Schimmelmann , has been preserved.

family

Münter was married to Magdalena Ernestina Sophia Friederika, née Wangenheim. Their son was Friedrich Münter (1761-1830) who was also a Protestant theologian in Copenhagen and bishop in Danish service, their daughter was the writer Friederike (1765-1835). She married the businessman Constantin Brun .

Works

  • Balthasar Münter: Conversion history of the former Count and Royal Danish Secret Cabinet Minister Johann Friederich Struensee . Rothens Erben and Prost, Copenhagen 1772. ( digitized and full text in the German text archive );
  • His sermons held in Gotha were published between 1760 and 1765 under the title Heilige Reden in 7 parts . From 1766 on he published the content of his sermons in Copenhagen every year .
  • The greatest aftereffect was his collection of sacred songs from 1773 (2nd episode 1774), to which Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach contributed a number of movements. Carl Loewe later set Our Resurrection through Christ to music . Many of Münter's songs enjoyed great popularity up to the church hymn books of the 20th century, but are no longer represented in the Protestant hymnal .
  • Furthermore, in 1775, a reflective Christian's conversations with himself about the truth and divinity of his faith for internal reasons appeared in two parts.

Remarks

  1. ^ The conversations with Count Struensee appeared in German as the count's conversion story in Copenhagen. In 1772 the work was translated into Danish, Swedish, English, French and Dutch.
  2. ↑ Lessing expressed his doubts, among other things, in several letters that he sent from Wolfenbüttel to his bride Eva König at the beginning of 1772 .

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Biography of Johann Friedrich Struensee (1737-1772). on the homepage of the German St. Petri Church in Copenhagen.
  2. ↑ ibid.
  3. ↑ ibid.
  4. ^ Stefan Winkle: Johann Friedrich Struensee: Doctor, enlightener, statesman. 2nd Edition. Gustav Fischer Verlag. Stuttgart. 1989. ISBN 3-437-11262-7 . Page 96.
  5. ↑ Martin Geck: Matthias Claudius: Biography of an untimely. Siedler Verlag. ISBN 978-388680986-8 . Page 287 f.

Web links

Wikisource: Balthasar Münter  - Sources and full texts
personal data
SURNAME Münter, Balthasar
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Protestant pastor, enlightener, court preacher and hymn poet
DATE OF BIRTH March 24, 1735
PLACE OF BIRTH Lübeck
DATE OF DEATH October 5, 1793
Place of death Copenhagen , Denmark