Barthold Heinrich Brockes

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Barthold Heinrich Brockes . Portrait of the Altona painter Dominicus van der Smissen (1704–1760)

Barthold Heinrich Brockes (also: Bertold Hinrich Brockes ), spoken: Brooks , (born September 22, 1680 in Hamburg ; died January 16, 1747 there ) was a German writer and poet of the early German Enlightenment .

His main work is the natural lyric collection of poems Earthly Pleasure in God , in which nature is reflected in its beauty and usefulness as a mediator between man and God .

life and work

As a member of the Hamburg upper class, the Hanseatic Brockes was financially independent throughout his life and was able to devote himself to his artistic and social inclinations.

origin

Barthold Heinrich Brockes was born the son of a wealthy Hamburg merchant. He initially received private lessons from his father, who after his death in 1694 his mother took over for him and his sister Anna Elisabeth. From 1696 Brockes attended the academic high school in Hamburg. To perfect his knowledge of Latin , he traveled to Dresden in 1698 with a friend of his father’s merchant and from there to Prague with a noble son with whom he had become friends . Back in Hamburg, Brockes devoted himself to perfecting courtly manners, learned dancing, fencing and horse riding, as well as the French language.

Career

From 1700 to 1702 he studied law and philosophy in Halle (Saale) , where, among other things, he heard lectures from Christian Thomasius . He then completed a six-month internship at the Reich Chamber of Commerce there in Wetzlar . An educational trip to Geneva followed . The turmoil of the War of the Spanish Succession influenced his travel route and led him via Italy and France (here mainly via Paris ) to Leiden , where he obtained his doctorate in law in 1704 , before returning to Hamburg - after briefly considering settling in London .

First literary production

Balthasar Denner : Three children of councilor Barthold Hinrich Brockes , 1724

The economically independent since the death of his father now began to devote himself increasingly to his literary interests. His mother died in 1709, leaving him a considerable fortune. In 1712 he published the Passion Oratorio JESUS ​​Martyred and Dying for the Sin of the World, his first work that was to make him famous. Composers like Reinhard Keizer (1712), Georg Friedrich Handel (see Handel's Brockes Passion ), Georg Philipp Telemann (1716), Johann Mattheson (1718), Johann Friedrich Fasch (1723), Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel (1725) and Johann Caspar Bachofen ( 1759) set pieces by Brockes, who were known far beyond the city, to music; other composers followed up to the end of the 18th century. Even Johann Sebastian Bach parts used it in his St John Passion (1724).

In 1714 Brockes married Anna Ilsabe Lehmann, with whom he had twelve children, seven of whom were to survive him, including captain Joachim Wilhelm Brockes (1723–1795) as his eighth child .

Translator and Founder

In 1715 Brockes and other distinguished Hamburg citizens founded the Teutschübende Gesellschaft , a language society for the promotion of German language and literature. This group included Johann Albert Fabricius , Michael Richey , Johann Ulrich von König and later also Samuel von Triewald (1688–1742), Georg Jakob Hoefft (1686–1719) and the well-known pedagogue Johann Hübner . In the same year he published the translation of the Strage degli Innocenti (1620) by Giambattista Marino under the title Verteutschter Bethlehemitischer Kinder-Murder des Knight Marino , a work of European mannerism (cf. also Gongorism , Euphuism , Preziosität , Silesian Poet School ).

From its founding in 1724 until his death, Brockes belonged to the increasingly influential Patriotic Society , which wanted to encourage the citizens of Hamburg to safeguard their affairs. The goals of the company were charitable status, openness and tolerance. The society published the moral weekly Der Patriot , in which Brockes published a total of 23 articles.

Senator and Diplomat

Brockes . Engraving by Christian Fritzsch (1695–1769), 1744

In 1720 Brockes, after initially rejecting this post, was elected councilor and became the city's senator. On a diplomatic mission he traveled to Vienna, Copenhagen, Berlin and Hanover.

Brockes' poetry of praise and homage , which was created with a view to a possible elevation to the nobility , made little impression on the Hamburgers. Brockes' first and most important diplomatic trip to the Viennese court, however, was welcomed by the emperor and prince and thus enabled the poet to provide his client - the City of Hamburg - with unexpectedly great benefits.

Late offices

In 1728 Brockes served as city ​​judge , then in 1730 as district judge. Shortly afterwards he was finally raised to the rank of Imperial Palatine . From 1735 to 1741 he was Hamburg's bailiff in the Ritzebüttel office , in what is now Cuxhaven at the mouth of the Elbe . As a bailiff he performed the extensive tasks on behalf of his hometown and for the benefit of the population and spent the most meaningful time of his life here. Here his country life in Ritzebüttel originated as the seventh part of the terrestrial pleasure that began in 1721 (published in 1743). In 1740 Hermann Samuel Reimarus visited him there .

The joy in his life in Ritzebüttel waned in 1736 after the death of his wife Ilsabe. (In some writings 1740 is given as the year of death, based on a poem in the 6th part of Earthly Pleasure in God “Serious thoughts about the fatal entry of the now blessed Belise 1736, November 15”, the year of death 1736 is assumed.) On On April 22nd, 1741 Brockes returned to Hamburg with his children - this time by water - and was elected President of the Admiralty and Convoy Deputation , then first landlord on the Hamburger Berg , finally in 1742 first second, then first landlord of Hamm and Horn and 1743 chairman of the scholarchate . On January 16, 1747, Barthold Heinrich Brockes died unexpectedly after a three-day illness at the age of 66 in his hometown. His body was buried on January 23rd in the St. Nikolai Church in Hamburg.

Major literary work

In 1721 Brockes began to publish Earthly Pleasure in God, consisting of physical and moral poems , which appeared in nine volumes by 1748 and which seems to herald the end of a baroque worldview that had shaped the 17th century. Although the homage to nature and creation was still the focus of poetry, Brockes added a precise and analytical consideration of the same.

The tone of earthly pleasure met with broad approval and was imitated, but was already criticized by Johann Jakob Breitinger and Johann Christoph Gottsched, for example , and then increasingly viewed as poor and meaningless in the course of the literary enlightenment ; two decades after the author's death there was nothing to be gained from this poem. Karl Lohmeyer (1868–1956) dealt in detail with Brockes and his work.

Cherry blossom at night
I see with a contemplative mind
recently a cherry tree that was in bloom,
in a cool night by the moonlight;
I think it couldn't be more whiteness.
It seemed as if snow had fallen;
everyone, even the smallest branch,
bore a real burden, as it were
of dainty white round pads.
No swan is so white, because every leaf
- by the gentle light of the moon there
even breaks through the tender leaves -
even the shadow has white and special blackness.
Impossible, I thought, can on earth
what whites can be found.
By now, now there, now here
walk in the shade of this tree
I saw roughly
through all the flowers upwards
and there was still a white glow
who knows a thousand times, who knows a thousand times
almost half astonished, aware.
The bloom of snow seemed black
with this white sheen. It fell in my face
a white light from a bright star,
that shone right into my soul.
How much I delight in God in the earthly,
I thought, he still has far greater treasures.
The greatest beauty of this earth
but cannot be compared with the heavenly one.

Honors

Memorial plaque for Brockes' garden at the Hamburg trade union building
  • In Hamburg-Mitte, Brockesstraße, which lies between the Museum of Art and Industry and the ZOB, is named after him. Opposite the Besenbinderhof was his summer house and the garden that was often sung about. A memorial plaque was put up at the trade union building there in November 2016.
  • German Translator Fund: "Barthold-Heinrich-Brockes-Stipendium" for literary translators, enables experienced translators to have a vacation year.

Works (selection)

Title page of the Brockes Passion libretto from 1712

Work editions

  • Barthold Heinrich Brockes: autobiography. Germanized Bethlehemite child murder. Casual poems. Essays. Works, Volume 1, ed. and commented by Jürgen Rathje. Wallstein Publishing House. Göttingen 2012, ISBN 978-3-8353-0982-1
  • Barthold Heinrich Brockes: Earthly pleasure in God. First and second part. Works, Volume 2, ed. and commented by Jürgen Rathje. Wallstein Publishing House. Göttingen 2013, ISBN 978-3-8353-1192-3
  • Barthold Heinrich Brockes: Earthly pleasure in God. Third and fourth part. Works, Volume 3, ed. and commented by Jürgen Rathje. Wallstein Publishing House. Göttingen 2014, ISBN 978-3-8353-1512-9
  • Barthold Heinrich Brockes: Earthly pleasure in God. Part Five and Six. Works, Volume 4, ed. and commented by Jürgen Rathje. Wallstein Publishing House. Göttingen 2016, ISBN 978-3-8353-1779-6
  • Barthold Heinrich Brockes: Earthly pleasure in God. Seventh and eighth part. Works, Volume 5, ed. and commented by Jürgen Rathje. Wallstein Publishing House. Göttingen 2020, ISBN 978-3-8353-3073-3

literature

  • Erich Braun-Egidius (editor): Barthold Hinrich Brockes, Brockes-Tage 1997 in Hamburg. A documentation . Contributions by William Boehart, Annemarie Clostermann, Claudia Konrad, Franklin Kopitzsch , Axel Weidenfeld, Jürgen Rathje, "Culture in Hamburg" Verlagsges. mbH, Hamburg 2000, ISBN 978-3930727131 .
  • Diedrich Diederichsen:  Brockes, Barthold Heinrich. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 2, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1955, ISBN 3-428-00183-4 , p. 621 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Alois Brandl: Barthold Heinrich Brockes . Innsbruck 1878.
  • Gerhard Dünnhaupt : Barthold Heinrich Brockes d. Ä. (1680-1747) . In: Personal bibliographies on Baroque prints . Volume 2. Hiersemann, Stuttgart 1990, ISBN 3-7772-9027-0 , pp. 816-838 (list of works and literature).
  • Bettina Clausen : "She came for me like a queen". On the nature poetry of Councilor Barthold Heinrich Brockes. In: Inge Stephan , Hans-Gerd Winter (Ed.): Hamburg in the Age of Enlightenment. Reimer, Berlin a. a. 1989, ISBN 3-496-00975-6 , pp. 161 ff.
  • Ernst Fischer: Patriots and heretics makers. On the relationship between the Enlightenment and Lutheran Orthodoxy in Hamburg at the beginning of the 18th century . In: Festschrift for Wolfgang Martens, Tübingen 1989, pp. 17–47.
  • Henning Friederichs: The relationship between text and music in the Brockespassions Keiser , Handel , Telemann and Mattheson . Munich 1975.
  • Georg Hindrichson : Brockes and the Office Ritzebüttel 1735–41 . 3 booklets (= scientific supplements to the reports on the school years 1896/97, 1897/98, 1898/99). Cuxhaven 1897-1899. State and University Library, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf
  • Uwe-Karsten Ketelsen: Berthold Heinrich Brockes . In: Harald Steinhagen, Benno v. Wiese (ed.): Poet of the 17th century . Hamburg and Berlin 1984, ISBN 3-503-01665-1 , pp. 839-851.
  • Eckart Kleßmann : Barthold Hinrich Brockes . Ellert and Richter, Hamburg 2003, ISBN 3-8319-0100-7 .
  • Ilse Knodt: Barthold Heinrich Brockes. An early enlightenment poet . Koblenz 1981.
  • Johann Martin Lappenberg : Autobiography of Senator Barthold Heinrich Brockes . In: Journal of the Association for Hamburg History 2 (1847), pp. 167–229 ( digitized version )
  • Hans-Dieter Loose (Ed.): Berthold Heinrich Brockes. Poet and councilor in Hamburg. New research on personality and impact . Hamburg 1980 (with bibliography).
  • Jürgen Rathje: Barthold Heinrich Brockes . In: KLL, 2, p. 241 ff.
  • Carl Christian Redlich:  Brockes, Barthold Heinrich . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 3, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1876, p. 345 f.
  • Arno Schmidt : "Nothing is too small for me" . In: Ders .: The knights of the spirit . Stuttgart 1965, pp. 57–89 (also in: Ders .: Messages from books and people. Frankfurt am Main 1971, pp. 7–27).
  • Jörn Steigerwald: The divine pleasure of seeing. Barthold Hinrich Brocke's Techniques of Seeing. In: Convivium. Germanistic Yearbook Poland 2000, pp. 9–42.
  • Johannes Wankhammer: Poiesis in the “counterpart” of the other worlds: Epistemic and cosmological contingency in Breitinger and Brockes. In: Tim Sparenberg, Reto Rössler, Philipp Weber (eds.): Kosmos und Kontingenz, Paderborn 2016, pp. 112–126.
  • Friedrich Wilhelm Bautz:  BROCKES, Barthold Heinrich. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 1, Bautz, Hamm 1975. 2nd, unchanged edition Hamm 1990, ISBN 3-88309-013-1 , Sp. 752-753.  ( Article / beginning of article in Internet archive )

Web links

Wikisource: Barthold Heinrich Brockes  - Sources and full texts
Commons : Barthold Heinrich Brockes  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Eckart Kleßmann : Barthold Hinrich Brockes , Hamburg 2003, p. 118, note 1.
  2. ↑ Heinz Becker : The Brockes Passion , supplement to the Deutsche Grammophon record, 1968.
  3. ↑ List of the Brockes Passion settings on the Bach Cantatas website (English), accessed on September 11, 2014.
personal data
SURNAME Brockes, Barthold Heinrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German writer
DATE OF BIRTH September 22, 1680
PLACE OF BIRTH Hamburg
DATE OF DEATH January 16, 1747
Place of death Hamburg