Carl Ferdinand Zimmermann

Carl Ferdinand Zimmermann (born July 22, 1816 in Strasbourg , † November 29, 1889 in Basel ) was a Swiss clergyman, high school teacher and orientalist .

Live and act

Zimmermann grew up partly in Koblenz with his parents, partly with relatives in Strasbourg. He studied Protestant theology from 1834 at the University of Geneva and from 1837 at the University of Basel , acquired Basel citizenship in 1844 and was initially a vicar and teacher at a private school. He founded a private girls' school and was at the Basel grammar school from 1848 and after its division in 1852 as a teacher, in 1870 as vice-principal and from 1871 to 1881 as rector at the secondary school . In 1881 he was released from it and was only a religion teacher. In 1887 he finally retired.

In addition to his teaching activities, he dealt with the geography of the Orient, in particular of ancient Palestine. He also followed the Egyptology and Assyriology of his time. He published historical plans with the reconstruction of ancient Jerusalem based on measurements carried out by the building officer Conrad Schick in Jerusalem. Around 1876 he initiated the establishment of the German Association for the Exploration of Palestine, which took place on September 25, 1877 with the final constitution in Wiesbaden, and was a member of its executive committee until 1889.

He was married twice and had nine children. In his second marriage he was with a Sophia geb. Bernoulli (1821–1902) married.

Fonts (selection)

• Spiritual chants for the military service . Basel 1847
• Sermon on I Kings XIX, 11-13 held at the military service, Sunday April 30th 1848 in the Church of St. Martin in Basel . Basel 1848
• Babylon. Historical-topographical communications . Schweighauser, Basel 1859 ( digitized version )
• Maps and plans of the topography of ancient Jerusalem . Basel 1876 (4 maps in folio format with 46 pages of text)
• with the assistance of Albert Socin : Plan of today's Jerusalem and its surroundings based on W. Wilson's photo from 1864–1865 and C. Schick's additions to 1879 Winterthur [1880?] ( digitized version )

literature

• K. Sartorius: funeral speech at the funeral of Mr. Carl Ferd. Zimmermann-Bernoulli . Private printing Basel 1889.
• Emil Kautzsch : Dr. C. Zimmermann † . In: Journal of the German Palestine Association Volume 12, 1889, pp. XVII – XIX ( digitized version ).
• Ulrich Hübner : The German Association for the Study of Palestine (1877-2002) and its Basel roots . In: Theologische Zeitschrift 58, 2002, pp. 329–338 ( digitized version ).