Karl Friedrich Bahrdt

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Doctor Bahrdt in his vineyards near Halle , 1789, frontispiece of a book from 1792

Karl Friedrich Bahrdt (born August 25, 1740 in Bischofswerda , † April 23, 1792 in Nietleben ) was a German Protestant theologian and writer in the Age of Enlightenment .

Life

Karl Friedrich Bahrdt

Bahrdts father Johann Friedrich Bahrdt was professor of theology and superintendent in Leipzig. His mother was the preacher's daughter Christiana Elisabeth Ehrenhaus .

It is reported that Karl Friedrich was already very noticeable as a child. He routinely drove his head of house to despair. He also changed schools frequently, so he only attended the Nicolaischule in Leipzig and the Pforta State School for a short time .

At the age of 16 he began his studies in Leipzig with Christian August Crusius , who had a formative influence on him. He received his doctorate in 1761 and a catechist in 1762 . As early as 1766 he became a full professor of biblical philology in Leipzig.

In 1768 he had to resign because of an affair with a prostitute and a lawsuit about an illegitimate child. At the instigation of Christian Adolph Klotz , he received a professorship for biblical antiquities in Erfurt again in 1769 . There, however , the Enlightenment soon aroused great offense with his rationalistic teachings, so that in 1771, mediated by Johann Salomo Semler , he followed a call to Giessen as a preacher and professor . There, too, he soon encountered resistance because of enlightening polemics and his writings against the prevailing theological concept. In 1773 he proposed that future theologians be instructed by actors, to which Herder clearly objected. In 1775 he lost his office for the third time - again because of his disgusting lifestyle.

After a short stay in Graubünden, mediated by Johann Bernhard Basedow , as director of the local Philanthropinum Schloss Marschlins , he went to Dürkheim as pastor and general superintendent at the invitation of Count Carl Friedrich Wilhelm von Leiningen-Dagsburg-Hardenburg in 1776 and founded the Heidesheim Palace near Worms his own Philanthropinum , of which he became director in 1777. However, it did not live up to expectations. In 1777 he joined Freemasonry in England .

As a result of a pamphlet against the Worms Auxiliary Bishop Franz Xaver Anton von Scheben and because of his translation of the Bible, he was declared incapable of administering any spiritual office through an often contested decision of the Reichshofrat . The decision of the Reichsgericht was followed by an intense debate in which not only Johann Salomo Semler and Johann Jacob Moser , but also Gotthold Ephraim Lessing spoke. Initially volatile, in 1779, through the intermediary of the Prussian Minister Karl Abraham von Zedlitz , Bahrdt received permission to live in Halle, where he worked as a writer and, despite all the efforts of the Senate and Orthodox theologians, lectured as a private lecturer in the philosophical faculty which were attended by up to 900 listeners.

When, after the death II. Frederick (1786) by Friedrich Wilhelm II. 1788 Wöllnersche religious edict against the Enlightenment theology reached, Bahrdt resigned. After he had cast out his wife, he lived with his maid and ran an inn with her in a vineyard bought from Halle, which caused a lot of annoyance, since in 1783 he was part of the quasi-illuminatic secret society Deutsche Union der XXII (German Union of the Twenty Two) Knowledge Adam Weishaupts founded. This rival organization to the Illuminati was destroyed in this way in 1788 by a combat script that uncovered the order and originated from Johann Joachim Christoph Bode , who directed the Illuminati League after Weishaupt's persecution and also looked after the Eclectic League .

In 1789, Bahrdt came under investigation again as the author of the comedy The Religionsedikt , a satire that mocked Wöllner's (Prussian) religious edict . The theologian, highly controversial among his contemporaries, who represented a deistic to atheistic doctrine, was sentenced to one year fortress arrest at the citadel in Magdeburg after almost eight months of remand and died in custody. (According to another version, it is said that Bahrdt was pardoned after six months in prison, returned to Halle and died there on his vineyard in Nietleben in 1792).

Bahrdts grave is in the cemetery of the desert of Granau , which today belongs to Nietleben, a district of Halle (Saale) .

Karl Friedrich Bahrdt's grave, Granau old cemetery, Halle (Saale)

family

Regardless of his love affairs and his way of life, he married Johanna Elisabetha Volland on June 29, 1769 in Erfurt . She was the widow of the Princely Saxon Weimar and Eisenach government secretary Christian Wilhelm Kühn and the daughter of the superintendent Christian Wilhelm Volland from Mühlhausen (Thuringia) . The couple had three daughters.

Remarks

  1. ^ Günter Mühlpfordt: 1740, not 1741. On Bahrdt's year of birth . In: Gerhard Sauder and Christoph Weiß (eds.): Carl Friedrich Bahrdt (1740–1792) . Röhrig Verlag, St. Ingbert 1992, ISBN 978-3-924555-97-9 , pp. 291-305 .
  2. ^ Friedrich Wilhelm Bautz:  Bahrdt, Karl Friedrich. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 1, Bautz, Hamm 1975. 2nd, unchanged edition Hamm 1990, ISBN 3-88309-013-1 , Sp. 346-347.  ( Article / beginning of article in Internet archive )
  3. ↑ See Hannes Kerber: "The Enlightenment in front of the court. On the historical background of GE Lessings 'Comments on an expert report on the itzigen religious movements' (1780)", in Germanisch-Romanische monthly 68: 1 (2018), pp. 27-72 .
  4. ^ H. Schüttler: The members of the Illuminati order
  5. ^ Johann Joachim Christoph Bode: Journal of a trip from Weimar to France in 1787 . Published by Hermann Schüttler. ars una Verlag, Munich 1994, ISBN 3-89391-351-3 .

Works

His writings (102 in all, including several novels) are distinguished by their purity and ease of language.

The following are mentioned:

  • System of moral theology (Eisenach 1770; digitized version )
  • Letters on systematic theology (Eisenach 1770–72, 2 volumes)
  • Proposals for clarifying and correcting the doctrinal concept of our church . Riga 1771
  • Latest revelations of God in letters and stories (Riga 1773–75, 4 parts), an alleged translation of the New Testament, which was ridiculed by the young Goethe in the well-known satirical prologue (1774) and forbidden by the Imperial Court Council.
  • Philanthropic Education Plan . Eichenberg, Frankfurt am Main 1776
  • Churches and heretic almanac for the year 1781 (current theologian lexicon)
  • About freedom of press and its limits. To the heart of the regents, censors and writers (1st edition anonymous, [Züllichau] 1787); New edition: Carl Friedrich Bahrdt: About freedom of the press and its limits. A word for rulers and writers. Latest edition. (Züllichau, 1794 digitized version ).
  • A story of his life , written by B. himself during his imprisonment, was published in Berlin in 1790, 4 volumes (2nd edition, Neustadt ad Haardt 1870).
  • History and diary of my prison along with secret documents and information about the German Union. 2 parts in one volume. Vieweg, Berlin 1790 (This final part of his autobiography The Story of His Life deals with the background to his sentencing to two years in prison.)
  • Rights and obligations of regents and subjects in relation to state and religion , Riga 1792

literature

  • August von Kotzebue : Doctor Bahrdt with the iron forehead or the German Union against Zimmermann. A play in four acts by Freyherrn von Knigge, Leipzig 1790.
  • Friedrich Christian Laukhard : Additions and corrections to Mr. D. Karl Friedrich Bahrdt's biography in letters from a Palatine, 1791.
  • Robert Prutz: Karl Friedrich Bahrdt. Contributions to the history of his time and life. 1741-1771, Leipzig 1850.
  • Jacob Leiser: Karl Friedrich Bahrdt, Pestalozzi’s contemporary, his relationship to philanthropinism and modern education, Neustadt adH 1867 2nd edition 1870.
  • Gunter Muhlpfordt: Karl Friedrich Bahrdt and the radical Enlightenment, in: Yearbook of the Institute for German History, Vol. 5, Tel Aviv 1976, pp. 49-100.
  • Gerhard Sauder and Christoph Weiß (eds.): Carl Friedrich Bahrdt (1740–1792). Röhrig, St. Ingbert 1992, ISBN 3-924555-97-4 .
  • Otto Jacob and Ingrid Majewski: Karl Friedrich Bahrdt, radical German enlightener (August 25, 1740 - April 23, 1792). (Bibliography) University and State Library, Halle (Saale) 1992, ISBN 3-86010-347-4 .
  • Hans-Helmut Lößl: Karl Friedrich Bahrdt at the Philanthropinischen Anstalten zu Marschlins and Heidesheim (1775–1779). Logos-Verlag, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-89722-044-X .
  • Hermann-Peter Eberlein: Karl Friedrich Bahrdt and the Collegium Maius. In: Ders., Theologen in Erfurt, Wuppertal 2013, pp. 22–30.
  • Gustav Frank :  Bahrdt, Carl Friedrich . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 1, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1875, pp. 772-774.
  • Bruno Sauer:  Bahrdt, Carl Friedrich. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 1, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1953, ISBN 3-428-00182-6 , p. 542 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Friedrich Wilhelm Bautz :  Bahrdt, Karl Friedrich. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 1, Bautz, Hamm 1975. 2nd, unchanged edition Hamm 1990, ISBN 3-88309-013-1 , Sp. 346-347.  ( Article / beginning of article in Internet archive )
  • Heinrich Döring, The learned theologians of Germany in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries: depicted according to their life and work, Volume 1, p.29f

Web links

Commons : Karl Friedrich Bahrdt  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikisource: Carl Friedrich Bahrdt  - Sources and full texts
personal data
SURNAME Bahrdt, Karl Friedrich
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bahrdt, Carl Friedrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Protestant theologian and school founder
DATE OF BIRTH August 25, 1740
PLACE OF BIRTH Bischofswerda , Upper Lusatia
DATE OF DEATH April 23, 1792
Place of death Nietleben near Halle (Saale)