Carl Hildebrand von Canstein

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Carl Hildebrand von Canstein
Memorial plaque on the house, Poststrasse 25, in Berlin-Mitte

Baron Carl Hildebrand von Canstein (born August 4, 1667 in Lindenberg ; † August 19, 1719 in Berlin ) was a Brandenburg court official and founder of the Canstein Bible Institute , the world's oldest Bible Society .

Life

Carl Hildebrand was born as the son of the Court Chamber President Raban von Canstein and his wife Hedwig, nee. von Kracht, born. Since January 1684 he studied at the Viadrina in Frankfurt (Oder) and disputed here in 1685 under his legal teacher Samuel Stryk about the validity of Roman law in German courts.

After a subsequent two-year Grand Tour through Holland, England, France, Italy and Austria, Carl Hildebrand was recalled to Berlin in 1688 after the death of Elector Friedrich Wilhelm von Brandenburg, better known as the Great Elector . There he started out as a court official. Refusing court service, he was later sent to Flanders as a soldier and as an officer in 1692 ( War of the Palatinate Succession ), where he fell ill with amoebic dysentery. On the sickbed, he vowed to devote his life to spreading the scriptures if he survived.

After his recovery, Carl Hildebrand met the great theologian and pietist pioneer in 1694 , Philipp Jakob Spener , whose financial sponsor he became. The discussions with Spener determined his theological worldview. Through Spener, Carl Hildebrand later met August Hermann Francke , whose friend he became (your extensive correspondence is published in book form). Francke built a diaconal center in Halle an der Saale , which later became the so-called Francke Foundations in Halle.

Inspired by Francke, Carl Hildebrand decided to use his fortune to build a Bible society in Halle. The biblical institute, founded in 1710, is the oldest biblical institute in the world and still bears the name Cansteinsche Bibelanstalt today . The aim was to be able to produce Bibles as “mass printing” as cheaply as possible (see also “ Standing Sentence ”) in order to enable less well-to-do people to study the Holy Scriptures in German. The New Testament cost 2 groschen (approx. 1 euro), a complete edition was already available for 6 groschen (approx. 3 euros) - a bookseller's profit was not made. During Carl Hildebrand's lifetime, a total of 180,000 Bibles and New Testaments were printed and distributed, by 1800 this number rose to 2.7 million copies.

Carl Hildebrand married in 1707 Bartha Sophia von Krosigk (1665-1718), a daughter of Ludolf Lorenz von Krosigk and a former canoness in Minden . He died on August 17, 1719 and was buried in the Marienkirche in Berlin on Alexanderplatz , where a plaque commemorates him today. Since his marriage remained childless, he bequeathed his not inconsiderable fortune, his Brandenburg and Brandenburg property as well as his share in the Canstein estate and castle in the Sauerland to his foundation.

Works (selection)

Harmony and interpretation of the four holy Evangelists in the Duchess Anna Amalia Library
  • Insignificant suggestion of how God's word should be brought into the hands of the poor for edification at a low price , Halle 1710.
  • Harmony and Interpretation of the Four Holy Evangelists , 9 vols., Halle 1718.

literature

  • Carl Heinrich Christian Plath: Carl Hildebrand Freiherr v. Canstein. Attempt to make a contribution to the history of Speneric-Franckian Pietism. Publishing house of the bookstore of the orphanage, Halle 1861 ( digitized version ).
  • Oswald Bertram: History of the Canstein Bible Institute in Halle. Publishing house of the orphanage bookstore, Halle 1863 ( digitized version ).
  • Albrecht Ritschl : History of Pietism. Vol. 2: History of Pietism in the Lutheran Church of the 17th and 18th centuries. First division. Adolph Marcus, Bonn 1884, p. 513ff. ( Digitized version ).
  • August Schürmann: On the history of the orphanage's bookstore and the Canstein Bible Institute in Halle a. S. On the bicentenary celebration of the Francke Foundations 1698–1898. Publishing house of the bookstore of the orphanage, Halle 1898 ( digitized version ).
  • Wilhelm Fries : The Cansteinsche Bible Institute and its founder Carl Hildebrand Freiherr von Canstein. Festschrift for the institution's bicentenary celebrations on October 21, 1910. Verlag der Buchhandlung des Waisenhauses, Halle 1910 ( digitized version ).
  • Friedrich Hauß : Fathers of Christianity. Vol. 2: From the guardians of the Reformation heritage to Johann Christoph Blumhardt and his kindred spirits. Verlag Sonne and Schild, Wuppertal 1957, p. 33f.
  • Adolf Geprägs: Carl Hildebrand Freiherr von Canstein. The founder of the first Bible Institute. In: People before God: Personalities of all times point to the eternal. Vol. 2: July 1st to December 31st. Edited by Alfred Ringwald. Verlag Junge Gemeinde, Stuttgart 1958, p. 76f.
  • Eva Hoffmann-Aleith : The baron. From the life of Frr. Carl Hildebrand von Canstein . Novel. Luther-Verlag, Witten 1960.
  • Oskar Söhngen (Ed.): The lasting importance of Pietism. For the 250th anniversary of the von Canstein Bible Institute . Cansteinsche Bibelanstalt, Witten and Berlin 1960 (pp. 109–131: v. Cs “Unmeasurable Proposal”).
  • Hans Urner : Carl Hildebrand Freiherr von Canstein. 250 years Canstein Bible Institute. In: Zeichen der Zeit 14 (1960), p. 382ff.
  • Günther Leppin: Carl Hildebrand Freiherr von Canstein. A Christian in the tensions of his and our time. Brunnen-Verlag, Gießen and Basel 1967 (witnesses of the present God, vol. 177).
  • Oskar Söhngen: Canstein and his Bible Institute. In: The Bible in the World 10 (1967), pp. 105ff.
  • Peter Schicketanz (Ed.) :. The correspondence between Carl Hildebrand von Canstein and August Hermann Francke. Berlin 1972 (Texts on the History of Pietism, Section 3: August Hermann Francke's handwritten estate, Vol. 1) ( digitized version ).
  • Peter Schicketanz: Carl Hildebrand von Canstein's relationship with Philipp Jakob Spener . Luther Verlag, Witten 1967 (work on the history of Pietism, vol. 1).
  • Peter Schicketanz: Carl Hildebrand von Canstein: Living and thinking in source representations. Publishing house of the Francke Foundations Halle in the Max-Niemeyer-Verlag, Tübingen 2002 (Hallesche Forschungen, Vol. 8).
  • Philipp Jakob Spener: Writings. Vol. 15: Correspondence. Teilbd. 1: Last theological concerns and other written answers from 1711. Part 1 and 2. Along with a preface by Carl Hildebrand von Canstein. Reprint of the Halle 1711 edition. Introduced by Dietrich Blaufuß and Peter Schicketanz. Olms-Verlag, Hildesheim u. a. 1987 ( digitized version of the Hall 1711 edition ).
  • Julius August Wagenmann :  Canstein, Karl Freiherr von . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 3, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1876, p. 764 f.
  • Kurt Aland :  Canstein, barons of. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 3, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1957, ISBN 3-428-00184-2 , p. 126 ( digitized version ).
  • Friedrich Wilhelm Bautz :  CANSTEIN, Karl Hildebrand Freiherr von. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 1, Bautz, Hamm 1975. 2nd, unchanged edition Hamm 1990, ISBN 3-88309-013-1 , Sp. 916-917.  ( Article / beginning of article in Internet archive )

See also

Web links

Commons : Carl Hildebrand von Canstein  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ernst Friedländer (Ed.): Older matriculation I. University of Frankfurt an der Oder . tape 2 . Leipzig 1888, p. 185 .
  2. ↑ digitized version . Retrieved June 14, 2019 .
  3. ^ Peter Schicketanz (Ed. :): The correspondence between Carl Hildebrand von Canstein and August Hermann Francke. Berlin 1972, p. 896
  4. ↑ Horst Conrad: The owners of the Canstein estate and their mining. A contribution to the history of mining in the Duchy of Westphalia in the Old Kingdom, Part I. In: Westfälische Zeitschrift, Vol. 160/2010, pp. 187–205 ( PDF file ), see p. 195.
personal data
SURNAME Canstein, Carl Hildebrand von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Canstein, Karl Hildebrand Freiherr von; Canstein, Carolus Hildebrand de
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Founder of the Canstein Bible Institute in Halle
DATE OF BIRTH 4th August 1667
PLACE OF BIRTH Lindenberg
DATE OF DEATH August 19, 1719
Place of death Berlin