Caspar Abel

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Caspar Abel; Engraving by Jakob Wilhelm Heckenauer

Caspar Abel (born July 14, 1676 in Hindenburg , † January 11, 1763 in Westdorf ) was a German historian and Low German poet .

Life

As the son of the evangelical pastor Joachim Abel, Caspar Abel also devoted himself to theology . After completing his studies at the University of Helmstedt , he began his first teaching position as a teacher in Osterburg in 1696 . Only at the age of twenty-two he received a call in 1698 as high school rector of the Johannisschule in Halberstadt , which office he held for two full decades until he finally found a permanent position in 1718 as a Protestant pastor at the Sankt-Georg-Kirche in Westdorf near Aschersleben. His mind, lively into old age, his keen senses and his great life satisfaction aroused the admiration of his contemporaries. He fell asleep on the night of January 10th to 11th, 1763 and was buried in silence according to his wishes; Georg Wilhelm Aurbach, Rector of the Aschersleben City School, gave the commemorative sermon.

Abel published a two-part Prussian-Brandenburg state history , probably at the suggestion of the publisher Ernst Heinrich Campe , at an early stage, placing particular emphasis on the history of the archdioceses and dioceses of Magdeburg, Halberstadt and Minden, and after their success a geography of Brandenburg-Prussia . His Halberstädter Landeschronik, published in 1754, is important for regional political history on the one hand, but also for the East Westphalian climate history on the other. For the period from 1500 to 1750 he describes around sixty winters and summers marked by extreme weather conditions. His sources include the Halberstadt chronicle of pastor Johann Winnigstedt (around 1500 - 1569). With his poems in Low and High German, Abel achieved even broader public success. He also wrote satirical poems. He also emerged as a translator from French and Latin. The documents on Central German history that he published based on manuscripts are still considered important historical sources today, especially where the Halberstadt originals fell victim to the war.

family

Abel came from a wealthy family of silk merchants and preachers . His great-great-uncle was the humanist and poet Michael Abel .

On October 5, 1705 he and his younger sister Margarethe (1686–1781) celebrated a double wedding in Hindenburg: while both fathers married their daughter to the Groß Quenstedt pastor Johann Heinrich Behrens, Caspar Abel married Ilsabe Margarethe Haacke (1681–1755), Daughter of the Pabstorf preacher Petrus Haacke (1645–1712) and descendant of the old families Brüggemann, Brosenius, Lutteroth and Magdalena Schneidewein (1500–1578), a sister of the Luther friends Johannes and Heinrich Schneidewein . Both became parents of eleven children, but only three sons survived childhood:

  • Christian Leberecht Abel (1719–1776), Abel's second son, became a pastor in Wörmlitz near Magdeburg. His daughter Sophie (1750-1822) was the wife of the writer August Lafontaine .
  • Joachim Gottwalt Abel (1723–1806) followed in his father's footsteps, also became a pastor and wrote the three-volume manuscript History of the Möckern Reign . His daughter Christina Charlotte Abel married the poet and pastor Stephan Kunze .

The death of his wife hit him very hard. In her honor, he arranged for her résumé to be printed. Only at the urging of his friends did he reunite with Johanna Elisabeth Rühl, now 79 years old.

Works

  • Prussian and Brandenburg State History. I. and II. Theil Campe, Leipzig and Gardeleben 1735. ( Digitized Part 1 ), ( Part 2, 1745 ) This work can be considered the first Prussian-Brandenburg state history, the 1st part mainly deals with the genealogies of the Swabian, Franconian and Brandenburg Hohenzollern , the second the history of individual territories with up to the early 16th century, less the state organization, since Abel had too few sources on this.
  • Historia monarchiarum orbis antiqui. Campe, Leipzig and Stendal 1715.
  • ... Three Low German satires. Buchholz & Werner, Munich 1891
Translations
  • Publius Ovidius Naso : Epistolae Heroidum or Brieffe of the heroines . Leipzig 1704
  • Selected satirical poems ... translated from the famous Boileau and Horatio , some of which are also based on their models. Struntze, Quedlinburg and Aschersleben 1714. ( digitized )
  • The famous poet Nicolai d'Espreaux Boileau satyrical poems…. 2 parts. König, Goslar 1729 and 1732
Release
  • The dangerous king evil of the monarchical lust for power , Frankfurt am Main 1707
  • German and Saxon antiquities . 2 volumes, Braunschweig 1720 and 1730
  • Christophori Schraderi Tabulae Chronologicae. Brunswick 1730
  • Collection of several not yet printed old chronicles. Schröder, Braunschweig 1732 and 1741. ( digitized edition 1732 )
  • Hebrew antiquities. Camping, Leipzig and Gardelegen 1736. ( digitized version )
  • Greek antiquities. Camping, Leipzig and Gardelegen 1738/1739. ( Digitized version )
  • History of the old German peoples. Schröder, Braunschweig 1741
  • Heinrich Meibom the Elder Walbeck Chronicle. Weygand, Helmstedt 1749. ( digitized version )
  • Treatise on the question: How far did the Roman weapons get in Germany? Berlin 1750
  • Stiffs town and country chronicle of the present Principality of Halberstadt. Cörner, Bernburg 1754. ( digitized version )

Literature (selection)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The dates of life 1667–1752 given in older writings are incorrect.
  2. ↑ Cf. Dieter Lent: From cold winters and hot summers. Weather observation and events in the state of Braunschweig since the early Middle Ages: a journey through the unexplored climate history of Southeast Lower Saxony. In: Braunschweigisches Jahrbuch für Landesgeschichte. Braunschweigischer Geschichtsverein , Braunschweig 2007, volume 88, p. 24f. mwNew.
  3. ↑ Martin Kessler: The ancestors of pastor Hermann Kunze in Prödel (1836-1923) and his wife Anna geb. Färber (1842-1919) , Stuttgart 1982
  4. ^ Wolfgang Neugebauer: Prussian history as a social event , Ferdinand Schöningh Verlag, 2018, p. 107ff
personal data
SURNAME Abel, Caspar
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German historian and Low German poet
DATE OF BIRTH July 14, 1676
PLACE OF BIRTH Hindenburg
DATE OF DEATH January 11, 1763
Place of death Westdorf