Caspar Borner

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Signature of Caspar Borner

Caspar Borner (* around 1492 in Grossenhain ; † May 2, 1547 in Leipzig ) was a German Evangelical Lutheran theologian , philologist , lawyer , humanist , mathematician and astronomer and rector of the Thomas School in Leipzig and the University of Leipzig . He is the pioneer of Lutheranism in Leipzig.

Live and act

Epitaph by Caspar Borner from the Paulinum in Leipzig

Borner comes from a wealthy family. Well prepared at the Großenhain Latin School, Borner was able to matriculate at the University of Leipzig in 1507 . In 1508 he met the humanist Johannes Aesticampianus and joined him. In 1509 he received his bachelor's degree from the artist faculty, and when Aesticampianus was expelled from Leipzig, he followed him to Italy and later via Paris to Cologne . During his trip he devoted himself to mathematics and astronomy .

There he became friends with Petrus Mosellanus and decided to emigrate with him to Saxony in 1515 in order to teach in Freiberg at a school founded by Aesticampianus. In 1517 Borner moved back to Leipzig University, where he obtained the academic degree of a master's degree in 1518. After the Leipzig disputation , which made a deep impression on him, Georg Fabricius wanted him to work on Luther's teaching. In 1519 he moved to Wittenberg, where he worked as a professor of astronomy at the university for a year . In the same year Philipp Melanchthon suggested him for the Nuremberg high school.

In 1522 he returned to Leipzig to succeed Johannes Poliander as rector at the Thomas School. It was here that he devoted his organizational and educational resources to this school, and his textbooks enjoyed great popularity. He was also a notary at the St. Thomas Monastery . In addition, he devoted himself to a teaching assignment for mathematics and astronomy at the university, which he had received in 1523. His work was further strengthened by the fact that he became vice-chancellor of the university in 1532 and 1535.

Borner received the professorship at the Große Kolleg in 1538 , and this was the first time that a person who was close to the Wittenberg Reformator Circle taught in Leipzig. When Duke Heinrich of Saxony introduced the Reformation in Leipzig in 1539 , this enabled him to switch completely to the university, to which he devoted all his skills. With his great organizational talent, he was the right man to carry out the Reformation at the University of Leipzig. When he first became rector of the university in the winter semester of 1539, he laid the foundations for university reform.

In 1541 he received his first theological degree, and as rector in the winter semester 1541/42 he renewed the teaching staff, expanded the Leipzig University Library and was able to manage Philipp Melanchthon's long-time friend Joachim Camerarius the Elder. Ä. win for the university.

In 1543 he acquired the next higher academic degree and read about Melanchthon's Loci communes rerum theologicarum . In the winter semester 1543/44, during his third rectorate, he arranged, with the support of the court councilor Georg von Komerstadt and Duke Moritz von Sachsen , that the buildings of the Dominican monastery of St. Pauli were transferred to the university. He had work rooms and auditoriums, apartments for professors and accommodation for students built on the premises. He also considerably expanded the holdings of the university library from the holdings of the monasteries and set up a university archive. In this way he earned Duke Moritz's appreciation, but Martin Luther also recognized him thoroughly.

Although Borner set little emphasis in the theological field, he was a knowledgeable, cautious and circumspect man who, despite all the difficulties, helped the Reformation to break through in Leipzig. He also knew how to deal with Jacob Schenck . He worked for the university with untiring zeal, without seeing the fruits of his labor. When Leipzig was besieged in the Schmalkaldic War , Borner fell ill with a rampant epidemic and died exhausted on May 2, 1547.

Caspar Borner is the namesake for the Caspar Borner Medal , which is awarded for services to the renewal of the University of Leipzig .

Works (selection)

• Introduction to Latin Grammar, 1524

literature

• Enno Bünz , Franz Fuchs (ed.): Humanism at the University of Leipzig. Files of the in cooperation with the Chair for Saxon State History at the University of Leipzig, the University Library of Leipzig and the Leipzig History Association on 9/10 November 2007 in Leipzig organized symposium (Pirckheimer-Jahrbuch für Renaissance- und Humanismusforschung 23, 2008). Harrassowitz Verlag, Wiesbaden 2009, ISBN 978-3-447-06079-0 , p. 44 ff.
• Caspar Borner . In: Dietrich Hanspach, Haik Thomas (ed.): Grossenhainer care. A regional study of the area around Großenhain and Radeburg . Böhlau Verlag, Cologne, p. 357.
• Heinrich Bornkamm: " The struggle of Reformation motives in the beginnings of the Saxon church constitution ", in: Archive for Reformation History 41 (1948), p. 93 ff.
• Georg Erler (Ed.): The register of the University of Leipzig 1409–1599 . 1. Volume, Giesecke & Devrient, Leipzig 1895, pp. 31, 449, 533.
• Herbert Helbig :  Borner, Caspar. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 2, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1955, ISBN 3-428-00183-4 , p. 469 f. ( Digitized version ).
• Heiko Jadatz: The theological faculty and the introduction of the Wittenberg Reformation as reflected in the first Protestant church visits, in: The theological faculty of the University of Leipzig, ed. v. Andreas Gößner among employees. v. Alexander Wieckowski, Leipzig 2005, p. 68.
• Richard Kallmeier: Caspar Borner in his importance for the Reformation and for the Leipzig University . Dissertation, Leipzig 1898.
• Walther Killy : Borner, Caspar . In: Rudolf Vierhaus (ed.): German biographical encyclopedia (DBE). KG Saur Verlag, Munich 2007, p. 34.
• Friedrich Zarncke: " Kaspar Borner and the Reformation of the University of Leipzig " in: ders .: " Small writings ", Volume 2: Essays and speeches on cultural and contemporary history, Leipzig 1898, pp. 75–96.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Klaus-Bernward Springer: The German Dominicans in Resistance and Adaptation during the Reformation . Akademie Verlag, Berlin 1999, ISBN 978-3-05-003401-0 , p. 219.