Christian Friedrich Werner

Christian Friedrich Werner (* 26. December 1759 in Schorndorf , † 6 September ^{. Jul} / 18th September  1823 ^greg. In Sarata ) was a German businessman . As a supporter of the Catholic priest Ignaz Lindl , he organized an emigration of German Pietists to Bessarabia in 1820 and 1821 , which he followed in 1823. Werner died a few months after his arrival and bequeathed his fortune to the Bessarabian German settlement of Sarata founded by Lindl . The one named after him arose from the inheritanceEvangelical-German teacher training institute Werner , also called Wernerschule . As a secondary school, it was the only German teacher training institution in Bessarabia and was considered the cornerstone of Germanness in southern Russia .

Life

Werner grew up in Ludwigsburg , where his parents, the doctor and obstetrician Georg Philipp Werner and Christina Barbara Werner b. White, drawn in 1761. When his father died in 1763, his older brother Johann Philipp took care of him. Like his brother, Christian Friedrich also chose the profession of businessman. In 1779 he went to Giengen an der Brenz , where he ran a textile business. Gottlieb Veygel later joined the company as a partner. After his marriage to the wealthy merchant's daughter Friederike Veil from Schorndorf, he had three children. From 1791 he held pietistic Bible studies in his house . In the years 1803 to 1807 Werner suffered severe strokes of fate through the death of several people close to him, including his wife, two of his daughters, his mother and a good friend.

emigration

In 1819 the Catholic priest and representative of the revival movement Ignaz Lindl came to Gundremmingen . His services led to regular pilgrimages from the area. As a participant in the service, Werner was taken with Lindl's charisma. When Lindl lost his pastor and had plans to emigrate to Russia with his followers, Werner supported him as a wealthy businessman. He organized the planned emigration from his place of residence in Württemberg. Lindl mainly mobilized supporters in neighboring Bavaria, where emigration was a criminal offense. Therefore, there were unsuccessful Bavarian requests to the Württemberg government to prevent emigration.

In 1820 and 1821, German emigration trains from Württemberg and Bavaria started with around 200 people in covered wagons to southern Russia . When they arrived in Odessa , the Russian government assigned them a piece of land in Bessarabia in 1822 . There they founded the Sarata settlement . Christian Friedrich Werner and his business partner Gottlieb Veygel followed the emigrants by leaving Germany on May 2, 1823. Werner had taken all of his fortune with him and gave generous amounts of money to needy settlers. A few months after his arrival in Sarata, Werner died on September 23, 1823 at the age of 63.

legacy

Werner bequeathed his wealth of 25,000 rubles in silver to the community of Sarata in his will . In accordance with the will of the testator, a church was built from the money in 1843 and a school was founded in 1844. Although Werner was aiming for a mission school, there was no official permission for this, as mission was forbidden in Orthodox Russia.

In the free school facility, male orphans were initially trained as teachers and scribes for the Bessarabian German settlements. It was named after its founder as the Evangelical German Teachers Training Institute Werner , popularly known as the Werner School . From this, the only German teacher training institution in Bessarabia that received the Germanness in southern Russia developed. The community of Sarata owes its leading position among the Bessarabian German communities to the school.

literature

• Ute Schmidt : Bessarabia - German colonists on the Black Sea , Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-936168-20-4
• Albert Kern: Heimatbuch der Bessarabiendeutschen Ev.-Luth. Church, Hanover 1964
• Hugo Häfner: Bessarabian German School History . In: Heimatkalender yearbook of the Germans from Bessarabia . Hanover 1993

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Landeskirchliches Archiv Stuttgart, Kirchengemeinde Schorndorf (Deanery Schorndorf), Volume 4 (mixed book 1753–1810), p. 91
2. ^ Sächsisches Staatsarchiv, Staatsarchiv Leipzig, 21962 Family History Collections of the Reichssippenamt, church records, No. KB Bessarabien 3526, 29/1831