Christian Friedrich Wutstrack

Christian Friedrich Wutstrack (* around 1764 in Neu Klücken bei Arnswalde in the Neumark ; † around 1809/13) was a German educator , topographer and writer .

Life

After the elementary school in Neu Klücken, Wutstrack attended the Jageteufelsche Kolleg in Alt Stettin . This college was a higher education institution for less well-off boys, ie a school for the poor . Although he was exempt from school and housing allowances there, he had to pay for his food, clothes and bed linen as well as for his teaching materials himself. In the winter of 1779/1780 he was still a student at the Jageteufel College.

By his own account, he had never attended university. However, after graduating from high school, he must have attended a teachers' seminar. He had apparently found his first significant job in 1787 in the cadet house of Stolp , where he worked as a teacher of foreign languages ​​and, among other things, gave French lessons.

Around 1788 he had begun to build up an extensive collection of books from all fields of knowledge in order to be able to found a non-profit public library in Stolp, which actually went into operation as a public institution in 1790. He was the librarian himself. His hope that the running costs of the library could be covered by collecting a reading fee, however, were deceptive. Between 1793 and 1794 he closed the library again. At the beginning of June 1791 he auctioned a book collection consisting of 2,000 volumes, with the help of a catalog that was published in the cities of Berlin , Frankfurt an der Oder , Stettin, Stargard i. Pom., Stolp, Danzig , Kulm and Königsberg could be purchased.

Wutstrack had been exposed to a social tension in Stolp, which arose because the charitable purpose of his library foundation was questioned. Until at least April 1795 he worked there as a teacher in the cadet house. Around 1797 he worked as a private scholar in Königsberg. He then went to Bialystok in New East Prussia to take up a position as chamber secretary. In 1798, during this time, he published the play in five acts Der Heiratskontrast .

In 1793 Wutstrack published an 800-page book on the history of Pomerania, with which he condensed the monumental work published by Ludwig Wilhelm Brüggemann from 1779–1784 on the history of the Duchy of Western and Western Pomerania into a handbook for domestic use, adding further historical facts would have. In 1795 a 440-page addendum to this work followed. The historian Martin Wehrmann highlighted Wutstrack's publications on the history of Pomerania in the introduction to his own work History of Pomerania as "important". Wutstrack explained his particular interest in the history of Pomerania by saying that the area in Neumark where he was born once belonged to Pomerania and that his ancestors were Pomeranian. In the list of references for his main work from 1793, he marked those historians who themselves came from Pomerania with a star.

He translated the book History of Miss Elise Warwick , Danzig 1792, from English.

Wutstrack had also worked as a private scholar in Danzig . In 1807 he published a chronicle of the city of Danzig. It seems to have been his last publication, although he had announced in connection with the publication of his comedy Heiratskontrast 1798 that he would present further plays. Angerstrack's silence in public coincides with the wars of liberation . He was married and had children in 1793.

Works

• Brief historical-geographical-statistical description of the royal Prussian duchy of Vor and Hinter Pomerania . Stettin 1793. ( e-copy )
• Addendum to the brief historical-geographical-statistical description of the royal Prussian duchy of Western and Western Pomerania . Stettin 1795 ( e-copy, without folded pages ) ( review, pp. 499–500 ).
• The Marriage Contrast - a show in five acts . Leipzig 1798, 142 pages ( review, pp. 107-109 ).
• Historical-topographical-statistical news from the Royal West Prussian sea and trading city of Danzig . Danzig 1807.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Fr. Thiede: Chronicle of the City of Stettin - Edited from documents and proven historical news . Stettin 1849, pp. 282-284 .
2. ↑ Cf. his address of thanks , addressed to the citizens of Stolp , Dear Stolper , in front of the preface to his main work on the Duchy of Pomerania !
3. ^ The learned Teutschland - Lexicon of the now living German writers . Volume 8 (Georg Christoph Hamberger and Johann Georg Meusel, eds.), Lemgo 1800, p. 643 .
4. ^ Intelligence Gazette of the Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung , No. 141, Volume 3, October 30, 1790, p. 1168
5. ↑ See his work supplement to the brief historical-geographical-statistical description of the Duchy of Vor und Hinterpommern . Stettin 1795, preface .
6. ^ Intelligence Gazette of the Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung , No. 48, April 13, 1791, p. 406 .
7. ^ The History of Eliza Warwick . London 1778, two volumes ( full text )