Christian Funck

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Christian Funck (born April 8, 1659 in Lübeck , † November 10, 1729 in Aurich ) was a German pastor and historian.

Life

Christian Funck was the son of the tailor Hans Funck and his wife Catharina, née Nicolai. He visited the Katharineum in Lübeck . With scholarships from his native city, he studied theology at the University of Rostock from June 1681 and disputed the following year on Novatianism . In 1684 he went to Oldenburg and worked for three years as a private tutor. A benefactor had given him the job. It was probably about Christoph Gensch von Breitenau , whom Funck honored with a dedication of his second edition of the little book Poetic Leiden-Cypressen .

There is evidence that Funck lived in Oldenburg in November 1686. From 1687 to 1692 he worked as court preacher to Sophie Catharina, whose husband Anton Günther had died, in Neuchâtel . From here he also looked after a small garrison on Ellenser Damm as a pastor . In 1692 he received an appointment as a deacon at the town church of Aurich . After the main pastor Franz Albert Nessel died, he took over the offices of the main pastor and senior in 1697 . Since there was no general superintendent until 1798, he also worked as court preacher until then.

During his time in Aurich, Funck got into numerous conflicts with Pietists . Prince Christian Eberhard was familiar with pietistic theories of residences in southern Germany and Franconia. He also knew Philipp Jakob Spener personally and tried to support Pietism in East Frisia. After Enno Rudolf Brenneysen had received a call to the "Advocatus fisci" (public prosecutor) in 1697, the differences between orthodox clergy and pietistic rulers escalated publicly. Brenneysen became government and consistorial councilor and chancellor under Prince Georg Albrecht. He organized domestic converts and felt criticized by Funck, who in Aurich 1697 repeatedly warned against “false prophets” in his sermons, including against Brenneysen's teacher Christian Thomasius .

Brenneysen complained in writing about Funck, whereupon he published the "Christian-meant discovery" in Bremen in January 1698. Brenneysen replied to the 43-point compilation of pietistic deviations with a counter-writ, Funck thereupon in Emden in 1698 with his "compelled answer". The sovereign reprimanded Funck, who made an unsuccessful appeal to the imperial councilor in Vienna. The written dispute lasted for some time on both sides before Philipp Jakob Spener advised Brenneysen to hold back.

Works

Funck was considered to be a very versatile personality who dealt with natural phenomena. His "Historical Report" dealt with the All Saints Flood in 1570 . In addition, he loved music and poetry and composed hymns himself. His most important work is a manuscript from the city of Aurich. He divided this "Chronica der Stadt Aurich" into 18 books and initially wrote the first 16 books covering the years up to 1716. In a sequel he later wrote two more books in which he described the anniversary year of the Reformation, the storm surges of 1717 and 1718, and “other memorable events”.

One impetus for Funck to continue his chronicle may have been that his opponent Brenneyen published the two volumes "East Frisian History and State Constitution" in 1720. As an addition to his chronicle, he made a list of the regents of East Friesland and the superintendents, court preachers and pastors there. Afterwards he worked on poetry and in 1728 created "Poetic Victory Palms".

Funck himself did not commission a print of his chronicle. The original no longer exists today. The well-known manuscript that the Great Church in Emden owns today is a copy of the actual work made by Funck. The family inherited the original manuscript. Heirs of one of Funck's sons commissioned the print. “Christian Funck's East Frisian Chronicle” was published between 1784 and 1788.

Funck's work is the first comprehensive account of the history of East Frisia that was written in the standard German language. The previous chroniclers Eggerik Beninga and Ubbo Emmius worked in Central German and Latin, respectively. Emmius "Historia nostri temporis" was only published in Groningen in 1732 . Funck can therefore not have read it and worked out the period from 1562 to 1718 independently, drawing on contemporary literature. Since he was not aware of any information about Count Edzard I's family up to this point, he must have had access to the Prince's archives.

Three years after Funck's chronicle, the first volume of “East Frisian History” by Tileman Dothias Wiarda was published . This made the spread of Funck's history difficult. Nevertheless, it is an indispensable source for research on East Frisia, in particular on the history of Aurich.

family

Funck married Sophia Catharina Flörke on April 24, 1688 (born April 10, 1661 in Neuchâtel ; buried on June 23, 1728 in Aurich). Her father was the Neuchâtel bailiff Johann Flörke, who was married to Anna Elisabeth, née von Mandelsloh . The Funck couple had four daughters and two sons.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Entry in the Rostock matriculation portal ; due to old transcription errors of the handwritten entry there Frank
personal data
SURNAME Funck, Christian
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German pastor and historian
DATE OF BIRTH April 8, 1659
PLACE OF BIRTH Lübeck
DATE OF DEATH November 10, 1729
Place of death Aurich