Christian Johnen

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Christian Josef Johnen (born July 27, 1862 in Düren , † February 8, 1938 in Düsseldorf-Oberkassel ) was a German lawyer and shorthand scholar .

Life

Education and career

Christian Josef Johnen was born on July 27, 1862 in Düren. After graduating from high school in his hometown in 1880, he studied law and economics at the universities of Bonn , Heidelberg and Berlin . Following the legal traineeship in Cologne in 1883 , he earned his doctorate in law (Dr. jur.) At the University of Göttingen in January 1884 . As a result, he worked as a trainee lawyer at various courts, including in Aachen and Cologne. From 1888 he initially acted as a court assessor in Düren and Göttingen before becoming a district judge in Viersen in 1896 . From 1902 to 1906 he worked in Cologne, where he was promoted to higher regional judge . At the beginning of 1907 the company moved to Düsseldorf . Here he became a secret judicial councilor in 1915 and finally president of the senate at the higher regional court in 1920 . On October 1, 1927 Johnen joined the law for achieving retirement age in retirement .

The marriage with Luise Johanna Hinderkotte on August 2, 1892 resulted in a son and a daughter.

Johnen and shorthand

Beginnings

As a high school student, Johnen learned several shorthand systems, initially in Neustolze in 1876 through self-teaching, the following year both Gabelsberger and the one -line shorthand (based on Stolzescher) by Oskar Samuel Adler; The Carl Faulmann system followed in 1878 . In the same year he became aware of Ferdinand Schrey's "Solingen Theses" , entered into correspondence with them and, after his "first work" The small consonants and vocalization had been awarded a prize in a competition in 1880, he became a permanent contributor to Schreys Blatt Rhenania . He joined the Gabelsberger School, but soon realized the need for a thorough reform of this system. As a student, Johnen belonged to the Gabelsberger Academic Stenographers 'Association in Bonn and Berlin and worked as a newspaper reporter in the journalists' gallery of the Reichstag. Here he met the leading Stolzeans Max Bäckler and Adolf Mantzel. In addition, he gave stenography lessons during this time and from 1886 became a member of the teachers and system examination commission in the Rhenish-Westphalian Stenographers Association Gabelsberger .

Simplified German shorthand (Schrey-Johnen-Socin system)

When it became clear that Ferdinand Schrey's “Solingen Theses” from 1877 with the demand for a division of the Gabelsberger system into a correspondence - and a debate pamphlet failed due to the resistance of most Gabelsbergerians, the latter went his own way. In the years 1886/1887 a close cooperation developed between Johnen and Schrey. Johnen became an employee of the Deutsche Stenographenzeitung , headed by Schrey , which acted as the main mouthpiece for system simplification. In cooperation with the private lecturer Adolf Socin , Schrey and Johnen developed their own, significantly simplified stenography system, which was presented to the public in mid-1887 as Simplified German Stenography (Schrey-Johnen-Socin System) . The rapid rise of the Schrey School in the following was due to Schrey's busy advertising activity, in particular to Johnen. One of his most pressing tasks was the scientific justification and defense of the system. He wrote numerous articles for the school organ, Die Wacht , published by Schrey since 1888, and for the scribe (1894–1900), whom he edited independently. In 1891 he wrote the explanations for the system charter. He was also a permanent member of the system representation.

Stolze-Schrey unification system

Since the Schrey school had risen to become the third force among the German stenography schools (behind Gabelsberger and Stolze) within a few years, some leading representatives of the Neustolz direction no longer shied away from approaching the Schrey system. At the suggestion of Stolz's history professor Paul Mitzschke , the first confidential talks between Johnen and Stolz's association chairman Max Bäckler regarding an agreement between the Stolze and Schrey systems took place. In his celebratory speech on June 28, 1896 on the 4th Association Day of the Schrey School in Bonn, at the same time Mosengeilfeier in honor of the shorthand inventor Friedrich Mosengeil , Johnen called for cooperation and thus for the unification of all system-related German stenography systems. In September 1896 a unification committee was formed under the chairmanship of Adolf Mantzel and on August 9, 1897 the draft of the simplified German shorthand (Einigungssystem Stolze-Schrey) was adopted . Johnen became a representative of the association, a member of the system representation and the reduction committee as well as a permanent employee of the specialist journals Der Deutsche Stenograph and Die Neuwacht .

German shorthand (DEK)

In September 1907, Johnen was appointed to the 23 Committee as a representative of his school, but the first meeting (of a total of six) did not take place in Berlin until April 29 and 30, 1912. The negotiations of the Committee of 23 in the years 1912–1918 to solve the question of a uniform German shorthand remained virtually unsuccessful. Johnen was then no longer actively involved in the debates after 1918. In 1924 he was appointed an expert by the Prussian government. In collaboration with Mantzel and Ernst Frey, he was commissioned to further simplify the Stolze-Schrey system, as the Prussian Ministry of Education intended to introduce a popular shorthand Stolze-Schrey in Prussia. State Secretary Heinrich Schulz , however, thwarted these intentions. The DEK, introduced by law on September 20, 1924, was critical of Johnen, but always took a mediating position. So he was committed to their review and improvement, but he disagreed with the majority of the members of his school about the tactical ways to achieve this goal. In 1925 he worked in the committee for drafting the speeches and the collection of examples of the DEK. He was also used in the preparatory work for the system reform of 1936.

Due to the persistent negative attitude of the Stolze-Schrey school towards the DEK and the resulting irreconcilable differences, Johnen resigned all offices and honorary membership in the Stenographenbund Stolze-Schrey at the end of January 1928 . He then joined the German Stenographers Association Stolze-Schrey, Bund für Einheitskurzschrift ("Prönnecke-Bund"), a spin-off from the Stenographenbund Stolze-Schrey, and was made an honorary member and permanent employee of the journal of this association, the unit .

Meaning for the shorthand

Christian Johnen was an excellent systems theorist and a brilliant shorthand historian. He is regarded as "the most important historian and historian in the shorthand field that the shorthand world has ever seen", as "the unrivaled master of international repute". With his work History of Stenography from 1911, he gained great recognition beyond the boundaries of the Stolze-Schrey school - a kind of "non-partisanship". In this he outlines the shorthand as part of the general development of culture and writing and traces its relationship to the entire writing system and the entire culture of its time. In this context, his thoroughness is praised again and again, since his work was characterized by “philological meticulousness”, even downright “embarrassing conscientiousness”. John's name stands for “shorthand progress and shorthand unity”. He had “an elegant objectivity of judgment that is so rare in the world of shorthand. Shorthand has always been more important to him than a certain system ”.

estate

Christian Johnen's written estate is in the stenographic collection of the Saxon State Library - Dresden State and University Library (SLUB) .

Works (selection)

Secondary literature

  • Amsel, Georg: Two veterans of the unified stenographic idea, Dr. Adolf Mantzel and Dr. Christian Johnen. In: Bunte Blätter 26 (1932) 10, pp. 297-299.
  • Bonnet, Rudolf: men of shorthand. 572 Outlines of the lives of pioneers and leaders of the shorthand movement. Darmstadt 1935, pp. 91-93.
  • David, Fritz: Two centenarians in memory: Dr. Christian Johnen and Dr. Adolf Mantzel. In: Deutsche Stenografenzeitung 70 (1962) 7, pp. 155–158 and 178–183.
  • Dr. Christian Johnen 70 years old. In: Writer Stolze-Schrey 7 (1932) 7/8, pp. 117-120.
  • Eggeling, Rudolf: Dr. Johnen in memory. In: Neue Stenographische Praxis 10 (1962) 2, pp. 56-60.
  • Lambrich, Hans; Kennerknecht, Aloys: History of the development of the German unified shorthand. Darmstadt 1962.
  • Mager, Wilhelm: Senate President Dr. Christian Johnen in memory. In: Deutsche Kurzschrift (1938) 4, pp. 158-164.
  • Mantzel, Adolf: On John's seventieth birthday. In: Die Einheit 7 (36) (1932) 7/8, pp. 98-103.
  • Schneider, Laurenz; Blauert, Georg: History of the German shorthand. Wolfenbüttel 1936.
  • Schrey, Ferdinand : Christian Johnen †. In: Der Kurzschriftlehrer 14 (1938) 3, pp. 32–34.

Web links

Wikisource: Christian Johnen  - Sources and full texts

Remarks

  1. ↑ Mantzel: On John's seventieth birthday . In: Die Einheit 7 (36) (1932) 7/8, p. 98.
  2. ^ Mager: Senate President Dr. Christian Johnen in memory . In: Deutsche Kurzschrift (1938) 4, p. 163.
  3. ↑ Amsel: Two veterans of the shorthand unity, Dr. Adolf Mantzel and Dr. Christian Johnen . In: Bunte Blätter 26 (1932) 10, p. 298.
  4. Jump up ↑ David: Two Hundred Year Olds in Memory: Dr. Christian Johnen and Dr. Adolf Mantzel . In: Deutsche Stenografenzeitung 70 (1962) 7, p. 155.
  5. ↑ Schrey: Christian Johnen † . In: Der Kurzschriftlehrer 14 (1938) 3, pp. 33f.
personal data
SURNAME Johnen, Christian
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Johnen, Christian Josef (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German lawyer and shorthand scholar
DATE OF BIRTH July 27, 1862
PLACE OF BIRTH Düren
DATE OF DEATH February 8, 1938
Place of death Düsseldorf-Oberkassel