Christoph Schmezer

Christoph Schmezer (born April 29, 1800 in Wertheim ; † November 21, 1882 in Ladenburg ) was a pastor in Ziegelhausen and has also written two scientific writings and set poems by Josef Victor von Scheffel , with whom he was a member of the Heidelberg Society Der Engere . An anecdote about Schmezer was processed by Conrad Ferdinand Meyer in the novella The Shot from the Pulpit . Due to his nature, Schmezer was considered "the briskest pastor".

Life

Schmezer was the second son of the Wertheim button maker and councilor Peter Schmezer and studied theology in Halle and Heidelberg from 1820 to 1823 . He passed his state examination in Karlsruhe with Johann Peter Hebel . He had his first permanent job in Baden-Baden in 1830 , where his “free nature” was displeasing to his superiors, so that in 1840 he was transferred to Ziegelhausen as a punishment.

The transfer to Ziegelhausen, however, had a positive effect on Schmezer, who found inspiration for scientific studies in nearby Heidelberg and the necessary peace and quiet for scientific work in the small parish village of Ziegelhausen. In addition, from 1841 he belonged to the society Der Engere , in which he became close friends with Josef Victor von Scheffel and made the acquaintance of the historians Ludwig Häusser and Albert Mays . In the circle of the narrower , Schmezer performed musical adaptations of Scheffel's poems, who, conversely, dedicated the poem Der Freund im Neckartal to him on the 50th anniversary of the parish in 1873 .

Schmezer was married three times, with all three women, who gave birth to a total of five children, died early. The grave obelisk of one of the wives, Henriette Stephani, is preserved in the cemetery in Ziegelhausen.

After retiring in 1875, Schmezer spent the rest of his life with his eldest son in Ladenburg, where he was also buried.

Work and effect

After Schmezer had already written the theological work The Consecration Hours or Daily Elevations of the Mind to God in Baden-Baden in 1836, the astronomical work The Heavenly Spaces and Their Worlds followed in Ziegelhausen in 1853 and the popular scientific-geological work The past of the globe and its organic ones in 1869 Life forms . Both works have been praised by professional circles.

Even more than his writings, various anecdotes about Schmezer have survived that are related to the social gatherings of the narrower . These get-togethers, mostly in the Pechkranz in the Ziegelhäuser Landstrasse in the summer months, mostly in the Goldenes Herz or in the Holländer Hof in Heidelberg in the winter , but often also in the Ziegelhäuser rectory, often extended into the morning hours, so that Schmezer often had trouble to be back at church in time for the service in the morning.

An anecdote passed down by Joseph Viktor Widmann tells of how Schmezer bought a toy pistol for his son on the occasion of a visit to Scheffel in Heidelberg and, after a long night's sleep and a short sleep, went to Ziegelhausen to give the sermon there hold. Once there, he preached from the 6th chapter of Isaiah with a passage from the Bible, where the house was filled with smoke at the call of the angels, when a little later a shot of the toy gun went off and smoke actually filled the church. Conrad Ferdinand Meyer took up the anecdote in his 1877 novella The Shot from the Pulpit .

Schmezer was remembered for his character as "the dashing pastor of the century".

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Hoppe 1970, p. 60.
2. ↑ Hoppe 1970, p. 60.
3. ^ Haehling von Lanzenauer 1999, p. 324.

literature

• Friedrich von Weech (Ed.): Badische Biographien , Volume 4, Karlsruhe 1891, pp. 404-406 ( digitized from digital.blb-karlsruhe.de)
• Reinhard Hoppe: 750 years of Ziegelhausen 1220–1970 , Heidelberg 1970, pp. 60–63.
• Reiner Haehling von Lanzenauer: "The briskest pastor": Christoph Schmezer born two hundred years ago , in: Badische Heimat 79, 1999, pp. 324–328.

Web links

• Schmezer, Christoph at leo-bw.de (accessed November 1, 2012)