Dagobert Schoenfeld

Emil Christian Dagobert Schoenfeld (born June 9, 1833 in Putzig , West Prussia , † September 4, 1916 in Jena ) was an Evangelical Lutheran pastor, scientist, explorer and travel writer.

family

Son of Carl Gottfried Schoenfeld from Elbing (1802-1858) and Marianne Bertha Hacker († 1858); between 1826 and 1835 the father was pastor at the Protestant church in Putzig and later, until his death, pastor in Jungfer (West Prussia).

In his first marriage (1870) Dagobert Schoenfeld was married to the millionaire heiress Hedwig widow von Skrbensky, born Moench, with whom he had two sons. In 1880 Dagobert married Schoenfeld in Frankfurt / M. second marriage to the millionaire heiress Adeline Korck from Bremen. A daughter comes from this marriage. All children were born in Heiligenthal.

After his death, Dagobert Schoenfeld was buried on September 8, 1916 in Heiligenthal, where he had worked as a pastor for a long time, in a mausoleum he built himself.

education and profession

After initial home tuition, Dagobert Schoenfeld switched to grammar school in Elbing, from there to grammar school in Marienwerder, where he graduated from high school at Easter 1855. He then studied theology at the universities in Berlin (1855–57), Heidelberg (1857) and Halle an der Saale (1857–58). At Easter 1858 he left the university. First theological exam in Königsberg in Prussia in 1858.

He began his professional career in April 1859 with the Haupt-Kadetten-Korps in Berlin, which at that time was not housed in Lichterfelde, but in Neue Friedrichstrasse , and held the position of "civil governor" there until 1862, apparently an educational establishment. At the same time he attended university events to prepare for his second theological exam, which he passed in Berlin in 1861; his ordination for the Evangelical Church in Prussia took place on October 2, 1862. Immediately afterwards, Schoenfeld was sent to Montevideo (Uruguay / South America) by the Prussian Evangelical Church Council , "attached to the Royal Prussian Embassy for the La Plata States" (Uruguay, Argentina, Paraguay), as a clergyman responsible for the German Evangelical community in Montevideo and as the successor to Pastor Dr. Otto Woytsch, whose "German School" he founded in 1857 he took over in January 1863 and directed until 1868.

After his term of office was over, Schoenfeld was only able to take over his own parish as pastor of Heiligenthal (Mansfelder Land) in May 1869 , where he built a stately new parsonage with 2 acres of park-like garden, as well as a dairy for his agriculture, and always with horse and cart followed by his mounted servant. If one believes reports from his time as a pastor in Heiligenthal, a "permanent state of war" is said to have prevailed between him and the predominantly rural population. What is ultimately true about the allegations against him, what is exaggeration and what is wrong, remains to be seen. Orally it is passed down that parishioners guided into his official business, that disputes were even fought in court.

At the age of 65, Schoenfeld retired on October 1, 1898 at his own request - at that time the current age limits for retirement did not apply - and from then on he devoted himself exclusively to science. Schoenfeld moved his residence to Jena.

Science and Research

Schoenfeld studied Old Norse literature, geography and history in Copenhagen and received his doctorate at the age of 66 on November 14, 1899 at the Philosophical Faculty of the University of Rostock. The title of his dissertation is: “The horse in the service of the Icelander in the Saga time”. At that time, the focus of his investigations was mainly Iceland, which he is said to have also visited.

In the years shortly before and after the turn of the century, Schoenfeld was on numerous research trips; in particular he visited various Arab countries, then Eritrea, Sudan, Sinai, and later also India and Kashmir. In the meantime his interest had turned to Islam and he increasingly pursued studies dealing with ethnographic aspects and the religion of the Islamic world.

So not only was one of the main focuses of his travels in the North African-Arab region, but he also acquired a property "Villa Blanche" near Tunis, where he spent several winters. His wish was that this house with its collections and memories of the family would be preserved as a collection point.

Schoenfeld's work “From the Barbaric States” was not created “in one piece”, rather it is based on the experience of several stays in North Africa, most of which he spent in Tunis. In the spring of 1900 Schoenfeld traveled from there by train and ship to Tripoli, where his travel description begins. He describes his stay there and the short trips he made from Tripoli. On the way back he used the ship for only a short distance and then traveled back to Tunis by land. Further short trips, which he tells of in his book and which he undertook from Tunis, fall at least partially in 1901. Schoenfeld visited Tripoli again at Easter 1902. In winter 1902 (apparently winter 1902/1903) he crossed East Africa from Massawa (port city in Eritrea) to Kurdufan (formerly Sudanese province, known from the "Mahdi uprising" 1881-1899). And in 1903 you meet him - then 70 years old - as a traveler on horseback on the way from Sinai to Damascus.

The credo of his travels was: “However, we cultured people, whose nursery was not a tent, have to learn to limit ourselves when we go out into the desert with our camels and our Bedouins. Short hair, short nails, simple clothes, modest demands on the kitchen and cellar, no embarrassing adherence to the hour and the way in which our wishes are satisfied; no bloating and no rumbling with people, just patience and simplicity, goodness and the best of humor. Under such self-restraint, the whole full beauty of this life in the rich heart of nature, in the enjoyment of unbound freedom, and in the midst of these unvarnished and powerful, pious and outspoken sons of the wilderness will rise and truly refresh us. "

Due to his services, Schoenfeld was awarded the title of royal Prussian professor by the Prussian king as early as 1903. Any activity as a university lecturer - his place of residence in Jena almost indicates this - cannot be proven, however; it is not mentioned in the relevant university documents. It can be assumed that he was exclusively active as a private scholar, as can be seen from the beginning of one of his books: I was in Tunis, unlimited in time, strength and resources. My only equipment was a wallet packed with French banknotes.

Works

Non-fiction

• At the Nordic royal courts during the Viking Age . Trübner Verlag, Strasbourg 1910.
• Florian Speer (Ed.): From the states of the barbaresques. An adventurous research trip through Libya and Tunisia around 1900 . Books on Demand, Norderstedt 2007, ISBN 978-3-8334-9703-2 (reprint of the Berlin 1902 edition; online ).
• Erythrea and the Egyptian Sudan. Presented on the spot based on our own research . Reimer Publishing House, Berlin 1904.
• The meaning of the Sinai peninsula according to geography and history. Presented on the spot based on our own research . Reimer Publishing House, Berlin 1907.
• The Icelandic farm and its operation in the saga times. Represented according to the sources ("Sources and research on the language and cultural history of the Germanic peoples; Bd. 91). Trübner, Strasbourg 1902.
• Florian Speer (Ed.): The Mohammedan Movement in Egyptian Sudan. Lecture by Professor Dr. E. Dagobert Schoenfeld . Books on Demand, Norderstedt 2008, ISBN 978-3-83702-635-1 (reprint of the Berlin 1905 edition; online )
• The Mongols and their palaces and gardens in the middle Gangestal . In: Journal of the German Oriental Society , 1912, p. 577 ff.
• The horse in the service of the Icelander in Saga times. A cultural-historical study . Costenoble, Jena 1900 (also dissertation University Rostock 1899).

Fiction

• Rescuer the strong . Retold from an old Icelandic document . Schuster & Loeffler publishing house, Berlin 1896.
• Kjartan and Gudrun. A cultural-historical novel from the turn of the tenth century in Iceland . Costenoble, Jena 1898.

swell

• University archives of Rostock, Jena, Halle.
• Archive of the Ev. Church of the ecclesiastical province of Saxony.
• Parish register of the ecclesiastical province of Saxony (project: Pastor's book of the ecclesiastical province of Saxony).
• Jena City Archives.
• Jenaische Zeitung v. September 7, 1916, 1st sheet, p. 3, Schoenfeld obituary under the heading “Aus der Stadt”.
• Klaus Bürger, " Old Prussian Biography ", Bd.V, Marburg 2000, sv "Schoenfeld".
• Bernd Müller: German School Montevideo 1857-1988, no place and year [1992].
• “Who is it”, III. Edition, Leipzig 1908, p. 1235.
• Ursula Schabert: "Christian Emil Dagobert Schoenfeld poisoned the mood in Heiligenthal - pastors drove in furs", in: "Mitteldeutsche Zeitung" of October 23, 1997.
• Notes and material Dr. Dieter Wiegel.

Web links

Wikisource: Dagobert Schoenfeld  - Sources and full texts

• Literature by and about Dagobert Schoenfeld in the catalog of the German National Library
• Literature list in the online catalog of the Berlin State Library