Daniel Jenisch

Daniel Jenisch (born April 2, 1762 in Heiligenbeil , East Prussia , † February 9, 1804 in Berlin ) was a German Lutheran theologian .

Life

Around 1782 Jenisch began to study philosophy and theology at the University of Königsberg and was able to finish this course with the title of master's degree .

In 1786 Jenisch settled in Berlin and earned his living as a representative of various pastors. In 1788 he was appointed third preacher at St. Marienkirche . Four years later, Jenisch was promoted to fourth deacon at the Nicolaikirche .

In 1793, in addition to his church duties, Jenisch accepted a teaching position at the Akademie der Künste and signed up as a lecturer in French at the French grammar school .

Jenisch won the prize for a work awarded in 1794 by the Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences in Berlin . Task:

"To design the ideal of a perfect language: to test the most famous ancient and modern languages ​​of Europe according to this ideal: and to show which of these languages ​​are closest to it?"

In his work, which was awarded by the Academy in 1796, he names four main criteria for an ideal language:

• "Wealth of words and phrases" etc.
• "Emphasis (energy)", with which he demands an energetic optimum for grammar and stress.
• "Clarity", here he meant the accuracy of vocabulary and grammar ("easy" and "fast").
• "Wohlklang" (euphony).

With regard to its "dexterity" he declared on p. 396 the German language, measured against the "most dexterous of all modern languages, French", as the most repulsive. No one less than the well-known Danish linguist Otto Jespersen confirmed Jenisch "great learning and a sound practical knowledge of many languages". It is thanks to Jenisch that he was the first to discuss comparative linguistic aesthetic problems and thus to have laid the foundations for later scientific theories on the aesthetics of languages.

Since his studies Jenisch has written an extensive work as a writer, in which he commented on historical, linguistic, philological, philosophical and theological topics. Under the influence of the French Revolution , his epic Borussia about the old Fritz was written in 1794 .

Sometimes Jenisch published under the pseudonym "Democritus the Younger". Under “A woman” he wrote a reply to his Diogenes lantern .

Politically interested, Jenisch also published in late Enlightenment magazines ; Above all, Der Teutsche Merkur and the magazine for empirical soul science should be mentioned here. His translations from English and French, which were long out of date, were purely for the purpose of making money.

When Jenisch drowned in the Spree in February 1804 , z. Sometimes very controversial about a possible suicide as a result of an attack of melancholy . However, proof of this could never be provided and an accident could never be completely ruled out.

Works (selection)

• Selected texts . Röhrig Verlag, St. Ingbert 1996, ISBN 3-86110-069-X .
• Illumination of the recently released Diogenes lantern . Dieterich, Berlin 1799 (under a woman's room )
• Remarks on a trip through the town and landscape of Narrenburg . 1790 (under Democritus the Younger )
• Diogenes lantern . Rein, Leipzig 1799
• Borussia in 12 songs . 1794
• Universal historical overview of the development of the human race as a whole developing itself . 1801
• Biography theory . 1802
• Philosophical-critical comparison and appreciation of fourteen older and more modern languages ​​of Europe, in particular: Greek and Latin; Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, French; English, German, Dutch, Danish, Swedish; Polish, Russian, Lithuanian ... 1796

literature

• Annette Meyer: Jenisch, Daniel (1762–1804?). In: Heiner F. Klemme , Manfred Kuehn (Ed.): The Bloomsbury Dictionary of Eighteenth-Century German Philosophers. London 2016, pp. 392–394.

Web links

Wikisource: Daniel Jenisch  - Sources and full texts