David Rebentrost

David Rebentrost (born July 15, 1614 in St. Joachimsthal , † December 15, 1703 in Drebach ) was a German Evangelical Lutheran pastor who also worked as a doctor, naturopath, plant breeder and alchemist. The Drebacher crocus meadows in the Erzgebirge community Drebach be the legend on the planting less crocus ( Crocus albiflorus subsp. Neapolitanus ) attributed by him.

The so-called parish in Drebach with the dead yew tree and blooming crocuses in the foreground

Drebacher crocuses in close-up

Live and act

David Rebentrost was born in 1614 as the son of Johann (es) Rebentrost (1573–1660), teacher at the Latin school in St. Joachimsthal, and his wife Rahel nee. Pistorius born. From 1616 his father was pastor in Schaboglück near Karlsbad , but had to leave Bohemia with his family in 1620 for reasons of faith. He exulted in Annaberg before he was appointed as a substitute in 1626 and finally as pastor of Drebach in 1627, in which office he remained until his death in 1660.

After studying theology and medicine at the University of Leipzig , David Rebentrost initially worked as a city ​​physician in St. Joachimsthal before he was placed as a substitute for his elderly father in 1647 . Subsequently, after the death of his father, the parish of Drebach was completely transferred to him. In addition to his pastoral work, Rebentrost was also active as a doctor, alternative practitioner, pharmacist and plant breeder. He was therefore attacked by the parish entrusted to him in the context of the church visitation in 1673 as a quack, pill-maker and black artist who “labor and quack” rather than performing his official duties as a pastor. In addition, it was reported that he was traveling too much and that both the rectory and the parish church were endangered by a laboratory he had set up . For this reason, he was instructed by the Dresden Upper Consistory , "He should distill himself as much as he could, labor and curry, and de-deusen wrongly undertaken reysings, and be incumbent on the devices he had been instructed to do, and the latter should not prefer them". In order to be able to pursue his medical inclinations, he moved his laboratory to a farm that had previously belonged to Georg Lohse and which had been destroyed in the Thirty Years War and which he had acquired twenty years earlier. This is still today referred to as the parish or upper parish . He owned a famous plant garden in which many medicinal species, but also botanical rarities such as pomegranates , olives and wine , are said to have grown.

According to legend, David Rebentrost is said to have rushed to the aid of the Saxon Elector Johann Georg II when he had suffered a hunting accident at the Heinzebank and treated him. As a thank you, he was allowed to choose three plants from the electoral garden in Dresden . Rebentrost decided on the crocuses, the Doldige Vogelmilch ( Milky Star , Ornithogalum umbellatum ) and a yew tree ( Taxus baccata ). The yew tree thrived in the parish garden until around 1980 , where it can still be seen in a dead state. While the Doldige Vogelmilch can only be found sporadically, the crocuses spread over the centuries en masse over the lower part of Drebach, so that one speaks of the Drebacher Krokuswiesen .

Rebentrost was married to Anna Parschefeld (around 1625–1691), a daughter of the Zwönitz schoolmaster Christian Parschefeld, since 1643. With this he fathered 13 children (five sons and eight daughters).

Due to his advanced age, David Rebentrost was placed on May 27, 1695, his son-in-law, Mag. Johann David Börner (1666-1738), as a substitute, who should also be the successor in office. After 56 years in the Drebacher pastoral service, Rebentrost died in 1703 at the age of 89. His tombstone was rediscovered in 1993 and then placed in the anteroom of the church.

Honors

The Rebentrost memorial stone near Drebach

The Drebach primary school bears the name of Rebentrost as a reminder of the work of Rebentrost. In addition, there is a memorial stone on Wolkensteiner Strasse, slightly above the parish, which was erected around 1940 at the instigation of Richard Schumann, chairman of the Drebacher Erzgebirgszweigverein.

In 1999, the planetoid discovered on February 18, 1998 in the Drebach public observatory was named DL1 after David Rebentrost. It now bears the official name (10932) Rebentrost and moves between the planets Mars and Jupiter around the sun.

literature

• Gotthard Keil: Die Rebentrost's, an Erzgebirge pastor u. Scholarly family. In: Glückauf! Journal of the Erzgebirgsverein 53 (1933) 10, pp. 223-228.
• Karl Hans Pollmer : What was it all about grapevine? In: Glückauf - home and culture papers of the Aue / Sa district. 9 (1962) 4, pp. 67-70.
• Drebach and the crocuses. In: Drebach municipality (ed.): Festschrift 625 years Drebach. Drebach, 2011, pp. 39-42.

Web links

Commons : David Rebentrost  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} Drebach and the crocuses. In: Drebach municipality (ed.): Festschrift 625 years Drebach. Drebach, 2011, pp. 39-42.
2. ↑ Gotthard Keil: Die Rebentrost's, an Erzgebirge pastor u. Scholarly family. In: Glückauf! Journal of the Erzgebirgsverein 53 (1933) 10, p. 223.
3. ↑ ^{a b} Gotthard Keil: Die Rebentrost's, an Erzgebirge pastor u. Scholarly family. In: Glückauf! Journal of the Erzgebirgsverein 53 (1933) 10, p. 225 f.
4. ^ ^{A b} Karl Hans Pollmer: What was it about Rebentrost? In: Glückauf - home and culture papers of the Aue / Sa district. 9 (1962) 4, pp. 67-70.
5. ↑ Visit protocol 1673
6. ↑ Drebach. In: Saxony's Church Gallery Section 13: The Schönburgische Receßherrschaft along with the ephorias Annaberg, Marienberg and Frauenstein. 1845, p. 54.
7. ↑ ^{a b c} Gotthard Keil: Die Rebentrost's, an Erzgebirge pastor u. Scholarly family. In: Glückauf! Journal of the Erzgebirgsverein 53 (1933) 10, p. 226.
8. ↑ The Drebach Parish. In: New Saxon Church Gallery, Ephorie Marienberg, Sp. 213 f.