Erhard Friedrich Vogel

Erhard Friedrich Vogel (born November 17, 1750 in Bayreuth ; † May 2, 1823 in Wunsiedel ) was a Protestant pastor and superintendent and is best known as the paternal patron of the writer Jean Paul .

Born as the son of the margravial Bavarian court chamber councilor Johann Achatius Vogel, he began to study theology in 1768 , first in Erlangen , the local university town in the Principality of Bayreuth , then in the “foreign” Leipzig . In 1772 he was ordained in Bayreuth, followed by a vicariate at the Bayreuth Castle Church.

The Rehau parish church: Vogel worked here from 1775–1788

From 1775 to 1788 Vogel worked as a parish priest in Rehau on the eastern border of the Bavarian principality. Vogel presented himself there as an Enlightenment theologian and "went so far in his rejection of orthodoxy that even his Christian faith was questioned by his opponents". He was reprimanded because the church emptied rather than filled during his ministry. In contrast, there are testimonies that praised Vogel's philanthropy and education. One of his main parish duties was to restore the parish church of St. Jobst, which burned down in 1763.

Vogel had a relatively extensive library, which attracted the attention of the Schwarzenbach pastor's son Johann Paul Richter, who later became Jean Paul , who was 13 years his junior . The adolescent Jean Paul stayed at Vogel's house again and again, where he was introduced to Enlightenment ideas and was able to free himself from the influence of Lutheran orthodoxy conveyed by his father. Vogel's library formed the starting point for Jean Paul's legendary excerpts. Even during his studies in Leipzig, Jean Paul had Vogel send him books. Correspondence between Vogel and Jean Paul has survived between 1780 and 1793.

After Vogel had held the parish of Arzberg from 1789 , he was appointed superintendent in Wunsiedel in 1803 . This belonged, together with the other former margravial areas of Ansbach-Bayreuth , to the Kingdom of Prussia since 1792 and came under French occupation from 1806 to 1810. During these turbulent times, Vogel administered the Wunsiedel superintendent as the Royal Prussian Superintendent. With the assignment of these areas to the Kingdom of Bavaria in 1810 and the simultaneous introduction of the official title of Dean, Vogel was awarded the title of Royal Bavarian Dean that year.

Vogel's enlightened and unorthodox attitude was recognized by the Royal Bavarian Ministry of the Interior under Minister Montgelas , who appointed him to the district school inspector in 1811 .

Vogel held his offices in Wunsiedel until his death in 1823. A portrait of him as dean hangs in the hospital church in Wunsiedel.

Vogel was married to Sophie Albertine Gutfeld from Adlitz since 1774. Together they had eleven children, of whom only two daughters and two sons survived their father. Of his sons, Johann August Ludwig Vogel chose his father's profession and became a pastor. The son Carl Heinrich Vogel became an appellate lawyer in Wunsiedel. Vogel's daughter Sophie married Anton Christian David Ellrodt, pastor in Berg , Goldkronach and Gefrees .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Hans Höllerich: History of the Church and Parish Rehau P. 117

literature

• Hans Höllerich : History of the church and parish Rehau. Rehau 1970.
• Matthias Simon: Bayreuth Pastors' Book. Munich 1930.
• Dr. Peter Seißer: It is certain that God wants and will keep his church. 450 years of deaneries in Wunsiedel and Kirchenlamitz-Selb. Wunsiedel 2008.