Eulogius Schneider

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Eulogius Schneider

Eulogius Schneider (born October 20, 1756 in Wipfeld am Main as Johann Georg Schneider , † April 1, 1794 in Paris ) was a Franciscan , professor in Bonn and Jacobin in Strasbourg .

Life

Johann Georg Schneider was born as the son of a winemaker and his wife in Wipfeld, a place that belonged to the Würzburg monastery . He had 10 siblings.

In Würzburg

His parents envisaged a spiritual career for the youngest son. The young tailor began to learn the Latin language with the canon and canon of the nearby Heidenfeld monastery , Valentin Fahrmann . At the age of 12, Fahrmann gave his pupil a place in the Würzburg boys' convent . From the Konvikt, Schneider attended grammar school for the next five years, an institution that was run by the Jesuits .

An open conflict between Schneider and his teachers arose after Schneider discovered his first attempts at writing and reading - including novels and poems by Klopstock and Gellert .

After graduating from high school, the 17-year-old Schneider decided against training as a theologian . Instead, he enrolled at the University of Würzburg in the subjects of philosophy and law . For Schneider, this had the consequence of being expelled from the Konvikt ahead of time . Schneider's decision against a spiritual career was at the same time a decision for a life that enabled him to pursue his literary inclinations. For the termination of his student life, however, it was not these tendencies that were decisive, but the fact that a love affair became known. Because of “ premarital copulation ” he had to pay a fine of two Reichstalers. Worse than that, Schneider lost his livelihood as a tutor. After Schneider's "Fall of Man" became known, the Würzburg spiritual teachers refused to let their pupils and students teach at Schneider. He had no choice but to return to his parents' house in Wipfeld.

Father Eulogius

At the urging of his parents, Schneider decided to begin a theological training. At the age of 21, he joined the Franciscan Order in Bamberg in April 1777 and was given the name Eulogius (after St. Eulogius of Córdoba ). Training as a priest included participation in a three-year cycle of study that included the history of philosophy , metaphysics , logic , morality , church history , mathematics, and speculative and experimental physics . The young religious should have enjoyed rhetoric the most.

During this time Schneider wrote the trinity song “Be praised and highly praised”, which is still included in the Würzburg, Hildesheim and other God's praise diocesan appendices.

After his time in Bamberg, Schneider went to Salzburg to continue and complete his studies there. The Salzburg libraries made it easier for him to access modern literary and philosophical works, for example the works of the Enlightenment .

After completing his studies, Eulogius Schneider was ordained a priest in Salzburg .

After working as a lecturer in Augsburg, he became court preacher at the Württemberg court under Duke Carl Eugen in 1786, primarily because of his reputation as a talented pulpit speaker . Because Schneider represented enlightened ideas, there soon came a falling out with the sovereign who threatened to send the court preacher back to the monastery. In 1789, however, Schneider became professor of literature and fine arts at the University of Bonn on the mediation of his compatriot Thaddäus Trageser . Schneider's talent for speech soon got his lectures very popular. Schneider's most prominent student in Bonn was the young Ludwig van Beethoven . Tailor Severin Anton Averdonk granted special support . Even Friedrich Georg Pape calls him as his professor.

Supporter of the French Revolution

In the same year in which he took up the professorship in Bonn, Eulogius Schneider left the Franciscan order, since his employer did not want a member of the order as professor, and with papal permission became a " world priest ". In the following year he emerged as the author of writings (see works ), which initially triggered massive protests in the clergy of the Archdiocese of Cologne , to which the University of Bonn belonged. After Schneider's employer, Elector Maximilian Franz, first tried to avoid a conflict and rejected a request for dismissal from the papal nuncio, he finally responded with a sales ban. Schneider's public protest led to his dismissal on June 7, 1791.

In 1791 Schneider was accepted into the Krefeld Masonic Lodge For Perfect Equality , from which he was later excluded.

As an avid supporter of the French Revolution , he wrote an ode to the revolution, which closes with the following stanzas:

Despotism's chain has fallen,
Happy people! from your hand:
The prince's throne became your place of freedom
The kingdom to the fatherland.
No pen, no: "This is our will ",
decides more of the citizen's lot.
There it lies in the rubble, the Bastille
The French are a free man!

On the scaffold

In 1791 Schneider went to Strasbourg, which was shaped by the revolution, and took on numerous offices and functions in the following years. He was the episcopal vicar , professor at the seminary , and preacher in the Strasbourg cathedral . Eventually he distanced himself further and further from his priesthood and turned to the revolutionary movement. He was councilor, publisher and editor in charge of the magazine "Argos" published from June 1792, and temporarily president of the Strasbourg Jacobin Club . In the course of his increasing radicalization, he temporarily chaired the monitoring and security committee, was civil commissioner and prosecutor at the revolutionary tribunal . In this position he supported terrorism and imposed around thirty death sentences. During this time he also wrote what is probably the first German translation of the Marseillaise .

In 1793 Eulogius Schneider married Sara Stamm, the daughter of a Strasbourg wine merchant.

A few hours after his wedding, Schneider was arrested on December 15, on instructions from Antoine de Saint-Just and the Convention Commissioner and “deputy on an extraordinary mission” for Alsace , Philippe-François-Joseph Le Bas , and sent to the Strasbourg “ parade ground ” Guillotine tied. Reason: Schneider, " formerly a priest and born subject of the (German) Emperor ", " drove into Strasbourg yesterday with excessive splendor, pulled by six horses, surrounded by guards with bare sabers ". Therefore, today (December 15, 1793) from ten o'clock in the morning to two o'clock in the afternoon, “ intended tailor should be exhibited to the people on the scaffold of the guillotine in order to atone for the disgrace done to the customs of the emerging republic. "Then the accused" should be led from brigade to brigade to the Committee of the Public Welfare of the National Convention in Paris! "

Eulogius Schneider spent his imprisonment in the Paris Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés . There he shared the cell with Count Merville, an aristocratic opponent of the revolution.

On April 1, 1794, Eulogius Schneider was guillotined in Paris .

The execution of Schneider must be seen in connection with the fact that the welfare committee around Robespierre , after liquidating the Girondists and "right" circles of his mountain party around Danton , had to make the concession to the bourgeoisie , now also against the social revolutionary sans-culottes , as their advocates Schneider it was necessary to proceed. In addition, Schneider was considered suspicious in view of his cosmopolitanism , which in this respect corresponded to the political positions of the Gironde.

Voices on Eulogius Schneider

Eulogius Schneider's execution on April 1, 1794 in Paris

Saint-Just and Lebas to Maximilian Robespierre , Dec. 14, 1793:

“We are delivering the Public Prosecutor to the Welfare Committee at the Strasbourg Revolutionary Tribunal. It is a former priest, born as a subject of the emperor. Before he leaves Strasbourg, he will be pilloried on the scaffold of the guillotine. This punishment, which he incurred for his cheeky behavior, was also dictated by the necessity to put pressure on the strangers. Let us not believe in the cosmopolitan charlatans and trust only in ourselves.
We embrace you with all our hearts. "

Eulogius' sister Marianne Schneider to Saint-Just:

“Strasbourg, the 28th Frimaire II (December 18, 1793)
citizens! Representative!
The sad sister of the unfortunate tailor stands in front of you. You are the representative of a just, noble people. If my brother is innocent, defend him, it is your duty. If he has fallen into error, support him, do not let him sink, for you must know that his intentions have always been good and honest. If he is a criminal, oh, let me cry. I have done my duty as a sister, you do yours as a republican. All I can do is cry, you can act. Long live the republic! Long live the convention! "

Paul Scheffer, pharmacist in Strasbourg:

“Since this German priest, this disembowelled monk and former professor in Bonn, came to Strasbourg in June 1791, he has only sowed discord and wreaked havoc among the good, industrious and godly inhabitants of this region. Thanks be to the commissioners of the Convention for finally freeing us from this monster and paid agents from abroad! "

Moshua Salomon, Jewish merchant:

“The citoyen tailor was a real patriot and cosmopolitan, a man of principle. Had he not held his hand over us protectively and defended our newly acquired civil rights again and again, it would have fared badly for me and my Jewish concitoyens in the time of the terreurs. Quite a few of the sworn enemies of Judea, of which there were too many in Alsace, wanted to recommend a 'promenade à la guillotine' to us; the least would have been our expulsion and deportation, against which the citoyen Schneider raised his voice again and again. "

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In 1791 the Heidelberg theology professor Heinrich Benedikt Fleischbein (1747–1793) published the script against him

"Mr. Eulogius Schneider's errors and dangers in his speech about the conformity of the Gospel with the new constitution of the Franks"

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Meaning and afterlife

memorial

The Literaturhaus Wipfeld houses a permanent exhibition and uses audio stations to present excerpts from his work.

Eulogius Schneider in literature

In 2002 Michael Schneider published a biographical novel about the life of his namesake under the title The Dream of Reason - A German Jacobin novel.

Film adaptations

Between the monk's cell and the guillotine , Südwestfunk 1989

Fonts

  • De philosophiae in sacro tribunali usu commentatio , 1786;
  • Speech on Christian tolerance on Katharinentag , 1785, given at Augsburg, 1786;
  • St. Chrysostom's Church Father and Archbishop of Constantinople, speeches on the Gospel of St. Matthei. Translated from the Greek (from the latest Paris edition) and annotated by J [oh.] M [ichael] Feder u. E. Sch., 2 Vols., 4 Dept., 1786-88;
  • Candid Thoughts on the Value and Usefulness of the Chrysostomian Explanatory Discourses on the New Testament and its Translation , 1787;
  • Oden of a Franciscan monk on the rescue death of Leopold von Braunschweig , 1787;
  • Ode to the venerable members of the reading society in Bonn, when the portrait of our exalted Elector was solemnly erected in the assembly hall , 1789;
  • Speech about the present state of affairs and the obstacles to beautiful literature in Catholic Germany , 1789;
  • Elegy to the dying Emperor Joseph II , Bonn 1790;
  • Jesus as Son of God and as a teacher of humanity , Bonn 1790 ( digitized version )
  • Sample of a new translation by Quintilians , Bonn 1790 ( digitized version )
  • The first principles of fine arts in general, and fine writing in particular , 1790;
  • Poems . With a portrait of the author, Frankfurt am Main 1790 [Nachdr. 1985];
  • Catechetical Instruction in the Most General Principles of Practical Christianity , 1790;
  • Patriotic speech about Joseph II in the highest presence Sr. electoral prince. Transmitted from Cologne , held before the literary society in Bonn on March 19, 1790, 1790;
  • Sermon about the purpose of Jesus in the foundation of his religion , held in the court chapel in Bonn on December 20th. 1789, 1790;
  • Funeral oration for Joseph II held before the High Court of Justice in Wetzlar, 1790;
  • The picture of the good folk teacher, drawn up in a sermon on Matth. VII, 15, on the 17th Sunday after Pentecost , 1791;
  • De novo rerum theologicarum in Francorum imperio ordine commentatio , 1791;
  • The sources of ingratitude against God, the founder and founder of our wise state constitution, presented in a sermon on Luk. XVII, 17, on the 13th Sunday after Pentecost , 1791;
  • The conformity of the gospel with the new constitution of the Franks . A speech on the taking of the solemn civil oath, 1791;
  • Conversation of a Referendarius, Camerarius and country dean about the so-called Catholic instruction in the most general principles of practical Christianity . Kaufmann, Düsseldorf 1791 ( digitized version );
  • Speech about the priestly marriage , the Society of Constitutional Friends on Oct. 11th. Read aloud at the session in Strasburg in 1791. Translated from the French and annotated, 1791;
  • Argos, or the Man with a Hundred Eyes , 4 vols. [4. Vol. Ed. v. Friedrich Butenschön and Johann Jakob Kämmerer] 1792–1794 [Nachdr. 1976];
  • To the declaration of the National Assembly of France to the peoples of Europe and all humanity, in consideration of the impending war of December 29, 1791 , 1792;
  • On Emperor Leopold II's death , 1792;
  • Discours sur l'éducation des femmes , prononcé à la Société des Amis de la Constitution séante à Strasbourg, 1792;
  • Memorial speech to Mirabeau in front of the Society of Constitution Friends , 1792;
  • Jesus the friend of the people , 1792 ( University Library Tübingen );
  • Political creed presented to the Society of Friends of the Constitution, 1792;
  • From a German farmer on the Rhine , 1792;
  • Serious reflections on his sad fate, together with a fleeting review of the way he lived, written by himself shortly before his execution , 1794;
  • The peep box , a comical poem in three songs. From the papers he left behind, 1795;

literature

Web links

Wikisource: Eulogius Schneider  - Sources and full texts
Commons : Eulogius Schneider  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Michael Schneider: The dream of reason - novel of a German Jacobin. , 2002, ISBN 3462031600
  2. ↑ Dagmar Drüll: Heidelberger Gelehrtenlexikon: 1652–1802 , Springer-Verlag, 2013, p. 35 u. 36, ISBN 3642762964 ; (Digital scan)
personal data
SURNAME Schneider, Eulogius
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Schneider, Johann Georg (baptismal name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Franciscans, Jacobins and religious philosopher
DATE OF BIRTH October 20, 1756
PLACE OF BIRTH Wipfeld am Main
DATE OF DEATH April 1, 1794
Place of death Paris