Franz Christian Boll

Franz Christian Boll (born August 31, 1776 in Neubrandenburg ; † February 12, 1818 there ) was a German Protestant theologian of the revival movement and pastor at the main churches in Neubrandenburg.

Life

Franz Christian Boll was born as one of eleven children of the Neubrandenburg cooper, Franz Boll (1741–1800) and his wife Regina Maria, née. Schärpeltz (1747–1828) born. Apparently he was the first of his sex to choose an academic career. After attending the scholarly school in Neubrandenburg, Boll studied Protestant theology at the University of Jena from 1795 to 1798 . Afterwards he was tutor of Gustav Brückner (1789-1860) in Neubrandenburg and Carl von Oertzen (1788-1837) in Brunn . On March 23, 1802 he received a position as third pastor in Neubrandenburg with responsibility for the Johanniskirche . After temporarily losing his third position as a preacher in Neubrandenburg, from 1805 he was second pastor at the Marienkirche and the Johanniskirche . He was friends with the Strelitz duke Karl II . He turned down offers for parish positions in Bremen (1805) and Ludwigslust (1817) and stayed in Neubrandenburg until the end of his life.

Boll memorial stone (1854) in Neubrandenburg based on a design by Caspar David Friedrich (1818)

Several sermons by Boll appeared in print, including his inaugural sermon from 1802 and the sermon in memory of the late Grand Duke Charles II (1816). His work On Decay and the Restoration of Religiousness was published in 1809 (Volume 1) and 1810 (Volume 2), Volume 3 was no longer in print. In 1800 the volume Beherzungen some truths from the field of education and philosophy appeared with essays and poems by Boll. In addition, he dealt with the history of Neubrandenburg. Boll's parish chronicle was taken over by his son Franz Boll under the title Oddities from the history of the Vorderstadt Neubrandenburg from 1801 in his chronicle of the Vorderstadt Neubrandenburg .

Franz Christian Boll died in 1818 during a typhus epidemic and was buried in the old cemetery in Neubrandenburg. In 1818 Caspar David Friedrich designed an 8 meter high memorial stone for Boll. This was realized 36 years later by Christian Gottlieb Kühn on the south side of the Marienkirche. The wrong year of Boll's birth is indicated on the memorial with 1775.

Franz Christian Boll was married to the Neubrandenburg doctor's daughter Friederike Brückner (1780–1839) since June 10, 1802. In this marriage six children were born, of which only two sons reached adulthood: His older son Franz Boll (1805–1875) became, like his father, a theologian and did research on local history. His younger son Ernst Boll (1817–1868) carried out extensive scientific studies and took part in his brother's historical research.

Theological work

Boll was the first prominent theologian of the revival movement in Mecklenburg . His work On Decay and Restoration of Religiosity is one of the numerous essays at the transition to the 19th century that called for a reform of Protestantism and a renewal of the church. However, the content goes far beyond ecclesiastical issues, such as dealing with theological rationalism , and deals with the foundations of culture , the state and the legal system . With his treatise, Boll follows the tradition of Philipp Jacob Spener . In terms of intention, structure and writing gesture, his writing is based on the reform program Pia desideria published by Spener in 1675 . As a city pastor in Neubrandenburg, Boll's effect in the theological debates of his time was limited to Mecklenburg.

Boll and Philipp Otto Runge

Franz Christian Boll and Philipp Otto Runge were related to each other through the daughters of the Neubrandenburg doctor, district physician and councilor Adolph (Friedrich Theodor) Brückner (1744–1823). Runge's brother Carl Hermann (1779–1841) married Heinricke Brückner in 1805, the sister of Boll's wife Friederike Brückner. Franz Christian Boll and Philipp Otto Runge went hiking together on the island of Rügen . Both painters and theologians had enthusiastic relationships with the much younger Brückner sons, Gustav Brückner and Adolf Friedrich Brückner, to whom they vowed loyal friendship until death. Boll had an influence on Runge's art theoretical and historical thinking. This applies above all to Runge's departure from the thesis of a radical new beginning in romantic art . In 1809, Boll sent the painter the first volume of his reform work “On Falling and Restoring Religiosity with Special Regard to Protestant Germany”. The attached letter reveals positions in the discourse between the two men.

"I was very pleased with your comments about the inner necessity that drives us to work and create, and how every time is a product of the past and creator of the future, and I go on: How necessary it is, at no time, too not to despair of ours - and how salutary it is to understand the present not as a time that has fallen from heaven or has been cast out of hell, but rather a necessary product of the past. "

- Franz Christian Boll

Boll and Caspar David Friedrich

Franz Christian Boll and Caspar David Friedrich were related. Friedrich's brother Adolf married Margarete Brückner in 1801, the cousin of Boll's wife Friedericke. Correspondence between Boll and Friedrich does not seem to have survived. The influence of the pastor on the most important Romantic painter can be seen in the pictorial program and written statements. A closer friendship must have developed in the summer of 1800 when the two men were hiking in the Elbe Sandstone Mountains .

Works

• To heed some truths from the field of education and philosophy . Printed by Albanus, Neustrelitz 1800. Review of the book in: Jenaische Allgemeine Literaturzeitung, Volume 4, year 1800
• About the mutual relationship between a preacher and his congregation. An inaugural sermon delivered at Neubrandenburg, d. 4th April 1802. For the good of the poor . Printed by Christian Gottlob Korb
• On the decline and restoration of religiosity . Volumes 1 and 2, printed by Ferdinand Albanus, Neustrelitz 1809/10
• Memorial Sermon on Se. Royal Your Highness, d. on Nov. 6th In 1816 the Most Serene Grand Duke Karl Ludwig Friedrich, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg, perfected for a better life . Neubrandenburg, printed by Korb, 1816
• Sermons about D. Martin Luther's life and work in preparation for this year's jubilee for church improvement . Printed by CG Korb, 54 pages, Neustrelitz 1817
• FC Boll's late past. Last sermon in Neubrandenburg delivered on Sunday Septuagesimä 1818 , Rostock a. Schwerin no year
• Oddities from the history of the Vorderstadt Neubrandenburg in the Duchy of Mecklenburg-Strelitz from 1801. Starting with FC Boll itself . Manuscript V 170 / 2s, Regional Museum Neubrandenburg

literature

• Detlef Stapf: Caspar David Friedrich's hidden landscapes. The Neubrandenburg contexts . Greifswald 2014, network-based P-Book
• Boll, Franz Christian . In: Grete Grewolls: Who was who in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania? A dictionary of persons . Edition Temmen, Bremen 1995, ISBN 3-86108-282-9 , p. 60.
• Friedrich Scheven: The Neubrandenburg pastor Franz Boll and his sovereign, Duke Carl von Mecklenburg-Strelitz . In: The Carolinum. No. 43, Göttingen 1965
• Karl Schmaltz : Church history of Mecklenburg. Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, Volume 3, Berlin 1952, p. 246 ff.
• Irmgard Brückner: Brückneriana around Johann Heinrich Voß , self-published, Neubrandenburg 1940, p. 69.
• Georg Krüger: The pastors in Stargard since the Reformation . Neustrelitz 1903, p. 133 ff.
• Philipp Otto Runge: Left Writings . Published by his eldest brother. ( Johann Daniel Runge ) Hamburg 1840, Volume 1, p. 6 f., Volume 2, p. 385 f.

Web links

Commons : Franz Christian Boll (Pastor)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Literature about Franz Christian Boll in the state bibliography MV
• Works by Franz Christian Boll in the state bibliography MV

Individual evidence

1. ↑ According to the family genealogy actually: Franz (II.) Boll. To distinguish it from his son and grandson of the same name, however, traditionally named with all baptismal names.
2. ↑ Not in 1775, as the inscription on the Neubrandenburg monument says!
3. ↑ Georg Krüger: The pastors in the country of Stargard since the Reformation. Schwerin 1904, p. 135.
4. ^ After the death of Pastor Ernst Theodor Johann Brückner († May 29, 1805); the third pastor's post was reactivated in 1826 and filled with Carl Kühne (1802-1858).
5. ^ Monument draft for Pastor Franz Boll in Neubrandenburg , deutsche-digitale-bibliothek.de (accessed on October 29, 2016)
6. ↑ Philipp Otto Runge: Legacy writings. Published by his eldest brother . Volume 1 and 2, Hamburg 1840, Volume 1, p. 385 f.