Franz Töpsl

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Franziskus Töpsl , actually Joachim Josef Martin Töpsl , (born November 18, 1711 in Munich , † March 12, 1796 ibid) was a Bavarian theologian . From 1744 to 1796 he was provost of the Augustinian Canons of Polling and is considered one of the most important representatives of the Catholic Enlightenment in Bavaria .

Life

Coat of arms of Franz Töpsl
etcher: Franz Xaver Jungwirth , 1744

Joachim (= birth name) Töpsl was the son of councilor Joseph Felix Töpsl and his wife Maria Magdalena Mayr. Töpsl attended the Jesuit high school in Munich and successfully completed his schooling in 1728 at the age of 17. In the same year he joined the Augustinian Canons of Polling.

On October 4, 1729, he was professed and began to study philosophy and theology in the monastery. He later switched to these subjects at the University of Ingolstadt . In 1735 Töpsl finished his studies and in the same year he was ordained a priest in Augsburg Cathedral on April 17, 1735. There he also took the religious name Francis .

Then Töpsl worked as a pastor a. a. in the parishes of Marnbach , Deutenhausen and Forstenried . In 1741 he was promoted to dean and thus became the provost's deputy. On April 16, 1744 he was elected provost; he held this office until his death. He received the benediction for it on April 20, 1744.

The Canons' Monastery in Polling prospered under his leadership . He developed the monastery into a center of science. Convention members were u. a. Eusebius Amort , Gerhoh Steigenberger , Sebastian Seemiller and Vicelin Schlögel .

Under Töpsl, the Polling library was built from 1776 to 1779, the library of which grew to around 80,000 volumes by the time it was secularized, making it one of the most extensive libraries in Bavaria . On his initiative an observatory was built, as well as a natural and mineral cabinet. To encourage his confreres to be scientifically active, Töpsl had painted portraits of learned Augustinian canons made and hung in the corridors of the monastery. The remains of this canon gallery ( Pollinger Pinakothek ), which once comprised more than 200 portraits, are now in the possession of the archive of the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich as a result of the secularization . In the years 1761–1765, thanks to Töpsl's initiative, the collegiate church was rebuilt in the Baroque style.

The Bavarian Academy of Sciences in Munich received decisive help from Töpsl when it was founded. In 1759 he worked together with Johann Georg von Lori and Andreas Felix von Oefele .

From 1774 Töpsl was also active as a landscape councilor for the prelate class and in 1781 he was appointed general school director for Bavaria and campaigned for reforms in the school system. At the age of 85, Provost Franz Töpsl died of a stroke on the night of March 11th to 12th, 1796 in the branch of the Order in Munich.

Works

  • Elenchus onomasticus scriptorum sacri et apost. ordinis canonicorum regul. S. Augustini , 1762.
  • Succincta information de canonia Pollingana , 1760.

literature

Web links

Commons : Franz Töpsl  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Virtual Kupferstichkabinett .
  2. ^ Max Leitschuh: The matriculations of the upper classes of the Wilhelmsgymnasium in Munich , 4 vol., Munich 1970–1976; Vol. 2, p. 245.
  3. ↑ a b Stephanie Uehlein: Today he would have been interested in space travel. Franz Töpsl, probably the most important prelate of Polling, was open to science . In: Weilheimer Tagblatt Easter edition from 3./4./5. April 2010, Local Page 5; with reference to sources including Max Biller: Pollinger Heimat-Lexikon .
personal data
SURNAME Töpsl, Franz
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Töpsl, Franz Joachim Josef Martin; Töpsl, Francis
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Catholic theologian , provost of Polling Monastery
DATE OF BIRTH November 18, 1711
PLACE OF BIRTH Munich
DATE OF DEATH March 12, 1796
Place of death Munich