Friedrich Christian Laukhard

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Magister F. Ch. Laukhard

Friedrich Christian Henrich Laukhard (born June 7, 1757 in Wendelsheim , Electoral Palatinate , † April 28, 1822 in Kreuznach ) was a German writer. As a soldier he took part in the First Coalition War from 1792 to 1795 . His autobiographical writings from that period in particular are of historical value.

Life

Birthplace in Wendelsheim

Laukhard's father, Philipp Burkhard Laukhard, was a Protestant pastor in the then Palatinate community of Wendelsheim . His mother was Charlotte Dorothea geb. Dautel, a granddaughter of the Strasbourg lawyer Johann Schilter . He received lessons in Latin and Hebrew from his father at an early age. As a Lutheran-Protestant pastor in the Reformed Palatinate, the family found themselves in the situation of a denominational minority, and the father was often exposed to the hostility of his Protestant colleagues. It was through him that Laukhard first came into contact with works by Baruch Spinoza , Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz and Christian Freiherr von Wolff . In addition to private lessons, Laukhard attended grammar school in Grünstadt . The rest of Laukhard's upbringing was very negligent; through wrong handling and lack of supervision he became "a drunkard even in the most tender youth". Both the intellectual openness of his parents' house and the debauchery of his youth shaped the further life of Laukhard.

Education

At the urging of his father, he studied from 1774 to 1778 at the Lutheran University of Hesse-Darmstadt, the Hessian Ludwigs University , Protestant theology . Disappointed by the Giessen professors, he threw himself into the uninhibited student life of the country teams and student orders . He later gave this inglorious part of his university career a large place in his autobiography. Some of his novels are also about this time. Only the scandalous Professor Karl Friedrich Bahrdt had an intellectual influence on Laukhard's development during these years. In his eyes, Bahrdt was the only man in the theological faculty who “could achieve something”. Bahrdt's expulsion was therefore a decisive experience for Laukhard, which intensified his hatred of Giessen University.

After his return from Gießen, his father sent him for a year to the Georg-August-Universität Göttingen , which was newly founded in 1737, was well-equipped and run, and where he said he was studying intensively. In general, Laukhard, who was very critical of the academic operations of his time, expresses himself in a conspicuously positive way about the Göttingen University. When he finished his studies in 1779, he could not find a permanent job as a vicar because of his dissolute lifestyle and free-spirited speeches. In the meantime he therefore hired himself as a tutor and as a hunter in Guntersblum .

Through his father's mediation, Laukhard was brought in 1781 by Johann Salomo Semler to the Prussian university town of Halle, where Pietists from all over Europe studied, and there he got a job as a teacher in the Halle orphanage . At the same time he resumed his studies and was finally awarded his doctorate in 1783. He then worked for some time as a master's degree and private lecturer at the Friedrichs University in Halle .

military

Valmy cannonade

Having become unemployed due to his busy and costly lifestyle, he finally registered as a volunteer for the Prussian Army - a sensational process, as students were exempt from military service. In 1792 Laukhard's regiment was involved in the Valmy cannonade . The momentous defeat and the wretched retreat of the Prussian troops are described in detail by Laukhard. His eyewitness report is an important addition and contrast to Goethe's description of the battle.

The (retrospective) report of an assessor Lindemeyer gives an impression of how he behaved in the Prussian army camp. Because of his drunkenness Laukhard was not promoted, although he was "well suffered" with the Duke of Braunschweig. He began to talk to his visitors "in different languages ​​of learned things", "while his comrades gathered around him and listened to his speeches with their mouths open". In 1793 Laukhard took part in the Prussian siege of the city of Landau . Because of his distant relationship with Georg Friedrich Dentzel , the revolutionary commander of the Landau Fortress , Laukhard was personally entrusted with a secret mission by the “ Prince of Hohenlohe ”. Disguised as a deserter, Laukhard was supposed to reach the besieged city and bring Dentzel an offer of bribery. According to Laukhard's testimony, the order failed due to Dentzel's refusal. However, Laukhard was not exposed, but entered the French revolutionary army as a deserter. As a result, he even became a member of the sans-culottes and traveled through revolutionary France.

Retirement

From 1804 to 1811 Laukhard was pastor in the parish of Veitsrodt near Idar-Oberstein . During these years he wrote numerous writings. He spent his twilight years in Bad Kreuznach, where the "not unheard-of Haller lecturer and Prussian grenadier" gave private lessons in the ancient languages ​​for students at the grammar school there in order to make a living. He died at the age of 65.

classification

Laukhard monument Wendelsheim

Laukhard's vividly and realistically portrayed experiences, life and fate described by himself, are of cultural historical interest. At his old place of work, the Protestant church in the Hunsrück village of Veitsrodt, an annual sermon in the spirit of enlightenment has been commemorating the unconventional pastor and writer since 2010. Erhard Eppler delivered the first Laukhard sermon .

reception

Laukhard's main work, his autobiographical documentary work “Leben und Schicksale”, was a sales success when it was published and made the master’s degree a well-known and scandal-ridden author in one fell swoop. And his other writings, including many trivial novels, found their readers willing. But Laukhard was denied permanent fame. In the 19th century his writings fell into oblivion.

This only changed at the beginning of the 20th century. In 1908 Viktor Petersen brought out a greatly abridged new edition of Laukhard's "Leben und Schicksale". Since Petersen only wanted to entertain his reading audience, the focus of the issue was on the passages that described anecdotes and curiosities of the long-forgotten time of plaiting.

Historians as well as literary scholars overlooked Laukhard's work for decades.

In the 1950s, the Marxist Karl Wolfgang Becker became aware of Laukhard, because if you ignored the other pages of his work, Laukhard, as a radical critic of the church and religion and as a supporter of the French Revolution, could easily be considered by GDR literature Take over the precursors of the socialist revolution.

When, in West German research in the 1970s, German Jacobinism and the radical Enlightenment moved into the center of scientific interest, Laukhard was seen as the early advocate of democratic principles, although he had dedicated important of his writings to high-ranking aristocrats.

"Whether one does justice to the writer's ambivalence by emphasizing one or the other side of Laukhard's literature is questionable at this point, because just as Laukhard as a person was full of contradictions, so it is also his work."

Works

  • Laukhards autobiography: FC Laukhards, formerly Magister of Philosophy and now musketeer under the Thaddenschen Regiment zu Halle, Leben und Fatesale, described by himself and published as a warning for parents and young students . Five parts, 1792–1802.
  • Additions and corrections to Mr. D. Karl Friedrich Bahrdt's biography, in letters from a Palatine . 1791 ( digitized version of the Lower Saxony State and University Library Göttingen).
  • Letters from a Prussian eyewitness about the Duke of Braunschweig's campaign against the New Franconians in 1792 . Seven Packs, 1793–1796.
  • Description of the present Imperial Army, according to its true form. In addition to waving about Germany's future fate . 1796  - Internet Archive .
  • Collection of edifying poems for all those who are serious about undermining the well-being of their subjects and fellow men not according to the wavering tiger and fox law of the fittest or the cunning, but according to the eternal and ever-sacred law of human dignity, justice and human love to promote fatherly and brotherly, and thereby to jointly establish and maintain trust, calm and human welfare, both on the part of the superiors and the subjects, in peace and unity Volume I 1796; Volume II Altona 1796  - Internet Archive .
  • Life and deeds of Count Carl Magnus of the Rhine, whom Joseph II sent to Konigstein prison for ten years in order to learn to respect the rights of subjects and other people. As a warning to all tiny despots, gullible people, and businessmen . 1798  - Internet Archive . Reprint: Asclepios Edition, Homburg / Saar 2004, ISBN 3-935288-19-0 .
  • Annals of the University of Schilda or tricks and harlequinades of the learned craft guilds in Germany. To resolve the question: where does all the misery come from, caused by so many gentlemen theologians, doctors, lawyers, camerealists and ministers . Two volumes: 1798  - Internet Archive / 1799  - Internet Archive
  • Franz Wolfstein, or incidents of a stupid devil . Leipzig 1799; Volume I ( digitized version ); Volume II ( digitized version of the Goettingen State and University Library)
  • Breeding mirror for nobles . Paris, 1799.
  • Breeding mirror for princes and courtiers . Paris, 1799  - Internet Archive .
  • Breeding mirror for theologians and doctors of the church . Paris, 1799.
  • Breeding mirror for warriors of conquest .. and doctors . Paris, 1799.
  • The Mosellaner or Amicist order is shown according to its origin, internal constitution and distribution on German universities . Hall 1799.
  • Marki von Gebrian, or Life and Ebentheuer of a French Emigrant. A politico-comic novel . Two parts. 1800.
  • Bonaparte and Cromwell. A New Years present for the French from a citizen without prejudice . 1801.
  • A picture of the times or the history of Europe, from Carl the Great to Bonaparte . Two volumes. 1801.
  • The emigrants or the story of the Count of Vitacon . 1802.
  • Eulenkapper's life and suffering. A tragic-comic story . 1804  - Internet Archive .
  • Corilla Donati; or the story of a sensitive fanatic . 1804  - Internet Archive .
  • Wilhelm Stein's adventure. Described by himself and edited by Friedrich Christian Laukhard . 1810.
  • Familiar letters from an old country preacher to one of his younger ministers . 1811.

literature

  • Joachim P. Heinz: Friedrich Christian Henrich Laukhard - Magister, musketeer, sans-culottes, pastor and radical writer of the Enlightenment. In: Mitteilungen des Historisches Verein der Pfalz, Vol. 117 (2019), pp. 275 - 304.

Web links

Commons : Friedrich Christian Laukhard  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikisource: Friedrich Christian Laukhard  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Life and fate described by himself , p. 15.
  2. ^ The second Hessian university, the Philipps University of Marburg , adopted Calvinism after the division of the country .
  3. ↑ Life and fates described by himself , p. 27.
  4. ↑ Laukhard's life data. ( Memento from September 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Laukhard Society
  5. ↑ His student Beinbrech gives a vivid description of his bohemian life in an attic on the Holzmarkt. Despite his alcoholism, Laukhard enjoyed a certain reputation due to his knowledge and intellectual gifts and was considered unique in Kreuznach; Franziska Blum-Gabelmann: The Kreuznacher Johann Jacob Beinbrech (1799–1834): citizen - merchant - walker ; 2006.
  6. ↑ Heinz, 2019 , p. 300.
personal data
SURNAME Laukhard, Friedrich Christian
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Laukhard, Friedrich Christian Henrich (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German writer
DATE OF BIRTH June 7, 1757
PLACE OF BIRTH Wendelsheim , Electoral Palatinate
DATE OF DEATH April 28, 1822
Place of death Bad Kreuznach