Friedrich Leberecht Gellert

Friedrich Leb (e) right Gellert (born November 10, 1711 in Hainichen , † January 8, 1770 in Leipzig ) was a German fencing master and chief post commissioner in Leipzig.

Grave slab of the Gellert brothers in the Grassimuseum Leipzig

Friedrich Leberecht Gellert was the brother of the poet and enlightener Christian Fürchtegott Gellert , with whom Goethe attended lectures. Gellert was a privileged fencing master at the university in Leipzig as early as 1747. The Seven Years' War and the occupation of Leipzig by the troops of Frederick II meant that he had to pursue a different profession, namely that of chief post commissioner, due to the lack of noble students at the University of Leipzig , who were mainly his customers as fencing masters.

Gellert can be traced back to 1762 as Oberpostkommissar in Leipzig. Gellert has not been listed as a fencing master in the Leipzig address book since 1764 at the latest. Goethe mentioned Friedrich Leberecht Gellert in Poetry and Truth , but is unlikely to have taken fencing lessons from him himself. The later mathematician Abraham Gotthelf Kästner had seen Gellert as a fencing master and also left comments about him.

As the gravestone in the Grassimuseum Leipzig shows, Friedrich Leberecht Gellert died just a few weeks after his brother Christian Fürchtegott Gellert.

Individual evidence

↑ Mario Todte: Fecht-, Reit- und Tanzmeister at the University of Leipzig (= Studies on Culture and History Vol. 1, edited by Lars-Arne Dannenberg and Matthias Donath ), Bernstadt ad Eigen 2016. ISBN 978-3-944104-12 -6
↑ To be privileged as a fencing master meant that no one else was allowed to hold fencing exercises, except for those who had the privilege to hold fencing exercises. The sovereign granted the privilege. In his case it was the Saxon Elector Friedrich August II, who as August III. was also King of Poland.
^ To Friedrich Leb (e) right: Lexicon of German Poets and Proseists. Volume 2, Leipzig 1807, p. 87 .;
Manfred Endler: Friedrich Lebrecht Gellert, Chief Post Commissioner at the Electoral Saxon Upper Post Office in Leipzig 1762–1770 . Hainichen 2011 ( pdf version at Gellert-Museum.de ; 0.25 MB).
↑ In it it says: "This, a tall, handsome, coarse, briefly bound, somewhat raw man, should have been a fencing master, and with all too great indulgence of his brother, sometimes treat the noble table companions harshly and harshly."
↑ If Goethe ever took fencing lessons in Leipzig from a fencing master, then it could only have been George Gottfried Michaelis, who was the sole fencing master at the university from 1766 at the latest. Richard Walter Franke : On the history of duels and duels at the University of Leipzig , in: Writings of the Association for the History of Leipzig, Vol. 19 (1936), pp. 34–46. Here p. 44. -Todte, p. 30.
↑ So Kästner says: “Before I finish my apprenticeship, please allow me to mention that as a young man, out of obedience to my father and almost with dislike, I practiced dancing, but secretly learned to fencing when he taught me to Permission to do so failed. I can probably name my teacher's famous name in the latter art: Gellert. ”Quoted from Studiosus in Pleiß-Athens: Autobiographical memories of Leipzig students in the 18th century , ed. by Katrin Löffler , Leipzig 2009, p. 72.

personal data
SURNAME	Gellert, Friedrich Leberecht
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Gellert, Friedrich Lebrecht
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German fencing master and post commissioner in Leipzig
DATE OF BIRTH	November 10, 1711
PLACE OF BIRTH	Hainichen
DATE OF DEATH	January 8, 1770
Place of death	Leipzig

[1] Mario Todte: Fecht-, Reit- und Tanzmeister at the University of Leipzig (= Studies on Culture and History Vol. 1, edited by Lars-Arne Dannenberg and Matthias Donath ), Bernstadt ad Eigen 2016. ISBN 978-3-944104-12 -6

[2] To be privileged as a fencing master meant that no one else was allowed to hold fencing exercises, except for those who had the privilege to hold fencing exercises. The sovereign granted the privilege. In his case it was the Saxon Elector Friedrich August II, who as August III. was also King of Poland.

[3] To Friedrich Leb (e) right: Lexicon of German Poets and Proseists. Volume 2, Leipzig 1807, p. 87 .;
Manfred Endler: Friedrich Lebrecht Gellert, Chief Post Commissioner at the Electoral Saxon Upper Post Office in Leipzig 1762–1770 . Hainichen 2011 ( pdf version at Gellert-Museum.de ; 0.25 MB).

[4] In it it says: "This, a tall, handsome, coarse, briefly bound, somewhat raw man, should have been a fencing master, and with all too great indulgence of his brother, sometimes treat the noble table companions harshly and harshly."

[5] If Goethe ever took fencing lessons in Leipzig from a fencing master, then it could only have been George Gottfried Michaelis, who was the sole fencing master at the university from 1766 at the latest. Richard Walter Franke : On the history of duels and duels at the University of Leipzig , in: Writings of the Association for the History of Leipzig, Vol. 19 (1936), pp. 34–46. Here p. 44. -Todte, p. 30.

[6] So Kästner says: “Before I finish my apprenticeship, please allow me to mention that as a young man, out of obedience to my father and almost with dislike, I practiced dancing, but secretly learned to fencing when he taught me to Permission to do so failed. I can probably name my teacher's famous name in the latter art: Gellert. ”Quoted from Studiosus in Pleiß-Athens: Autobiographical memories of Leipzig students in the 18th century , ed. by Katrin Löffler , Leipzig 2009, p. 72.