Friedrich Matthias Perthes

Friedrich Matthias Perthes (born January 16, 1800 in Hamburg ; † August 28, 1859 there ) was a German Evangelical Lutheran clergyman and author .

Life

Friedrich Matthias Perthes was the oldest child of the bookseller and publisher Friedrich Christoph Perthes from his first marriage to Caroline, b. Claudius . Matthias Claudius was his grandfather and godfather at the same time , Clemens Theodor Perthes his younger brother. His youth was shaped by the French occupation of Hamburg. When the city was reoccupied by French troops in 1813, the mother and her seven children fled to Kiel. It was not until a year after they began to flee that the Perthes family gathered on the outskirts of Hamburg in the fishing village of Blankenese , where they waited together for the city to be liberated. Despite Napoleon's abdication in April 1814, Marshal Davout's troops did not withdraw from Hamburg until the end of May 1814. As the daughter Agnes Perthes reports in her memoirs, the family found their house in a desolate state. With a lot of effort they restored the living and business premises.

Interrupted by this escape, Friedrich Matthias attended the learned school of the Johanneum until Easter 1819 and then the Hamburg Academic Gymnasium for another year . From 1820 he studied Protestant theology at the University of Tübingen . After his triennium , he went to his father for six months, who had meanwhile moved to Gotha . There was also a temporary position as assistant to Gottfried Menken in Bremen . On March 10, 1826 he became a candidate for the Hamburg Ministry of Spiritual Affairs .

From 1830 Perthes worked as a pastor at the St. Maria Magdalena Church in Hamburg-Moorburg . Here he stayed until the end of his life. Like his parents and siblings, Perthes was close to the revival movement . His theology and his political attitudes were conservative and restorative , as clearly shown in his speech at the inauguration of the monument to Matthias Claudius in Wandsbek in 1840. He countered the revolution of 1848 with the pamphlet The old and the new doctrine on society, state, church, school, marriage and work: presented comprehensibly for town and country , which experienced several editions. His most important work, however, was his biography of John Chrysostom "for the family of our day". It was based on the research of August Neander and Georg Friedrich Böhringer and made it accessible to a wide audience. The work was translated into English as early as 1854.

Since 1832 he was married to Mariane, geb. Plessing (1802–1866), a daughter of the Lübeck merchant Johann Jeronimus Plessing (1773–1821), granddaughter of Johann Philipp Plessing and cousin of Philipp Wilhelm Plessing and Heinrich Alphons Plessing . The couple had three sons and two daughters, two sons and one daughter of whom died very young. The surviving son, Friedrich Johannes Perthes (1841–1907) became pastor and church councilor in Gotha; the daughter Caroline Margarethe (1840–1922) married her cousin Otto Agricola , district administrator in Bad Kreuznach .

Part of Friedrich Matthias Perthes' estate came to the Hamburg State Archives in 1952 .

Works

• Elective, ordination and introductory sermon by Fr. Matth. Perthes pastor in Moorburg. Hamburg: Perthes 1830
• Remain in what God commands you; Love your class and your fatherland! : Two sermons, delivered on the harvest and victory festivals on October 14th and 18th, 1832. Hamburg: Perthes & Besser 1832
• The old and the new teaching about society, the state, the church, school, marriage and work: presented in a comprehensible way for town and country. Hamburg: Perthes-Besser & Mauke 1849

Digitized

• The life of Bishop Johannes Chrysostom according to the research of Neanders, Böhringer and others is shown for the family of our day. Hamburg: Perthes 1853

English translation: Life of John Chrysostom: based on the investigations of Neander, Böhringer, and others by Frederic M. Perthes. Translated from the German by Alvah Hovey and David B. Ford. Boston 1854 ( digitized )

literature

• Perthes (Friedrich Matthias) , in: Hans Schröder : Lexicon of Hamburg writers to the present. Volume 6, Hamburg 1873, p. 27 No. 2975
• Reinhard Görisch: The Claudius celebration in Wandsbeck 1840 for the foundation of the memorial stone: With Friedrich Matthias Perthe's speech in the wording and considerations on it. In: At home in Wandsbek: Essays on the appreciation of the "Wandsbeck messenger" Matthias Claudius in the commemorative year 1990. Hamburg: Heinevetter 1990, ISBN 3-87474-978-9 , pp. 102–124

Individual evidence

1. ↑ See Görisch (lit.), Annelen Kranefuss: Matthias Claudius: a biography. Hoffmann & Campe, Hamburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-455-50190-2 , p. 279
2. ↑ Family tree , accessed July 28, 2020
3. ↑ 622-1 / 82 Perthes, 1772-1921 (inventory) , accessed on July 27, 2020