Georg Konrad Rieger

Georg Konrad Rieger

Georg Konrad Rieger (also Georg Conrad Rieger or Georg Cunrad Rieger ; born March 7, 1687 in Cannstatt , today Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt, † April 16, 1743 in Stuttgart ) was a pietistic clergyman from Württemberg .

Life

Rieger was the son of the wine grower and court relative Johann Michael Rieger and Anna Rieger, née Jehlin. His father did not want to comply with his wish to study theology, possibly for financial reasons, but was ultimately convinced. Rieger learned at the seminar in Blaubeuren , later in Maulbronn and Bebenhausen . From 1706 he was at the Protestant monastery in Tübingen , obtained his master's degree in 1708 and was able to take the exam in 1710. From 1713 he was a repetitionist in Tübingen, 1718 a deacon in Urach, from 1731 taught at the grammar school in Stuttgart and at the same time became a Wednesday preacher. He refused an alleged appointment to Frankfurt am Main in 1733 and became the parish priest of St. Leonhard . From 1742 he was first preacher at the Hospital Church and thus special superintendent (dean) of Stuttgart for a year . In 1737/38 he was the pastor of the Jewish financier Joseph Süss Oppenheimer, who was sentenced to death .

Rieger was regarded as a preacher with a practical disposition and an important pietistic clergyman in the dawn of rationalism in Württemberg. His sermons are characterized by the use of images, parables and a lively expressiveness. He interpreted short sections of text in eight to ten sermons, spoke about the Gospel according to Matthew about a thousand times, but only got as far as the 19th chapter. Rieger was considered very well read.

His numerous sermon books were not only widespread and widely read in Württemberg. He also wrote a biography of the Pietist Beata Sturm , first published in 1730 , in which he attached the name of a Württemberg tabea. In 1737 a book was written about the Bavarian reformer Argula von Grumbach . The expulsion of the Salzburg Protestants motivated him to write two works on the history of the church, which, among other things, deal with the history and teaching of the Waldensians , the Hussites and the Bohemian Brothers .

Rieger had been married to Regina Dorothea Scheinemann since 1718, with whom he had two daughters and two sons Philipp Friedrich and Karl Heinrich , who were to survive him.

Works

• The Württemberg tabea or the strange life of the virgin Beata Sturmin , Stuttgart 1730
• Instruction on the origin of the bourgeois regiment , 1732
• The Saltzbund of God with the Evangelical Saltzburg community , St. 1–8, Stuttgart 1732–33
• The Old and New Bohemian Brothers , St. 1–24, Züllichau 1734–40
• The life of Argulä von Grumbach , Stuttgart 1737
• Large heart postil (collection of sermons ), Züllichau 1742
• The Power of Godliness (Sermon Collection), 1712–36
• Sermons on selected passages from the Gospel of Matthew (collection of sermons) , 1843–1846
• Wedding sermons (collection of sermons), 1856
• Funeral Sermons (collection of sermons), 1856
• Passion Sermons (collection of sermons)
• Holy Easter celebration (collection of sermons), 1858

• Historia architecturae civilis , 1728 (attributed)

literature

• Ehinger, Siglind: "... they walk [...] in front of him, like the morning gleam before the sun". The Reformation of Martin Luther and its "forerunners" in the church history work of the Württemberg Pietist Georg Konrad Rieger (1687–1743) . In: Pietismus und Neuzeit 42 (2016), pp. 148–161.
• Ehinger, Siglind: Faith solidarity under the sign of Pietism. The Württemberg theologian Georg Konrad Rieger (1687–1743) and his church historiography on the Bohemian Brothers . Wiesbaden 2016.
• Fritz, Eberhard : Christian charity or economic calculation? Problems with the admission of Salzburg exiles to the Duchy of Württemberg . In: Blätter für Württembergische Kirchengeschichte 110 (2010), pp. 241–263.
• Werner Raupp (Ed.): Lived Faith. Experiences and life testimonies from our country. A reading book, Metzingen / Württ .: Ernst Franz-Verlag 1993, pp. 131–135, 387 (introduction, source texts, lit.).
• Fritz, Friedrich: Württemberg in the time of Pietism. In the words of Georg Konrad Rieger . In: Blätter für Württembergische Kirchengeschichte 55 (1955), pp. 117–124.
• Fritz, Friedrich: Old Württemberg Pietists . Stuttgart 1950.
• Theodor Schott :  Rieger, Georg Konrad . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 28, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1889, pp. 542-544.
• Hermann Ehmer:  RIEGER, Georg Konrad (Cunrad). In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 8, Bautz, Herzberg 1994, ISBN 3-88309-053-0 , Sp. 307-310.
• Christian Palmer : Georg Conrad Rieger . In: Real Encyclopedia for Protestant Theology and Church . Edited by Johann Jakob Herzog . Vol. 13. Gotha 1860, pp. 32-35 ( digitized version ).
• Wilhelm Claus: Württemberg Fathers , Volume I.