Society of Friends of Kant

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The Society of Friends of Kant emerged from the table society that Immanuel Kant had gathered around him until 1803. It was founded in 1805 after his death in 1804, met in Königsberg until 1944 and from 1947 in Göttingen , later in Mainz . The “ Society of Friends of Kants and Königsbergs e. V. ", since 2018 with the addition:" Kant and Königsberg in Kaliningrad ".

The society should not be confused with the scientific Kant Society , which was founded in Halle in 1904 , re- established in Bonn in 1969 and is based in Mainz.

history

Founded in 1805

Emil Doerstling : Kant and his table companions (reproduction around 1892)

William Motherby , like his father Robert Motherby a friend of Kant, invited the 22 participants of the last birthday party at Kant's (on April 22, 1803) to a “commemorative festival” in Kant's house on April 22, 1805 . Everyone who was still alive accepted the invitation:

  1. Johann Brahl , senior town inspector
  2. Samuel Friedrich Buck (1763–1827), Mayor of Königsberg
  3. Christoph Friedrich Elsner
  4. Johann Gottfried Frey
  5. Johann Christian Gädeke (1765–1853), Königsberg merchant, son-in-law of Friedrich Conrad Jacobi
  6. Johann Friedrich Gensichen , mathematician
  7. Karl Gottfried Hagen , pharmacist and universal scholar
  8. Johann Michael Hamann (1769-1813)
  9. Johann Gottfried Hasse (1759–1806), evangelical theologian and orientalist
  10. Johann Benjamin Jachmann (1765–1832), doctor, brother of Reinhold Bernhard Jachmann ,
  11. Friedrich Conrad Jacobi , banker
  12. Christian Jakob Kraus , philosopher and economist
  13. Dr. Laubmeyer, doctor
  14. William Motherby
  15. John Motherby (1784–1813), lawyer, son of William Motherby, died while storming the Outer Grimmaic Gate in Leipzig
  16. Friedrich Nicolovius , bookseller and publisher
  17. Karl Ludwig Pörschke , philologist and philosopher
  18. Karl Daniel Reusch , physicist and librarian
  19. Christian Friedrich Reusch , son of Karl Daniel Reusch
  20. Johann Georg Scheffner , lawyer, war councilor and writer
  21. Clerk , Councilor
  22. Georg Michael Sommer , pastor of the Haberberg Trinitatis Church
  23. Friedrich August von Staegemann , civil servant, diplomat, Prussian reformer
  24. Johann Friedrich Vigilantius , government councilor, legal advisor to Kant, drafted Kant's will
  25. God of honor Andreas Wasianski , theologian

They decided to regularly celebrate Kant's birthday together in future. That was the founding act of the association, which was later called the Society of Friends of Kant . Until 1810, the meeting place was Kant's house, which was an inn from 1805, and from 1811 the "German House" in Königsberg. They came together in the difficult year 1807. The first major public event in the life of society was the inauguration of the Stoa Kantiana foyer with a burial chapel and a Kant bust as a worthy burial place of the philosopher at Königsberg Cathedral in 1810 .

1806 to 1945

Kant's grave from 1924

When selecting new members of the society, as in Kant's lifetime, “the most diverse classes and professional groups” should be represented. The number of members - men only - was initially limited to 30, but was 77 in 1905 and between 90 and 100 in 1932. The society had no statutes. She saw her task in preserving the memory of Kant in his hometown. Annually, the publicly observed birthday party with the birthday speech took place. The society took care of Kant's grave and celebrated the philosopher's 100th birthday in 1824. The friends of Kant also participated in the preparation of the Kant monument by Christian Daniel Rauch in 1864. In 1880 Kant's bones were buried in a new burial chapel. Efforts to preserve Kant's house in the old town of Königsberg were unsuccessful; it was demolished in 1893 and replaced by a commercial building. The society took part in the large-scale celebration in Königsberg on the 100th anniversary of Kant's death in 1904. To celebrate the 200th birthday of the philosopher in 1924, the "Friends of Kant" took part in an unusual way: the otherwise small-group "bean meal" was in large frame of about 300 people in the city ​​hall (Königsberg) . Together with the Königsberg branch of the scientific Kant society founded in Halle in 1904, the society had taken great care to ensure that the Kant grave was appropriately designed. This was then created by the East Prussian architect Friedrich Lahrs as an extension to the Königsberg Cathedral in the complex that still exists today. The society also collected Kantiana from the beginning . It was possible to draw on this rich collection when setting up the four Kant rooms in 1924 and a Kant museum in the City History Museum (Königsberg) in 1938 . The society also helped put up memorial plaques for Kant. In 1836 , in his celebratory speech on Kant's birthday , Karl Rosenkranz , successor to Kant's chair, suggested that the Society of Friends of Kant publish the first complete edition of the philosopher's works. He realized this from 1838 to 1840 together with the historian Friedrich Wilhelm Schubert .

The invitation to the annual birthday party was initially incumbent on a selected party organizer. Then, starting in 1814, at the suggestion of the astronomer Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel, the speaker was chosen who found a hidden silver bean in his dessert. So the festival folder became the " Bean King " and the company became the "Bean Society".

"The table speeches have the task of making information about Kant's life or dealing with subjects that are closely related to Kant's philosophy and its further dissemination."

- Friedrich Wilhelm Schubert

The prominent members and speakers of the society included philosophers such as Karl Rosenkranz , philologists, Germanists, theologians, art historians, physicists, politicians, historians, two Königsberg mayors, poets and Kant researchers: Julius Rupp , Hermann von Helmholtz , Theodor von Schön , Eduard by Simson , Ernst Wichert and Felix Dahn .

The Königsberg architect Friedrich Lahrs dedicated a font with eight self-drawn pictures from the Königsberg of the 18th century to the Society of Friends of Kant.

The Society of Friends of Kant worked in the spirit of its founders at the place of activity of the great philosopher until the fall of Königsberg in 1945. The last bean king who should have given the official speech on April 22, 1945 was Bruno Schumacher . As was customary on the day of Kant's death, on February 12, 1945, already under Soviet artillery fire, he laid a wreath on the city's grave at Königsberg Cathedral . Since the British bombing raids at the end of August 1944, this was only a burned-out ruin.

The company's Königsberg files have been lost since the end of the war.

From 1947

In 1947, the “Society of Friends of Kant” - assigned to the Göttingen working group - was revitalized in Göttingen by surviving Königsbergers . She held her "bean meal" here every year until 1973, continuing the Königsberg tradition, and from 1974 moved to Mainz. The secretariat of the Kant Society was also located there . The philosopher Rudolf Malter , Chancellor of the Society, presented its history in detail in 1992 - with rich literature references - and recalled important Königsberg Kant speeches from 1804 until the fall of Königsberg.

In 2005, the 750th anniversary of the city's foundation was celebrated in Kaliningrad / Königsberg. Kaliningrad University was named "Kant University". On this occasion, some university members and other Kaliningrad intellectuals founded an association called “Friends of the Bean King”, which continued the Königsberg tradition of “bean meals” and “bean speeches”. In 2007 Gerfried Horst, a member of the Kant Society from Berlin, proposed to celebrate a “bean meal” with this Russian association in the hometown of Immanuel Kant. On April 22nd, 2008, Russians and Germans met for the first common “bean meal” in Königsberg / Kaliningrad; since then it has taken place there every year on April 22nd. The participants come not only from Germany and Russia, but increasingly from other countries as well.

On February 12, 2011, the anniversary of Kant's death, the “Society of Friends of Kant and Königsbergs e. V. “ founded. Her aim is to continue the old Königsberg tradition of the “bean meal” in Kant's hometown, today's Kaliningrad, in the company of Germans, Russians and Kant friends from other nations. The society also wants to keep the spiritual legacy of Königsberg alive and to bring Kant's teachings closer to people today in an understandable way. Among the members of the society are several direct descendants of Kant's friends at the time. The society now also includes women. On April 22nd, 2014, a “Bohnenkönig in ” (born in 1933 in Königsberg) gave the speech for the first time . Every April around Kant's birthday, the society organizes a multi-day trip to Kaliningrad / Königsberg with excursions, lectures and concerts. She helps to put up memorial plaques for Kant and other Königsbergers and to further develop the Kant Museum in Königsberg Cathedral. In this way, like the old Königsberg “Society of Friends of Kant”, it has become a cultural factor in the city. Reports on their activities can be found in German, Russian and other languages ​​on the company's website.

Since 2018 the company has been called: "FREUNDE KANTS UND KÖNIGSBERGS eV" - Kant and Königsberg in Kaliningrad.

literature

  • Rudolf Malter (Ed.): But let us think of ourselves as obliged… . Königsberg Kant speeches 1804–1945. Harald Fischer Verlag, Erlangen 1992, ISBN 3-89131-027-7 . (Main source for the article)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c Herbert Meinhard Mühlpfordt : Königsberg from A to Z. A city dictionary , 2nd edition. Munich 1976, ISBN 3-7612-0092-7 .
  2. ↑ Reinhard Brandt, Werner Stark (1987)
  3. ^ JM Hamann in the DNB