Gotthelf Wilhelm Christoph Starke

Gotthelf Wilhelm Christoph Starke (also: Starcke ; born December 9, 1762 in Bernburg ; † October 27, 1830 in Ballenstedt ) was a German Protestant Reformed theologian and educator.

Tomb in Ballenstedt

Life

The son of the superintendent and consistorial councilor Johann Christoph Starke (born August 6, 1726 in Ballenstedt; † November 29, 1771 in Bernburg) and his second wife Henriette Friedericke Sophie, daughter of the pastor in Raguhn Emanuel Lebrecht Böhmer, had been through at a young age shaped the family, developed a sense of religiosity. He received his first lessons in the city school in his hometown. At the age of 13 he went to high school in Quedlinburg . Even then, he seemed to have a tendency towards fiction, as several essays and poems found in his estate prove. Several of these youthful works spoke of a feeling that was receptive to the true and the beautiful and of a mood that was almost too serious for his age.

In 1780 he moved to the University of Halle to study theology. During his student days he had dealt with metrical translations from Greek, Latin and Italian, but also with some scholarly work. With these activities he formed his spiritual development and thus achieved that elegance of expression that would appear in his later literary work.

In 1783 Starke became a teacher at the city school in Bernburg, two years later the vice-rector and 1789 rector of the institution. His thorough instruction and his restless industry had a positive effect on the development of that school. He used the leisure that his professional business allowed him to write, for the most part philological content. His official status there corresponded so completely to his inclination that in 1797 he refused multiple calls to rector in Oldenburg and to a position as preacher in Hamburg. Rather, he was offered the position of senior preacher in Bernburg in 1797, which he took up the following year. In 1799 he became pastor in Rieder .

In 1801 he traveled to Berlin , where he met Friedrich Schleiermacher , Wilhelm Abraham Teller , Friedrich Samuel Gottfried Sack , August Ferdinand Bernhardi , August Wilhelm Schlegel and other witty men personally. In later years he undertook similar trips to strengthen his suffering health, including 1802 to Wörlitz and Zerbst , where he worked with Johann Christian Sintenis (1756–1829) and the next year to Braunschweig, where he worked with Johann Joachim Eschenburg and Joachim Heinrich Campe contact closed. In 1804 he went in business via Hanover to Bremen and in 1806 to Leipzig and Dresden .

The war unrest at the time and the raids by French troops caused him to experience many tribulations in Rieder. He left his congregation there when he was surprised by the honorable senior preacher in Ballenstedt in 1808. At that time he was suffering from a dangerous chest disease, which was only with difficulty removed by the art of experienced doctors. He found a welcome amusement in 1810 on a trip to Gotha. In 1817 he was given the honorable task of marrying Princess Wilhelmine Louise of Anhalt-Bernburg , whose instructor he had been, with Prince Friedrich of Prussia . He also had a share in the education of the Hereditary Prince Alexander Carl .

From 1822 onwards, his generally sound health seemed to be wavering. He especially suffered from severe coughing. A spa cure restored him, and with few exceptions he was so well up to 1827 that he could carry out his official business with the usual zeal. In April of that year he suffered a stroke. He recovered by applying vigorous means, so that he could enter the pulpit several times and continue teaching the youth almost uninterruptedly. However, his life forces dwindled with age. After he retired in the fall of 1829, another stroke ended his life.

Act

The popular pulpit speaker of his time had extensive knowledge of the old languages ​​and of learned theology, although he took more into account the practical side of this science, as was the case with his efforts to bring about a union of the evangelical parties and his held for this purpose in 1820 four sermons emerges. In addition, he made a name for himself as a hymn poet of his time, which was included in some hymn books of his time, but more and more disappeared from them in later years. In addition to numerous contributions to the specialist journals of his time, there are also several independent publications.

Works

• Poems. Bernburg 1788
• Some thoughts on the translation of Greek and Roman poets; together with individual poems by Ovid, Mimnermus, Thogonis, Pindar, Baechylides and Simonides. Hall 1790
• Translated Horace's letter on poetry. Hall 1791
• Addendum to the writings on the further occupation of young students with the languages ​​and writings of the elderly. Bernburg 1792
• Paintings from domestic life. Berlin 1793–1798 4 collections, 2nd edition Braunschweig 1803 5th collections, 3rd edition Braunschweig 1827
• About some of Homer's parables. Bernburg 1793
• Progr. Fabularum paedagogicarum Lib. I-III. Bernburg 1794
• Mixed fonts. 1. Collection containing poems and speeches. Berlin 1796 (also under the title Mixed Friends of Entertainment. Berlin 1796 ( online ))
• Sermons. Berlin 1797
• Progr. Fabularum paedagogicarum per aliquot annos programmatum loco exhibtarum Mantissa. Bernburg 1797
• Suggestion of a small aid for teaching Latin and Greek. Bernburg 1798
• Small novel library, edited in conjunction with A. Lafontaine, Mademoiselle Levesque, Sophie Mereau and Karl Reinhard. Göttingen 1799–1801, 2nd year (also under the title: Romancalender für die J. 1799–1801. With coppers.)
• Hymns. Hall 1804
• Songs for our time . . . 1813
• Sermon on Sunday Palmarum, April 11, 1813: God is close to the believing peoples and protection and help to those who trust. Berlin 1813
• Sermon at the celebration of church reform. Quedlinburg 1817
• Four sermons on the union of evangelical Christians. Quedlinburg 1820
• Sermons along with some other speeches held in the castle church in Ballenstedt. Stuttgart 1828

literature

• General German real encyclopedia for the educated classes. FA Brockhaus, Leipzig, 1827, 10th volume, p. 643, ( online )
• General German conversation lexicon for the educated of every class. Reichenbach Brothers, Leipzig, 1840, 2nd edition, Vol. 9, p. 893, ( online )
• Georg Christoph Hamberger , Johann Georg Meusel : The learned Teutschland, or lexicon of the now living German writers. Meyerische Buchhandlung, Lemgo, 1798, 7th vol., P. 617, ( online ); 1803, vol. 10, p. 702, ( online ); 1811, Vol. 15, p. 524, ( online ); 1825, Vol. 20, p. 583, ( online );
• Heinrich Doering : The learned theologians of Germany in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Verlag Johann Karl Gottfried Wagner, 1835, Neustadt an der Orla, vol. 4, p. 317, ( online )
• lu:  Strong, Gotthelf Wilhelm Christoph . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 54, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1908, p. 448.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Herrmann Graf: Anhaltinisches Pfarrerbuch - The Protestant pastors since the Reformation . Dessau, 1996, p. 437