Thank God Burchard Genzmer

Gottlob Burchard Genzmer (born November 8, 1716 in Hohen-Lübbichow , † April 14, 1771 in Stargard ) was an Evangelical Lutheran theologian , educator and one of the most important Mecklenburg naturalists of the late Enlightenment.

Life

Gottlob Burchard Genzmer was born as the son of the Evangelical Lutheran pastor Buchard Gottlieb Johann Genzmer (around 1670–1732) and his wife Katharina Margarete, née. Meinicke († 1721) was born in Hohen-Lübbichow (today: Lubiechów Górny) in Neumark . At the age of five he lost his mother. Katharina Thiele became the foster mother , and the father married her second time.

After his first lessons with his father, Genzmer attended the grammar school in Stettin and the grammar school for the gray monastery in Berlin from 1730 . In Berlin he met the later theologian, historian and author Samuel Buchholtz for the first time , from which a lifelong friendship developed. In later years Genzmer acted several times as a sponsor of Buchholtz. His literary work is based not insignificantly on Genzmer's influence.

From 1736 to 1738 Genzmer studied theology and philosophy in Halle . The first meeting and the beginning of a close friendship with Johann Joachim Winckelmann took place during his studies, which lasted until his death despite the physical distance.

In 1740 Genzmer was appointed deputy principal to Havelberg as his first professional position .

“ [Here] he […] lived in close friendship with the vice-principal [Samuel] Buchholz in Werben, who later became known as a historical researcher, and the vice-principal [Johann Joachim] Win [c] kelmann in Seehausen, who later became famous archaeologist. All three, ambitious natures in close relationships, found themselves unsatisfied by their professional activity. Genzmer had the advantage that there was literary interest in Havelberg; he was a good expert on classical literature, well educated in natural history, and a diligent collector. "

- Georg Krüger : The pastors in Stargard since the Reformation.

His enthusiasm for stones and fossils, which was kindled early on, brought Genzmer into (letter) contact with the most important scholars of his time, including Johann Christoph Gottsched in Leipzig, Friedrich Martini in Nuremberg (and Berlin), Johann Ernst Immanuel Walch in Jena, Christian Friedrich Voss , Friedrich Nicolai and Johann Georg Krünitz in Berlin, Carl von Linné in Sweden.

Through the mediation of Christian Andreas Cothenius , the apparently pietistic Genzmer received an appointment to Mirow in Mecklenburg-Strelitz in 1745 as an "informator" ( prince educator ) at the court of the hereditary prince Karl (Ludwig Friedrich) who was apanaged there . The Mirower Hof developed - also through Genzmer's presence - into the intellectual center of the small Mecklenburg part of the country. Genzmer's pupils included two future regents of Mecklenburg-Strelitz: Adolf Friedrich IV and Karl II. He also had close personal contact with all the other princes and princesses there, including Princess Sophie Charlotte , who later became Queen of Great Britain and Ireland and also then should have maintained letter contact with Genzmer. Sophie Charlotte's keen interest in botany and her commitment to the Royal Botanic Gardens (Kew) is attributed to her teaching by Genzmer. In 1749 Genzmer made a trip to Denmark, on which he visited Angelius Johann Daniel Aepinus in Rostock. When Adolf Friedrich IV ascended the throne in early 1753, Genzmer probably also followed the court society and initially moved to Neustrelitz with the rank of court master . More than a decade later, there is evidence that Genzmer had unhindered access to the regent and that he dined at the princely table during occasional stays in the residence.

When the duties of the prince educator were fulfilled, the duke provided his teacher and educator in 1756 with the preposition Stargard, the most profitable parish in his country. Apparently only now did Genzmer think the time had come to start a family. He married Sophie Albertine, born perhaps from Neustrelitz. Strübing († 1788), and was the father of three sons and three daughters between 1758 and 1768.

From then on, Genzmer in Stargard devoted himself to his official duties as pastor of the parishioners who were parishioners in Stargard and as a preposition of the district he administered. Apparently as the first ministerial officer there, he began to conscientiously keep birth, baptism, marriage and death records in Stargard and, as an introduction to the church book, also described his and his congregation's income situation. After the great Stargard city fire of 1758, he led the reconstruction of the city church, while the congregation celebrated services in a chapel on the castle for well over a decade. In 1764 he was an eyewitness to the devastation caused by a devastating tornado of the class F5 , which is rare in Germany, in the Woldegk region on June 29, 1764. Over a distance of almost 30 km from Feldberg to Helpt , the cyclone left a swath of devastation up to 900 m wide. Genzmer described the effects in detail in a publication published in 1765.

In addition, he brought together an extensive collection of stones and fossils (petrefacts) and was regarded by contemporaries as a scientific capacity in this field. It is certain that even Winckelmann and Prince Georg (August) zu Mecklenburg spent time in Rome looking for pieces for Genzmer's collection. While Genzmer actively participated in the exchange of knowledge among scholars by letter, his journalistic activity was limited to a few articles. In 1766 Thomas Nugent visited Genzmer in Stargard and describes his impressions in his (fictional) letters. In 1768 Genzmer was one of the first to take part in the reviving discussions on the Rethra problem and the authenticity of the so-called Prillwitz idols . In 1769 he was elected a member of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina in Halle (Saale). In 1769 he had contact with Joachim Trumpf , accompanied the installation of his organ in the Stargarder Stadtkirche and later wrote a necrology on him. When the town church of Stargard experienced its solemn re-consecration on October 24th, 1770, a cantata was performed by the ducal chapel, the text of which came from Genzmer. Just one year later, Genzmer died at the age of 54 from the consequences of a foot injury and was laid to rest in front of the main altar of his church.

Works

Genzmer did not write any significant scientific work; however, a number of articles have been proven:

• Description of a fossilized shell, with a triple back (conchae rugosae trilobae) / by e. Members from Mecklenburg [GB Genzmer]. In: Work of a united society in Upper Lusatia […]. Leipzig u. Lauban 2, 1750/51, 3rd item, pp. 285-298 (with illustration).
• Complicated and reliable description of the hurricane, which on June 29th, 1764 devastated a line of several miles in the Stargardian district of the Duchy of Mecklenburg / in some letters to Mr. G [eheimen] C [anzley-] R [ath] S [ eip] […] designed by GB Genzmern. Berlin 1765. ( digitized ; full text, PDF )
• Mr. Gottl. Burch. Genzmer's […] preliminary news of some recently discovered idols and antiquities of northern Heydethum. In a letter to Mr. D. Schütze in Hamburg, dated February 15, 1768 . In: Altonascher Merkurius 1768, 34 [reprinted by Boll, 1854, p. 180].
• [About an Orthocreratite with double nerve tubes from Genzmer's collection] . In: New Systematic Conchylia Cabinet / geordn. u. restrict from Friedr. Heinr. Wilh. Martini. Nuremberg 1, 1768, p. 5.
• Second letter to Sr. Hochw. Doctor Schütze in Hamburg, which contains a contribution to the provisional description given recently in the former of the idols and antiquities of northern Heydism recently discovered at Neubrandenburg in Mecklenburg . In: Altonascher Merkurius 1768, 44 [reprinted by Boll, 1854, p. 186].
• Acknowledgment speech to Sr. Hertzogl. Pass [Adolf Friedrich IV.]. Held in the castle church / by prepos [itus] GB Genzmer. In: Denckmaal of the solemn inauguration of the newly built church in Stargard in the Hertzogthum Mecklenburg-Strelitz on October 24, 1770. Neubrandenburg, 1770.
• Message from a recently deceased Mecklenburg artist and autodidact, Joachim Trumpf, sexton and organist at Ivenack in Schwerin . In: Useful contributions to the Neue Strelitzschen advertisements 2, 1770, 2, Sp. 113–120; 2, 1770, 3, col. 121-126.
• Any other answer to Pastor Sense's objections to Warlin i. Meckl., Against the Wendish antiquities [...]. In: Charitable essays from the sciences for all stands on the Rostockische Nachrichten. 1770, St. 18-21, pp. 73-85. [= Heeß, No. 1934].
• From the so-called beetle clam. In: Berlin Collection for the Promotion of Arzney Science, Natural History, Household Art, Cameral Science and the relevant literature, Berlin 3, 1771, Stk. 2, pp. 117–127 (reprint and d. T .: Des Herr GB Genzmer [...] treatise of the so-called beetle clam (Entomolithus paradoxus Linn.). In: Magazin für die Naturkunde und Oekonomie Mecklenburgs, Schwerin and Leipzig 2, 1795, pp. 81–93).
• The Provost Genzmer's […] short message of a rare and hitherto completely unknown petrification. In: Berlin Collection for the Promotion of Medicine Science, Natural History, Housekeeping, Cameral Science and the relevant literature. Berlin 3, 1771, Stk. 3, pp. 294-296. [with title copper: Fig. 3].
• General news of a very beautiful and complete petrefact collection in Mecklenburg [about Genzmer's collection]. Neubrandenburg, 1783. 38 pp. [= Bachmann, No. 691; Wrong page number there].
• Isis Entrocha Linn [aei]. In: Berlin Collection for the Promotion of Medicine Science, Natural History, Housekeeping, Cameral Science and the Literature Affecting it, Berlin 5, 1773, Stk. 1, pp. 156–163. (with illustration). Reprint u. d. T .: Of Mr. GB Genzmer […] Description of Isis Entrocha Linnaei. In: Magazine for the natural history and economy of Mecklenburg. Schwerin u. Leipzig 1, 1791, pp. 157-167 [without the illustrations].
• [About a shotgun stone with petrified red crab claws in it ], according to Siemssen in a well-known Knorrian work, plate XVI [probably: Georg Wolffgang Knorr: Collection of Curiosities of Nature and Antiquities of the Earth, which contains petrified bodies, Nuremberg, 1755, 3 parts].

estate

Nothing is known about the whereabouts of Genzmer's collections and other legacies. Already during his lifetime Genzmer tried to sell his valuable collection of petrefacts, which neither he nor later his heirs seem to have succeeded in doing. The collection was still in Stargard around 1800, since then it has been lost. Winckelmann's letters to Genzmer, which at that time were still in the family of his descendants, were first edited twenty years after Genzmer's death. This very high-quality written estate, preserved by the descendants, can also be located for the last time around 1800. Since then, there has been no trace of it either. An edition of the correspondence between Genzmer and Buchholtz, announced in 1775 under the title Critical Letters from the Areas on the Belt , has also never appeared, and the letters have since disappeared. Only individual books from Genzmer's library, including a Bible with autographs by Philipp Melanchthon , which Nugent admired in Genzmer's possession, are still preserved today.

literature

• Adolf Christian Siemssen: Contribution to the life story of Mr. G [ottlob] B [urchard] Genzmer. In: Magazine for the natural history and economy of Mecklenburg. Schwerin u. Leipzig 1 (1791). Pp. 311-324.
• Peter Starsy: Gottlob Burchard Genzmer (1716-1771). Attempt at a belated appreciation. In: Bull and Greif: special issue 1000 years of Mecklenburg. Schwerin, 1995. pp. 74-84.
• Peter Starsy: Gottlob Burchard Genzmer. In: Biographical Lexicon for Mecklenburg. Vol. 2 (1999). Pp. 97-103 [with far. Information u. Catalog raisonné].
• Grete Grewolls: Who was who in Mecklenburg and Western Pomerania. The dictionary of persons . Hinstorff Verlag, Rostock 2011, ISBN 978-3-356-01301-6 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ NOT: Burchard Gottlob Genzmer ; NOT: Gentzmer
2. ↑ The date April 20, 1771 , which has been widely used in literature for centuries , is not his date of death, but rather his date of burial. The church book information that he died at the age of 56 seems to be an error. (Mecklenburg Church Book Office Schwerin: Church book information by email from September 26, 2017).
3. ↑ Georg Krüger: The pastors in the country of Stargard since the Reformation. In: Yearbooks of the Association for Mecklenburg History and Antiquity, Vol. 69 (1904), pp. 1–270 [here pp. 183–184].
4. ↑ Two of his sons and a half-brother of Genzmer later continued the family tradition as pastors in the Mecklenburg-Strelitz church service.
5. ^ Thomas Nugent: Travels through Germany and especially through Mecklenburg. Reprint [of the edition] Berlin and Stettin, Nicolai, 1781. Schwerin, 2000.
6. ↑ [Gottlob Burchard Genzmer]: Denckmaal of the solemn inauguration of the newly built church in Stargard in the Duchy of Mecklenburg-Strelitz on October 24, 1770. Neubrandenburg, 1771.
7. ^ [Adolf Christian Siemssen]: Winkelmann letters. - In: Monthly magazine from and for Mecklenburg 4 (1791), 8th issue, Col. 523-531. All later editions follow this source.

Web links

Wikisource: Magazine for the natural history and economy of Meklenburg  - sources and full texts

• Literature about Gottlob Burchard Genzmer in the state bibliography MV