Hans Detleff

Hans Detleff (* around 1600 in Windbergen ; † probably 1659 there ) was a German farmer and chronicler.

Live and act

Hans Detleff came from a family of Vogemanns who lived in Windbergen. According to the naming in Dithmarschen at the time, he was called Detlef. In the case of Hans, it was his father's name in the genitive. The father Detlef Hans, who worked as a farmer in Windbergen at least 1631, was married to a woman named Cathrine, who was still alive in 1655. Whether he married himself is not known; Obviously he had no children.

Since Detleff mastered the Latin language, he probably attended at least the Latin school in Meldorf . He worked as a farmer on a farm in Windbergen and described himself as "an unfamiliar person, de nergens different than thor accustomed to huss and field work". From 1633 to 1638/39 he took over the duties of the church builder / accountant, for which mostly younger men were responsible. It is therefore very unlikely that his date of birth was before 1600. Court records indicate that he was still alive in 1656. The church account book of Windbergen records in 1659 a receipt of "Hans Detlef's Dodengeld", which should have been Hans Detleff.

Acting as a chronicler

Shortly after 1630 Detleff received the chronicle of Neocorus, who had recently died, through personal contacts . From 1634 he wrote his own chronicle, initially using Neocorus' handwritten works and skilfully selecting and shortening content from them. Then he added "uth deroffwerdigen Chroniken und Vortekenißen, ock des benenten Sel. Authoris other value particular writings". He himself described the years from 1620 to 1650 in strict chronological order. By 1655 he made lists of major storm surges, the secular and clerical officials and people from Dithmarschen who had obtained their doctorate.

Detleff worked like Neocorus and wrote as objectively as possible without any comments or evaluations of his own. Since his work was shorter than that of Neocorus and contained an additional 30 years, it was very popular in Dithmarschen. Therefore, there were numerous copies of his text and later a translation into the standard German language. The chronicle was spread across the region, as was the case with Peter Sax , who wrote in 1640 that “Detlef Hans Detlef” was one of his sources.

literature

• Dieter Lohmeier: Detleff, Hans . in: Schleswig-Holstein biographical lexicon . Volume 5. Wachholtz, Neumünster 1979. ISBN 3-529-02645-X , pages 106-107.