Hartwig Lohmann

Hartwig Lohmann (* around 1590/95 in Itzehoe ; † after 1639 and probably before 1642) was a German writer, doctor and lay theologian.

Live and act

The names of Hartwig Lohmann's parents are just as unknown as those of his wife and a daughter, who are mentioned in documents from 1635. Since he wrote skillfully and had good language skills, it can be assumed that he had a good education.

Lohmann probably moved to Flensburg together with Otto von Qualen , provost of the Preetz monastery . A short time later he worked there as a town clerk. After discussions and reading with his friend Nicolaus Knutzen Teting , he resigned from his office in February 1622 for reasons of conscience. After a disputation with clergy from Flensburg, he first moved to Wobbenbüll and then to Schwabstedt .

After theologians from Husum attacked Nicolaus Teting again, Lohmann also got into this conflict. In 1624 both had to leave the duchies for this reason. Lohmann then worked for Brandenburg as a “salt factor” for five years. Due to the war he moved to Odense and practiced as a doctor there. Possibly. Teting had advised him to study chemistry and read Paracelsus . Lohmann practiced here successfully for several years. One of his patients was the Danish scholar Holger Rosenkrantz , whom this acquaintance also suspected of heresy.

The noble doctor Heinrich Küster (Köster), who had already moved to Funen before Lohmann, triggered a new theological dispute with Lohmann's participation. At the end of July 1634 a paper by Friedrich Dame appeared in which the latter had criticized Teting and Lohmann in Odense in 1625. The theologians obtained further incriminating documents from Flensburg and demanded that the rulers expel Lohmann from the country. The reason they gave was that Lohmann could disturb the public calm because of his acceptance among the population. The citizens then campaigned for the popular medicin with the king.

Lohmann presumably personally presented King Christian IV with a petition. The King then referred the matter to the Supreme Spiritual Court. The trial took place in Copenhagen in April 1635 . After Lohmann had withdrawn on all points, he was able to stay in Odense.

In 1639 Lohmann wrote a poem of honor for a book by Lorenz Schröder, who worked as an organist in Copenhagen. He obviously died a little later. Anna Ovena Hoyer wrote a poem about the "Blessed Teting and Lohmann" in 1642, although it is unclear whether she actually meant Lohmann here.

Viewpoints as a theologian

As a theologian, Lohmann deviated from Lutheran orthodoxy in matters of dispute in his positions . Like Teting, he suspected that the actual cause of the conflict was not dogmatic problems, but a dispute between a small congregation of elect who believed in Christ incordatus (the Christ dwelling in the heart of the believers) and wanted to implement it. This was opposed by the much larger official church with what he believed to be frozen theological teaching. He took similar positions in disputes between the medical students who followed the principles of Hippocrates of Kos and Galenus , and the doctors of the nobility who adhered to the Empiricus of Paracelsus .

Although Lohmann revoked his theses during the trial, the few known documents make him appear credible. In all questions of dogmatics he tried to evade the charges raised and not to make a clear confession. He formulated clearly and seriously and thus differed from his opponents, who quickly work with slander and denounce.

literature

• Dieter Lohmeier : Lohmann, Hartwig . in: Schleswig-Holstein Biographical Lexicon . Volume 4. Karl Wachholtz Verlag, Neumünster 1976, pp. 139-140.

Web links

• Publications by and about Hartwig Lohmann in VD 17 .