Heinrich August Typke

Heinrich August Typke (born July 25, 1744 in Naumburg an der Saale , † December 26, 1830 in Dobrilugk ) was a German Protestant theologian.

Life

When he was baptized on July 25, 1744 in Naumburg (St. Wenzel), Typke was given the name 'Ernst Heinrich August'. He received his first lessons in Freyburg (Unstrut) , where his father had been transferred with his company, and in Naunhof near Leipzig, where he later held the position of General Landaccis collector. In 1757 Typke was a pupil of the learned school in Dresden- Neustadt and at the same time a choral student. In this way he was able to find the financial means that his parents could not afford for his education. He lived there for eight years, albeit in oppressive circumstances, cheerful and happy, and even in later years he used to describe this period of his life as the happiest, and especially as the point in time when, through the influence of hard-working teachers, decisive for his higher scientific education has become. The only unpleasant thing that touched him during his school days was the siege and bombardment of Dresden during the Seven Years' War . Carelessness and youthful curiosity almost put his life in danger.

Equipped with a thorough knowledge of the older languages ​​in particular, he began his academic career at the University of Leipzig in 1765 . Devoting himself to the study of theology, he attached himself to Christian August Crusius , whose deeper and more astute, but also darker and mysticist teaching lecture, combined with his exemplary piety, seemed to appeal to him more. More than the sobriety and clarity in the colleges of his antipode Johann August Ernesti . While his mind, rich in exuberant emotions, seemed to dominate the calm powers of the mind, in a short time he had become an avid Crusian, which he remained in a sense throughout his life. He had heard most of the theological colleges with Crusius and had penetrated deeply into the mysterious darkness of the writings of his beloved teacher. The separation from the esteemed man was painful for him when his oppressive circumstances forced him to leave this university after three years in Leipzig and take a position as a private tutor.

From 1768 he taught the children of two families of nobility. After he had passed his theological exam at the senior consistory in Dresden, Count v. Holzendorf to the parish substitute in Bärenstein . After differences with Count v. Holzendorf transferred him to the church council in Dresden after two years as a deacon in Sebnitz . He held this low-income job for six years, and that time was in some ways one of the saddest of his life. Especially due to the rapid successive loss of three children born to him by his wife, Friederike Elisabeth von Stutterheim. He had to endure many hard wars. His apartment was looted in 1778 during an enemy invasion of Saxony by Austrian troops and only a quick escape saved him from the fate of being taken hostage.

The post of senior pastor in Roßwein , which he received in 1779, compensated him for the loss he had suffered during the war . 3 more children were born to him in Roßwein. Seven years later he was superintendent and castle preacher in Dobrilugk . There he lived for several years in a vigorous activity and cheerful mood, which was only clouded by the death of his wife and a quarrel in which he got into with some members of the community. Since 1806 he felt less happy in his situation as superintendent in Dahme . In addition to the mistakes he got there with his two colleagues, there was the loss of his second partner, Caroline Gertrud von Stutterheim, a sister of his deceased wife. The war unrest at the time also caused some unpleasantness for him. As a result, his employment relationships were friendlier. As a still sprightly old man, he celebrated his 60th anniversary in office in 1821. From several sides he received evidence of the respect and recognition of his services, especially in 1824 by that of Friedrich Wilhelm III. He was awarded the third class red eagle order .

It was difficult for him, soon after those happy events, to leave the usual circle of his work. He went blind and had to seek retirement. This request was granted to him with an annual pension of 400 thalers. His third wife Johanna Luisa, a daughter of the late preacher Häseler in Schacksdorf near Forst in Niederlausitz, and his two daughters were also guaranteed an annual support of 300 thalers after his death. In Dobrilugk, where he had gone from Dahme, he wished to end the rest of his days. He did not like the idle life. Even in old age he was seldom seen idle. He himself went into the pulpit a few times. He enjoyed scientific, especially theological, conversations with an official in Dobrilugk. There death approached him painlessly at the age of eighty-seven.

With a healthy and strong body, Typke combined a rare liveliness of mind, varied knowledge and tireless activity. His talent for speaking, versatile experience, his right look, his calm mind and his simple, regulated way of life made every business easier for him. His subordinates clung to him with heartfelt love. He was a tender husband and father to his own. Under the pressure of bitter suffering and struggling with domestic worries, he was left with calm composure and quiet serenity. Pride, presumptuousness and hardness were completely alien to his heart, in which no wrong lived. These qualities and the ability to speak to people of all classes according to their various levels of education made him extremely attractive in social circles. There, his cordial, informal demeanor recommended him, while he lacked the smoothed politeness which, in empty formulas without cordiality, applies to others.

Act

A thorough study of the Bible had led him to supernaturalism out of deep conviction. Until the end of his life he defended and preached the pure gospel of Christ crucified. The innate mildness of his character saved him from intolerance towards those who thought differently. His uncharacteristic piety also had no part in that dark enthusiasm which true Christianity believes to find in the renunciation of all innocent joys of life. It cannot be denied, however, that his theological views and opinions, which were based on the system of his highly esteemed teacher Crusius, had some strange and strange things since this system had gone completely out of fashion. Through the teachings that he absorbed in his university years and through his acquaintance with the Moravian Brethren , which he maintained in his later years , his living spirit had received a direction that could be called hyperorthodox, apocalyptic, pious.

Without actually asserting his belief system, he had set it out publicly in several of his smaller writings. In one of the most important of these, in 1798, he posed the question What time is it in the kingdom of God? . This writing aroused many minds and some feathers were set in motion to refute Typke, who in the Apocalypse recorded and believed to find world history up to the last day and hinted at, with reference to the events of that time. As peculiar as his theological principles were, they did not have any decisive influence on Typke's sermons and other lectures. Evidence of this can be found in his church and house postil , published jointly with Hilmer , in which he followed an original preaching method and spoke out violently against the moral preachers, but at the same time spoke splendidly of the justice that applies before God.

Works

• Treatise on what God behaved in the fall of the first man. Leipzig 1779, 1805
• Brief illumination of the letter of the united religion teachers to Christianity. Leipzig 1785
• For edification for children at their first sacrament celebration. Freiberg 1785
• Salvation of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ against all enemies of his eternal Godhead; on the occasion of the declaration of a Hochlöbl. Theological Faculty of Gottingen, relating to the 27 contest documents sent in on the doctrine of the eternal deity of Christ. Lübben 1788
• What time is it in the kingdom of God? Answered from the Revelation of John. Goerlitz 1798
• Two farewell sermons and an official jubilee sermon. Along with his outline of life. published by his son Joseph Wilhelm Typke (born December 19, 1784 in Rosswein). Berlin 1832

literature

• 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. 541, ( online )
• Friedrich August Schmidt: New necrology of the Germans. Bernhard Friedrich Voigt, Ilmenau, 1832, 8th year (1830), 2nd part, p. 889, ( online )
• Georg Christoph Hamberger , Johann Georg Meusel : The learned Teutschland or lexicon of the now living German writers. Verlag Meyer, Lemgo, Fifth Edition, 1800, Vol. 8, p. 149 ( online ); 1812, vol. 16, p. 56, ( online ); 1827, Vol. 21, p. 148, ( online );

Web links

• Short biography and information on the work of Heinrich August Typke at Literaturport