Hermann Wilken

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Hermann Wilken, also Hermann Witekind or Augustin Lercheimer (pseudonym) (* 1522 in Neuenrade ; † February 7, 1603 in Heidelberg ) was a German humanist, writer ( witch theorist ) and mathematician.

Life

Hermann Wilken studied in Frankfurt (Oder) and in Wittenberg , among others with Philipp Melanchthon . He was recommended by him in 1552 as a teacher at the cathedral school in Riga , whose rectorate he took over in 1554. In 1561 he enrolled as "honoratus" in Rostock and in 1563 in Heidelberg, where he became professor of the Greek language in the artist faculty. It is known that the death of Elector Friedrich III. 1576 under his eldest son and successor Ludwig VI. led to the restoration of Lutheranism in the Electoral Palatinate and to the dismissal of the Reformed theologians from the University of Heidelberg , who then continued their teaching activities in Neustadt an der Weinstrasse under the protection of Count Palatine Johann Casimir .

The artist faculty and with it Hermann Wilken were initially not affected. It was not until the refusal to sign the agreement formula that Wilkens and five other professors from the faculty of artists and the law and medical faculties were dismissed in 1580. In 1581 Wilken also found accommodation at the Casimirianum in Neustadt, where he no longer taught Greek, but mathematics. As a professor of mathematics he returned in 1584, after the death of Ludwig VI. and the recent turnaround in the Electoral Palatinate, back to Heidelberg University. Wilken, who remained professor at the artist faculty throughout his life, died in Heidelberg in 1603.

In 1564 Wilken returned to his Westphalian homeland for a short time, where, as a non-theologian, he was commissioned by the City Council of Neuenrade, his brother was the mayor there, to draft an evangelical church ordinance. This appeared in print in Dortmund that same year , but was immediately banned by Duke Wilhelm von Jülich-Kleve-Berg as well as by the imperial city of Dortmund. The older literature saw, for the most part without sufficient knowledge of the text, in Wilken's Neuenrader church order a compilation of the Riga church order from 1530 as well as from the Electoral Palatinate church order from 1552, the Wolfgang Palatinate Zweibrücken church order from 1557 and Caspar Olevian's Electoral Palatinate church order from 1563, which is connected to the Heidelberg catechism On the other hand, Gryczan conclusively shows that Wilken was based on the Riga church order and also based on the Mecklenburg church order of 1552.

“For the use of the church ordinances of Ottheinrich and Friedrich III. there are no clues ”. Added to this is the use of Klug's Wittenberg hymn book from 1543, from which Wilken took 30 songs, as well as Melanchthon's “Examen Ordinandorum”. Wilken's church order thus corresponds “to the Lutheran or the Melanchthonian tradition”, so that this “can no longer be interpreted as an early testimony to the development of the Reformed Confession in Westphalia”. Only in the course of time - long after 1564 - did Wilken himself approach “a moderately reformed direction”, and finally only when he refused to sign the formula of the Agreement.

In 1585, Hermann Wilken published his book against the persecution of witches under the pseudonym Augustin Lercheimer von Steinfelden: "Christian bedencken vnd reminder of magic" . Among the great witch theorists , Johann Georg Gödelmann and Anton Praetorius were significantly influenced by Wilken.

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personal data
SURNAME Wilken, Hermann
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Witekind, Hermann; Lercheimer, Augustin (pseudonym)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German humanist and mathematician
DATE OF BIRTH 1522
PLACE OF BIRTH Neuenrade ,
DATE OF DEATH February 7, 1603
Place of death Heidelberg