Johann August von Starck

Johann August von Starck

Johann August von Starck (born October 28, 1741 in Schwerin ; † March 3, 1816 in Darmstadt ) was a German writer, Freemason , Lutheran theologian and general superintendent of Königsberg in Prussia (1776–1777). At times a leading figure in Freemasonry, this was at the center of his literary work alongside church history work.

Life

Starck was a son of the preacher at the Schwerin Cathedral Samuel Christfried Starck (1688–1769). He studied theology and oriental studies at the University of Göttingen under Johann David Michaelis , from whom he later turned away. When he began his studies in 1761, he was admitted to a Masonic lodge in Göttingen. In 1763 Anton Friedrich Büsching , whom he had met in Göttingen, got him a post as a teacher of ancient history and oriental studies in St. Petersburg , although he had not yet finished his studies. The Magisterium was awarded to him in absentia in 1766.

In St. Petersburg Starck met a Count Peter Melesino or Melissino (1726–97), who was of Greek origin and a lieutenant general in the Imperial Russian Army. Its Masonic lodge worked according to a high-grade system that supposedly went back to the Templar Order , which in turn was supposed to have received the secret knowledge of the ancient Jews and Egyptians. Starck joined this direction and later the strict obeservance of Karl Gotthelf von Hund and Altengrotkau . In Wismar , where he was vice-principal of the grammar school from 1766-68, he was co-founder of a lodge of the Strict Observance in February 1767.

In 1768 he returned to St. Petersburg presumably on Freemason affairs and settled in Königsberg on September 28, 1769, where he was a neighbor of Immanuel Kant . Both lived in the rooms of the bookseller Kanter, where Starck apparently did not have to pay any rent.

From the summer semester of 1770, Starck initially taught oriental studies as an associate professor and was soon given the chair for logic and metaphysics . In the same year he was appointed second court chaplain. In 1773 he received a doctorate in theology, which subsequently justified his appointment as the fourth professor of this faculty the year before. In autumn 1773 he gave up the philosophy chair.

In April 1774 he married Maria Albertine Schultz, the youngest daughter of the late general superintendent Franz Albert Schultz . In 1776 he became the main court chaplain, third professor of theology and general superintendent as well as chairman of the Lutheran Prussian Consistory in Königsberg, the regional church authority of the Lutheran Upper Consistory in Berlin , which was responsible for the entire monarchy. One of the tasks of the Königsberg general superintendent was the supervision of the East Prussian schools. His direct predecessor was General Superintendent Daniel Heinrich Arnoldt , his successor Johann Ernst Schulz .

In 1777 Starck left Prussia and went to the Academia Petrina in Mitau , at that time the capital of the Duchy of Courland and Semigallia and a center of Freemasonry, towards whose merely politically motivated brothers and those who were merely looking for sociability he felt a growing estrangement. Because of his views and possibly also his personality, he soon became unpopular in Mitau and moved to Darmstadt in 1781 , where he spent the rest of his life as court chaplain and general superintendent for the schools in Gießen and Darmstadt.

In 1811 he was raised to the baron rank. Since his marriage to Maria Albertine had remained childless, he adopted two male relatives of his wife, Karl von Starck and Gustav von Starck, in 1812 . He died on March 3, 1816.

Writings and views

At the beginning of his career, Starck exhibited a deist conception that was suitable for bridging doctrinal contradictions. In his anonymous "Apology of the Order of Freemasons" (1770) he argued that the wisdom of the Eleusinian mysteries , Freemasonry and Christianity were essentially one.

His “Hephestion” (1775) traced some aspects of Christianity back to pagan roots and was therefore sharply hostile, for example by Georg Christoph Pisanski (1725–1790), who wrote an “Antihephesty”.

During the French Revolution , Starck turned to reform conservatism . In the journal Eudämonia he was a leader in the dissemination of the conspiracy theory , which saw the cause of the French Revolution in the work of the Enlightenment philosophers , the Freemasons and Illuminati .

With the "Freymuthigen Reflections on Christianity", Starck began a turn towards a more conservative theology in 1780, which ended in the much-read "Triumph of Philosophy in the Eighteenth Century" (1803). In this work, which was partly inspired by Augustin Barruel's “Memories on the History of Jacobinism” published in 1797/1798, he made “philosophism” (ie the Enlightenment ) and politicized Freemasonry responsible for the decline of religion and all the grievances of his time.

In his correspondence with the Zurich Freemason Diethelm Lavater, however, Starck emphasized until the end of his life that he had remained a Freemason. In 1809 he wrote:

"Since that time, as in the political world, there have been all sorts of big changes in the Order: one scene has alternated with the other, and it is now 32 years that I have completely withdrawn from everything, and everything, What is and will be undertaken, took no part in anything other than watching how the blown egg is colored and played with, now and again, and how it is needed for what it should be least used for. In all of this, however, my convictions about the matter are the same as they were then and will always be. The truth, my dearest friend and brother, is only one and unchangeable, and after careful examination I am completely convinced that it exists where we were entitled to believe its existence. "

Works

• De Aeschylo et eius imprimis tragoedia “Prometheus vinctus” inscripta est libellus . Goettingen 1763
• Commentationum et observationum philologico-criticarum . Koenigsberg 1769
• Inaugural sermon for court preaching . Koenigsberg 1770
• Apology of the Order of Freemasons / From the Brother **** Members of the ** Scottish Lodge to P. *. Freemason [Anon.] Königsberg 1770
• Dissertatio inauguralis de usu antiquarum versionum Scripturae Sacrae interpretationis subsidio . Koenigsberg 1773
• De tralatitiis et gentilismo in religionem christianam liber singularis . Koenigsberg 1774
• Hephestion , Königsberg 1775
• Inaugural sermon for the Oberhof preaching office . Koenigsberg 1776
• New year and farewell sermons . Koenigsberg 1777
• History of the Christian Church of the First Century . Berlin and Leipzig 1779/80
• Free-spirited reflections on Christianity [Anon.] Berlin 1780
• About the purpose and use of the Order of Masons [Anon.] Berlin 1781
• About the old and new mysteries . Berlin 1782
• Attempt a History of Arianism . Berlin 1783–85
• Saint Nicaise, or a collection of strange Masonic letters, for Freemasons and who are not [Anon.] Frankfurt am Main 1785
• Real incidents of some Freemason brothers who allowed themselves to be blinded by a false light and finally came to true knowledge. Written by them in letters to their friends , 1786
• About crypto-catholicism, proselytizing, Jesuitism, secret societies and especially the accusations made to himself by the authors of the Berlin monthly, documented with pieces of paper . Frankfurt am Main and Leipzig 1787
• Something, too, against the something of Frau von der Recke about the chief preacher Starck's defense . Leipzig 1788
• Illumination of the last efforts of Mr. Kessler von Sprengseysen to defend his venerable superiors, the Berliners and himself before the whole world. In addition to some considerations regarding the new behavior of Berliners . Leipzig 1788
• Christian Nicolai book guide to Bebenhausen in Swabia. Important discoveries on a scholarly journey through Germany, and made known by printing out of zeal for the Christian, primarily Protestant Church [Anon.]. Dessau and Leipzig 1788
• Documented anti-defense, along with a short dispatch of the three Berliners and Mr. Carl von Sacken . Frankfurt am Main and Leipzig 1789
• Apologism to the better audience . Halle and Leipzig 1789
• History of Baptism and Baptism Minded . Leipzig 1789
• The triumph of philosophy in the eighteenth century [Anon.] Frankfurt am Main 1803
• Theodul's banquet, or about the union of the various Christian religious societies [Anon.] Frankfurt am Main 1809
• Theodul's correspondence. Side piece to Theodul's feast [Anon.] Frankfurt am Main 1828

literature

• Georg Christoph Pisanski: Draft of a Prussian literary history in four books: with a note about the author and his book , ed. By Rudolf Philippi. Königsberg, 1886, pp. 565, 570, 592, 596, 601, 637, 708. Pirmizdevums: Königsberg, 1790.
• Friedrich Wilhelm Strieder: Basis for a Hessian history of scholars and writers Kassel, 1806, Volume 15, pp. 225-237.
• Paul Tschackert :  Starck, Johann August . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 35, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1893, p. 465 f.
• Paul Konschel: Hamann's opponent, the cryptocatholic D. Johann August Starck, court preacher and general superintendent of East Prussia . Koenigsberg, 1912.
• Claus Oberhauser, The conspiracy-theoretical triad: Barruel-Robison-Starck, Innsbruck-Vienna-Bozen 2013, ISBN 978-3-7065-5307-0 .
• Claus Oberhauser: Barruel - Robison - Starck. Features of conspiracy theories in the Late Enlightenment . In: Johannes Kuber, Michael Butter, Ute Caumanns, Bernd-Stefan Grewe, Johannes Großmann (eds.): From back rooms and secret machinations. Conspiracy theories in the past and present (In dialogue. Contributions from the Academy of the Diocese of Rottenburg-Stuttgart 3/2020). Pp. 77-919.
• Boris Telepneff: JA Starck and his Rite of Spiritual Masonry . In: Transactions of the Quatuor Coronati Lodge . Vol. 41, London 1929, pp. 238-284.
• Klaus Epstein: The Genesis of German Conservatism . Princeton 1966, pp. 506-517.
• Werner G. Zimmermann: From the old to the new Freemasonry. Correspondence and box speeches by Diethelm Lavater after 1800 . Zurich 1994 (contains 36 letters from Starck to Lavater 1809–1815).
• Christopher Spehr: Art. Starck, Johann August . In: RGG 4th ed. Vol. 7 (2004), Sp. 1687f.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Heinrich Friedrich Jacobson , History of the sources of the evangelical canon law of the provinces of Prussia and Posen, with documents and regestas , Königsberg in Pr .: Gebrüder Bornträger, 1839, (= history of the sources of the canon law of the Prussian state, with documents and registers; Tl. 1, vol. 2), p. 134, no ISBN.
2. ↑ Cf. Instruction, in front of the Lutheran Ober = Consistorium, established over all royal lands, de dato Berlin, October 4th. 1750 , printed in: Corpus Constitutionum Marchicarum, Oder Königl. Preussis. and Churfürstl. Brandenburgische in der Chur- and Marck Brandenburg, also incorporated Landen, published and issued regulations, Edicta, Mandata, Rescripta etc .: From the times of Frederick I Elector of Brandenburg, etc. bit under the government of Friderich Wilhelm, King in Prussia, etc. ad annum 1736. inclusive , IV. Continuatio, column 291ff.
3. ^ Klaus Epstein : The genesis of German conservatism . Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ 1966, Chapter 10.

predecessor	Office	successor
Daniel Heinrich Arnoldt	General superintendent in Königsberg for the Lutheran Upper Consistory of Prussia 1776 - 1777	Johann Ernst Schulz