Johann Baptist Krebs

Johann Baptist Krebs (copper engraving by Friedrich Fleischmann (1791–1834))

Johann Baptist Krebs , pseudonyms Johann Baptist Kerning and JM Gneiding , (born April 12, 1774 in Überauchen ; died October 2, 1851 in Stuttgart ) was a German opera singer ( tenor ), opera director , singing teacher , freemason and esoteric writer.

Life

Krebs was a professional singer at the Württemberg Court Opera in Stuttgart , where he also appeared as a librettist for several operas. On his name day, Carl Maria von Weber composed the (lost) burlesque "Antonius" in 1808 or 1809. Today, however, he is best known as the author of esoteric and Masonic writings, which he published under the pseudonym Johann Baptist Kerning .

He was appointed for the clergy and sent to Constance to study Catholic theology. He finished this in Freiburg im Breisgau. From 1795 to 1823 he was a member of the Stuttgart Court Opera. From 1823 to 1849 he also worked in Stuttgart as a director and vocal teacher.

Cancer tried to fathom the essence of Freemasonry in a mystical way. According to him, the ultimate goal of Freemasonry is the “knowledge and revival of a prophetic power in man”. On August 12, 1820, he was raised to the degree of a knight apprentice by the Berlin Johannis Lodge. He received this degree in Berlin because Freemasonry had been banned in his hometown of Stuttgart. After the ban was lifted, Kerning became the founder and long-time master of the chair of the Johannisloge in Stuttgart, "Wilhelm to the rising sun".

Krebs developed a form of yogic practice based on consonants and vowels , which was published by his student and successor Karl Kolb in “The Rebirth, the Inner True Life” (sometimes also under the title “The Book of Letters”). These exercises, which began in the feet and focused on thinking and feeling sounds, were taken up and further developed by Karl Weinfurter . This practice entered the Masonic rituals as a "sabbithen degree" created by cancer.

At the time, Krebs was best known by his literary pseudonym. A wealth of lodge certificates received from Germany and Switzerland attest to the Masonic life of Cancer. This shows the extent to which his concern was honored in Masonic circles between 1820 and 1850. He was u. a. honored by lodges in Frankfurt, Erlangen, Fürth, Bayreuth, Mannheim, Ulm, Basel, Berlin, Frankenthal and Worms. Through his work at the opera he had a particular influence in artistic circles, which through him found access to masonry.

Cancer (Kernings) students included a. Carl Graf zu Leiningen-Billigheim and Friedrich Eckstein, who headed the Vienna Lodge of the Theosophical Society, but who also practiced Masonic work "in the manner of Kernings". The Christian mystics Alois Mailänder and Nikolaus Gabele used his writings to prepare their students. The doctor and writer Dr. Gustav Widenmann (1812–1876), who in 1851 published an important and philosophically well-founded book on the idea of ​​reincarnation, confessed to being a student of 'Kerning'.

The writer Gustav Meyrink , whose “occult” novels are known, is said to have practiced Kerning's exercises for a number of years, suggested by Eckstein, but later commented negatively on their value and even considered a spinal cord disease as a result of these exercises.

The great impact Kerning's in-depth work had in Masonic circles is attested by a wealth of honorary certificates, especially from German lodges.

Fonts

• The missionaries or the path to the teaching office of Christianity. Dresden 1844.
• Christianity or God and nature only one through the word , Dresden: Bromme 1844 (digitized version)
• Historical overview of Freemasonry in its essential relation to the history of mankind. Stuttgart June 21st, 5840. Stuttgart 1840. Reprint: Facsimile-Press, Stuttgart 1993
• Letters on royal art . Edited by Gottfried Buchner. Lorch undated
• The student . Lorch 1911
• Paths to immortality based on undeniable forces of human nature. Lorch 1936

literature

• Outline of the life of the opera director Johann Baptist Krebs, who died on October 2, 1851, from the chair of the Freemason lodge Wilhelm to the rising sun in Stuttgart , [Stuttgart]: Kienzler 1851 (digitized version)
• Ludwig Eisenberg : Large biographical lexicon of the German stage in the XIX. Century . Verlag von Paul List , Leipzig 1903, p. 546 f., ( Textarchiv - Internet Archive ).
• Kutsch / Riemens : Large song dictionary . Fourth, expanded edition. KG Saur, Munich 2003. Volume 4, ISBN 3-598-11598-9 , p. 2505 (7 volumes)
• Gottfried Buchner: Kerning. His life and his writings. A biographical sketch. With the picture of Kernings and samples from his writings. Renatus-Verlag, Lorch (Württemberg) 2nd revised & expanded edition 1927 (EA 1902)
• Karl Kolb: The rebirth, the inner true life. The so-called letter book. Lorch 1908
• Joseph Kürschner:  Krebs, Johann Baptist . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 17, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1883, p. 98 f.
• Carl Graf zu Leiningen-Billigheim: What is mysticism? Leipzig 1893

Web links

• Literature by and about Johann Baptist Krebs in the catalog of the German National Library
• Johann Baptist Krebs in the Carl Maria von Weber Complete Edition

Individual evidence

1. ^ Carl Graf zu Leiningen-Billigheim. What is mysticism? Leipzig 1893, p. 12. - 2 letters from Carl Graf zu Leiningen-Billigheim to Wilhelm Huebbe Schleiden, 1886. SUB Göttingen. State Archives. Cod.MS W.Hübbe Schleiden 194 A.
2. ↑ Jules Sauerwein. What I experienced in my journalistic career. National newspaper (Basel). Supplement April 29, 1932.
3. ^ Emil Bock: Rudolf Steiner. Studies on his life course and life's work. Stuttgart 1961. S. nnn.
4. ^ Diary of Wilhelm Hübbe Schleiden. SUB Goettingen. Cod. MS Hübbe Schleiden. 1012: 4 (Fragm.) Pp. 13, 25, 11.
5. ↑ Emil Bock: Repeated Earth Lives. The reincarnation idea in German intellectual history. 1981, p. 122.
6. ^ Letter from Meyrink to "Müller" dated June 20, 1917, printed in: Yvonne Caroutch: Gustav Meyrink Edition l'Herne, Paris 1976, pp. 215-216.