Johann Baptist Röschel

Johann Baptist Röschel, also Roeschel , (born May 9, 1652 in Ödenburg , † May 27, 1712 in Wittenberg ) was a German physicist and Lutheran theologian .

Life

Born as the only child of a respected businessman named Caspar Röschel and his mother Anna (née Spreitzin), he lacked nothing in his earliest youth. After attending the grammar school in his hometown, he moved into the University of Wittenberg on May 3, 1672. His parents wanted him to become a theologian. Therefore he found acceptance in Michael Walther's house and heard from Konrad Samuel Schurzfleisch at the philosophical faculty. after he had made his master's degree at the same faculty on October 16, 1677, three years later on December 10, 1680 he was accepted as an adjunct in the same faculty .

He then went on an educational trip and made the acquaintance of Johann Christoph Sturm , Gottfried Thomasius , Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz and Johann Ehrenfried Walter von Tschirnhaus . When he returned to Wittenberg, he continued his lectures, and so that he could also give lectures in theological sciences, he devoted himself to theology. Through his disputation “De fide Nicana” he was accepted into the theological faculty, which is equivalent to the academic degree of a baccalaureate in theology. When his parents died, he inherited a not unsightly sum of 20,000 thalers. With this he built up a private library and often lent out books from his holdings. This moved the university to appoint him as university librarian. In March 1693 he became a professor of physics.

The appointment of the theologian and philosopher to the magisterium of physics meant that no one seemed more suitable than a theologian to combat wicked and heretics. Physics produces most of the wicked, because naturalists primarily have to determine the reasons for physical phenomena in nature. Röschel tirelessly chastised those interpreters of nature, written and spoken, whose views he sought as close as possible to the source, primarily in Dutch, French and British works that he had acquired. Neither did he shy away from the expense of buying instruments for his experimental lectures. So he took his actual subject seriously.

When he also applied for the advertised professorship in logic and metaphysics in 1694, he could look back on around 20 collegia repetitoria and disputatoria held in this double subject. He taught natural history on the basis of the new knowledge gained over the past 60 years by natural science academies and societies. Because mathematics was extremely necessary to study physics and physical demonstrations could not be performed without mathematical knowledge, he also bought rare mathematical books and expensive instruments.

In 1700 he obtained his licentiate on April 21st, and on the following day, April 22nd, he received his doctorate in theology. Thereupon he applied for an extraordinary theological professorship in 1706 and justified his application by saying that in this way a "cathedra theologica" would be opened for him. As a philosopher and theologian, he could occasionally treat “problema mixta” in order to be able to polemicize at the “pure Lutheran Academy” against writings based on Cartesianism , Coccejanism ( Johannes Coccejus ) and Poiretianism ( Pierre Poiret ). The theological faculty recognized his scholarship in philosophy and theology in its report, but advised against an appointment because of his “weak physical constitution”, which impaired his lecturing activities. The king followed the vote of the university, which had chosen Röschel because of its expenses in church history.

During these negotiations, Röschel had a substitute assigned to him, his cousin Johann Heinrich von Heucher . As the university explained, it was not because he had become incapable of administering the physics professorship, but because he could do both subjects all the better. Röschel himself had indicated in his request in 1705 that he would no longer be able to carry out the mechanical, optical, hydrostatic, chemical and anatomical observations and operations on his own because of deteriorating eyesight. After Röschel died, his library was auctioned off.

family

From his marriage in Halle on September 14, 1700 to Johanna Elisabeth Schrader (born June 16, 1676 in Halle (Saale)), the daughter of Christoph Schrader (born July 8, 1642 Halle, † January 9, 1709 in Dresden), Consistorial councilor, court and cathedral preacher in Halle, later superintendent and church councilor, senior consistory assessor and Rev. Kreuzkirche Dresden and his first wife Catharina Barbara Brunner (* 1654; † July 17, 1683 in Halle), the following children are known:

Johanna Magdalena Röschel (born February 4, 1702 in Wittenberg)
Johann Samuel Röschel (born October 22, 1704 in Wittenberg)
Anna Magaretha Röschel (born December 30, 1710 in Wittenberg)

Works

de philosophia conciliatrice
de criteriis veritatis physicae
de initiis rerum naturalium
de historia Physices
de Physica ad certitudinem geometricam adspirante
Positiones, in quibus Cartensii, Gaffendi & recentissimorum quorumque Philosophorum sententias vocavit sub examen.
de determiniatione motus
de nisu, ultima motus ratione
de Teletis, see Graecorum Theologia physica
de Teletarum & mysteriorum traditione
de divino in macrocosmo
de thermometri natura & fide
de forma anni Patriarcharum antiquissima
de admiranda vi refractionis circa defectus horizontales, ad Plin. Lib. II. C. 13
de natura & consttutione Theologiae Exegeticae
de conscientia
Msturm alchymisticum
Sarcmasii Scholia

literature

Heinz Kathe : The Wittenberg Philosophical Faculty 1502–1817 (= Central German Research. Volume 117). Böhlau, Cologne / Weimar / Vienna 2002, ISBN 3-412-04402-4 .
Walter Friedensburg : History of the University of Wittenberg. Max Niemeyer, Halle (Saale) 1917
Michael Ranfft : Life and writings of all Chursächsischen god scholars,… Wolfgang Deer, Leipzig 1742

personal data
SURNAME	Röschel, Johann Baptist
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Roeschel, Johann Baptist
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German physicist and Lutheran theologian
DATE OF BIRTH	May 9, 1652
PLACE OF BIRTH	Ödenburg
DATE OF DEATH	May 27, 1712
Place of death	Wittenberg