Johann Beckmann (economist)

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Johann Beckmann

Johann Beckmann (born June 4, 1739 in Hoya ; † February 3, 1811 in Göttingen ) was a German scientist during the Enlightenment . His main work aimed at establishing a general technology as a holistic science of technology and its possible uses. The term " technology " was introduced by him in 1772. He is also considered the founder of commodity science and the critical history of technology as well as one of the fathers of agricultural sciences .

Life

Beckmann House in Hoya (today Lange Straße 5)
Göttingen memorial plaque for Johann Beckmann (Paulinerstraße 4)

Beckmann was born in Hoya on the Weser in 1739 ; his brother was Nicolaus Beckmann . He attended the public Latin school there and graduated from high school in Stade . From 1759 he studied theology, mathematics, physics and natural science at the Georg-August University in Göttingen . Study trips took him to some of the most important universities in Europe at the time.

From 1763 Beckmann was professor of physics and natural history at the Lutheran grammar school in Saint Petersburg . In 1765 he went to Sweden , where he was a student of Carl von Linnés in Uppsala . In 1766 he was appointed extraordinary professor for world wisdom (philosophy) at Göttingen University. In 1770 he was appointed full professor of economics and a member of the Royal Academy of Sciences in Göttingen.

In his lectures on economics , Beckmann combined theory and practice by illustrating the path of a product from raw material through processing to sale and proper use. Soon he was so well known that students from all parts of Europe - including Alexander von Humboldt - attended his lectures in Göttingen. He published his essential findings in 1769 in the textbook Principles of Teutschen Landwirthschaft . This work, which saw six editions, is considered to be the most important agricultural university textbook of that time. Beckmann had thus created an independent scientific teaching building for agriculture. Its importance lies primarily in the introduction of a methodology that organizes, systematizes and classifies traditional knowledge based on experience in agriculture, taking into account scientific findings.

Beckmann's most important achievement is the establishment of the science of technology. To this end, he systematically examined manual activities according to technical principles in order to describe how production could be made more efficient through the use of suitable processes and tools.

Title page of the goods science (1793)

Memberships and honors

  • In 1762 Beckmann was accepted into the local Masonic lodge in Leiden, the Netherlands .
  • In 1770 he was appointed a member of the Royal Academy of Sciences in Göttingen .
  • In 1771 he was accepted into the Leopoldina .
  • 1809 election as a foreign member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences .
  • In 1989 the Post of the GDR issued a stamp on Beckmann with a face value of ten Pfennigs in the series "Famous People" (GDR No. 1027).
  • In 2000, the high school in his hometown of Hoya was named Johann Beckmann High School (JBG).

Lore

Beckmann's scientific estate is kept in the special collections of the Lower Saxony State and University Library in Göttingen .

Publications

  • About setting up the economic lectures . Goettingen 1767.
  • Guide to technology . Göttingen 1777, 5th edition 1809.
  • Contributions to the history of inventions . 5 volumes, Leipzig / Göttingen 1780–1805.
  • Design of a general technology . Leipzig and Göttingen 1806.
  • Instructions for action science . Goettingen 1789.
  • Preparation for merchandise knowledge . 2 volumes, Göttingen 1795 to 1800.
  • Physical-economic library . 23 volumes Göttingen 1770–1807.
  • Principles of German agriculture . Göttingen 1769; further editions 1775, 1783, 1790, 1802 u. 1806.
  • Contributions to economics, technology, police and cameral science . 12 volumes Göttingen 1777–1791.
  • Instruction to keep the accounts of small households. 2nd Edition. Göttingen 1797, 1802.
  • Literature of older travelogues . 2 volumes, 1808–1810.

literature

  • Alois Kernbauer: Beckmann and the "technological" lessons at the universities of the Habsburg monarchy. The "technological" lessons in the canon of general education of the philosophical faculties, apart from the polytechnics and specialist schools. In: Johann Beckmann Journal. Communications of the Johann Beckmann Society eV 7 (1993) pp. 39–55. - Reprinted in: Günter Bayerl, Jürgen Beckmann (eds.): Johann Beckmann (1739–1811). Contributions to the life, work and impact of the founder of General Technology. (= Cottbus studies on the history of technology, work and the environment. 9). Münster / New York / Munich / Berlin 1999, pp. 203-216.
  • Carl Graf von Klinckowstroem:  Beckmann, Johann. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 1, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1953, ISBN 3-428-00182-6 , p. 727 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Günter Bayerl : Johann Beckmann (1739-1811) . In: Technikgeschichte, Vol. 76 (2009), H. 4, pp. 305-310.

Monographs

  • Alois Kernbauer (Ed.): Beckmanns Allgemeine Technologie. Mr. Hofrath Beckmann's lectures on technology. Presented between the years 1783 to 1793. (= publications from the archive of the University of Graz. Volume 38). Graz 2002, ISBN 3-201-01785-X .
  • Günter Bayerl et al. (Ed.): Johann Beckmann (1739-1811): Contributions to the life, work and effect of the founder of general technology. Münster et al. 1999, ISBN 3-89325-768-3 .
  • Hans-Peter Müller (Ed.): Social policy of the Enlightenment: Johann Beckmann and the consequences. Approaches to modern social policy in the 18th century. Münster et al. 1999, ISBN 3-89325-733-0 .
  • Hans-Peter Müller et al. (Ed.): Technology between progress and tradition: Contributions to the International Johann Beckmann Symposium, Göttingen 1989. Frankfurt am Main et al. 1992, ISBN 3-631-43368-9 .
  • Johann Beckmann (1739–1811): life and work of the founder of technology and important promoter of commodity science and agriculture. Exhibition of the Lower Saxony State and University Library Göttingen in the local history museum Grafschaft Hoya January 28 to February 29, 1984. ed. v. Lower Saxony State and University Library, Selection and Comments Bärbel Bendach. Göttingen 1984.
  • Wilhelm Franz Exner : Johann Beckmann, founder of technological science. Lecture given at the KK Austrian Museum for Art and Industry. With portr. with an appendix by Ulrich Troitzsch, reprint of the original edition Vienna 1878, Hoya 1989
  • Manfred Beckert: Johann Beckmann (= biographies of outstanding natural scientists, technicians and physicians , volume 68). Leipzig 1983.

Magazines

  • Johann Beckmann Journal: Communications from the Johann Beckmann Society eV Berlin / Diepholz: Publishing House for the History of Natural Sciences and Technology, 1987ff., ISSN  0942-5020

Web links

Commons : Johann Beckmann  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files
Wikisource: Johann Beckmann  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Holger Krahnke: The members of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen 1751-2001 (= Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Philological-Historical Class. Volume 3, Vol. 246 = Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Mathematical-Physical Class. Episode 3, vol. 50). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2001, ISBN 3-525-82516-1 , p. 34.
  2. ^ Member entry by Johann Beckmann at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences , accessed on January 6, 2017.
personal data
SURNAME Beckmann, Johann
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German scientist during the Enlightenment
DATE OF BIRTH June 4, 1739
PLACE OF BIRTH Hoya
DATE OF DEATH February 3, 1811
Place of death Goettingen