Johann Christian Juergensen

Johann (Hans) Christian Jürgensen (born April 7, 1744 in Schleswig ; † November 8, 1823 there ) was a German-Danish white baker , instrument maker and chronicler.

Live and act

Johann Christian Jürgensen was the youngest of four sons of Johann Anton Jürgensen (* 1710; † 1760), who worked as a white baker in Schleswig. The mother Martha (born February 21, 1717 in Schwabstedt ; † June 6, 1782 in Schleswig) was a daughter of the Schwabstedter miller Jürgen Carstens. She had initially married the Schleswig brandy distiller Ratje Streve, who died in 1742. Asmus Jacob Carstens was one of his cousins .

As a child, Jürgensen worked in his father's bakery and received an education at a Schleswig city school, probably the one in Friedrichsberg . In addition to attending school, he allegedly received piano lessons. He then learned first from his father and, after his death, from another master baker in Schleswig. In 1762 he passed the journeyman's examination. He then helped his mother keep running the deceased father's bakery.

Working as an instrument maker

Like his father, Jürgensen worked as a handicraftsman alongside his work as a baker, such as a cabinet maker. In addition, there was an increasing preoccupation with music. Therefore, he created a piano based on his own ideas, which was probably a clavichord . Due to the quality of the instrument, he received orders for several other pianos. In 1769 he therefore stopped working as a baker. Then he opened his own workshop for instrument making. It should have helped him that he married the rich widow of a Schleswig cathedral cantor.

Jürgensen now built clavichords and fortepianos on request . His contemporary and expert Carl Friedrich Cramer praised the successful sound of the instruments and their high-quality workmanship. He said that Jürgensen was one of the best instrument makers in Germany. In 1800, Jürgensen made a clavichord for Queen Luise of Prussia , which can be seen as evidence of his skills as a craftsman. Even Johann Abraham Peter Schulz was probably an instrument from the workshop.

Jürgensen invented a "Clavecin Royal" and the "Bellesonorereal". These pianos had stops and foot levers with which the timbre and pitch could be changed in many ways. He had no success with these instruments. In addition to pianos, he also created flutes and harps. He experimented and reported in several articles about his activities and inventions. This included a non-detunable stringing of pianos, an apparatus for retuning harps that had a row of keys or the simpler production of flutes and tone meters. He gained such a reputation that he received orders as an expert for organ repairs, for example in 1810 at the Schleswig Cathedral .

Working as an engineer

In the 1770s / 80s, Jürgensen learned from Müller Hans Grewe. The former village school teacher lived near Schleswig and taught him mathematics and physics, whereupon Jürgensen began to build optical instruments. Jürgensen also knew the engineer officer Wilhelm Theodor von Werner (1724–1792). Von Werner worked as general land measurement director, helped initiate the Eider Canal and was considered very educated in the field of mathematics and physics. In his study he carried out experiments together with Jürgensen. Jürgensen then constructed a number of devices such as monochords , leveling machines (to record height differences), proportional compasses, plant graphs, thermometers and barometers.

Due to the quality of his instruments, some technically interested nobles such as Conrad Graf Holck or Christian Detlev von Revenfeld asked Jürgensen to spend the summer months on the Eckhof and Nienhof estates . Here they wanted to experiment together. In 1784 they tried to launch hot air balloons in cities such as Schleswig, Kiel , Eutin and Lübeck . Jürgensen also planned a manned balloon ride like that of the Montgolfier brothers , but was unable to raise the necessary money.

During this time, Jürgensen's business in piano manufacturing developed increasingly poorly due to competitors from Dresden and Vienna. Therefore, he now increasingly produced optical and technical equipment, including mirror telescopes, astrolabes and electrifying machines and less musical instruments. His most popular product was lightning rods, for which he found numerous customers.

Relation to Asmus Jacob Carstens

In 1776, Jürgensen offered his cousin Asmus Jacob Carstens, who was ten years his junior, to live in his house for three months. Carstens had broken off an apprenticeship as a cooperator and had no income. At Jürgensen he had an extensive library at his disposal, in which ancient authors could also be found. The stay was important for his development as a painter and draftsman. Together with Jürgensen, he visited the works of art in the Schleswig Cathedral , in the Gottorf Castle and the pictures Jürgen Ovens ' pictures in the Neuwerkgarten of the Amalienburg . He also helped him to take painting lessons from Paul Ipsen from Copenhagen, with whom he was friends.

In 1792 Jürgensen published a short biography of Asmus Jacob Carstens and his brother Friedrich Christian Carstens . Asmus Jacob mentioned Jürgensen with thanks for the time in Schleswig in his "Oden und Elegien von Jacob" from 1783.

Acting as a chronicler

Jürgensen dealt with archeology and history. Together with the philologist Johann Matthias Schultz, he explored using two rune stones that had been discovered near Schleswig in 1796. In 1799 he published on this. His most important and longest writing is a revised city chronicle of Schleswig. This was based on a work by Nicolaus Helduader . Jürgensen did not use these completely and summarized them. He added them beyond 1603 for the period up to 1822.

In the chronicle, Jürgensen created seven sections. These include the topography of Schleswig and its time as the seat of the bishop, the city's regiment, Gottorf Castle and the Neuwerkgarten. Researchers still consider the work to be a reliable representation of the city's topography and social structures during Jürgensen's lifetime. The extensive representation of the Neuwerkgarten, which largely still existed around 1830, is of particular importance.

Jürgensen was evidently particularly interested in antiquarian visual arts. When his estate was put up for auction three months after his death, it comprised 1200–1300 engravings. With the help of his first wife, he had received a portrait of Luther made by Albert von Soest . It was a papier-mâché bas-relief . In the anniversary year of the Reformation in 1817, Jürgensen wrote an essay about this that he also wanted to earn money with. So he offered casts in plaster of paris and metal. He had already sold several such products to parishes, including Schleswig, Rendsburg and Husum.

Shortly before the end of his life in 1823, Jürgensen described in detail the Bordesholm Altar created by Hans Brüggemann . His presentation is extremely precise, contains approaches for interpretation and sometimes critical comments.

estate

Jürgensen left a lot of objects that were auctioned and therefore did not stay together. The only significant work of art that can be clearly assigned to his property is the wooden sculpture of angels playing lute, created by Brüggemann . His sons sold these to the Berlin museums in 1846 . Brügemann had made the work for the Marienkirche in Husum; after this was canceled, Jürgensen bought the work of art in 1807. Three keyboard instruments created by Jürgensen can be found in museums today:

• A square piano from 1778 is kept in Oslo's Norsk Folkemuseum .
• Another square piano from 1782 is in the Dansk Musikhistorik Museum in Copenhagen.
• The clavichord made for Queen Luise belongs to the Spreewaldmuseum Lübbenau / Spreewald . This passed it on as a permanent loan to the museum in Bad Pyrmont Castle .

Honors

Because of his unusually diverse and skillful work, Jürgensen received several honors:

• The King of Denmark appointed him Dannebrogsmann in 1810.
• In 1794, Jürgensen created a free-standing sundial for Louisenlund Castle . The lord of the palace, Carl von Hessen , appointed Jürgensen as "Princely Court Mechanic".
• Bertel Thorvaldsen , a friend of Asmus Jacob Carsten and famous artist, paid a visit to Juergensen in honor of Schleswig in 1819. Jürgensen showed him pieces from his collection and showed him around the city. He also gave him several drawings made by Carsten.

family

Jürgensen married Anna Catharina Dorothea Schmidt, born Winter (around 1734; July 15, 1796 in Schleswig) in Schleswig on October 3, 1769. She was a widow of the Schleswig cathedral cantor Johann Rudolph Schmidt. After the death of his first wife, Jürgensen married Anna Maria Elisabeth Götsche (born August 27, 1774; April 13, 1851 in Schleswig) around 1800. She was the daughter of grenadier Johann Michael Götsche and his wife Elisabeth Christina, née Paulsen.

Jürgensen and Götsche had two sons. Another son did not live long after the birth.

literature

• Cornelius Kellner: Juergensen, Johann Christian . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Volume 13. Wachholtz Verlag, Neumünster 2011, pp. 231-235.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Cornelius Kellner: Jürgensen, Johann Christian . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Volume 13. Wachholtz Verlag, Neumünster 2011, pp. 231-235.
2. ↑ Cornelius Kellner: Jürgensen, Johann Christian . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Volume 13. Wachholtz Verlag, Neumünster 2011, pp. 231–232.
3. ↑ ^{a b c d} Cornelius Kellner: Jürgensen, Johann Christian . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Volume 13. Wachholtz Verlag, Neumünster 2011, p. 232.
4. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g} Cornelius Kellner: Jürgensen, Johann Christian . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Volume 13. Wachholtz Verlag, Neumünster 2011, p. 233.
5. ↑ ^{a b c d} Cornelius Kellner: Jürgensen, Johann Christian . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Volume 13. Wachholtz Verlag, Neumünster 2011, p. 234.
6. ↑ ^{a b} Cornelius Kellner: Jürgensen, Johann Christian . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Volume 13. Wachholtz Verlag, Neumünster 2011, p. 231.