Johann Christian Wernsdorf I.

Johann Christian Wernsdorf I (born November 6, 1723 in Wittenberg ; † August 25, 1793 in Helmstedt ) was a German writer , poet and rhetorician .

Life

Born as son Gottlieb Wernsdorf the Elder and his wife Magaretha Katharina (née Nitsch), he lost his father at an early age. Therefore, his mother was the reference person for him, who encouraged his development first through private teachers, then later when he attended the Wittenberg Latin School and sent him to the electoral high school in 1735 in Schulpforte .

Here he was particularly encouraged by Friedrich Gotthilf Freitag and also gained insight into the Greek and Roman writers. He was particularly drawn to German and Latin prose and wrote his own first Latin verses. On October 4, 1741, he enrolled at the University of Wittenberg , where, after acquiring the philosophical master's degree on April 30, 1744, he acquired the teaching license the following year on October 17, 1745 as a master's degree.

During this time he held lectures at the philosophy faculty and was accepted as an adjunct at the philosophy faculty on July 9, 1750 . During this time he went on an educational trip, as was customary at the time, and returned to his post as adjunct on October 4, 1791. At the instigation of Johann Gottlob Carpzov , he was appointed by Karl I of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel to the University of Helmstedt in autumn 1752 , where he remained as professor of rhetoric and poetry until the end of his life.

When he arrived in Helmstedt, there was no favorable environment for him. Since the founding of the Georg-August University in Göttingen was accompanied by a large decline in students, the lectures on ancient studies were down, Greek was only heard in connection with theology and Latin lessons were still used as the language of scholars.

In the meantime he made an appearance through his literary writings, which were highly regarded. Since he had accompanied the Helmstedt lectures for years, many of his poems, speeches and dissertations are available today. His main work is an edition of the Poetae latini minores . The work was laid out in seven volumes. Wernsdorf himself published the first five volumes (Altenburg, 1780–1788, Helmstedt 1791), and a sixth volume was published by his son after his death (Helmstedt, 1799). The seventh volume remained unprinted.

In 1779 he became a member of the ducal school commission and was in charge of the philological-pedagogical seminar and pedagogy. For his work he was given the office of a Brunswick-Lüneburg court counselor in 1780. He had a daughter Luise (married to Karl Ludwig Nitzsch ) and a son Christian Gottlieb Wernsdorf .

literature

• Britta Berg: Wernsdorf, Johann Christian . In: Horst-Rüdiger Jarck, Dieter Lent u. a. (Ed.): Braunschweigisches Biographisches Lexikon: 8th to 18th century . Appelhans, Braunschweig 2006, ISBN 3-937664-46-7 , pp. 736f.
• Friedrich Koldewey, Georg Müller:  Wernsdorf . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 42, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1897, pp. 95-101. (Family item)
• Fritz Juhnke: Album Academiae Vitebergensis younger series part 3, volume 5 Max Niemeyer Verlag Halle (Saale) 1966