Johann Christoph Unzer

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Johann Christian Gottfried Fritzsch : Johann August Unzer, copper engraving, 1768

Johann Christoph Unzer (born May 17, 1747 in Wernigerode ; † August 20, 1809 in Göttingen ) was a German doctor , educator , journalist and poet .

Life and work as a doctor

Born as the eldest son of a court counselor of the same name in Wernigerode, Unzer attended a Latin school in his hometown and from 1764, together with his brother Ludwig August, attended the Ilfeld monastery school . Here he received lessons from the not much older Jakob Mauvillon , who had a lasting influence on him with his free-spiritual thinking. Since he violated the applicable rules, the school time ended on August 31, 1767 with a school expulsion. With the help of a count's scholarship, he was able to start studying medicine at the University of Göttingen in the same year , which he completed four years later with a doctorate. He then moved to Altona to live with his well-known uncle Johann August Unzer . Johann Christoph Unzer practiced here as an esteemed doctor who devoted himself to obstetrics.

In 1775 Unzer described a "medical experiment made with the artificial magnet". He was thus one of the first doctors to work in the field of mesmerism . From 1773 until Unzer took over the editing of the New Scholar Medicus , who supported the writings of Sturm und Drang .

Johann Christoph Unzer taught natural history and natural history at the Christianeum from 1775 to 1791 . From 1789 to 1801 he worked as a city ​​physician in Altona. He died in Göttingen while on a trip to a cure that he wanted to spend in Karlsbad .

Works

Unzer was enthusiastic about the theater and was closely linked to theater director Friedrich Ludwig Schröder and theater friend Caspar Voght . He wrote several theater speeches, including a version of the play Der Hofmeister by Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz . The tragedy Diego and Leonore from 1775 was first performed three years later. Since an envoy of the emperor complained about the criticism of the Catholic clergy contained therein, Diego and Isolde were not allowed to be played for some time after the premiere. Later the play was often seen and brought Unzer literary recognition, including in the period from 1796 to 1802, when Unzer had contacts with the Altona National Theater. The piece was published in Dutch and French translation in 1782.

Unzer admired Gotthold Ephraim Lessing and was committed to tolerant treatment of Jews. In 1782 he signed the notes on Mr. Dohm's pamphlet on the civil constitution of the Jews , which came from his friend Moses Wessely. His uncle Johann August Unzer recommended him as an author for the General German Library . In addition, Unzer contributed to other periodicals . He also wrote the novel History of the Brothers of the Green Covenant in 1782 , in which he described memories of his youth and his studies in several letters.

Unzer, who was described by journalist Johann Hermann Stoever in 1789 as “a man in his prime, beautifully built, and a sentimental and funny head”, was considered very sociable. Friends like the poet Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock therefore gladly invited him to festivities in the 1770s and 1780s. On July 17, 1790, he celebrated the first anniversary of the storm on the Bastille together with his friend from his youth, Adolph Freiherr von Knigge , as well as a group around Georg Heinrich Sieveking and Johann Albert Heinrich Reimarus . In the following period Unzer actively pursued the ideals of the French Revolution and was the leading figure of the Jacobins in Hamburg and Altona. In 1798 he represented their ideas together with his friend Heymann Salomon Pappenheimer in Holstein.

family

Johann Christoph Unzer was married to the actress Dorothea Ackermann , a daughter of Sophie Charlotte Ackermann and Konrad Ernst Ackermann , from 1778 . She played the heroine role in Diego and Leonore and was partly responsible for the success of her husband's play. The marriage of the two was not a happy one. After the French agent Charles Marné, who was a guest in Unzer's house, had approached Dorothea Unzer, they separated after a difficult divorce process.

Johann Christoph Unzer married the widowed French émigré Jeanne Lefebvre-Millot in 1807.

Honor

Unzerstraße in Altona has been named after Johann Christoph Unzer since 1867 .

literature

personal data
SURNAME Unzer, Johann Christoph
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Unzer, Christoph
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German educator, journalist and poet
DATE OF BIRTH May 17, 1747
PLACE OF BIRTH Wernigerode
DATE OF DEATH August 20, 1809
Place of death Goettingen