Johann Christoph Hennings

Johann Christoph Hennings , also Christopher Johannes , (* in Fegetasche near Plön ; baptized on June 19, 1708 in Plön; † August 12, 1764 in Kiel ) was a German librarian and physicist.

Life and work as a librarian

Johann Christoph Hennings was the son of the Fegetaschen tenant and toll collector Georg ( Jürgen ) Hennings (* around 1667 in Leipzig ; buried on March 29, 1732 in Plön) and his wife Anna Magdalena, née Hering. He attended the school in Plön and the Katharineum in Lübeck . From 1728 to 1731 he studied oriental and modern languages, history and theology at the University of Jena . Then he traveled to study via Marburg , Strasbourg - where he matriculated on November 3, 1731 - on to Paris , the Netherlands and Hamburg . He got to know Christian Wolff and Johann Daniel Schöpflin , among others .

In 1733 Hennings enrolled at the University of Kiel and earned money mentoring young noblemen. He also supported Ernst Joachim von Westphalen in his work on the Monumenta inedita collection , which was created from 1739 to 1745. After receiving his master's degree , Kiel University appointed him full professor of physics and metaphysics . He also took over the management of the Kiel University Library .

Hennings worked like no other librarian in the 18th century to improve the library and its holdings. But he was only attacked for this. At the beginning of his activity he checked the library holdings carefully. He worked hard to get new books and often took part in auctions where he bought the works. He acted according to commercial and library calculations and financed purchases himself. He sold duplicates for the benefit of the library. He also worked to ensure that the library received a fixed annual budget.

Hennings persistently urged the authors from the Kiel area to send the library specimen copies of their works. He also urged professors in particular to pay their dues in full or at all. He also enforced compliance with the loan periods. With this approach he created opponents who managed to repeatedly withhold his salaries and cut them. As a result, he got into financial difficulties and had to take up secondary employment. He brokered the acquisition of works for private individuals, but often did not get the share he was actually entitled to. He began a land survey and a survey of the Bothkamp estate , which he could not complete. In addition, he had to gradually part with the books in his own library.

In the summer of 1758 Hennings traveled to Holland and England. He wanted to use the trip to acquire specialist knowledge for a planned leather manufacture. Here he was also looking for material for the "Bibliotheca ... librorum rariorum" that he wanted to write. Since he did not return from the trip on time, he temporarily received no salary. In 1759, the government council accused Hennings of not complying with the library's accounts. The academic consistory, however, was responsible for the majority of the grievances. Hennings therefore succeeded in largely refuting the allegations. The associated process took several years. It can be seen that mismanagement, corruption and indifference at Kiel University had reached a low point at the time.

Due to the proceedings over the library finances, Hennings declared bitterly that he wanted to give up the administration of the library and only supervise the institution. Since 1746 he has not received a library allowance. At the same time as the events in the library, Hennings found himself exposed to allegations of having investigated treasure hunts and necromancy in Kiel and the surrounding area as well as Preetz and the surrounding area. He partially cooperated with the executioner from Preetz, who was presumably the half master Johann Jürgen Karp. Whether and to what extent the allegations were true can no longer be clarified today. In 1761 Hennings succeeded in refuting the indictment.

In April 1763 Hennings was released. He received the salary that had not been paid since the beginning of 1762 and an annual pension of 200 Reichsthalers. For this reason, it can be assumed that the allegations against him were insubstantial. Hennings traveled to England and was killed in Kiel. Johann Georg Meusel wrote that the murderer was a soldier "whom he had used as a henchman in his gold making". Apparently the murder was not solved.

further activities

Hennings also worked as a physicist, but gained no importance in the field. He worked based on the theses of Chr. Wolff and also experimented. He bought equipment for this with his salary. One of the people who did his doctorate with him in 1752 was Johann Bernhard Basedow .

Hennings wanted to write a chronicle of the University of Kiel, but only compiled a collection of material. In 1774 a partial reprint of the "History of the Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorfischer Hof" appeared, for which Hennings probably wrote parts. It is doubtful whether he wrote the work entirely by himself.

In 1747 and 1757 Hennings was rector of Kiel University.

literature

• Fritz Treicher: Hennings, Johann Christoph . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Volume 7. Wachholtz Verlag, Neumünster 1985, pp. 99-100.