Johann Christoph von Woellner

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Johann Christoph von Woellner
Grave site in Groß Rietz

Johann Christoph Woellner, from 1786 von Woellner (born May 19, 1732 in Döberitz ; † September 10, 1800 in Groß Rietz near Beeskow ) was a Prussian pastor , landlord and statesman under Friedrich Wilhelm II.

Life

Johann Christoph Woellner was the son of Pastor Johann Christof Wöllner. His mother Dorothea Rosina Cuno was a niece of Christoph von Katsch , the first Prussian Minister of Justice.

He received his first education through private lessons. After attending the Spandau city ​​school, he began studying theology at the University of Halle in 1749 , where Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten and Christian Wolff taught, who had a particular influence on him. In 1752 he finished his studies and got a job as tutor to General August Friedrich von Itzenplitz at Gut Behnitz. In 1754 he appointed him pastor of the community in Groß Behnitz near Berlin , of which he was the church patron . Since Woellner had not yet reached the minimum age of 25 years required to take up a pastor's position, a royal dispensation had to be obtained. After General von Itzenplitz died of a war wound in 1759, Woellner resigned from his church office in 1760 due to his poor health and stayed at the request of the general's widow, Charlotte Sophia née. von Viereck (1722–1770), as a partner of his former student Friedrich Wilhelm Gottfried von Itzenplitz. His father took over the pastoral position, and his brother after his death. In 1766 Charlotte Sophia von Itzenplitz bought him a canonical at the Liebfrauenstift in Halberstadt . He held this benefice until 1794.

Land tenant and agricultural reformer

In 1762 Woellner leased the Behnitz estate together with Friedrich von Itzenplitz (1740–1772). As a tenant leaseholder, he endeavored to introduce new methods to improve yields. So he planted fruit trees and planted mulberry tree plantations and planned a silk robbery . He tried different types of fertilization , including replacing the fallow land by planting forage herbs in order to be able to increase the livestock. He also introduced coupling and had wall hedges planted between the individual fields.

He also dealt theoretically with agriculture and economics. In the following years he edited an annotated translation of Francis Homes Principles of Agriculture and Vegetation . In addition, he wrote several of his own writings on agriculture and on improving the conditions of serf farmers , e.g. B. The lifting of meanness in the Mark Brandenburg (1766). In addition, between 1766 and 1781 he reviewed numerous agricultural publications for Friedrich Nicolai's General German Library and worked for Nicolai's library on agricultural issues . Several times he addressed his suggestions directly to King Friedrich II. He also supported his concern to enforce potato cultivation .

In 1766 he married Charlotte Amalie Elisabeth von Itzenplitz (1742–1801), the only daughter of his former employer. The king did not tolerate this mesalliance . After the marriage could no longer be prevented, the newly wedded young woman was detained in Berlin for a month while an investigation was made into Woellner's relationship to the noble family of his bride. Although the accusations from distant relatives proved to be unfounded, she and her mother were given a guardian and their assets remained under the supervision of a curator . Until his death on August 17, 1786, Friedrich II categorically refused to release her property again and to raise Woellner to the nobility , the latter mainly because Woellner could not show any military merits. Several times he called Woellner "... a deceitful and scheming priest".

Despite this, Woellner belonged to a state commission in 1768/69 that was supposed to investigate whether the burning of peat had advantages over the use of firewood. To do this, he traveled to East Friesland for a long time in 1769 and examined the peat extraction in the local moors and the use of peat as fuel . But Woellner's hope for permanent state employment was not fulfilled. In 1770, however, Prince Heinrich of Prussia appointed him to the council of his domain chamber. He held this position until 1786.

Woellner became a member of almost all European learned and economic societies, including the Society of Friends of Natural Sciences in Berlin and the Monday Club , from which he left in 1791.

Freemasonry

In 1766 Woellner was accepted into the Lodge Zur Eintracht , a subsidiary of the Masonic Lodge at the Three Worlds , founded by Friedrich II . On April 12, 1768 he was made a knight of strict observance and was given the name " Christophorus Eques a Cubo " and the motto " Firmanititur mole " (steadfast in exertion). In 1774 Woellner left the Zur Eintracht lodge and shortly afterwards became the grandmaster of the mother lodge at the Three Worlds , where he ran the business on behalf of Friedrich August von Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel . In 1779, Frederick II decreed that Masonic lodges were prohibited from conferring titles. Woellner took part less and less in the following years, but did not leave until 1798.

In 1778 Woellner turned to the Rosicrucians . In 1779 he called his own circle, Heliconus , of which he became director under the name "Heliconus Solaster Ruwenus Ophiron" , an anagram of his real name. Members of the chamber court included Heinrich Julius Freiherr von Goldbeck and Georg Jacob Decker. In 1781, Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm became a member there. Woellner quickly gained some influence over the Crown Prince. This influence was so great that, with reference to the moral rules of the Rosicrucian, he was able to get him to part - even if only for a short time - from his mistress Wilhelmine Enke .

State, economy and religion

For the future king, Woellner held several lectures between 1784 and 1786 - probably in connection with his work in the Rosicrucian Order, in which he presented his views on almost all areas of the Prussian state. He introduced the Crown Prince to the advantages of modern agriculture and the establishment of manufactories and factories . He rejected state monopolies . The peasant class was particularly close to his heart. So he explicitly described serfdom as an obstacle to progress. While Woellner was quick in business to replace traditional traditions with new methods, and also wanted to use pastors and teachers to spread and implement these innovations more quickly in the population, he saw the Enlightenment as a danger in other areas . The rationalism of the enlightened preacher would undermine morality and custom because it calls into question its very foundation, the Bible as God's word. Unbelieving citizens are a danger to the state. Nobody should therefore deprive ordinary Christians of their belief in the Bible as God's word. Therefore, the influence of enlightened preachers and teachers should be limited. The king must also serve as an example to the people in the life of faith. With this demand, Woellner indirectly criticized Friedrich II, who had helped Enlightenment ideas to a great influence . But Woellner also pleaded for tolerance for people of different faiths.

Political career

On August 26, 1786 he was appointed by the new ruler to the secret finance, war and domain council as well as to Oberhofbau manager. On October 2 of the same year, the king elevated him to the nobility on the occasion of his homage and returned the expropriated goods to him or his wife. On November 30, 1786 he was accepted as a full member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences . On February 22, 1787 he became a councilor in the newly established upper school council. Over time, a political power struggle broke out between the individual departments and reached its climax on July 3, 1788, when Woellner pushed Minister Karl Abraham Freiherr von Zedlitz out of office. In his place he was now minister of state and justice and head of the spiritual department.

His influence on the king was made possible by the religious edict of July 9, 1788 , which was supposed to put a stop to the influence of the Enlightenment on religion by strictly obliging the clergy to the contents of the symbolic books of their respective denominations. Only after more than five years, on December 27, 1793, was it repealed; criticism of the three main denominations was now a criminal offense and was ultimately threatened with removal from office. In addition, the Prussian censorship decree of December 19, 1788 was due to his influence. Immanuel Kant was also affected by these censorship measures by the Royal Immediate Examination Commission . Since Woellner associated with the king in different lodges, he was able to maintain his favor, even after the religious edict was repealed.

Woellner continued his agricultural activity and bought the Groß Rietz estate in 1790 . For the maintenance of the property and the renovation of the dilapidated village church Groß Rietz , he received 25,000 Reichstaler from König. He used the money, among other things, to parcel out the estate and to set up farms for the former serf members of the estate, who worked them on a lease basis.

After the death of Friedrich Wilhelm II on November 16, 1797, Woellner's political career came to an end. On March 11, 1798 he was by Friedrich Wilhelm III. dismissed without a pension and now lived alternately on his estates in Brandenburg; u. a. to Groß-Rietz. There he died at the age of 68 on September 10, 1800. His wife survived him by a year. The marriage had remained childless.

Works

  • Johann Christoph von Woellner: The abolition of meanness in the Marck Brandenburg, viewed from an economic point of view according to its great advantages. Bookstore of the Real-Schule, Berlin 1766. Digitized and full text in the German text archive

literature

  • Christian August Ludwig Klaproth, Immanuel Karl Wilhelm Cosmar: The royal Prussian and electoral Brandenburg real secret Council of State on its 200-year foundation day January 5, 1805 , Berlin 1805, pp. 497–501
  • Paul Bailleu :  Woellner: Johann Christof v. In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 44, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1898, pp. 148-158.
  • Klaus-Gunther Wesseling:  Woellner (Wöllner; rarely: Wöellner, Wellner), Johann Christoph Frhr. from. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 27, Bautz, Nordhausen 2007, ISBN 978-3-88309-393-2 , Sp. 1549-1566.  ( Article / beginning of article in Internet archive )
  • Uta Wiggermann: Woellner and the religious edict, contributions to historical theology Volume 150, Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2010.
  • Dirk Kemper: Obscurantism as a means of politics. Johann Christoph von Wöllner's policy of counter-enlightenment on the eve of the French Revolution, in: From "Obscuranten" and "Eudaemonists". Counter-Enlightenment, Conservative, and Anti-Revolutionary Publicists in the Late 18th Century, ed. v. Christoph Weiß in collaboration with Wolfgang Albrecht, literature in a historical context. Studies and sources on German literary and cultural history from the 18th century to the present, Volume 1, St. Ingbert 1997, 193–220.
  • Abused education? Writings on the Prussian religious edict of July 9, 1788. 118 writings totaling 13,992 pages on 202 microfiches. With an accompanying volume ed. by Dirk Kemper. Hildesheim: Olms Neue Medien 1996. 13992 S. on Microfiches, 256 S. accompanying volume.
  • Reinhard Markner: Woellner, Johann Christoph (1732–1800) , in: Le Monde maçonnique au XVIIIe siècle, ed. v. Charles Porset (†) u. Cécile Révauger, Paris 2013, vol. 3, pp. 2820–2824. (German version)

Web links

Commons : Johann Christoph von Woellner  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Remarks

  1. ↑ The name variants include "Johann Christoph (von) Wöllner " and "Johann Christian (von) Woellner". The World Biographical Information System Online incorrectly split the biographical information about him into two entries.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Wiggermann: Woellner and the Religionsedikt , p. 6.
  2. ^ Wiggermann: Woellner and the religious edict , p. 8f.
  3. ^ Wiggermann: Woellner and the religious edict , p. 10.
  4. ↑ a b c d e Reinhard Markner: Johann Christoph Woellner .
  5. ^ Wiggermann: Woellner and the Religionsedikt , p. 13.
  6. ^ A b Paul Bailleu :  Woellner: Johann Christof v. In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 44, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1898, pp. 148-158.
  7. ^ Wiggermann: Woellner and the Religionsedikt , p. 19.
  8. ^ Eugen Lennhoff / Oskar Posner / Dieter Binder : Internationales Freemaurer-Lexikon Herbig-Verlag Munich 2011, reprint from 1932, ISBN 978-3-7766-5036-5 Lemma Woellner .
  9. ^ General Handbook of Freemasonry [1863] I 236.
  10. ^ Wiggermann: Woellner and the religious edict , pp. 49–51.
  11. ^ Wiggermann: Woellner and the religious edict , p. 2.7.
  12. ^ Wiggermann: Woellner and the Religionsedikt , p. 26.
  13. ^ Wiggermann: Woellner and the Religionsedikt , p. 29.
  14. ^ Wiggermann: Woellner and the Religionsedikt , p. 33.
  15. ^ Wiggermann: Woellner and the Religionsedikt , p. 30.
  16. ↑ Maximilian Gritzner : Chronological register of the Brandenburg-Prussian class elevations and acts of grace from 1600–1873. Berlin 1874, p. 45.
  17. ^ Wiggermann: Woellner and the religious edict , p. 14.
personal data
SURNAME Woellner, Johann Christoph von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wöllner, Johann Christoph von; Woellner, Johann Christian
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Prussian statesman and pastor
DATE OF BIRTH May 19, 1732
PLACE OF BIRTH Doberitz
DATE OF DEATH September 10, 1800
Place of death Groß Rietz near Beeskow