Johann Conrad Beissel

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The song of the lonely and forsaken lovebird of the Christian Church , Ephrata, Pennsylvania, 1747
Beissel's gravestone in the cemetery of Ephrata Monastery. Inscription: Here rests a product of God's love - Peaceful: A lonely person, but later became a leader, overseer, etc. Lonely teacher Church of Christ in u. around Ephrata. Born in Eberbach in der Pfaltz, called Conrad Beissel: died the 6th Julius A [nn] o 1768, his spiritual life 52 but the natural 77 year 4 month.
American memorial plaque in Eberbach

Johann Conrad Beissel (also: Konrad Beissel , born March 1, 1691 in Eberbach ; † July 6, 1768 in Ephrata , Lancaster County (Pennsylvania) ) was a German mystic and founder of the Ephrata Cloisters community in North America. He was also a song writer and composer.

Life

Beissel was initially a journeyman baker in Heidelberg . At the age of 25, he experienced a religious conversion . Because of his religious separatism ( Radical Pietism ) he had to leave the city and emigrated to North America in 1720. Here he joined the Anabaptist-Pietist group of Tunkers in Pennsylvania . In 1728 he founded his own group, the Siebentägner-Tunker , and a settlement for an early Christian community according to their ideas, the monastery in Ephrata . It was a double monastery for men and women who lived in special groups.

The Ephrata Monastery is best known for its special kind of illustrations in books and on fabrics. In addition, Beissel arranged sacred songs in a special way, so that a peculiar choral singing became a hallmark of the monastic community.

For spiritual and musical reasons, Beissel recommended a meat and animal product-free diet to his community, making him one of the earliest representatives of veganism in the (later) United States .

Beissel also emerged as an author of mystical writings and songs.

Beissel's compositional activities play an important role in Thomas Mann's novel Doctor Faustus . There, Wendell Kretzschmar dedicates a detailed description of Beissel's person and musical work in one of his musical lectures, which leave a lasting impression on the main character Adrian Leverkühn . Beissel appears there as an example of the "elementary" in music, which could break out at any time even in times of refined late culture.

Works

  • Die Bittre Gute, or The Singing of the Lonely Turtle Dove, of the Christian Church here on earth, which still in the valley of mourning on the dry branches and twigs laments the status of their widows, and dabey singing in hope of another and repeated warning. Ephrata in the year MDCCXLVI . Manuscript 1746 ( Ephrata Codex , Library of Congress )
  • The song of the lonely and abandoned lovebird of the Christian Church . Ephrata, Pennsylvania, 1747 ( digitized )

literature

Individual evidence

  1. The information provided by the NDB on March 6th is an error.
  2. cf. Epitaph
  3. From the foreword by Turtel-Taube , 1747
  4. Chapter VIII

Web links

Commons : Johann Conrad Beissel  - Collection of images, videos and audio files