Johann David Nicolai

Copper engraving by Johann Gottfried Pflugfelder (1805)

Johann David Nicolai (born February 25, 1742 in Hamburg , † April 3, 1826 in Bremen ) was a German pastor , pedagogue and Primarius at the Bremen Cathedral .

biography

Nicolai was the son of the Hamburg flour merchant Benedict Nicolai. From 1750 he graduated from the Johanneum and from 1761 the Academic Gymnasium in Hamburg. He studied theology at the University of Göttingen from 1764 to 1767 . From 1768 to 1771 he was court master and educator of the children of the Oberamtmann Meyer zu Bremervörde .

On April 25, 1771 he was subconrector , 1774 Conrector and 1778 Rector at the royal Athenaeum in Bremen and the associated cathedral school. In 1780 he married the daughter Sophia of the consistorial councilor Hermann Schlichthorst from Bremen. After the death of his father-in-law, he was appointed fourth pastor at Bremen Cathedral in 1781. In 1786 he met the Reformed pastor and philosopher Johann Caspar Lavater in Bremen , who exerted influence with his "ascetic-mystical" direction, but whom Nicolai was quite critical of (printed sermons from 1787). After the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss of 1803, the Bremen Cathedral passed from the Duchy of Bremen to the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen. In 1806, on the occasion of his 25th anniversary of service, he was awarded the title of Doctor of Theology by the University of Göttingen. In 1810 the Senate of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen appointed him to succeed Pastor Heeren as Pastor Primarius , i.e. first pastor at Bremen Cathedral. Numerous writings, especially of his sermons, have been published.

Works

• Sermons , Bremen 1774.
• On the value of public schools in comparison with special instruction . Bremen 1780.
• Sermon on the occasion of the inauguration of the Bremen Cathedral orphanage, Bremen 1785.
• History of magnetism in Bremen . In: Berlin monthly magazine 1788, pp. 82–95.
• Nicolai and HW Rotermund: Reading book for German schools . BF Voigt, Bremen 1801.
• Economic-legal principles of the administration of the domain system in the Prussian states . Berlin 1802.

literature

• Johann Friedrich Iken:  Nicolai, Johann David . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 23, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1886, pp. 593-596.
• Herbert Black Forest : The Great Bremen Lexicon . 2nd, updated, revised and expanded edition. Edition Temmen, Bremen 2003, ISBN 3-86108-693-X .
• Friedrich August Schmidt, Bernhard Friedrich Voight: New Nekrolog der Deutschen . Volume 4, part 1, p. 211 ff, BF Voigt, Ilmenau 1828.