Johann Dietrich Winckler

Johann Dietrich Winckler, copper engraving by Christian Fritzsch (1760)

Johann Dietrich Winckler (also: Johann Dieterich Winkler ; * December 27, 1711 in Hamburg ; † April 5, 1784 ibid) was a German Lutheran theologian who worked in Hildesheim and Hamburg.

Life

Winckler came from a respected Hamburg family of theologians. His grandfather Johann Winckler and his father Johann Friedrich Winckler had already been senior pastors at Hamburg's main churches and even senior citizens of the Hanseatic City's Ministry of Spirituality - offices that Johann Dietrich Winckler then held in the third generation. He attended the learned school of the Johanneum and since April 26, 1728 the academic high school . At Easter 1732 he began to study theology and philosophy at the University of Leipzig , where on February 16, 1736 he acquired the academic degree of a master's degree in philosophy. He would have liked to do his habilitation as a lecturer at the philosophical faculty, but on October 25, 1736, he accepted an offer in his hometown as the successor of his former teacher Johann Albert Fabricius as professor of rhetoric and practical philosophy at the Academic Gymnasium in Hamburg.

In 1737 he switched to the professorship of logic and metaphysics. In the following years he turned down appointments to foreign ministry a number of times. On July 3, 1744, however, he accepted a call as Hildesheim superintendent and took office on October 15. On November 26th of the same year he received his doctorate in theology from the University of Rinteln . In Hildesheim he had an uncomfortable and protracted argument with the Catholic Father Isverding over the fact that he had expressed in a Reformation sermon that Catholics had other mediators of salvation besides Christ.

On July 2, 1758, he was elected chief pastor at the Hamburg main church St. Nicolai and was introduced to this office on December 6 by the then senior minister of the ministry , Friedrich Wagner . When Johann Melchior Goeze resigned the seniorate in 1770, Winckler was elected as his successor by the Hamburg Senate. However, he did not accept the election at that time, only nine years later in another election during the renewed vacancy of the seniorate and remained in this dignity until his death in 1784. In 1773 and 1774 he exchanged letters with Moses Mendelssohn on questions of the Hebrew Bible.

Winckler was a polyhistor with good philological training, a serious theologian, and a clergyman eager to edify his community. He publishes a large number of writings, some in book form, some in specialist journals of his time. As a senior, he made outstanding contributions to the Hamburg church.

family

Winckler was married three times. His first marriage was on August 25, 1744 with his cousin Johanna Sophia Winckler (1719–1761), daughter of the Hamburg lawyer Johann Anton Winckler. His second marriage was on August 24, 1762 with Anna Lucia Schultz (1741–1773). He concluded his third marriage on November 29, 1774 with Catarina Elisabeth Albers (1754-1814). The third marriage was childless. The children from the second marriage died young. Of the seven children in his first marriage, his son Johann Christian Winckler, who went to Riga as a lawyer and died there without descendants, and his daughter Johanna Friedericke Antoinette (* 1746 in Hildesheim; † 1802, married to the businessman Andreas Schultze since 1769) survived him ) and the daughter Johanna Sophia Maria (1755–1804, married since 1782 to the Lauenburg pastor Johann Gottlieb Ernst Merckel).

Fonts

A detailed list of Winckler's writings can be found on the associated Wikisource page:

Wikisource: Johann Dietrich Winckler - Sources and full texts

literature

Hans Schröder, AH Kellinghusen: Lexicon of the Hamburg writers, up to the present. Association of Hamburg History, Hamburg 1883, Vol. 8, pp. 76-87. Listed 99 publications ( uni-hamburg.de ).
Johann Georg Meusel : Lexicon of the German writers who died from 1750 to 1800. Gerhard Fleischer d. J., Leipzig 1815, Volume 15, p. 206 ( books.google.com ).
Heinrich Doering : The learned theologians of Germany in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Johann Karl Gottfried Wagner, Neustadt an der Orla 1835, Volume 4, p. 733 ( books.google.com ).
Carl Bertheau : Winckler, Johann Dietrich . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 43, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1898, p. 376 f.
Johann Christoph Strodtmann, Ferdinand Stosch: The new learned Europe. Johann Christoph Meisner, Wolfenbüttel 1753, 3rd part, p. 785 ( books.google.com ).

Web links

Commons : Johann Dietrich Winckler - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

^ Ferdinand Ahuis : Between Lutheran Orthodoxy and the Jewish Enlightenment. Three letters from the main pastor of St. Nikolai and former professor at the Academic Gymnasium Johann Dietrich Winckler to Moses Mendelssohn. In: Johann Anselm Steiger (Hrsg.): The Academic Gymnasium in Hamburg in the context of early modern science and educational history (= early modern times. Vol. 207). Berlin u. a. 2017, pp. 363–379.

predecessor	Office	successor
Hermann Christian Hornborstel	Chief Pastor to St. Nikolai in Hamburg 1758–1784	Joachim Christoph Bracke

personal data
SURNAME	Winckler, Johann Dietrich
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Winkler, Johann Dieterich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German Lutheran theologian
DATE OF BIRTH	December 27, 1711
PLACE OF BIRTH	Hamburg
DATE OF DEATH	April 5, 1784
Place of death	Hamburg

[1] Ferdinand Ahuis : Between Lutheran Orthodoxy and the Jewish Enlightenment. Three letters from the main pastor of St. Nikolai and former professor at the Academic Gymnasium Johann Dietrich Winckler to Moses Mendelssohn. In: Johann Anselm Steiger (Hrsg.): The Academic Gymnasium in Hamburg in the context of early modern science and educational history (= early modern times. Vol. 207). Berlin u. a. 2017, pp. 363–379.