Johann Eberhard Jung

Memorial plaque for Ebert Jung in Hilchenbach

Johann Eberhard Jung , also called Ebert Jung , (born September 17, 1680 in Grund (Hilchenbach) ; † August 11, 1751 ibid) was a German farmer and coal maker . His first-born son Johann Heinrich Jung (1711–1786) founded the boys' dynasty of civil servants and the mining industry as the lord of the mining and steelworks clerk of the Nassau-Siegen family.

Life

In most cases, there are hardly any written remains of relatively simple farmers from the 17th and 18th centuries. The traditional church registers mostly only provide information about birth, marriage, birth of children and death as well as the occupation. However, Johann Eberhard Jung had a very famous grandson: Johann Heinrich Jung-Stilling (1740–1817), who became well-known as a doctor, writer and camerawoman under the name “Jung-Stilling” and in his publications he repeatedly gave facts from his life Grandfather reported.

Jung-Stilling's father was Johann Helmann Jung (1716–1802), the third oldest son of Eberhard Jung. Johann Helmann Jung earned his meager living as a schoolmaster, surveyor, tailor and farmer. He married Johanna Dorothea Catharina Fischer on June 25, 1739 in Hilchenbach. Her father was the destitute preacher, alchemist and watchmaker Johann Moritz Friedrich Fischer in Littfeld. She was born on December 14, 1718 in Laasphe and died on April 19, 1742 in Hilchenbach. Jung-Stilling, who was born in Grund on September 12, 1740 and died in Karlsruhe on April 2, 1817, often visited his grandfather as a child, who essentially took over his upbringing in childhood after his mother's early death.

Profession and positions

Johann Heinrich Jung-Stilling as a Latin student. Right Johann Eberhard Jung and his son Johann Helmann Jung, the father of Jung-Stilling. Engraving by Daniel Nikolaus Chodowiecki . Jung-Stilling 1777

Like his ancestors, Johann Eberhard Jung and his wife Margarethe ran a small farm with livestock - "a mediocre farm" - in what is now Hilchenbach-Grund. He also worked as a charcoal burner in the surrounding forests during the week. Johann Eberhard Jung gave up charcoal burning at an advanced age. Johann Eberhard Jung took over the "estate with many debts" at a young age. But he was able to reduce his debts through his efficiency and save a little money for emergencies. The good yields from the charcoal burner Johann Eberhard Jung had probably helped to consolidate financially. The production of charcoal and the sale of charcoal were a profitable business, as the then extremely flourishing metal industry in Siegerland and the neighboring Nassau region was urgently dependent on this fuel for metal processing. Jung-Stilling described in two of his early treatises his grandfather's activity as a charcoal burner , in which he praised him as a personality with high moral values. The first contribution appeared in 1775 in the “Remarks of the Kuhrpfälzische physical = economic society” with the title “JJ Jung's national economic remarks on the occasion of the wood use of the Siegerland”: “I have the useful experience of the cultivation and propagation of wood in my fatherland in the Principality of Nassau = Siegen collected. My grandfather was an honest, pious and upright cabbage burner, up in the country, right in the mountains, not far from the Wittgenstein border. He and his sons were constantly engaged in this handicraft, and I have had plenty of opportunity to observe closely all the operations and working of both the burning of cabbage and the cultivation of wood up to the second and twentieth year of my age; I have very often helped myself, and I am therefore quite certain of the matter. ”A year later, in 1776, Jung-Stilling revisited personality and in his second contribution in this series on“ Description of the Nassau-Siegen method of burning coals ” the job of his grandfather Eberhard Jung:

“In one of these villages on the Nassau side, the mountains towards evening, there is a little village called Im Grund, which belongs to the Hilgenbach office and parish. There my fathers lived in a house and peasant estates without interruption, and nourished themselves from them, without our being able to determine the beginning and origin of our line of unimaginable years; but that is certain that I can boast: none of my forefathers was gathered to his fathers with a tainted soul and a burdened conscience. As far as we can count, they were all honest, honest Germans, honest men and pious people. All the peasants in our village were coal burners, and so was my grandfather, Johann Eberhard Jung, one of those rare men who were educated only by raw nature, yet made seriousness, modesty and gentle modesty the main characteristics of their character. When he crossed the street through the village in his linen smock, the laughter, exuberance and courage disappeared without beating anyone or punishing anyone. Cheerful and friendly, he looked calmly through the people, he cared nothing but what touched his God, his heart and his honor. "

- Johann Heinrich Jung-Stilling

Jung-Stilling turned against the traditional image of the charcoal burner in the characteristics of his grandfather. In his time these were considered closed people and sometimes quite rough fellows who went about their business in the seclusion of the forests and around whom various myths were formed. Jung-Stilling was able to look back on his own experiences from his childhood and youth when describing the charcoal-burning trade, the charcoal makers and their working and living environment, when his grandfather Eberhard Jung took him into the forest to burn coal and he stayed in the lonely "Köhler's apartment “Was allowed to spend the night.

Jung-Stilling wrote the first part of his autobiography immediately after leaving Strasbourg, where he had studied and obtained his doctorate. During his studies in Strasbourg he met Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) and from this encounter a lifelong friendship developed. Jung-Stilling gave his friend Goethe the first part of the autobiography, which he published without his knowledge in 1777 in abridged form and with wood engravings by the artist Daniel Nikolaus Chodowiecki (1726-1801), whom he valued . This part of his autobiography during his youth in Hilchenbach provides a wide variety of information about his grandfather Eberhard Jung.

Young-Stilling's grandfather also held the office of church elder as a member of the church council:

“Down on the northern mountain, called the Geisenberg, which rises like a sugar loaf against the clouds, and on the top of which lie the ruins of an old castle, there is a house in which Stilling's parents and forefathers lived. About thirty years ago a venerable old man, Eberhard Stilling [Jung], a farmer and coal burner, lived there. He stayed in the forest all summer, burning coals; but came home once a week to check on his people and to stock up on food for a week. He usually came on Saturday evenings so that he could go to church on Sunday in Florenburg, wherever he was a member of the church council. Most of the business of his life consisted in this. "

Jung-Stilling describes his grandfather as a personality with solid ethical principles that resulted from his deep piety. Even before the marriage of his son Helmann, he supported the destitute father of his future daughter-in-law with a loan of four Reichstalers and gave him “a couple of sweet milk every week” as a side dish. These qualities earned him the respect and esteem of his villagers.

Johann Eberhard Jung headed the family association in Hilchenbach in the tradition of the prevailing social image at the time and, although he was not very wealthy, ensured the livelihood of the individual members.

At the same time, Eberhard Jung was concerned about the academic and professional advancement of his sons and his grandson Jung-Stilling. So he had no objections when the well-known mathematician Erich Philipp Ploennies (1672–1751) sought the help of his then 10-year-old son Johann Heinrich. Ploennies was supposed to measure the area there by order of the sovereign and therefore took accommodation in Eberthard Jung's farmhouse for a few weeks around 1721. Johann Heinrich Jung's work at Ploennies marked the beginning of his successful ascent from a simple farmer's son to the later position of chief miner.

Family and children

Ebert Jung's house in Grund

On April 30, 1710, Johann Eberhard Jung married the poor daughter of a farmer and woodworker Margarethe Helmes, who was born in Helberhausen on March 14, 1686 and died on April 26, 1765 in Hilchenbach-Grund. This marriage produced ten children, namely six sons and four daughters: three died as small children, one after birth.

1. Johann Heinrich Jung, baptized in Hilchenbach-Grund on February 22, 1711 and died in Littfeld on February 27, 1786.
2. Johann Ebert Jung, born in Hilchenbach on February 23, 1713 and died there on July 16, 1713.
3. Johann Ebert Jung, born in Hilchenbach on September 20, 1714 and died there on March 31, 1716.
4. Johann Helmann Jung, born in Hilchenbach on November 4, 1716 and died on September 6, 1802 in Marburg an der Lahn.
5. Jost Henrich Jung, born in Hilchenbach on September 3, 1718 and died there on April 10, 1719.
6. Anna Catharina Jung, born in Hilchenbach on March 31, 1722 and died on February 27, 1792 in Kredenbach. She married in Kreuztal-Ferndorf on October 15, 1739 with Jost Heinrich Vetter, born in Kredenbach on January 18, 1713 and died there on November 18, 1767.
7. Maria Elisabeth Jung, born in Hilchenbach on November 1, 1723, first married in Hilchenbach in 1745 to Simon Irle, born in 1722 and died in 1756, and her second marriage from 1757 to Johann-Heinrich Stein.
8. Maria Catharina Jung, born in Hilchenbach on May 3rd, 1724 and died on the same day.
9. Anna Maria Jung, born in Hilchenbach on March 1, 1726 and died after 1769. She had been married to Johann Lienhoff from Grund in Hilchenbach since December 3, 1745, who was born there on July 22, 1725 and died there on June 30, 1806.
10. Maria Elisabeth Jung, born in Hilchenbach on January 23, 1729. Her first marriage since October 25, 1759 was Johann Heinrich Hirsch in Hilchenbach. born in Hilchenbach on May 24, 1732 and died there on November 25, 1759; in second marriage since September 12, 1760 in Littfeld with Johann Heinrich Schmöller, born in Kreuztal-Littfeld on December 10, 1729 and died before 1770; third marriage since April 26, 1770 in Littfeld with Anton Merten, who was born in Littfeld on February 26, 1747 and died there on November 10, 1795.

Johann Eberhard Jung died at the age of almost 71 after falling from the roof of the house while laying thatch.

literature

• Michael Fessner : The young and green families . Kiel 2016.
• Johann Heinrich Jung-Stilling : Johann Heinrich Jung's, called Stilling, all of his writings for the first time completely collected and published by relatives, friends and admirers of the eternal man . Stuttgart 1835.
• Johann Heinrich Jung: JJ Jung's state economic remarks on the occasion of the wood harvesting of the Siegerland, in: Remarks of the Kuhrpfälzische physical = economic society, from the year 1775, Lautern 1779, pp. 134-169.
• Johann Heinrich Jung: Description of the Nassau = Siegenschen method to burn coals, accompanied with physical notes , in: Comments of the Kuhrpfälzische physical = economic society, from the year 1776, Lautern 1779, pp. 257–371.
• Johann Heinrich Jung-Stilling: Henrich Stillings youth. A true story . Berlin / Leipzig 1777.
• Gerhard Merk (Hrsg.): Johann Heinrich Jung-Stilling: Steel trade, metal processing and mechanization in the Bergisches Land. Observations and assessments. Reissued in the second edition and provided with explanatory notes by Dr. Gerhard Merk University professor in Siegen . Wins 2015.
• Gerhard Merk: chief miner Johann Heinrich Jung (1711-1786). A picture of life . Kreuztal 1989.

Remarks

1. ↑ Jung-Stilling 1777, p. 12: “A beggar who has nothing….” P. 16: “At Lichthausen (that was the name of the place where he held school and made the farmers their clothes) lives a poor man expelled preacher; …. “The reviews of Johann Moritz Friedrich Fischer differ widely in the literature. Gerhard Merk writes about its origins in his foreword to the new edition of Jung-Stillings Stahlhandel 2015: “The precocious, highly gifted man on his mother's side comes from an old Nassau pastors and civil servants.” Merk 2015, p. 7. The statements made by Jung-Stilling in his autobiography from 1777 on the origin and living conditions of his maternal grandfather hardly allow such an interpretation, especially after the explanations on pages 20 and 21, where Jung-Stilling reports on the living conditions of his grandfather and his mother. Jung-Stilling provides a brief description of the changeable and unsteady life of Johann Moritz Friedrich Fischer on pages 33 to 36, where he reproduces a conversation between Eberhard Jung and Friedrich Fischer at his parents' wedding party. Later on page 51 he lets his maternal grandfather speak the following words as a retrospective, as it were: “I spent my life laboriously and uselessly, and made no one happy. ... How much would I have been able to use the world if I had not become an alchemist. "
2. ↑ Jung-Stilling published in this series excerpts from his dissertation on Nassau-Siegerland mining, which he completed in Strasbourg in 1771/72. Jung, Johannes Henricus: Specimen med. de historia martis Nassovico-Siegenensis, Argentorati (1772).
3. ↑ On Johann Heinrich Jung, see also Jung-Stilling 1777, pp. 44–48. Jung-Stilling later conducted a lively correspondence with his godfather. See Merk 1989, pp. 109–155.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Fessner 2016, pp. 38–39.
2. ↑ Jung-Stilling 1777, p. 51.
3. ↑ Jung-Stilling 1777, p. 33.
4. ↑ Jung-Stilling 1776/79, p. 262. Jung-Stilling 1777, pp. 85-87.
5. ↑ Dietz 1996, p. 216: Quoted from Johann Heinrich Jung Stilling, Johann Stilling: Eine Biographie, in: Pocket book for visual, poetic and historical art, Vol. 7, Dortmund 1806, pp. 152–170, p. 153
6. ↑ Jung-Stilling 1777, p. 18.
7. ↑ Jung-Stilling 1777, p. 135.
8. ↑ Jung-Stilling 1777, p. 14.
9. ↑ Jung-Stilling 1775/79, pp. 134-135.
10. ↑ Jung-Stilling 1776/79, pp. 259-261.
11. ↑ On the trail of young stillings in his home country .
12. ↑ Jung-Stilling 1777.
13. ↑ Jung-Stilling 1835, p. 61.
14. ↑ Jung-Stilling 1777, pp. 7–8.
15. ↑ Jung-Stilling 1835, p. 26.
16. ↑ Jung-Stilling 1777, p. 13.
17. ↑ Dietz 1996, p. 216.
18. ↑ Jung-Stilling 1777, p. 14.
19. ↑ Fessner 2016, pp. 33–34.
20. ↑ Jung-Stilling 1777, pp. 161-165.