Johann Ernst Theodor Janke

Johann Ernst Theodor Janke (born October 30, 1781 in Bärwalde ; † June 12, 1841 in Colberg ) was a German theologian, civil servant and author.

Life

Johann Ernst Theodor Janke was the son of a landowner in Pomerania. He attended high schools in Neustettin and Stettin and the university in Halle, where he studied theology. He then worked as a private tutor, after which he went to Warsaw as vice-principal of the Lutheran school . In 1807 he went to Königsberg , where he was accepted into the college of the cathedral school after interim activities. In 1811 he founded the Königin-Luise-Stiftung together with others and taught there free of charge for two years.

Around 1811 he was a member of the German Confederation , a revolutionary secret organization around the "gymnastics father" Friedrich Ludwig Jahn

In 1809 he became a teacher in the Radziwiłł royal family . There Karl August von Hardenberg got to know and appreciate him. In 1812 he was appointed court advisor in his state chancellery and, to Hardenberg's satisfaction, filled out several diplomatic assignments. In the course of his civil service he confessed his membership in the German Confederation and provided the authorities with information on its goals and organization. However, contrary to his recommendation, not all federal documents were confiscated, which would later be his undoing. His betrayal of the German Confederation made him a target of liberal circles. At the Wartburg Festival in 1817 , for example, his memorandum The new Freyheitsprediger Constitutiongeschrey was symbolically burned .

In the Wars of Liberation he volunteered and rose to become an officer. He became an adjutant to General Friedrich Erhard von Röder and, on his behalf, also an adjutant to General Michail Andrejewitsch Miloradowitsch . After the war he married and trained for a higher career in civil service. He then went to Potsdam as a government assessor for the Prussian government. The minister of his authority, Friedrich von Schuckmann , always distrusted him.

In 1819 he was informed that his writing on the internals of the German Confederation and other documents had been stolen. Minister Wilhelm zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Hohenstein asked him to write down his knowledge of the federal government again for internal purposes. Janke complied with this, but found that he was accused of denunciation a little later. He was put under pressure in questioning and was asked to substantiate his claims, which he was unable to do because there were hardly any federal documents. The problem smoldered for years, and even if it looked like rehabilitation in the meantime, he was finally transferred to an unpopular position in Cöslin . Despite recognition for his work there, he was given early retirement - probably due to the denunciation allegations - against which Janke tried unsuccessfully to defend himself.

As a retiree he tried unsuccessfully to become a writer and newspaper editor. He later lost a large portion of his fortune and eventually became insane. He spent his last years in a sanatorium in Leopoldsfried near Colberg, where he finally died.

Works (selection)

• Prussia in 1807 and now
• Memories of the lady. v. stone

literature

• New Nekrolog der Deutschen, Volume 19, pp. 573-581, available from Google Books