Johann Forster (theologian)

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Johann Forster (woodcut, 1562)

Johann Forster (also Ioannes Forsterus , Förster or Forstheim ) (* July 10, 1496 in Augsburg , † December 8, 1556 in Wittenberg ) was a German Lutheran theologian of the 16th century, linguist and companion of the Reformation .

Life

Johann Forster (copper engraving)

Johann Forster was the son of a locksmith in Augsburg. After attending school in his hometown, he enrolled at the University of Ingolstadt on September 24, 1515 . In 1517 he acquired the academic degree of a baccalaureate and in January 1520 the degree of a master's degree in liberal arts . He also acquired extensive knowledge of the Hebrew language at the Bavarian State University under Johannes Reuchlin .

When Ingolstadt was struck by the plague, Forster moved to Leipzig University , where he matriculated in the summer semester of 1521 and listened to the well-known humanist Petrus Mosellanus . In May 1525 he was appointed by the council in Zwickau to teach the Hebrew language to the college there. After a church visit by Georg Spalatin , Anton Musa and Anarg zu Wildenfels , he asked for a transfer because he was passed over when the school rectorate was replaced.

In April 1529 he said goodbye to Zwickau and turned to the university in Wittenberg , where he entered the university's student register on June 1, 1530. In the spring he was given a preaching position in the castle church . In this office he proved himself so well that at the request of Martin Luther , whom he helped with the translation of the Bible , he was appointed by the Wittenberg Council as a deacon at the city ​​church . Forster was one of the daily table companions in Luther's house .

In 1535, At the request of the Augsburg Council, Forster was sent as a preacher to the St. Johannis Church in Augsburg. After he became a preacher at the Holy Cross Church in Augsburg on July 12, 1537 , he got involved in disputes with his colleagues and the city council, whereupon he was dismissed on November 25, 1538. Therefore, in December 1538, he accepted Joachim Camerarius' invitation to take over the chair for the Hebrew language at the University of Tübingen . He arrived there on January 15, 1539, entered the theological faculty there on February 7, and became professor of Hebrew on February 17, 1539. He obtained his doctorate there on December 8th of the same year. However, his adherence to the ideas of the Reformation earned him the loss of his office in 1541.

In 1541 Forster became provost administrator at St. Lorenz in Nuremberg . On October 5th, at the request of the City Council of Regensburg, he was sent there for a few months to introduce the Reformation. On January 5, 1543 he returned to Nuremberg. On September 25, 1543, Forster, who had been called to the County of Henneberg-Schleusingen for the Reformation, received his certificate of service from the City Council of Nuremberg and in mid-October his appointment as reformer of the County of Henneberg - Schleusingen, signed by the then Catholic Count Wilhelm .

From 1544 to 1547 Forster introduced the Reformation there through visitations and the introduction of corresponding Reformation orders (including the Agende Veit Dietrichs ) and ordinations (at least until Easter 1547). Disputes with the two counts about church discipline and the attitude of the counts in the so-called. The Schmalkaldic War prompted Forster to request his dismissal from office in 1547. Nevertheless, official and personal connections, including to the Count's House itself, remained until Forster's last years.

In March 1548 Forster took up his post as superintendent of the diocese of Merseburg . He administered this office until Easter 1549, when he was again called to Wittenberg . Here Forster became the successor of the late Caspar Cruciger the Elder. Ä. on the chair of the professor for theology and the Hebrew language at the Wittenberg University and on the associated preacher position as well as on the pulpit of the castle church . In the last years of his life Forster was able to complete his great scientific life's work, the multi-volume Hebrew-Latin lexicon ( Dictionarium hebraicum novum , Basel 1557), before he died on December 8, 1556.

Works (selection)

  • Dictionarium Hebraicum novum . Basel 1557. 2nd edition 1564.

literature

  • Friedrich Wilhelm Bautz :  FORSTER, Johann. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 2, Bautz, Hamm 1990, ISBN 3-88309-032-8 , column 72.  ( Article / beginning of article in the Internet archive )
  • Edgar Forster: Cross and Aesculapia. Three healers. Literareon, Munich 2014, ISBN 978-3-8316-1725-8 .
  • Ludwig Geiger:  Forster, Johann . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 7, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1877, p. 165 f.
  • Wilhelm Germann: D. Johann Forster, the Henneberg reformer, a colleague and colleague of D. Martin Luther. In official news along with documents on the history of the Henneberg church. With Forster's picture, handwriting and seal. Festschrift for the 350th anniversary Henneberg Reformation Anniversary (468 pages + 112 pages), o. O. (Wasungen), 1894.
  • Reinhold Jauernig:  Forster, Johann. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 5, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1961, ISBN 3-428-00186-9 , p. 304 ( digitized version ).
  • Christian Gottlieb Jöcher : Gelehrtenlexikon , Vol. 1, Sp. 1125
  • Helmar Junghans: Directory of the rectors, vice-rectors, deans, professors and castle church preachers of Leucorea from the summer semester 1536 to the winter semester 1574/75 . In: Irene Dingel, Günther Wartenberg : Georg Major (1502–1574) - A theologian of the Wittenberg Reformation . Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, Leipzig 2005, ISBN 3-374-02332-0 .
  • Heinrich Kühne , Heinz Motel: Famous personalities and their connection to Wittenberg . Göttinger Tageblatt, 1990, ISBN 3-924781-17-6 .
  • Nikolaus Müller: The finds in the tower knobs in Wittenberg . Magdeburg 1912.
  • Heinz Scheible: Melanchthon's correspondence . People Volume 12.
  • Hans Wiedemann: Augsburger Pfarrerbuch: the evangelical clergy of the imperial city Augsburg 1524-1806 . Nuremberg 1962, 15.
  • Karl Zeitel: The Reformation in the Henneberger Land from the beginning to the acceptance of the Augsburg Confession by Wilhelm von Henneberg according to contemporary evidence , (special publication of the Hennebergisch-Franconian History Association No. 5) Hildburghausen 1994.

Web links

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

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Melchior Adam: Vitae Germanorum Theologorum. Frankfurt a. M. 1620, p. 302.
  2. ↑ Reinhold Jauernig: "Forster, Johann" in: Neue Deutsche Biographie 5 (1961), p. 304 [1]
  3. ↑ Stadtlexikon Augsburg. Horst Jesse, Ulrich Kirstein: Forster. August 26, 2009 [2]
personal data
SURNAME Forster, Johann
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Forsterus, Ioannes; Forster, Johann; Forstheim, Johann
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Lutheran theologian
DATE OF BIRTH July 10, 1496
PLACE OF BIRTH augsburg
DATE OF DEATH December 8, 1556
Place of death Wittenberg