Johann Friedrich Christian Gerlach

Gerlach's place of activity: the second-hand shop (around 1900)

Johann Friedrich Christian Gerlach (born May 19, 1763 in Wernigerode ; † January 8, 1834 there ) was a German innkeeper.

Life

Christian Gerlach was born out of wedlock in Wernigerode. He got a job as a room heater at Wernigerode Castle , in whose castle church St. Pantaleon he married Marie Elisabeth Stagge in 1797.

From October 1, 1800, he and his family lived in the newly built second-hand store in the Harz Mountains . From January 1, 1801, he ran the inn on the Brocken for the next 33 years . He had leased the inn from Count Christian Friedrich zu Stolberg-Wernigerode and then from his son Count Henrich zu Stolberg-Wernigerode and was the first innkeeper in the history of the highest mountain in Northern Germany.

The numerous high-ranking guests he was able to greet personally on the Brocken included u. a. King Friedrich Wilhelm III. of Prussia and Queen Louise, Jérôme Bonaparte , Joseph von Eichendorff , Friedrich Schleiermacher , Caspar David Friedrich , Carl Friedrich Gauß and Heinrich Heine . Gerlach also included the latter in his work Die Harzreise .

The names of the guests who entered the guest books on the Brocken von Gerlach were published in the Wernigeröder Zeitung and Intellektivenblatt from March 20, 1810 . They later appeared in print as chunk registers .

In 1825 the number of guests had increased so much that Gerlach reported that on some days over a hundred people stayed in the second-hand store and that there was not enough space.

Since he had received a reprimand from the Count's Chamber in 1833 because of increasing complaints about his management and because of major health problems, he went to Wernigerode in late autumn 1833, where he hoped for a cure. Here he died of a tumor, leaving behind his widow and two majorenne children.