Johann Friedrich Koellner

Johann Friedrich Köllner, 1764–1853 (Saarbrücken City Archives)

Johann Friedrich Köllner (born May 8, 1764 in Saarbrücken ; † August 19, 1853 in Malstatt ) was a Protestant pastor , educator , local historian , local politician and from 1816 to 1823 mayor of (old) Saarbrücken.

Origin and life

His father was Friedrich Christian Köllner (1733–1809), garden director in the service of the princes of Nassau-Saarbrücken . His mother Maria Margaretha (1742–1790) came from the Saarbrucken merchant dynasty Korn. In autumn 1792 the family had to flee from the revolutionary troops to Baden via Landau in the Palatinate . During this time the young theologian Köllner worked as a private tutor for wealthy families. Via Basel , where he also met the later Prussian Minister of State Karl August von Hardenberg , he came to Strasbourg and finally returned to Saarbrücken on August 5, 1795. On September 11, 1798, Köllner married the pastor's daughter Helene Caroline nee in Lützelstein (Alsace). Wegelin (1773-1853). The marriage resulted in the son Adolph (1799–1877), who like his father emerged as a local historian, and another son, who is said to have worked as a painter in Cologne .

Friedrich Köllner was almost 90 years old. He died in the best of mental health, but almost completely blind. His grave monument was in the churchyard in Malstatt. It was restored by the city administration in 1964. To this day, a memorial stone marks the area that has now been leveled, and his gravestone has been preserved.

education

Friedrich grew up in his hometown, attended the Saarbrücker Gymnasium from 1773–1782 and passed his final examination there. This was followed by a language study stay in Metz in 1783 . He then began studying theology at the University of Halle-Wittenberg and the University of Jena , combined with study trips through central and southern German cities. On May 25 and 26, 1786, Köllner passed his exams in Saarbrücken, followed by his ordination on the same day.

Working as a pastor and teacher

In 1787, Köllner was appointed a free preacher and the holder of the fourth pastor's post in the Protestant parish in Saarbrücken. In Bad Bergzabern he helped out in the pastoral office of his uncle, Consistorial Councilor Schmidt. In 1789 he tried in vain to find his own pastorate in Weißenburg . From 1809 until his resignation in 1837 he was pastor in Malstatt and Gersweiler .

Köllner was employed in various positions as a private tutor. He was in the service of Baron Karl August Ludwig Friedrich von Bode († 1797) and taught his son Karl August Maria Heinrich Christian (* 1780), in Bergzabern and, from 1789, in Sulz under the forest near Weißenburg. From 1792–1794 he taught with the von Rotberg family in Rheinweiler near Bad Bellingen , and from 1797–1798 with the Böcking family in Saarbrücken. He was also the teacher of the young Heinrich Böcking , who years later also became mayor of Saarbrücken.

Public offices

At the end of the First Coalition War and after the Peace of Campo Formio on November 4, 1797 , France annexed all the areas on the left bank of the Rhine conquered by the revolutionary troops. Saarbrücken became a canton municipality in the Département de la Sarre, established in 1798 . Everyone had to come to terms with the new masters of the French municipal administration who wanted to become something in the state and society.

From March 21, 1798, until its dissolution on November 1, 1800, he was commissioner of the executive board ( commissaire du directoire exécutif du canton d'Arnoual ) for the canton of Sankt Arnual , roughly comparable to the position of a district administrator . From 1800 he officiated as expert du domaine and from 1801 as tax collector ( percepteur central ). From 1804–1808 he was a notary ( notaire public au département de la Sarre ).

At the end of the Wars of Liberation and after the resolutions of the Congress of Vienna in 1815, the French territory was again reduced to the borders of 1790. When the question of the future state affiliation of Saarbrücken and the Saar district was discussed in the run-up to the peace negotiations, strong pro-Prussian efforts soon dominated, in which Heinrich Böcking, Johann Philipp Fauth (1754-1836) and Karl Lauckhard were involved in addition to Köllner . The deputation sent to the Paris Peace Conference in the summer of 1815 presented a petition to this effect , which called for the Saartalorte to join the Kingdom of Prussia. Johann Friedrich Köllner wrote the text, as his son Adolf published 50 years later. Saarbrücken finally fell to Prussia in the Second Peace of Paris, and the French period, which was perceived in many ways as foreign rule, was thus definitely over.

On July 23, 1815, Johann Friedrich Köllner was appointed city councilor, and on December 23, 1815, he was appointed councilor of the incumbent Mayor Karl Ludwig Alexander Zimmermann . He followed this up in office in September 1816, “when he no longer wanted to keep the place [...]” and remained Mayor of Saarbrücken until his illness-related retirement in 1823, without ever having been elected, but: “both with the tacit approval “of the district administrator as well as the Trier district government .

Working as a historian and publicist

From 1801 Köllner worked as a corresponding member of the " Society for Useful Research " in Trier . From 1806 he became a member of the "Society for Agriculture, Science and Arts" ( société d'agriculture, sciences et arts du département du Bas-Rhin ) in the neighboring French département Bas-Rhin .

He presented his main work, History of the former Nassau-Saarbrück'schen Land and its Regents , to the public in 1841.

Honors

• 1821: Appointment as Lord Mayor of Saarbrücken

See also

Among the Saarbrücken townspeople he was known as “de Paff vun Molschd” ( dialect for: “the pastor of Malstatt”), who was often and gladly asked for advice even after his retirement from the offices and someone who had traveled a lot highly educated as he was - probably never been embarrassed. Since then, the Saarbrücken vernacular has been sending someone seeking advice “to Paff vun Molschd”. The Pfarrer-Köllner-Staircase in the Malstatt district of Saarbrücken was named after him. It connects the Evangelical Church of Malstatt with Breitestrasse ( Bundesstrasse 51 ) within walking distance .

Publications

• Friederich (see above!) Köllner: History of the former Nassau-Saarbrück'schen Land and its regents Saarbrücken, 1841; Digitized

• A. Ruppersberg , F. Köllner, A. Köllner: History of the former county of Saarbrücken: From the oldest time to the introduction of the Reformation ; Publishing house Saarbrücker Bücher, 1908; 334 pages

• F. Köllner, A. Köllner, A. Ruppersberg: History of the cities of Saarbrücken and St. Johann up to the year 1815 ; Self-published by the district and the cities of Saarbrücken, St. Johann and Malstatt-Burbach, 1913; 508 pages

• A. Ruppersberg, F. Köllner, A. Köllner: History of the former county of Saarbrücken: 1st volume. History of the city of Saarbrücken and St. Johann up to the year 1815. 2nd volume. History of the city of Saarbrücken and St. Johann from 1815 to 1909, the city of Malstatt-Burbach and the unified city of Saarbrücken until 1914 ; Publishing house Saarbrücker Bücher, 1979

• A. Ruppersberg, F. Köllner, A. Köllner: History of the former county of Saarbrücken: From the oldest time to the introduction of the Reformation, Volume 1: History of the former county of Saarbrücken ; Verlag Saarbrücker Bücher, 1979, ISBN 978-3-9218-1503-8

• A. Ruppersberg, F. Köllner, A. Köllner: History of the former county of Saarbrücken: From the introduction of the Reformation to the union with Prussia, 1574–1815 ; Publishing house Saarbrücker Bücher, 1979

literature

• Günther Heipp: "De Paff vunn Moolschd" . In: Wilhelm Engel (Ed.): 375 years of the Evangelical Church on the Saar, 1575–1950 . Saarbrücken 1950.
• Hanns Klein: Short biographies of the mayors of Saarbrücken . In: Journal for the history of the Saar region . 19th year, Historical Association for the Saar Region , Saarbrücken 1971, p. 514 f.
• Joachim Conrad: Köllner, Johann Friedrich (1764-1853) . In: BBKL , 23 (2004), Col. 829-837.

Web links

• Johann Friedrich Köllner on Saarland biographies

Individual evidence

1. ^ Adolf Köllner: History of the cities of Saarbrücken and St. Johann. Edited from documents and authentic reports, 2 volumes, Saarbrücken 1865, Vol. 1, pp. 539f.