Johann Frisch (Pastor)

Johann Frisch (born March 12, 1636 in Hamburg , † August 30, 1692 in Altona ) was a German pastor.

Live and act

Johann Frisch was a son of the Hamburg confectioner Hinrich Frisch and his wife Anna, née Rüter, who was her second marriage to the Hamburg pastor Hinrich von Petkum. After attending the learned school of the Johanneum and from 1654 the academic high school , he enrolled on April 30, 1656 at the University of Altdorf . After enrolling on June 15, 1657, he continued his studies in Wittenberg. Here he apparently wrote a pamphlet about Waldensians himself , which he defended in 1659 and which then went into print twice under his name.

Frisch was accepted as a candidate for the Ministry of Spiritual Affairs in Hamburg, but was not given a pastor's position in his hometown, but worked from 1661 until the end of his life in the newly created position of deacon and afternoon preacher in the main church in Altona . As a writer of edification, he probably wrote a lyrical-musical treatise on the story of the Passion, which was probably an oratorio. All works from this period no longer exist today.

Frisch also appeared as a publicist, which pastors rarely did at the time. From 1673 he obviously took over the editing of the Altonaische Relation for several years . It was the oldest newspaper in town, published by the publisher Heinrich Heuss. In the context of this activity, Frisch's main work was Edifying Hours of Rest or Conversations, in which all kinds of useful and edifying matters were dealt with. It was a kind of magazine that appeared weekly from 1676 to 1680. It consisted of a sheet and contained information on politics, geography and natural history in conversation form. Frisch himself acted as the interlocutor, Aphobius, who talked in particular with well-traveled merchants. He oriented himself formally to the monthly meetings of Johann Rist , who appeared from the 1663rd While Rist placed more emphasis on literary communication and rhetoric, Frisch wanted more experience and practical knowledge.

In addition, Frisch wrote the edifying quiet hours . It was a format that was distributed in the 18th century as so-called Moral Weekly Papers. With his combination of edifying and instructional literature, Frisch addressed not learned, but educated bourgeois readers.

literature

• Dieter Lohmeier: Frisch, Johann . in: Schleswig-Holstein biographical lexicon . Volume 5. Wachholtz, Neumünster 1979. ISBN 3-529-02645-X , pages 93-94.

• Johann Adrian Bolten : Historical church news from the city of Altona and its various religious parties, from the rule of Pinneberg and from the county of Ranzau . Vol. 1. 1790, pp. 101-106.

Web links

• Publications by and about Johann Frisch in VD 17 .