Johann Georg Gichtel

Johann Georg Gichtel (born March 4 or 14, 1638 in Regensburg ; † January 21, 1710 in Amsterdam ) was a mystic and spiritualist .

Life

Gichtel, son of a tax official in Regensburg, first studied theology in Strasbourg , but later switched to law. After a brief activity as a lawyer in Speyer , he returned to Regensburg in 1664.

The meeting with the lawyer Justinian von Welz was important for his further life . In his work De vita solitaria, he turned against the usual “mouth Christianity” and advocated the ideal of a Christianity turned away from the world. In the 1660s, von Welz called for the formation of a new society that would unite Lutheranism and implement the missionary command of Jesus ( Mt 28 : 18-20  LUT ). Gichtel was won over for this project and was initially on the road in Germany on behalf of Welz. Because he messed with the clergy of Regensburg and Nuremberg in diatribes, he was arrested and expelled from Regensburg in 1665.

Gichtel kept busy with religious writings. In 1682 he published Jakob Boehme's works in full. He was accepted by the pastor and spiritualist Friedrich Breckling in Zwolle , who had already given shelter to many like-minded people. When Gichtel stood up for Friedrich Breckling in his dispute with the Amsterdam Consistory, he was jailed and pillory for his violent church criticism and was expelled from Zwolle. Breckling also lost his pastor. After being expelled from Zwolle, he found refuge in Amsterdam. Here he lived - not always without tension - with several house brothers and sisters .

Gichtel's idea that God resides in the soul of the believer made him reject any external churchism and led to an awareness of an exclusive relationship with God. He also rejected the marriage status and called for sexual asceticism , since the true Christian is only married to the heavenly Sophia .

In addition to the Böhme edition, Gichtel dealt with his theosophy . Ascetic exercises were part of this. Visionary and wonderful experiences are reported, which are supposed to prove his connection with the divine Sophia. He had an intense mystical experience.

Gichtel consciously only lived on donations, because his Theosophia practica included not only renouncing earthly love but also renouncing care. The demand for the sanctification of life included the consistent rejection of the Lutheran doctrine of justification . The final stage of this sanctification is constant self-denial and renunciation of all earthly lust. This leads to the Melchizedek Priesthood, which, like Christ, sacrifices itself to free others, including the dead, from their sufferings.

He has propagated his views in numerous letters. These were published as theosophical letters by Gottfried Arnold (1700) and later again under the title Theosophia practica by Johann Wilhelm Überfeld (Leiden 1722, 6 vols.) With his biography.

Gichtel had been in written contact with the radical Pietist Gottfried Arnold since 1699 at the latest. He influenced numerous other radical Pietists, such as Hochmann von Hochenau and the married couple Johann Wilhelm and Johanna Eleonora Petersen , or was in close contact with them. Because of his righteousness and the demand for celibacy, other proponents of spiritualism and some of his closest collaborators turned away from him.

The members of the small community he founded in Holland were called Gichtelians after him ; they called themselves angel brothers because they hoped to rise to the purity of angels . After Gichtel's death, it was headed by the merchant Johann Wilhelm Überfeld in Leiden, while the districts in Altona and Hamburg were followed by Johann Otto Glüsing , where, according to Johann Adrian Bolten, they still existed around 1800. There were further circles of Gichtelians in Berlin, Magdeburg, Dresden and Nordhausen.

Gichtel also had a strong influence on the early Halle Pietism . However, for Gichtel , the Francke institutes in Halle were a waste of the outside world. Gichtel and his followers had nothing to do with institutions - this applies first and foremost, of course, to any form of institutional church.

literature

• Johann Gustav Reinbeck : Joh. Gustav Reinbeck's message about Gichtel's life course and teachings, because the latter has been drawn from his own letters, but these have been checked according to the Holy Scriptures, previously given in the so-called Berlin Heb Victims, but now especially reprinted for moving reasons. Rüdiger, Berlin 1732 ( digitized in the Google book search).
• Adolf Harless : Jakob Böhme and the alchemists. A contribution to the understanding of J. Böhme. In addition to an appendix: JG Gichtel's life and errors. Schlawitz, Berlin 1870 (digitized version of the 2nd, increased edition from 1882 Textarchiv - Internet Archive ).
• Gottlieb Christoph Adolph von Harless : JG Gichtel's life and errors u. on a Rosenkreuter manuscript. Hinrichs, Leipzig 1882 (contained in the above digitized version).
• Christiaan Sepp:  Gichtel, Johann Georg . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 9, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1879, pp. 147-150.
• Peter Poscharsky :  Gichtel, Johann Georg. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 6, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1964, ISBN 3-428-00187-7 , p. 369 ( digitized version ).
• Bernard Gorceix: Johann Georg Gichtel. Théosophe d'Amsterdam. Lausanne 1975
• Gertraud Zaepernick : Johann Georg Gichtels and his successors exchanged letters with the Pietists in Halle, especially with AM Francke. In: Pietism and Modern Times. 8, 1982, pp. 74-118.
• Friedrich Wilhelm Bautz :  Gichtel, Johann Georg. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 2, Bautz, Hamm 1990, ISBN 3-88309-032-8 , Sp. 240-241.
• Paul Estié: The dispute between Charias, Breckling, Jungius and Gichtel in the Lutheran congregation in Kampen 1661-1668. In: Pietism and Modern Times. 16, 1990, pp. 31-52.
• Martin Brecht : The German Spiritualists of the 17th Century. In: History of Pietism. Volume 1. 1993, pp. 205-240.
• Hans Schneider : The radical Pietism in the 17th century. In: History of Pietism. Volume 1. 1993, pp. 391-437.
• Hans Schneider: The radical Pietism in the 18th century in: History of Pietism Volume 2. 1995. P. 107–197.
• Peter JA Nissen: Gichtel, Johann Georg. In: LThK ³ 4. 1995, p. 643.
• Gertraud Zaepernick : Gichtel, Johann Georg. In: RGG ⁴ Volume 4. 2000. Col. 924.
• Andreas Gestrich : marriage, family, children in pietism. the "tamed devil". In: History of Pietism. Volume 4. 2004. pp. 498-521.
• H. van 't Veld: Gichtel, Johann Georg. In: Biografisch Lexicon voor de geschiedenis van het Nederlands Protestantisme. Deel 6. 2006, pp. 88-90 ( online resource ).
• Claus Bernet : Communicating the innermost part of my heart: Johann Georg Gichtel's correspondence to the Princess Abbess of Herford. In: Herford Yearbook. 16, 2009, pp. 203-220.
• Aira Võsa: Johann Georg Gichtel's relationship to the opposite sex. In: Radical Pietism. Research Perspectives. AGP 55. Göttingen 2010, pp. 361-368.
• Ruth Albrecht: On Johann Georg Gichtel's correspondence with Johanna Eleonora Petersen. In: Radical Pietism. Research Perspectives. AGP 55, Göttingen 2010, pp. 327-359.

Web links

• Literature by and about Johann Georg Gichtel in the catalog of the German National Library