Johann Georg Schulthess (the elder)

Johann Georg Schulthess, painting by Heinrich Pfenninger , 1789, Gleimhaus Halberstadt

Johann Georg Schulthess (born November 23 , other date November 18, 1724 in Zurich , † May 7, 1804 in Mönchaltorf ) was a Swiss Protestant clergyman.

Life

family

Johann Georg Schulthess was the son of the confectioner Christoph Schulthess (* October 2, 1692 (baptism date) in Zurich; † June 15, 1749 there) and his wife Anna (née Steiner von Wülflingen) (* 1694 in Winterthur; † December 11 1757 ibid). His great cousin Anna was married to Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi .

Johann Georg Schulthess was married to Anna (born October 4, 1729 (date of baptism) in Marthalen, † July 3, 1781 in Zurich), daughter of pastor Johann Heinrich Gossweiler (1688–1734), since 1752; together they had eleven children, among others:

• Johann Georg Schulthess , theologian ;
• Johannes Schulthess (born September 28, 1763; † November 10, 1836 in Zurich), professor at the University of Zurich .

His second marriage was Anna Katharina in 1791 (born May 29, 1736 in Zurich; † February 8, 1807), daughter of pastor Johann Rudolf Rahn (1712–1775).

Johann Georg Schulthess is also considered the progenitor of the Aarhof and Weinleiter - St. Urban lines. His grandson Hans Jakob Schulthess (1795-1851) became a pastor in Schinznach and was married to Charlotte Meyer from Aarau . His son Edmund Schulthess (1826–1906) bought the manor house in Aarhof near Villnachern in 1850 ; his sons were Wilhelm Schulthess (1855–1917), who opened a private orthopedic clinic that developed into the well-known Schulthess Clinic, and Edmund Schulthess (1868–1944), who was elected to the Federal Council in 1912 and took over the Department of Economics ; he resigned after 23 years.

education

Johann Georg Schulthess received his education at the secondary schools in Zurich and completed a theology degree at the Collegium Carolinum , among others with Johann Jakob Bodmer , Johann Kaspar Hagenbuch and Johann Jakob Breitinger, after which he was ordained in 1747 . During his studies he was a member of a smaller group of students ( Growing Society ) who dealt with the beautiful sciences under the guidance and supervision of Johann Jakob Bodmer .

Portrait of Johann Georg Schulthess by Friedrich Wilhelm Bollinger , 1798

Trip to Berlin

During a trip to Berlin , which he reached at the end of August 1749, he founded the Monday Society there, together with Johann Georg Sulzer and Karl Wilhelm Ramler , in October , which met weekly to serve as a place for free, cheerful conversation between men of similar spirit, and thus represented a forum for sociability and discussion across class and professional barriers; Women were denied membership.

During his trip to and from Berlin and during his stay there, he made the acquaintance of Christian Fürchtegott Gellert , Abraham Gotthelf Kästner , Gottlieb Wilhelm Rabener , Johann Wilhelm Ludwig Gleim and Ewald Christian von Kleist . In May 1750 he traveled to Hamburg and met Friedrich von Hagedorn there; on the return journey via Quedlinburg he met Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock .

At the end of July 1750 he returned to Zurich, accompanied by Sulzer and Klopstock, whom he was able to persuade to visit Bodmer.

Career

After the attempt to pursue an academic career in Zurich failed, he accepted the pastor's post in Stettfurt in 1752 and that in Mönchaltdorf in 1769. In 1770 he was appointed treasurer (church) of the Kyburg chapter by his fellow officials ; there he tried to improve the school system. During this time he exchanged letters with the poet Salomon Gessner from 1752 to 1753 .

He maintained friendship with Christoph Martin Wieland , Glein and Ramler until he was old .

Cooperation with Johann Jakob Bodmer

Johann Georg Schulthess had close contact with Bodmer, a relative on his mother's side, since 1742; the latter showed him the correspondence he had with various German writers . Bodmer entrusted him with editing his critical praise poems and elegies , which appeared in 1747 and the second edition in 1754.

He received a letter of recommendation from Bodmer to Johann Georg Sulzer as well as from the theologian Johann Jakob Zimmermann (1695–1756) to August Friedrich Sack and Jean Henri Samuel Formey when he began his trip to Berlin via Nuremberg , Leipzig , Dresden and Halle .

Writing

Johann Georg Schulthess made a name for himself as a translator of Greek philosophers, including the Library of Greek Philosophers in four volumes and the two-volume work Plato's Conversations on Laws , which appeared in several editions. He also translated the work of an unknown English author with The Virtues of the Female Sex, or the story "Nannchen Pelham" .

From 1755 to 1756 he also published the moral weekly Das Angenehme mit dem Nüzlichen , in which Johann Jacob Bodmer, Christoph Martin Wieland and Salomon Geßner also published .

Memberships

• Johann Georg Schulthess was a co-founder of the Berlin Monday Society .
• Together with Hans Caspar Hirzel and Johann Rudolf Schinz (1762–1829), he was also a co-founder of the Zurich Aid Society , which still exists today, and which looked after the poor.

honors and awards

• On the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the Monday Society's founding celebration in 1799, he received a gold commemorative coin, which was minted for the occasion.

Fonts (selection)

• JJ Bodmer's poems in rhyming verse . Zurich 1754.
• Gorgias, a Conversation on Oratory . Zurich 1775.
• Epictet: Interpretation of the moral manual of Epictet . Zurich 1778.
• Library of Greek Philosophers . Zurich 1778–1782.
  • Volume 1 . Zurich 1778.
  • Volume 2 . Zurich 1778.
  • Volume 3 . Zurich 1779.
  • Volume 4 . Zurich 1782.
• Heraclides ?? about Homer's allegories . Zurich 1779.
• Aeschines des Socratikers philosophical discussions . Zurich 1779.
• Mark Antony ?? Reflections on his own affairs . Zurich 1779.
• The Virtues of the Feminine, or the "Nannchen Pelham" story . Zurich 1781.
• Aristotle's letter to Alexander the great about the world . Zurich 1782.
• Alexander's Aphrodisian Treatise on Fate and Freedom of Will . Zurich 1782.
• Plato's Conversations on Laws . Zurich 1785.
  • Volume 1 .
  • Volume 2 .
• Jacques-Henri Master ; Johann Georg Schulthess; Christoph Martin Wieland; Georg Joachim Göschen ; Johann Georg Langhoff: From natural morality . Leipzig, Langhoff 1789.

literature

• Karl Otto Hunziker :  Schultheß, Joh. Georg . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 32, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1891, pp. 696-700.
• Johann Georg Schulthess . In: Markus Lutz : Nekrologiger memorable Swiss from the eighteenth century . Aarau 1812. p. 483.

Web links

• Christian Moser: Johann Georg Schulthess. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Family tree of Christoph Schulthess. Retrieved June 6, 2020 . 
2. ↑ Historical Family Lexicon of Switzerland - Persons. Retrieved June 6, 2020 . 
3. ↑ Historical Family Lexicon of Switzerland - Persons. Retrieved June 6, 2020 . 
4. ^ Line Weinleiter St. Urban - Schulthess'sche Family Foundation. Retrieved June 9, 2020 . 
5. ^ GHGZ lecture: "The Schulthess family and von Schulthess of Zurich". Retrieved June 6, 2020 . 
6. ^ Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock: Supplements, entries in the register, entries on album pages . Walter de Gruyter, 2007, ISBN 978-3-11-019122-6 ( google.de [accessed June 6, 2020]).
7. ^ Esther Berner: In the sign of reason and Christianity: the Zurich rural school reform in the late 18th century . Böhlau Verlag Köln Weimar, 2010, ISBN 978-3-412-20388-7 ( google.de [accessed on June 6, 2020]).
8. ↑ Database of German-language moral weeklies | Overview of created weekly publications. Retrieved June 6, 2020 . 
9. ↑ Schinz, Johann Rudolf. Retrieved June 6, 2020 . 
10. ^ Portrait of Johann Georg Schulthess: Gleimhaus Museum of the German Enlightenment: museum-digital: sachsen-Anhalt. Retrieved June 6, 2020 . 
11. ↑ Zurich Aid Society. Retrieved June 8, 2020 . 
12. ↑ General German judicial, camera and police mama: 1818 . 1818 ( google.de [accessed June 6, 2020]).