Johann Gotthilf Seliger

Johann Gotthilf Seliger (born March 7, 1769 in Züllichau , † January 22, 1835 in Landsberg ) was a German theologian , archdeacon and author of Pietist writings .

origin

Seliger's father Johann Friedrich Seliger (1729-1811) was known as Wolf Meyer (also: Meir Wolff) in Lower Silesia wholesale Peterwitz in a family Jewish born faith, orphaned and after an apprenticeship as a pleasure and Orangerie gardeners through the mediation of Samuel Trautmann was employed as "Domesticke" in the Züllichau orphanage . In 1750 he was baptized as a Protestant and in 1760 married the orphan Elisabeth Rücker (1734–1811), with whom he had 6 children, including Johann Gotthilf as the only son.

Life

The godparents of the young Johann Gotthilf Seliger were Johann Carl Frommann, brother of Nathanael Sigismund Frommann, the founder of the Frommann bookstore , and Gotthilf Samuel Steinbart . Seliger attended the "Royal Pedagogy" which was founded by the orphanage in 1788, acquired university entrance qualification there in 1790 and graduated with a doctorate in Protestant theology in 1793 with support from Steinbart in neighboring Frankfurt (Oder) .

A few weeks later, the young theologian received further support from Steinbart: He submitted an immediate application to King Friedrich Wilhelm II that Seliger could be an adjoint preacher at the orphanage. The king quickly complied with the request and issued “dispensatio ab aetate canonica” on September 26, 1793, thus allowing ordination , although Seliger was not yet of the minimum age required for this office under church law .

On April 21, 1794, Steinbart married him to Johanna Louise Dorothea Fleischmann. She was born on November 26, 1765 as the daughter of a bailiff and arrender in Tornow in Niederlausitz , was orphaned and was taken to the Züllichau orphanage, where she was last employed as a guard before the marriage. She died on May 15, 1827 in Landsberg (Warthe).

The Prussian state provided little support for a preacher. A further request from Steinbart for higher remuneration, which was sent to the king a month later, initially resulted in the fact that he was summoned to Berlin to “check his orthodoxy” because of his Jewish origins. The survey was favorable, but the higher salary was rejected. On the other hand, Seliger was successful in an application in Landsberg : The magistrate appointed him deacon at the Church of St. Mary and supervisor at the local orphanage.

Shortly afterwards, the position of an inspector in the district's Protestant church had become vacant. Seliger applied for it at the end of 1798. He was supported by a request from Landsberg dignitaries to King Friedrich Wilhelm III. to grant this position to the “generally popular and esteemed blessed”. Seliger was defeated, however, this time in favor of a veteran and field minister favored by the military .

In 1803 he applied again, this time for the position of Archdeacon von Landsberg, when the previous incumbent had died. This process apparently seemed important at the time, because, for example, Seliger's contemporary Friedrich Schleiermacher received personal news about it: “ Preacher Appel is also dead. and now a proposal has been submitted by the magistrate that the position would not be filled again, but would rather be improved by dividing the salary, especially the deacon (now Mr. Seliger) because of his low income. In order to be able to properly provide the Ministerialia, the Waysenhaus Informator should be ordained and receive 50 rth ( Reichstaler ). One is now in full expectation of what the consistory will decide on this. “The application was successful. Seliger held this position and that of the overseer in the orphanage until his death.

Works

Seliger published numerous " edification pamphlets " and extensive collections of sermons, both self-published and with Carl Darnmann . Similar to those of his sponsor Gotthilf Samuel Steinbart, they were shaped by a pietistic spirit and rationalism and had titles such as “Sermons on those objects from Christian doctrine and morals which deserve excellent consideration of our age”. These works were extensively reviewed in the Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung and the Neue Allgemeine Deutsche Bibliothek , which were relevant at the time .

progeny

Seliger had 5 children with Johanna Louise Dorothea Fleischmann, including Gustav (Friedrich Theodor) Seliger (1800–1861), lawyer, judiciary and notary in Pomerania. His son Carl (Albert Gustav) Seliger (1829-1901) was landowner and syndic at the Prussian Boden-Credit Actien-Bank in Berlin and married the Scottish Mary Barbara Rennie (1836-1920), a direct descendant of William Bradford . Their daughter Ellinor Seliger (1868–1954) married the lawyer and publicist Hugo Erich von Boehmer in 1893 .

Fonts (selection)

• Confession and communion book for thoughtful and well-meaning Christians, according to the needs of our time . 1798, self-published by Landsberg (Warthe) and publishing house Darnmann Züllichau, Leipzig, Freystadt, Frankfurt (Oder)
• as before, 1803
• Sermons on those subjects from the Christian doctrine of faith and morals, which deserve an excellent heart of our age. Following the instructions of the usual evangelical texts for Sundays and festivals for a whole year . Volume 1. 1800, Darnmann publishing house, Leipzig, Züllichau and Freystadt
• as before, Volume 2. 1803
• as before, volume 3. 1806
• Sermons on doctrine and morals . 1806, published by Darnmann, Leipzig, Züllichau and Freystadt

Literature and Sources

• Intelligence Journal of the General Literatur-Zeitung, Verlag Johann Gottfried Müllerische Buchhandlung, 1799, p. 237.
• Intelligence Journal of the General Literatur-Zeitung, Verlag Johann Gottfried Müllerische Buchhandlung, 1804, p. 279.
• Intelligence Journal of the General Literatur-Zeitung, Verlag Johann Gottfried Müllerische Buchhandlung, 1806, pp. 835, 836.
• Neue Allgemeine Deutsche Bibliothek [5] , 1803, pp. 10, 265–266.
• Georg Christoph Hamberger, Johann Georg Meusel: The learned Teutschland, or lexicon of the now living German writers . Volume 15, Issue 5, p. 453. Verlag, Meyersche Buchhandlung, 1811.
• Hans-Thorald Michaelis : The Seliger family in Züllichau and Landsberg an der Warthe . In: Ostdeutsche Familienkunde 14 (1966), pp. 134–141.

Web links

• Thuringian University and State Library (ThULB) Jena: proof of works [6]
• On the first Sunday of Advent: Gospel; How we can show Christian wisdom in the face of such a great tendency towards the new. Facsimile [7]
• On the second Sunday of Advent: Gospel; That our belief in God's world government could very well exist with the admission of wars. Facsimile [8]
• Confession and communion book for thoughtful and well-meaning Christians. Facsimile [9]
• Review u. a. of the Book of Confession and Communion. Facsimile [10]
• Sermons on those subjects from the Christian doctrine of faith and morals, which deserve an excellent heart of our age. T. 1-2. Following the instructions of the usual evangelical texts for Sundays and festivals for a whole year. Facsimile [11]

Individual evidence

1. ^ Letter from Samuel Ernst Timotheus Stubenrauch of June 10, 1803 to Schleiermacher, cited above. in: Schleiermacher, Friedrich DE - Critical Complete Edition, Vol. 6 Correspondence 1802-1803, Letter 1500. De Gruyter, Berlin, Ed. 1, 2005, pp. 386–388. ISBN 3110182939
2. ^ Connection between the Züllichau publishers Carl Darnmann and Frommann [1]
3. ↑ General Literature newspaper 1799: Review of the confession and communion book [2]
4. ↑ New General. German Library 1800: Review of sermons on those items ... [3]
5. ↑ New General. German Library 1803: Review of sermons on those items ... [4]