Johann Hektor von Klettenberg

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Johann Hektor von Klettenberg (* 1684 in Frankfurt am Main ; † March 1, 1720 at the Königstein Fortress ) was a German alchemist .

Klettenberg came from a respected Frankfurt family and was a baron. He had to flee from Frankfurt in 1707 after a duel in which another nobleman was killed. After that he lived as an impostor who claimed to be able to make gold, and appeared at the court of Saxe-Weimar as Baron von Wildeck, but was neither a baron nor an officer himself. After the unmasking, he had to flee Weimar and went to the court of August the Strong , to whom he also promised to make gold and received large sums. Moreover, the king made him the District Chief of Senftenberg . When the king's debts rose to 24,000 thalers in 1715, with no results available, the king had him incarcerated in Hohnstein . He was imprisoned there for two years and from March 18 at the Königstein Fortress . After two attempts to escape and an extradition request from Frankfurt because of the murder of the opposing duelist, he was beheaded in 1720. A memorial stone has been preserved at the place of execution on the king's nose.

His niece Susanne von Klettenberg had a pietistic circle in Frankfurt in which she studied alchemy with Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, among others .

A writing Alchymia denudata from 1716 cannot be ascribed to him with certainty.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hans-Werner Schütt: In search of the philosopher's stone. The history of alchemy. Beck, 2000, p. 504.
  2. ↑ Hans-Werner Schütt: In search of the philosopher's stone. The history of alchemy. Beck, 2000, p. 504.
  3. ↑ CERL
personal data
SURNAME Klettenberg, Johann Hektor von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German alchemist
DATE OF BIRTH 1684
PLACE OF BIRTH Frankfurt am Main
DATE OF DEATH March 1, 1720
Place of death Koenigstein