Johann Jacob Grümbke

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Johann Jacob Grümbke (born September 6, 1771 in Bergen ; † March 23, 1849 there ) was a German historian and geographer . He extensively researched the history and regional studies of Rügen and was thus the founder of Rügen local research .

Life

Grümbkes grave in the old cemetery in Bergen

Johann Jacob Grümbke was born in 1771 as the son of the doctor and rural physicist Christian Stanislaus Grümbke (1740–1773). However, he lost his parents at the age of one and grew up with his grandparents in Greifswald .

After graduating from school, Grümbke attended the Sundisches Gymnasium in Stralsund from 1783 , where he developed a close friendship with Ernst Moritz Arndt . From 1790 to 1795 Grümbke studied law in Göttingen , Erlangen and Greifswald. But he could not really enjoy studying or professors.

"Fathers, if you want to train your sons to be skilled people, oh, I advise, don't send them to universities and decide to use them for the state through learning, oh, listen to my request: don't let them become professors."

- Johann Jacob Grümbke : Poems from the personal family book

After completing his studies, Grümbke settled back in Bergen and devoted himself entirely to local research. In Patzig he accepted a position as a private tutor in 1800, but ended this in 1804 and no longer practiced a profession - the inheritance from his parents and grandparents was enough for him, probably also because he remained unmarried. For the last three decades of his life he lived on the market in Bergen with the Biel pharmacist family, whose half-timbered house, between the post office and the Ratskeller, only had to give way to the new building of today's Rugard pharmacy in 1966 .

Johann Jacob Grümbke died in his hometown of Bergen in 1849, his grave is there in the old cemetery on Billrothstrasse.

Importance as a local researcher

Memorial stone for Grümbke in his hometown Bergen on Rügen

Even before he started his studies, Grümbke carried out his first research: The 60-page handwritten manuscript of the geographical-statistical overview of Swedish Pomerania and Rügen with a detailed bibliography testifies to his early involvement with the natural history of Rügen.

After his return to Rügen, Grümbke worked as a historian and geographer at the same time and "no elevation, no bush, no megalithic grave remained unwritten by him". This accuracy distinguished his works from those of the travel writers who were only visiting or passing through. He illustrated his books himself with drawings and watercolors and reported in detail on nature and landscape, past and present, as well as customs and traditions of the region.

Grümbke's first significant publication dates back to 1805, at that time still under the pseudonym Indigena , a Latin word meaning “the native” or “the native”. The forays through the Rügenland are rated as "travel classics of the 19th century". Grümbke describes his wanderings across the island of Rügen in the form of letters customary for his time (12 letters dated July 26, 1803 to October 7, 1803). In doing so, he reacted directly to what he believed to be inaccurate and in some cases incorrect travel descriptions by some of his previous authors who were ignorant of the location. These were in particular:

  • Johann Friedrich Zöllner (1753–1804), a Berlin scholar, a. a. Alexander von Humboldt's teacher , “Journey through Pomerania to the island of Rügen and part of the Duchy of Mecklenburg in 1795” , published in 1797
  • Johann Carl Friedrich Rellstab (1759–1813), a Berlin music dealer and publisher, “Escape to the island of Rügen through Meklenburg and Pomerania” , published in 1797
  • Karl Nernst (1775–1815), a student of Ludwig Gotthard Kosegarten , “Walks through Rügen” , published in 1800

Regarding Rellstab in particular, he remarked:

“The man has, as it were, only seen in flight, remarked above, and therefore his judgment is one-sided, often untrue, and no less many of his statements and opinions are inadequate, and his entire description of Rügen only contains 16 sheets and one page. ... You can even persuade Mr Rellstab that he spent a maximum of four to five days on the island, and how little he could see, hear and learn! "

- Johann Jacob Grümbke : Preface to forays through the Rügenland

Grümbke gained fame through his work New and Accurate Geographical-Statistical-Historical Representations of the Island and the Principality of Rügen , published in 1819 . It still forms the basis of all research and descriptions of the island today.

Grümbke's research later focuses on old documents and genealogy , especially on the handwritten material on the Rügen noble families, as well as on the Low German language in the form of contributions to Johann Gottfried Ludwig Kosegarten's dictionary of the Low German language .

In 1830, his work was recognized by the award of an honorary doctorate by the Philosophical Faculty of the University of Greifswald . A lookout tower built in the 1990s on the Hilgor high (43.8 m above sea level) near Grubnow on the Lebbin peninsula on Rügen was named after him.

Works

  • 1805: Forays through the Rügenland
  • 1819: New and precise geographical-statistical-historical representations of the island and the Principality of Rügen
  • 1833: Collected news about the history of the former Cistercian nunnery Sct. Maria in Bergen on the island of Ruegen

The extensive handwritten legacy of Johann Jacob Grümbke that goes beyond this is kept in the archives of the Evangelical Church in Bergen.

swell

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ cf. Teschke
personal data
SURNAME Grümbke, Johann Jacob
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Grümbke, Johann Jakob; Grümbke, JJ; Indigenous pseudonym
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German homeland researcher on Rügen
DATE OF BIRTH September 6, 1771
PLACE OF BIRTH Mountains on Rügen
DATE OF DEATH March 23, 1849
Place of death Mountains on Rügen