Johann Jakob Lauffer

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Johann Jakob Lauffer (born July 25, 1688 in Bleienbach , † February 23, 1734 in Bern ) was a Swiss Reformed theologian and historian . He wrote a chronicle of Bern.

life and work

Johann Jakob Lauffer came from an old bourgeois family in the town of Zofingen in Aargau, which was then part of the canton of Bern . His parents were Hans Antoni Lauffer and Maria Dür. He was trained up to the age of 15 at the Latin school in Zofingen and then as a theology student from 1703 to 1712 at the Academy in Bern . Then he went on a two-year scientific journey through Germany , the Netherlands and France to complete his studies and visited the universities of Halle and Utrecht . In Halle he heard lectures from August Hermann Francke , Nicolaus Hieronymus Gundling and Christian Thomasius and gained recognition for the latter through a public disputation.

Lauffer took up his literary activity with a philosophical-theological treatise on the folly of denial of God , which work came out under the title Atheus Amens in 1714 in Amsterdam . After his return home he became a preacher in 1717 and on this occasion wrote a dissertation de hostium spoliis Deo sacratis et sacrandis (Bern 1717). In the following year appointed professor of history and eloquence at the Bern Academy, he wrote a Praelectio litteraria, quis sit vere litteratus (Bern 1718). Through his lectures, he aroused interest in local history in his students, including Albrecht von Haller .

With the Swiss Protestant theologian and historian Johann Georg Altmann , Lauffer founded a literary society that was responsible for the publication of the Bernisches Freytags-Blättlein in 1722/1723 , to which he wrote articles without naming his name. He also wrote articles in Johann Jakob Bodmer's Discourse der Mahlern (4 parts, Zurich 1721–1723) under the pseudonym Kneller . He was also the author of the following writings:

  • Contra librorum malorum abundantiam eorumque auctores. Bern 1722.
  • An et quibus litteris homo politicus sit imbuendus. Bern 1722.
  • De recta liberorum educatione. Bern 1723.
  • De dictatoribus Romanis. Bern 1726.
  • Solemnity speeches given 1725–1727. Bern 1728.

More important than the previously mentioned writings, Lauffers was since 1724 on behalf of the Bern Council undertaken the continuation of the official chronicle of Bern kept by his predecessor Michael Stettler until 1630. He did not begin the presentation with the end of Stettler's chronicle, but with antiquity, but was only able to continue it until 1657, since at that time, in February 1734, he was killed by falling from a staircase. He was 45 years old.

On behalf of Lauffer's widow, his friend Johann Georg Altmann took care of the publication of the unfinished Bern Chronicle, which was an exact and cumbersome description of Helvetian history (18 vols., Zurich 1736–1738) along with four volumes of historical and critical contributions to the history of the Confederates, consisting of certificates, documents and investigations ... on the work of Jacob Lauffer (ibid. 1739) was printed. Altmann added a detailed register to the main work (1739) and appropriated it in the name of the widow of the Bernese government, which bought the copies intended for its members at the current price, granted the widow a gift of 1,800 thalers and the handwritten original in kept in the public library of Bern.

Since Lauffer did not study sources so much, but mainly drew his material from second hand, for example from informers such as Stettler, Franz Guillimann and other historians, his grandiose chronicle only has independent historical value for the period after 1630. It provides important details about the Swiss Peasants' War and an unadorned depiction of the First Battle of Villmergen on January 24, 1656 .

literature

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personal data
SURNAME Lauffer, Johann Jakob
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss theologian and historian
DATE OF BIRTH July 25, 1688
PLACE OF BIRTH Bleienbach
DATE OF DEATH February 23, 1734
Place of death Bern