Johann Jakob Mezger

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Johann Jakob Mezger (born November 10, 1817 in Siblingen , † January 2, 1893 in Neuhausen am Rheinfall ) was a Swiss Protestant clergyman and local researcher.

Life

family

Johann Jakob Mezger was the son of the pastor of the same name Johann Jakob Mezger (born March 28, 1783 in Schaffhausen ; † June 18, 1853 in Wagenhausen ) and his wife Anna (1793–1863), daughter of the Zurich pastor and church councilor Oeri in Wil ; he had three other sisters.

He married Susanna (née Oschwald) (1820–1871) in the summer of 1848. The names of her children are known:

  • Johann Conrad Mezger, pastor in Gächlingen and son-in-law of Johann Wilhelm Veith (1758–1833), Antistes in Schaffhausen.

education

From Wagenhausen, where his father had been transferred in 1828, he attended the secondary school in Stein am Rhein and at Easter 1835 went to the grammar school (today: Kantonsschule Schaffhausen ) and in 1837 to the Collegium humanitatis in Schaffhausen. After attending school , he enrolled in April 1839 to study theology at the University of Tübingen , where he heard, among other things, the church history lectures by Ferdinand Christian Baur , and continued his studies in autumn 1840 at the University of Bonn . He traveled there via Frankfurt am Main and visited the de Neuville family, who were close friends with his father. During his stay, he was introduced to a Wednesday society by his former schoolmate, the bookseller Friedrich Hurter (1821–1868), the focus of which was Johann Friedrich Böhmer , where he met the writer Clemens Brentano , the historian Joseph von Aschbach , the painter and art historian Johann David Passavant and the engraver Samuel Amsler know.

At the University of Bonn he heard lectures from Karl Immanuel Nitzsch , Christian August Brandis and Friedrich Bleek . At the time, a few Swiss were studying with him in Bonn, and thanks to the financial support of Senator de Neuville's family, he continued to study history and art history for another semester ; He completed his studies in the spring of 1844, after which he undertook a long trip to Berlin and Halle .

During his studies in Bonn undertook a few trips into the area to Wuppertal , where he made connections with the later doctor Franz von Mandach (1821–1898) and the later pharmacist Karl Emil Ringk von Wildenberg (1818–1882), who also studied in Bonn with the pastors Friedrich Wilhelm Krummacher and Karl Wilhelm Moritz Snethlage .

Career

In October 1841 he returned to Wagenhausen and passed his theological exam in 1842 in front of David Spleiss (1786-1854), Johannes Kirchhofer (1800-1869) and Daniel Schenkel and became pastor in Herblingen in the spring of 1842 , before being pastor from 1850 to 1893 in Neuhausen am Rheinfall was; from 1861 he was also an antistes of the Schaffhausen church; he was the first Antistes who, according to the church law of 1854, had no longer officially become the first pastor at St. John's Church .

Since 1848 he has taught German language and literature at the Collegium Humanatis in Schaffhausen; from 1850 he taught religion at the newly organized grammar school.

Since 1844 he also worked as a school inspector. As a city school council, he worked closely with the city ​​president Hans von Ziegler (1810–1865) from 1847 ; In 1850 he became a canton school council. As school president he was in charge of the school system in his parish Neuhausen am Rheinfall.

In 1843, as the successor to Johann Heinrich Maurer-de Constant (1801–1869), he was appointed head of the Schaffhausen City Library . He also looked after the library of the Musis et Amicis society and published the history of the city library in the grammar school's Easter program of 1871 .

An epitaph on the church in Neuhausen am Rheinfall reminds of him.

Spiritual work

Johann Jakob Mezger was when he takes the oath during recording in the Ministry, together with the newly ans Munster elected pastor Daniel Schenkel and Jacob Alfred Forster (1814-1889), pastor in Beringen , the fact that they would be assured that the Bible over the Helvetic Denomination .

He joined the mediation theologians , but remained true to his inner conviction and represented the positive biblical direction; Through this mediating attitude he became a confidante of the radical members of the government. Zacharias Gysel (1818–1878) brought him to draft the first church law of 1854 and when the antistes Johannes Kirchhofer fell out of favor with the government, Johann Jakob Mezger was elected by the Grand Council as his successor.

In its antistitium, the church articles of the Federal Constitution of 1874 were implemented in the cantonal constitution of March 24, 1876, and this was followed by a period of ecclesiastical constitutional struggles in the canton of Schaffhausen , which led to a constituent synod , the work of which only took place after long struggles led to a result under the antistitium of his successor, ie the end of the previous state church in 1915 under the last antistes.

As the successor to Daniel Schenkel, he also worked on the Council of Churches from 1850 and wrote the first draft of the Church Law passed in 1854. After Johannes Kirchhofer's death, he was elected President of the parish synod in 1868. In 1872 the clergy elected him dean after the death of Karl Stokar (1813–1872) . He worked in the concordat examining authority as well as in the Swiss Bible Translation Commission and repeatedly presided over the Swiss preaching society.

Political activity

Johann Jakob Mezger not only wanted to be active in church politics, but also to participate in daily politics and, at Daniel Schenkel's instigation, took over the editing of the newspaper Schaffhauser Wochenschrift on January 1, 1846 . This paper had set itself the task of fighting ultra-radicalism, but at the same time defending a new federal constitution to be striven for in a peaceful way. While Daniel Schenkel wrote the editorials, he wrote the news and the Rundschau; However, in July 1847 he resigned the editorial office because he got into a dispute with Johann Heinrich Ammann , editor of the Neue Schaffhauser Zeitung , which "ruined the otherwise wonderful year terribly". He handed over the editing to Pastor Karl Stokar; half a year later the publication was discontinued.

Working as a local researcher

Mezger conducted historical research on the Schaffhausen Music Collegium and the city library. In his work History of the German Bible Translations in the Swiss Reformed Church , he developed an overview of contemporary Christian literature in the Alemannic region and also showed how it came about that on the German-Reformed soil of Switzerland the Lutheran , the Zurich and the Piscatorian translation of the Bible could gain official validity.

On May 30, 1845, he reported in the Schaffhauser Tageblatt about the existence of a historical-antiquarian association , which he, together with the prison director Hans Wilhelm Harder (1810–1872), formed into a real association with statutes and a board in 1856, which he founded for thirty years and of which he became honorary president . The aim of the association was to arouse interest in the homeland through its own research, lectures and the establishment of an ancient collection; the ancient collection was later assigned to the Schaffhausen Museum zu Allerheiligen .

He published his research with the portrait of Johann Jakob Rüeger, chronicler of Schaffhausen , published in 1859 , a report to the church council in 1871 on the conditions in the parish of Burg bei Stein am Rhein , in 1878 with the history of the music college in Schaffhausen, and in 1883 in The Position and Fate of the Canton of Schaffhausen during the Thirty Years War .

honors and awards

Fonts (selection)

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Yumpu.com: probst-johann-jakob-mezger-Stadtarchiv-Schaffhausen. Retrieved March 23, 2020 .
  2. ^ Karl Goedeke, Franz Muncker, Alfred Rosenbaum: Eighth book: From world peace to the French revolution in 1830: Poetry of general education. Division V . Walter de Gruyter, 2011, ISBN 978-3-05-005257-1 ( google.de [accessed on March 22, 2020]).
  3. ^ Christian Baertschi: Hans von Ziegler. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
  4. ^ Eduard Joos: Zacharias Gysel. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
  5. ^ Georg Finsler: Church statistics of reformed Switzerland . Meyer and Zeller, 1854 ( google.de [accessed March 23, 2020]).
personal data
SURNAME Mezger, Johann Jakob
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Mezger, Johann J .; Mezger, JJ; Mezger, JJ; Mezger, J. Jakob; Mezger, Johann Jacob
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss Protestant clergyman and local researcher
DATE OF BIRTH November 10, 1817
PLACE OF BIRTH Siblings
DATE OF DEATH January 2, 1893
Place of death Neuhausen am Rheinfall