Johann Jakob Nathanael Neumann

Johann Jakob Nathanael Neumann (born February 6, 1750 in Frankfurt an der Oder ; † November 28, 1803 ) was a German Protestant theologian and philosopher .

Life

Johann Jakob Nathanael Neumann was born on February 6, 1750 in Frankfurt an der Oder. His father was a preacher there and died when the son was five years old. The mother did not have much money and lost what was left of her fortune when the Russians plundered the city. In spite of this, she remained full of courage and cheerfulness and did everything possible to bring up and train her son. Some friends advised her that the son should become a craftsman . But the mother did not want this.

Neumann was trained at a school in his hometown. He also gained experience in the older languages. Then he went to the Züllichau pedagogy as a free student . The headmaster Gotthelf Samuel Steinbart promoted him. Neumann owes his frank and liberal spirit to him.

In 1768 Neumann moved to the University of Frankfurt an der Oder to study theology. There, too, there was no lack of patrons, but Johann Gottlieb Töllner took special care of him. With Töllner he also attended theological and philosophical lectures. He also lived with him and was later to become the tutor of Töllner's son. Neumann owes it to him that he was trained to be a learned theologian, an astute thinker and a practical folk teacher.

During his student days Neumann joined a literary association. There were some scholars among the members of this student association. They held scientific talks and read to each other treatises on theology and philosophy, which was Neumann's incentive. He often thought back to this time later.

In 1772 Neumann finished his studies. He became tutor to District Administrator Hans Siegismund von Beerfelde in Lossow . He lived happily there until 1776, when he accepted a position as a preacher in Dövberin . Just a year later he was called to Lossow as a pastor . One of his patrons made this possible. There he married Amalie Chaliè, who had previously also been a teacher at von Beerfelde.

Work or reception after Döring

Neumann wrote his first novels during his pastor in Lossow. In 1783 he published Therese von Silberbach , a work that the critics rather disliked, but was written in a good style and showed that Neumann had a sense of good and beautiful. The work was published a second time and has also been translated into Dutch . Other novels by him from this time were Die Visiten as well as Auguste and Friederike . These two works, however, were considered tiring by contemporaries because they represented monotonous situations.

He wrote his first theological works in 1794. In that year he wrote Frank Reflections on the Preaching System , based on his own experience. By Urbanus Rhegius the second , published in 1799, the critics claimed that Neumann was too attached to the old. Furthermore, this work could only be printed when the Prussian intellectual restriction was lifted.

Neumann was an independent thinker and was ahead of his time in scientific education. This can be seen in two of his writings that went unprinted. In the first, he presented the influence of the philosophy of the time on popular morality. In the second writing he presented his views on the critical and the philosophy of Johann Gottlieb Fichte , although he had dismissed the critical because he believed that it could not be applied to life and was being abused. Furthermore, he agreed with Kant's thinking . Neumann was against eudaemonism , he preferred a system of perfection.

As far as Neumann's theology is concerned, he was generally not opposed to the newer ideas, unless the older ones proved to be tenable. Nevertheless, he also saw limits that he was not able to cross. It was built on a revealed faith. His theology was similar to that of Samuel Friedrich Nathanael More .

Neumann was described as a pious man who was very religious. His faith was shown in his incessant activity, in his ability to tolerate things, and in his constant hope. He was a cheerful person with solid health. In the last years of his life, however, his life clouded over. His health deteriorated over time. He also had to mourn the deaths of two daughters. He fell ill with a very severe fever and died on November 28, 1803 at the age of 53.

Works

• Dissertatio philosophica de systemate (1771)
• Poems by Johann Jakob Nathanael Neumann (Hamburg / Leipzig 1772)
• Therese von Silberbach (Berlin 1783, second edition Berlin 1788)
• Visists; a full table is set for everyone here; everyone eats what they like (Berlin 1783)
• Julie von Rosenfeld; a family story, in lots of little chapters. Fräulein's own handwriting (Berlin 1784)
• Mamsell Fiekchen; a warning booklet for sensitive girls (Cüstrin 1785)
• Auguste and Friederike, or the two cousins (Berlin 1786, two parts)
• Travel to Marriage (Frankfurt an der Oder 1794)
• Frank reflections on preaching (Frankfurt an der Oder 1794)
• Urbanus Rhegius the Second, or on the appropriate lecture of the Articles of Faith (Berlin 1799)

literature

• Heinrich Doering : The learned theologians of Germany in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries . Verlag Johann Karl Gottfried Wagner, Neustadt an der Orla, 1833, vol. 3, pages 49 to 53 ( online )
• Friedrich Schlichtegroll, Nekrolog der Teutschen for the nineteenth century , Volume 4, p. 262, digitized