Johann Joachim Becher

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Johann Joachim Becher
Johann David Welcker: Allegory of the acquisition of Surinam by Count Friedrich Kasimir von Hanau in 1669. (1676) Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe Inv.-Nr. 1164: Back left: Johann Joachim Becher

Johann Joachim Becher (born May 6, 1635 in Speyer , † October 1682 in London ) was a German scholar, economist and alchemist . He is by far the most important of the German mercantilists .

Life

Becher, born in Speyer, spent his youth there and attended the Retscher grammar school here. His father Joachim Becher († 1643) was a Protestant pastor in Speyer, his mother was Anna Margaretha Gauss from a Speyer council family. From 1650 he traveled through Europe, visiting Stockholm , Amsterdam and perhaps Italy . In 1657, Becher settled in Mainz and, at the age of 25 and without a medical degree in the modern sense, was appointed autodidact as personal physician and court mathematician by Elector and Archbishop Johann Philipp von Schönborn on June 28, 1660 . On September 17, 1660 he was enrolled at the medical faculty of the University of Mainz as candidatus medicinae and admitted to the doctoral examination the following year. The public disputation took place on September 19, 1661, chaired by Ludwig von Hörnigk , and on November 28, 1661 he was accepted into the medical faculty, from which he left on January 4, 1664.

Becher converted to the Roman Catholic Church before he married the daughter of Hörnigks, Maria Veronika, on June 13, 1662. His father-in-law made him professor publicus et ordinarius at the medical faculty in April 1663. The title of his inaugural lecture was On the Reality of the Lapis Philosophorum or Philosopher's Stone . Becher also advised Johann Philipp von Schönborn on economic issues and, on his behalf, drafted police regulations for the Electorate of Mainz , which were not implemented but were intended to influence later regulations. His other accomplishments include plans for locks to be used in the construction of the Rhine-Danube Canal . In 1664 he was briefly in the service of Elector Karl I Ludwig von der Pfalz in Mannheim . From 1664 to 1670 he was a doctor and mathematician at the court of the Bavarian Elector Ferdinand Maria and from 1668 he also worked as a Bavarian representative at the Imperial Court in Vienna . During this time, his main economic work, Politischer Discurs , was created, which received several editions and was reissued more than 100 years after its first publication.

For a short time from 1669 he worked as an advisor to Count Friedrich Casimir from Hanau , who operated an economic policy in the sense of Becher. Becher was commissioned to found a colony of Hanau-India in South America , in what is now Guyana . This project, which by far exceeded the financial possibilities of the County of Hanau , which had fallen through the Thirty Years' War , and the economic bankruptcy , which the county was rapidly approaching, led to a coup d'état by the family against Count Friedrich Casimir and to the dismissal of the same year Johann Joachim Becher. He turned back to Munich , where he opened a large alchemical laboratory that same year at the expense of the Bavarian government .

In 1670, Becher switched to the service of Emperor Leopold I. He exerted a strong influence on his economic, trade and employment policy. The emperor appointed him court counselor and member of the board of commerce. He drafted plans for factories and suggested the establishment of an Austro-Indian trading company. From 1676 he worked in Würzburg , Haarlem (1677–1679) and then in London , where he dealt with large mining companies. In Holland he wanted to extract gold from the sea sand. In 1678 he was in Hamburg with Hennig Brand . Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz prevented that he was called to Hanover . In the same year 1678 he traveled to England and Scotland . In Scotland he visited mines at the request of Prince Ruprecht of the Palatinate, Duke of Cumberland . He later traveled to Cornwall for the same purpose , where he lived for a year. At the beginning of 1680 he presented a text to the Royal Society in which he tried to contradict Christiaan Huygens' invention of the pendulum clock from 1657 for measuring time. In 1681 he was granted a patent in England for the manufacture of coal tar used to preserve ships. He died in London in October 1682 and was buried in St. Martin-in-the-Fields Church. Not far from there, Robert Boyle found his final resting place a few years later . Urban Gottfried Bucher published his first detailed biography in 1722.

From 1662, Becher was married to Maria Veronika von Hörnigk (* ​​1642), daughter of the Mainz dean Ludwig von Hörnigk . His economic ideas also influenced his brother-in-law Philip Wilhelm von Hörnigk . From 1673 he worked with him in Vienna on the trade statistics for the Austrian and Bohemian hereditary lands .

Alchemy and chemistry

Becher was a "colorful personality" during the transition from alchemy to modern chemistry. He examined the nature of the combustion process and assumed that burning substances would release a "terra pinguis". In Becher's view, air, water and earth were the actual elementary principles. He divided the earth itself again into a terra fluida or mercural earth, which gives the substances fluidity, delicacy, volatility and metallic properties; a terra pinguis or greasy earth, which corresponds to the oily liquid of the alchemists, which gives the substances oily, sulphurous and combustible properties; and a terra lapidea or vitreous earth, which would stand for the principle of meltability. The terra fluida he called phlogistos . This term was not new in itself and was also used by others, such as Nicolaus Niger Hapelius (1559–1622), Daniel Sennert and, ultimately, by Aristotle - here for "combustible" - in a similar context. In 1669, Becher discovered the formation of the first representative of the alkenes, ethene, through the action of sulfuric acid on ethanol.

It was the model of the three earths with the sentences formulated from it that Georg Ernst Stahl (1659–1734) used to develop the phlogiston theory ( obsolete since Lavoisier ) .

During his time in Vienna, Becher developed a process for making gold. With the help of the addition of silver and other secret ingredients to the alluvial sand of the Vienna basin, he apparently succeeded in transmutation into gold. His "perpetual sand mine" did not find any sponsors. It was not until 1934 that attempts were made again to exploit the gold sands on an industrial scale. The tragedy for him (and other successful gold makers) lies in the fact that they did not recognize that the gold was already finely divided in the sand and that it was not created by an alchemical process.

Werkhaus project

The Werkhaus was a technology project that was conceived by Johann Joachim Becher in 1666 and could be built as a first prototype on the Tabor near Vienna . It was an amalgamation of various production and teaching facilities that cooperated with each other. The aim of the project was to promote domestic production and employment of the unemployed. The project ultimately failed because of the selfish self-interest of individuals. In addition, the Werkhaus burned down during the Turkish War in 1683 and it was not rebuilt.

The Habsburg monarchy was in a bad economic and financial situation in the 17th century. Because of this, Johann Joachim Becher convened the "Commerce College for the Promotion of Trade" on behalf of Emperor Leopold I. This was based on the mercantilist system and its three main pillars:

  1. Promotion of domestic production
  2. Promotion of domestic trade
  3. Foreign trade surplus

Becher's main focus was on the first point and this is how the Werkhaus project came about . The Werkhaus project boosted production by

  1. Created jobs
  2. Brought craftsmen up to date with the latest technology
  3. formed a state manufacture
  4. the education improved.

The Werkhaus contained a large chemical laboratory, a workshop for the production of majolica crockery , a pharmacy, a workshop for the production of household appliances, a wool factory, a silk factory, a well for the production of saltpetre and a pond, which was supposed to be used to generate energy. At the same time, the Werkhaus was to serve as a training workshop for all domestic tradespeople and also to be an educational institution for regional children. After the end of the Thirty Years War , only about a third of the German population was still alive, which is why Becher hired foreign workers from Holland, England and Italy to introduce new procedures. The project should also create social satisfaction among the people, as there were many unemployed at the time. However, the project was stopped after only five years because different states only saw the negative effects of the project on themselves. For example, the guilds saw their monopoly position at risk and intrigued against Becher's Werkhaus . When the Werkhaus was destroyed in the Turkish War in 1683, one year after Becher's death, Becher's vision in Vienna came to an end.

Becher's ideas are still being implemented today in Kibbuzen and in the dual training systems .

Polymath

On the travels of the universal scholar and in the most varied of places of residence, a large number of books were created that reflect his wide range of interests; a constant focus, however, was on his chemical-alchemical and economic works. His draft of a numerically represented Interlingua language is considered to be the forerunner of the modern idea of machine translation . In 1683 he also described a thermally moved winding system for clocks (almost) like the perpetual motion machine, as well as another system that used the rainwater from the roof of his house. Becher also advertised - here again very practically - for the introduction of potato cultivation in Germany.

His economic writings are compared by Eli F. Heckscher with Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations : In mercantilism and liberalism, wealth is at the center of economic policy efforts; mercantilism, however, is primarily concerned with combining forces against medieval particularisms by strengthening state power (the territorial lords of the time ).

Works

  • Aphorisms . Edited by Carl Böhret: Suggestions and sentences of the polyhistor from Speyer (1635–1682). In: Series of publications by the Johann Joachim Becher Society in Speyer eV Speyer 2005. ISSN  1430-8193
  • Character, pro notitia Linguarum Universali . Frankfurt 1661.
  • Parnassus Medicinalis Illustratus. Or: A new / and in such a way / previously never seen animal, herb and mountain book Sampt of the Salernische Schul. Everything in Hoch-Teutscher Sprach / as well as in Ligata as prose, funny and detailed described in four parts and adorned with twelve hundred figures . 1663.
  • Oedipus chymicus, or Chymic riddle . Frankfurt 1664.
  • Political Discourse: From the real causes of the rise and fall of cities, countries and republics. 1668. Digitized and full text in the German text archive
  • Actorum Laboratorii Chymici Monacensis, seu Physicae subterraneae . 2 parts. Frankfurt 1669.
  • Methodus Didactica Seu Clavis Et Praxis Super Novum Suum Organon Philologicum, That is: Thorough proof / that the way and means / which the schools bithero generally use / to lead the youth to the learning of the languages ​​... / are not certain / still sure / but run straight against the rules and nature of the right teaching / learning art / because of which they are generally sterile / and run in vain . 1669.
  • Discurs of the real causes of happiness and unhappiness . Frankfurt 1669.
  • Institutiones chymicae seu Manuductio ad philosophiam hermeticam . Mainz 1662.
  • Epistolae chymicae . Amsterdam 1673.
  • Supplementum in physicam subterraneam . Frankfurt 1675.
  • Psychosophia or soul-whiteness: namely how every human being can thoroughly and steadily attain all knowledge and whiteness by considering his souls himself . 1678.
  • Trifolium Becherianum Hollandicum or the Roman-Imperial Mayestät Kammer- und Commercien-Raths Dr. Joh. Joachim Bechers Drey New inventions: Existing ones in a silk-water mill and smelting works ...; Translated from Dutch into High German language . Zunner, Frankfurt, Main 1679 Digitized edition of the University and State Library Düsseldorf
  • Chemical laboratory or underground natural denunciation . 2 vol., 1680.
  • Chemical Haven of Fortune or Great Chemical Concordance . Frankfurt 1682.
  • Foolish Wisdom And Wise Foolishness: Or A Hundred As Political As Physical, Mechanical And Mercantilian Concepts And Proposals . Frankfurt, 1682 ( digitized version and full text in the German text archive )
  • Chemical laboratory, or underground natural denunciation . Franckfurt: Fievet, 1690. Digitized edition of the University and State Library Düsseldorf

1685 appeared under the name of Johann Joachim Bechers a work of the house fathers literature , but it was actually written by an author named Sturm.

  • Clever housefather, sensible housemother, perfect country physician, as well as well-experienced horse and cattle doctor besides a clear and certain handle to learn the art of housekeeping within 24 hours, […] 1685. Further edition: Leipzig 1747, reprogr. Neudr. OOuJ [Leipzig].

Literature (selection)

  • Max Becher: Johann Joachim Becher's economic education work. 1937.
  • Urban Gottfried Bucher: The pattern of a useful scholar in the person of Dr. JJ Becher's . Nuremberg 1722.
  • Gerhard Dünnhaupt : Johann Joachim Becher (1635–1682). In: Personalbibliographien zu den Druck des Barock , Vol. 1. Hiersemann, Stuttgart 1990, ISBN 3-7772-9013-0 , pp. 428–457.
  • Herbert Hassinger: Johann Joachim Becher, 1635–1682: Contribution to the history of mercantilism. 1951.
  • Gerald Hartung: The "chemical laboratory". On the function of the experiment in the natural science discourse of the 17th century. In: Instruments in Art and Science. On the architecture of cultural boundaries in the 17th century. (Theatrum scientiarum; 2) Ed. By Helmar Schramm a. a. De Gruyter, Berlin, New York, 2006, pp. 220–241.
  • Herbert Hassinger:  Mug, Johann Joachim. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 1, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1953, ISBN 3-428-00182-6 , p. 689 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Heinrich Jantzen: Johann Joachim Becher as a theoretical and practical private economist. Dissertation, Cologne 1925.
  • Michael Lorber: Alchemia oeconomica. Johann Joachim Becher's social utopianism at the intersection of project-making, alchemical natural philosophy and reasons of state. In: Magica daemonica, magica naturalis, zouber . Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2015, pp. 339-375.
  • Helmut Mathy : Science without borders. Johann Joachim Becher (1635-1682) as a physician and chemist in Mainz. In: Moguntia medica. Medical Mainz. From the Middle Ages to the 20th century. Edited by Franz Dumont a . a. Wylicil, Wiesbaden, 2002, pp. 47-53.
  • Hans Georg Oßwald: The groundbreaking educational ideas of Johann Joachim Becher von Speyer (1635–1682). A contribution to the history of the relationship between economy and education. In: Series of publications by the Johann Joachim Becher Society in Speyer eV [special publication], Schneider Hohengehren, Baltmannsweiler 2000, ISBN 3-89676-292-3 .
  • Oppenheim:  Becher, Johann Joachim . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 2, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1875, pp. 201-203.
  • Wilhelm Roscher: Die Österreichische Nationalökonomik under Kaiser Leopold I. In: Jahrbücher für Nationalökonomie und Statistik , 1864. Therein longer section about Becher, S. 38-59 ( GBS )
  • Ferdinand August Steinhüser: Johann Joachim Becher and the individual economy. 1931.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Roscher gives his more likely year of birth as 1625 and his year of death as 1685.
  2. ↑ a b Eli F. Heckscher: The mercantilism. Authorized translation from Swedish by Gerhard Mackenroth. First volume. Publishing house by Gustav Fischer in Jena 1932, p. 7 f.
  3. ^ Herbert Hassinger:  Becher, Johann Joachim. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 1, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1953, ISBN 3-428-00182-6 , p. 689 f. ( Digitized version ).
  4. ↑ a b Claus Priesner, Karin Figala: Alchemy. Lexicon of a Hermetic Science. Beck Munich (1998) ISBN 3-406-44106-8 , pp. 75-77.
  5. ↑ Robert Larsson and Gunnar Schwarting: Johann Joachim Becher - a universal scholar of the 17th century .
  6. ^ Directory of professors at the old Mainz University. Arranged by Josef Benzing. Edited by Alois Gerlich. Mainz 1996, p. 99. (online) .
  7. ^ Karl Härter: Policey and criminal justice in Kurmainz. Legislation, norm enforcement and social control in the early modern territorial state. Klostermann, Frankfurt am Main 2005, Vol. I, pp. 143, 205.
  8. ↑ Gas light as a cultural asset. ( Memento from September 20, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 1.4 MB) In: Der Zündfunke. Bulletin of the ProGaslicht association. 4/2009, p. 10.
  9. ↑ Eike Christian Hirsch: The famous Herr Leibniz. Beck, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-406-54794-2 , p. 122. (online) .
  10. ↑ Short biography in English .
  11. ↑ Mark Goldie, Robert Wokler: The Cambridge History of Eighteenth-Century Political Thought. 2006, ISBN 0-521-37422-7 , p. 527.
  12. ↑ Years of traveling and professional stations. Johann Joachim Becher Society.
  13. ^ A b Heinz-Joachim Brauleke: Life and work of the cameraman Philipp Wilhelm von Hörnigk. Lang, 1978.
  14. ^ Gustav Otruba :  Hörnigk, Philipp Wilhelm von. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 9, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1972, ISBN 3-428-00190-7 , pp. 359-361 ( digitized version ).
  15. ^ The Alchemy web site on Levity. List of authors of alchemical books.
  16. ↑ Winfried R. Pötsch, Annelore Fischer and Wolfgang Müller with the collaboration of Heinz Cassenbaum: Lexicon of important chemists , VEB Bibliographisches Institut Leipzig, 1988, pp. 33–34, ISBN 3-323-00185-0 .
  17. ↑ See Hans-Joachim Spengler: Johann Joachim Becher and his idea with the Werkhaus in Vienna , in: JJ Becher and the present. Hans-Joachim Spengler on his 70th birthday (= series of publications by the Johann Joachim Becher Society in Speyer eV , Volume 32), Speyer 2014, p. 63 ff.
  18. ↑ [1] .
  19. ↑ Claus Priesner, Karin Figala: Alchemy. Lexicon of a Hermetic Science. Beck, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-406-44106-8 , pp. 75-77.
  20. ^ Character, pro notitia Linguarum Universali .
  21. ^ Later editions Frankfurt 1681, Leipzig 1739 and 1742.
  22. ^ Sabine Verk: A matter of taste. Cookbooks from the Museum of Folklore (= writings of the Museum of Folklore. Volume 20). National Museums in Berlin - Prussian Cultural Heritage, Berlin 1995, ISBN 3-88609-382-4 , p. 10.
personal data
SURNAME Becher, Johann Joachim
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German chemist and doctor
DATE OF BIRTH May 6, 1635
PLACE OF BIRTH Speyer
DATE OF DEATH October 1682
Place of death London