Johann Konrad Spangenberg

Johann Konrad Spangenberg , also Johann Conrad Spangenberg (born January 25, 1711 in Homberg (Efze) , † December 19, 1783 in Marburg ) was a German mathematician , philosopher, university professor and supporter of a Masonic high degree system.

Life

Johann Konrad Spangenberg was the son of a farm worker of the same name in Homberg and his wife Katharina Elisabeth, b. Adams, the daughter of a preacher. At a very early age he proved to be very docile, so that he was able to enroll at the University of Marburg as early as 1726 at the age of fifteen . According to his parents' wishes, he first studied Protestant theology , but switched to mathematics in 1728 under the influence of the philosopher and mathematician Christian Wolff . At the same time he learned a number of foreign languages, including Hebrew, Arabic, Chaldean , Syriac and Greek, but also English, French, Italian, Polish and Russian. Christian Wolff soon gave him mathematics teaching tasks for first-year students.

In the summer semester of 1737 Spangenberg went on a study trip, first to Erlangen , then for the winter semester to Basel , where he stayed until February 1738. Here he made contact with Daniel Bernoulli .

When he returned to Marburg, he resumed his teaching duties in mathematics, especially in algebra . After Christian Wolff's return to the University of Halle , Spangenberg applied for a professorship in 1741. He was made a full professor of mathematics with permission to teach all parts of philosophy and was granted the salary of a philosophy professor. He held his inaugural lecture on August 30, 1742. In addition to pure and applied mathematics, Spangenberg's teaching also included logic and metaphysics as well as ethics, politics and natural law. Between 1743 and 1757 he was dean of the Philosophical Faculty several times. His students included u. a. the theologians Gottfried Schwarz and Johann Nikolaus Seip , the orientalist Johann Wilhelm Schröder and, before his appointment as professor, the Russian scholar Michail Wassiljewitsch Lomonossow, who came to Christian Wolff as a student .

Spangenberg was released from his professional duties in 1765 for health reasons.

Way of life in old age

After being released from his duties as a professor, Spangenberg sold property and property as well as all movable goods except for the bare essentials and gave half of the proceeds to the poor. He dismissed his servants and “helped himself in all things, in which he was otherwise served and lived extremely moderately in food and drink until the end of his life. He only wanted to devote his remaining days in solitude to God and religious reflections ” (Strieder, p. 170). At the end of his life, he was dependent on charitable support from others, which he still sought to share with those in need. This behavior earned him the reputation of a "nerd" and "religious fanatic".

Role in freemasonry

According to the documents available, Spangenberg did not belong to any of the Masonic lodges in his place of work in Marburg . However, the high-grade Freemason and former Rosicrucian Hans Heinrich von Ecker and Eckhoffen names him as an active member in his treatise Dispatch to the unnamed author of the so-called Authentic Message from the Knights and Brothers Initiates from Asia (Hamburg 1788, p. 12) of the Order of the Knights and Brothers of St. John the Evangelist from Asia in Europe , also known as the Asian Brothers and representing an essentially Rosicrucian and Kabbalistic tendency. The order played a central role in the first admission of Jewish members into Freemasonry on the European continent. The above-mentioned ascetic way of life Spangenberg in old age could be explained by belonging to this order (or to like-minded predecessor societies).

literature

• Catalogus Professorum Academiae Marburgensis . Edit v. Franz Gundlach. Elwert, Marburg 1927, p. 371.
• Friedrich Wilhelm Strieder: Basis for a Hessian history of scholars and writers . Volume 15, Marburg 1806, pp. 166–172. ( Books.google.de )
• Stefan Redies: Freemasons, Knights Templar, Rosicrucians. On the history of the secret societies in Marburg in the 18th century . Tectum, Marburg 1998.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Land Rider . In: Former Academy of Sciences of the GDR, Heidelberg Academy of Sciences (Hrsg.): German legal dictionary . tape 8 , issue 3 (edited by Heino Speer and others). Hermann Böhlaus successor, Weimar 1986, ISBN 3-7400-0006-6 ( adw.uni-heidelberg.de ).
2. ↑ Asian Brothers