Johann Lindemann (theologian)

Johann (also Johannes ) Lindemann (* 1488 in Neustadt an der Saale , † April 18, 1554 in Schweinfurt ) was a German teacher and Protestant theologian .

Life

Johann Lindemann, a cousin of Martin Luther , was the son of David Lindemann, a citizen from Neustadt an der Saale. Johann Lindemann came from an old middle-class family from Eisenach , his great-grandfather Hans Lindemann acquired there in 1406 , the civil rights .

About childhood and youth Lindemann's is not known, most likely he has as a member of the middle class , a school attended. He studied at the University of Leipzig in 1511 and became a Baccalaureus there in 1512 . Since November 1519 he has been a master of the Wittenberg University . After that he was a schoolmaster in Schleusingen , where he married around 1520 .

During the Peasant War he stayed in his hometown Neustadt an der Saale , probably as a teacher or preacher . Here, on May 30, 1525 , Lindemann and the theologian Andres were requested in writing by the leaders of the Bildhauser heap, with the assurance of safe conduct, from the council of the town allied with the rebellious farmers and craftsmen to arbitrate different interpretations of the Protestant faith within the peasantry . There, two oppositely acting had politically - religious On the one hand: groups formed Reformation -gemäßigte and the other one under the influence of the teachings of Thomas Müntzer standing social revolutionary - radical . The leaders of the group feared internal turmoil . The cause was the sermon of the leader of the Thuringian Anabaptist movement Hans Römer . As a supporter and former fellow combatant of Müntzer, after the lost battle of Frankenhausen , Römer incited the picture houses in their camp to exterminate the authorities with the sword and to shed their blood.

After the Peasants' War, Lindemann became a teacher at the Latin school in Schleusingen, where he married for the second time. In 1529 he was appointed rector of the Latin School in Schweinfurt. Here he taught Luther's Small Catechism and was therefore reported to Konrad II von Thüngen , Prince-Bishop of Würzburg , by " Papists " . Konrad, notorious for the cruel punishments of religious opponents, then sent an armed squad of two hundred men against Schweinfurt, the "die thor beleget", to arrest Lindemann. Warned beforehand by the captain of the squad, Lindemann was able to escape with the help of a servant and fled to the Thuringian Forest in the spring of 1529, equipped by the captain with high shoes, half a guilder and a spike . In the summer of 1529 he helped a charcoal burner in the Thuringian Forest at work and earned his living that way.

He became emaciated during the winter 1529/ 30 Luther's parents to Mansfeld , where he - at first not recognized by these - first, a pittance of bread and some food was given. The Lutherans took him into their home. In the spring of 1530, on the advice of Hans Luther , Lindemann accepted the position of clerk in Mansfeld, which he gave up again in 1531 because of the godless behavior of the miners . His son Philipp Lindemann was born in Mansfeld around 1533 - 1535 , who can be verified as having a master's degree in 1554 and as a professor at the University of Wittenberg from 1559 .

Johannes Lindemann was a teacher in Ohrdruf until 1541 . That same year he was Johannes Bugenhagen in Wittenberg ordained and after a successful petition Lindemanns to Martin Luther through the mediation of priest in Auerbach in Vogtland appointed. During the Schmalkaldic War , Lindemann lost his extensive library and all his belongings in Auerbach when the Bohemian troops invaded him , had to leave Auerbach and found accommodation with his cousin Cyriacus Lindemann , who was the rector of the Princely School in Pforta at the time. Around 1546 he became a pastor in Zwickau . Through the mediation of his friend Philipp Melanchthon , after initial hesitation, Lindemann became pastor and superintendent in Schweinfurt in 1547 . It was Lindemann's particular merit here to counteract the provisions of the Interim , with which the Reformation should be pushed back. He also made the acquaintance of from Schweinfurt Italy coming humanist Olympia Morata , who see him as strong character , describing fixed in the Protestant faith man.

In a letter from the mayor and council of the city of Schweinfurt to Sutellius from the year 1547, Johann Lindemann was mentioned as a learned man with an honorable Christian good conduct and character, whose sermons probably left a deep impression on his listeners.

He died in 1554 during the Second Margrave War during the siege and bombardment of the imperial city of Schweinfurt by federal troops. His place of work, the Church of St. Johannis , was badly damaged. He left at least six children.

Johannes Lindemann was married twice in Schleusingen and in third marriage to Margarethe NN (remarried Sporer), who probably came from Auerbach in the Vogtland .

His older son Philipp Lindemann died in a riding accident near Ingolstadt in 1563 without any offspring. His youngest son Johannes, born in 1547, became a schoolmaster in Bockau in the Ore Mountains and died there on October 30, 1621 . He left a large number of offspring .

literature

• Karl Zeitel: Pastor Magister Johannes Lindemann (1488-1554) ; in: Johannes Strauss and Kathi Petersen (eds.): Streiflichter on church history in Schweinfurt , Schweinfurt 1992 pp. 39–63
• Family sheet of the Lutherid Association, Volume 4, Issue 29, Volume 28, September 1955, p. 158 and 159.
• Essay by the builder Friedrich Weiß: Luther's maternal relatives in Bockau in the Erzgebirge, published in 1937 in Mitteilungen des Roland, 21st year, Dresden 1936, p. 68 and 69
• Wolfgang Liebehenschel: Straight back to Martin Luther's mother, family paper of the Lutherid Association, issue 14/15 from October 1991
• Wolfgang Liebehenschel: The origins of Dr. Martin Luther's mother Margaretha b. Lindemann, Archive for Family Research, Issue 95, Limburg an der Lahn October 1984, p. 473 ff.
• Michael Krauß: The ancestral lists of the genealogical research Krauss , Brandenburg an der Havel 2016, p. 77 ff.

Web links

• Was Martin Luther in Auerbach? - with information on Lindemann (PDF, accessed on January 26, 2016)
• Johann Lindemann - Schweinfurt Guide
• The history of the peasant war in Eastern Franconia
• Mennonite Lexicon - Volume V