Johann Ludewig (farmer)

Johann Ludewig , also Johannes Ludewig (* February 25, 1715 ; † January 12, 1760 , probably in Cossebaude near Dresden ) was a German farmer and tax collector. In addition to Johann Georg (e) Palitzsch and Christian Gärtner , he was one of the "farmer astronomers" of the Dresden Elbe Valley. Ludewig became known throughout Europe for his 1756 book “The learned farmer”.

Honors

Ludewig became known throughout Europe with his writing “The learned farmer” from 1756. Christian Gotthold Hoffmann , a Dresden tax officer, published this work with a foreword in which he described his intention to support education in German and to show that it was part of the enlightenment through mathematics and the "reasonable" philosophy of Christian Wolff "Only depends on wanting".

A year earlier, Johann Christoph Gottsched had already mentioned Ludewig as a “talented student” in the “Historical Lobschrift” on Christian Wolff's death.

Although Ludewig can be considered a prime example of the learned farmer, he is only in the shadow of his better-known comet discoverers Palitzsch and Gärtner, without whom he would probably be forgotten (e.g. the writer Rudolf Scholz used the opportunity in the Palitzsch novel Comet and Morgenthau by 1998, to fully accommodate his appreciation for the Cossebauder peasant scholar).

The library Cossebaude in Dresden-Cossebaude (as part of the Dresden City Libraries ) is named after him.

According to some sources, the painting by Benjamin Calau in the Leipzig City History Museum certainly depicts Johann Ludewig, as he was the talk of the town in Leipzig at the beginning of 1756. According to the picture title and the picture description in the museum catalog, however, it is about Christian Gärtner, previously Johann Georg Palitzsch had also been accepted as the person depicted.

literature

The learned farmer

Johann Ludewig: The learned farmer . Hekel, Dresden 1756, urn : nbn: de: gbv: 3: 1-154670 ( uni-halle.de [PDF; accessed on January 29, 2019] digital.bibliothek.uni-halle.de ).

Johann Ludewig: The learned farmer. With D. Christian Gotthold Hoffmann's preliminary report and copper. Reprint of the first edition Dresden 1756. With an afterword by Holger Böning, Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt, 1992, ISBN 3-7728-1400-X .

Other literature

Jürgen Helfricht : Astronomical history of Dresden . Hellerau-Verlag, Dresden 2001, p. 62-64 .
Jürgen Helfricht: Warlocks and peasant astronomers in Saxony . Tauchaer Verlag, Taucha 1999.
Manfred Bachmann: About the "learned farmers" of Saxony in the 17th and 18th centuries. Century . In: Rudolf Scholz: Comet and Morgenthau . Berlin 1998.

Web links

dresdner-stadtteile.de, with a picture of Ludewig's homestead with a memorial plaque
Literature by and about Johann Ludewig in the catalog of the German National Library
Ludewig, Johann. Deutsche Fotothek (copper engraving by Johann Ludewig).; accessed on January 29, 2019

Footnotes and individual references

↑ There are different statements about
the date of death
- Helfricht 2001: February 25, 1715 in Cossebaude b. and died on January 12, 1760, see also the afterword by Holger Böning in the new print 1992
- but in: New attempts at useful collections, 47th part, 1762, p. 973: “... the learned farmer Ludewig, to Kostebaude, ... came to a sorry end; in the autumn of the 1759th year he was slain and sacrificed to their anger by the soldiers of the war in the current pitiful and destructive unrest. How unfortunate is not his ballroom. "
↑ ^a ^b "This is a singular but true History ..." (The London Chronicle for 1757. January 18-20), "... one of the most curious accounts that perhaps ever was published ..." (The annual register of world events, 1758 , Pp. 247-253), “Mr. Formey, whose excerpts in the nouvelle bibliotheque germanique, Tom. XX. P. II. P. 299 “I have largely followed…” (The new learned Europe, 16th part, pp. 137–151)
↑ "My Ludewig makes the perfection of the proof that the Wolffische Lehr-Art, for everyone and every class, is good and usable." (P. 63 * of the reprint of 1992, originally no count of the preliminary report) "Es So my Ludewig, the good farmer, proves, 1) that it is only a question of wanting to become wise today; and if we do not yet have enough wise and white people, there is not a lack of means, but of will. 2 ) ... [Luther and religious peace] ... (p. 68 * of the 1992 reprint)
↑ About Wolff's “Mathematische Anfanggrund” from 1710: “… retain their value for this lesson because of the particular clarity, order and thoroughness; with which they do not deter beginners from mathematics, but rather attract them. One has examples of people who learn from it with some diligence, and without any mention, have understood most parts of the mathematical sciences very well. * Bey Dresden lives among others, in Kossebude, a village not far from Wilsduff and Kesselsdorf, a farmer, Johann Ludewig by name, the itzo not yet forty Is years old, and in his 22nd was still able to do nothing more than write and read like another farmer, who, however, only learned the same thing from a common arithmetic book after he had become interested in arithmetic, through the same principles of Mr. Wolf's beginnings When he bought it and read it, he saw it so well without a teacher, and understood that last summer, when I was i n Dresden was astonishing. Only optics, astronomy, and other parts of mathematics, including instruments that he never got to see, he was unable to fully grasp. From pure mathematics, however, he knows without a book how to give perfectly correct answers to everything you ask him. As a test of his geometrical science, he laid the whole area around the Elbe, between his village and Dresden, in the ground; some angles of the triangle measured from the surrounding hills and mountains, the others calculated trigonometrically and plotted; also notify such a chart and refer to scholars in Dresden who are knowledgeable about the matter; who admired his skill very much. "(Johann Christoph Gottsched: Historical praise of the once well-bored Mr. Mr. Christian, the HRR Freyherrn von Wolf, ... Halle 1755, p. 32 f)
^ "Johannes Ludewig appears even more important than Pahlitzsch ..." (Sachsengrün, Culturgeschichtliche Zeitschrift, Dec. 1861)
^ Library of Cossebaude "Johannes Ludewig". Dresden City Libraries , accessed on March 9, 2019 (library is named after Johannes Ludewig).
↑ ^a ^b The farmer astronomer Christian Gärtner (1705-1782). 1756, accessed on January 29, 2019 (inventory number: IV / 81). According to the source "Wolfgang Schneider ..." it is Johann Ludewig.
↑ Wolfgang Schneider: Leipzig: Documents and Images for Cultural History 1990, p. 210; 114. 1756. The learned farmer Johann Ludwig in Cossebaude near Dresden. Des most graciously privileged Annalisten 5th piece Leipzig July 20, 1756. in: Sources for the history of the German peasant class in the modern age, 1963, p. 231 ff (In addition, Gärtner and Palitzsch would see a telescope in the picture instead of the same utensils as on the well-known copper engraving Deutsche Fotothek )

personal data
SURNAME	Ludewig, Johann
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Ludewig, Johannes (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German farmer and tax collector
DATE OF BIRTH	February 25, 1715
PLACE OF BIRTH	unsure: Cossebaude
DATE OF DEATH	January 12, 1760
Place of death	uncertain: Cossebaude near Dresden

[1] There are different statements about the date of death

Helfricht 2001: February 25, 1715 in Cossebaude b. and died on January 12, 1760, see also the afterword by Holger Böning in the new print 1992

but in: New attempts at useful collections, 47th part, 1762, p. 973: “... the learned farmer Ludewig, to Kostebaude, ... came to a sorry end; in the autumn of the 1759th year he was slain and sacrificed to their anger by the soldiers of the war in the current pitiful and destructive unrest. How unfortunate is not his ballroom. "

[2] Helfricht 2001: February 25, 1715 in Cossebaude b. and died on January 12, 1760, see also the afterword by Holger Böning in the new print 1992

[3] ut in: New attempts at useful collections, 47th part, 1762, p. 973: “... the learned farmer Ludewig, to Kostebaude, ... came to a sorry end; in the autumn of the 1759th year he was slain and sacrificed to their anger by the soldiers of the war in the current pitiful and destructive unrest. How unfortunate is not his ballroom. "

[Europaweit_bekannt-2] "This is a singular but true History ..." (The London Chronicle for 1757. January 18-20), "... one of the most curious accounts that perhaps ever was published ..." (The annual register of world events, 1758 , Pp. 247-253), “Mr. Formey, whose excerpts in the nouvelle bibliotheque germanique, Tom. XX. P. II. P. 299 “I have largely followed…” (The new learned Europe, 16th part, pp. 137–151)

[3] "My Ludewig makes the perfection of the proof that the Wolffische Lehr-Art, for everyone and every class, is good and usable." (P. 63 * of the reprint of 1992, originally no count of the preliminary report) "Es So my Ludewig, the good farmer, proves, 1) that it is only a question of wanting to become wise today; and if we do not yet have enough wise and white people, there is not a lack of means, but of will. 2 ) ... [Luther and religious peace] ... (p. 68 * of the 1992 reprint)

[4] About Wolff's “Mathematische Anfanggrund” from 1710: “… retain their value for this lesson because of the particular clarity, order and thoroughness; with which they do not deter beginners from mathematics, but rather attract them. One has examples of people who learn from it with some diligence, and without any mention, have understood most parts of the mathematical sciences very well. * Bey Dresden lives among others, in Kossebude, a village not far from Wilsduff and Kesselsdorf, a farmer, Johann Ludewig by name, the itzo not yet forty Is years old, and in his 22nd was still able to do nothing more than write and read like another farmer, who, however, only learned the same thing from a common arithmetic book after he had become interested in arithmetic, through the same principles of Mr. Wolf's beginnings When he bought it and read it, he saw it so well without a teacher, and understood that last summer, when I was i n Dresden was astonishing. Only optics, astronomy, and other parts of mathematics, including instruments that he never got to see, he was unable to fully grasp. From pure mathematics, however, he knows without a book how to give perfectly correct answers to everything you ask him. As a test of his geometrical science, he laid the whole area around the Elbe, between his village and Dresden, in the ground; some angles of the triangle measured from the surrounding hills and mountains, the others calculated trigonometrically and plotted; also notify such a chart and refer to scholars in Dresden who are knowledgeable about the matter; who admired his skill very much. "(Johann Christoph Gottsched: Historical praise of the once well-bored Mr. Mr. Christian, the HRR Freyherrn von Wolf, ... Halle 1755, p. 32 f)

[5] "Johannes Ludewig appears even more important than Pahlitzsch ..." (Sachsengrün, Culturgeschichtliche Zeitschrift, Dec. 1861)

[6] Library of Cossebaude "Johannes Ludewig". Dresden City Libraries , accessed on March 9, 2019 (library is named after Johannes Ludewig).

[Gemälde_Museum_Leipzig-7] The farmer astronomer Christian Gärtner (1705-1782). 1756, accessed on January 29, 2019 (inventory number: IV / 81). According to the source "Wolfgang Schneider ..." it is Johann Ludewig.

[8] Wolfgang Schneider: Leipzig: Documents and Images for Cultural History 1990, p. 210; 114. 1756. The learned farmer Johann Ludwig in Cossebaude near Dresden. Des most graciously privileged Annalisten 5th piece Leipzig July 20, 1756. in: Sources for the history of the German peasant class in the modern age, 1963, p. 231 ff (In addition, Gärtner and Palitzsch would see a telescope in the picture instead of the same utensils as on the well-known copper engraving Deutsche Fotothek )