Johann Ludwig Ambühl

Johann Ludwig Ambühl (born February 13, 1750 in Wattwil ; † April 22, 1800 in Altstätten ) was a Swiss administrative officer and writer .

Life

Ambühl was the son of Hans Jakob Ambühl, the schoolmaster (1699–1773) of Wattwil. Already at the age of 23 he became his successor in this office in 1773, in which he had helped his increasingly blind father with six to seven hours of lessons a day from the age of twelve. In his free time he devoted himself to studying geometry, music, reading, drawing and collecting natural objects. His father also let him teach Latin. In Wattwil he was regarded as an eccentric or stoop because of his strict and serious appearance in public . He was a member of the Toggenburg Reformed Lieberal Society and had access to the extensive private library of the first head of the society. He is considered to be the discoverer of Ulrich Bräker .

In 1783, on the recommendation of Gregorius Grob, Ambühl got the employment of a court master with the wealthy Rheineck merchant Jacob Laurenz Custer . In this function he accompanied one of his students to Strasbourg in 1786, to Geneva for a year in 1788/89 and, together with her father, on a study trip to and through Italy in 1790 .

In 1796, Ambühl settled down as an estate manager with few duties, still in the service of Custer, in Altstätten , Canton St. Gallen . Politically committed, he was appointed Vice- Governor of the Upper Rhine Valley District during the Helvetic Republic .

reception

The vast majority of Ambühl's literary work consists of plays with an extremely patriotic content. His authorship of the publication “Letters of a Liberated Nun” has not been clearly proven, although this assignment cannot be dismissed out of hand.

Works (selection)

Fiction

• Letters from a liberated nun . St. Gallen 1783.
• Hans von Schwaben or the death of Emperor Albrecht . St. Gallen 1784.
• The night of murder in Zurich. Acting . Zurich 1781.
• New Swiss songs along with some other poems . Bern 1776.
• The Swiss Confederation. A patriotic spectacle . Zurich 1779.
• William Tell . A patriotic spectacle . Zurich 1791.

Non-fiction

• Wallet from the Alps . Zurich 1780/85 (4 vol.)
• History of the Rhine valley together with a topographical-statistical description of this country . St. Gallen 1805.

literature

• Patrick Bernold: Heads of the Rhine Valley, historical and biographical portraits from five centuries . Ed .: Association for the History of the Rhine Valley. Rheintaler Druckerei und Verlag AG, Berneck 2004, ISBN 3-03300265-X , Rheintaler heads from A – 7, p. 73-79 .
• Patrick Bernhold: Johann Ludwig Ambühl (1750–1800), Altstätten . In: Rheintaler heads. Historical-biographical portraits from five centuries , 2004, pp. 73–79.
• Reto Caluori: Johann Ludwig Am Bühl . In: Andreas Kotte (Ed.): Theater Lexikon der Schweiz . Volume 1, Chronos, Zurich 2005, ISBN 3-0340-0715-9 , p. 45.
• Karl Friedrich Ludwig Goedeke:  Ambühl, Joh. Ludwig . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 1, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1875, p. 392.
• Gregor Grob: Johann Ambühl. Biography . St. Gallen 1803.
• Thomas cave: Ambühl, Johann Ludwig. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
• Alfred Zäch:  Am Bühl (Ambühl), Johann Ludwig. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 1, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1953, ISBN 3-428-00182-6 , p. 244 ( digitized version ).

Web links

• Publications by and about Johann Ludwig Ambühl in the Helveticat catalog of the Swiss National Library