Johann Ludwig Würffel

Johann Ludwig Würffel (born October 12, 1678 in Greifswald ; † January 29, 1719 ibid) was a German Protestant theologian , field preacher and professor .

Life

The son of the Greifswald university and town musician Johannes (Jeremias) Würffel and his wife Elisabeth, a daughter of the theologian Jacob Henning , was declared blind by doctors in his childhood, so that he had to drop out of school. Johann Ludwig Würffel therefore initially devoted himself to music, especially organ playing. He became organist in the St. Nikolai Cathedral and oversaw the organs of the other churches.

At his mother's request, he received further education from private tutors from 1693, so that in 1697 he was able to begin studying theology at the University of Greifswald . In 1702 he continued his studies at the University of Wittenberg after an educational trip that took him through Stettin , Berlin , Halle and Dresden . In 1703 he returned to Greifswald via Magdeburg , Braunschweig , Hamburg , Lübeck and Rostock , where he completed his studies with a dissertation. In 1705 he received his master's degree.

Johann Ludwig Würffel was appointed garrison preacher in Stettin , which at that time, like Greifswald, belonged to Swedish Pomerania . Since he could not take up his new position due to disputes between the general superintendent and the fortress commander, he traveled in 1709 to the Swedish King Charles XII. who - the Great Northern War was being waged - was staying in Altranstädt . Instead of finding support here for his inauguration in Stettin, he was appointed field preacher in one of the Swedish regiments. The war took Würffel with the Swedish army to Russia . After the defeat of the Swedes in the Battle of Poltava , Würffel followed the king into Turkish exile in Bender . He had to stay there for four and a half years because Charles XII. did not allow him to travel home. Würffel was held in high regard by the king. The king wanted to make him professor at the University of Greifswald , assessor of the Greifswald consistory and pastor at the Marienkirche . But when Western Pomerania and Greifswald was occupied by foreign powers in 1711, the king wanted to keep Würffel with him. In the scuffle of Bender in 1713, Würffel was brought into slavery by Janissaries and later ransomed by an English diplomat. He returned to Pomerania via Moldova , Transylvania and Hungary .

In Szczecin he was by the Governor General Johann August Meyerfeldt the vocation to the German Church in Gothenburg in prospect, but he declined in favor of a professorship in Greifswald and a pastor at St. Mary's Church. He got into an argument with the theology professor Heinrich Brandanus Gebhardi , whom he accused of pietism . Würffel fell out of favor with the Swedish king because he had taken office in Greifswald without his consent, and had to leave the country after the king's return to Swedish Pomerania in 1714.

After the occupation of northern Western Pomerania by the Danes in 1715/1716, Würffel was reinstated in his offices on the orders of the Danish King Friedrich IV . As part of the Danish takeover of Western Pomerania, Würffel gave the feudal sermon in Stralsund's Nikolaikirche on October 12, 1716 . This can be rated as a “masterpiece of early modern propaganda”, but the Danish king disliked it.

In theological disputes, Würffel continued to be relentless and continued the disputes with Gebhardi until his death in 1719. He was buried on February 16, 1719 in the Marienkirche in Greifswald.

family

Johann Ludwig Würffel was married to Polydore Augusta Tabbert, the daughter of the theologian Matthäus Tabbert , and had a daughter and a son with her.

literature

Martin Meier: Danish church policy in Western Pomerania north of the Peene 1715–1721. In: Baltic Studies . New series 90, Ludwig, Kiel 2005, ISSN 0067-3099 , ISBN 3-937719-02-4 , pp. 150–156.
Martin Meier: musician, field preacher, professor and pastor - the life of Johann Ludwig Würffel. In: Pomerania. Journal of Culture and History. Issue 4/2013, ISSN 0032-4167 , pp. 24-27.
Würffel, Johann Ludewig. In: Johann Heinrich Zedler : Large complete universal lexicon of all sciences and arts . Volume 59, Leipzig 1749, column 867-876.

Web links

Literature about Johann Ludwig Würffel in the state bibliography MV

Footnotes

↑ Martin Meier: Musician, field preacher, professor and pastor - The life of Johann Ludwig Würffel. In: Pomerania. Journal of Culture and History. Issue 4/2013, ISSN 0032-4167 , p. 25.

predecessor	Office	successor
Jeremias Papke	Rector of the University of Greifswald 1713	Theodor Horn

personal data
SURNAME	Würffel, Johann Ludwig
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Würffel, Johann Ludewig
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German Protestant theologian, field preacher and professor
DATE OF BIRTH	October 12, 1678
PLACE OF BIRTH	Greifswald
DATE OF DEATH	January 29, 1719
Place of death	Greifswald

[1] Martin Meier: Musician, field preacher, professor and pastor - The life of Johann Ludwig Würffel. In: Pomerania. Journal of Culture and History. Issue 4/2013, ISSN 0032-4167 , p. 25.