Johann Lukas Jäger

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Johann Lukas Jäger

Johann Lukas Jäger , (* December 7, 1811 in Harthausen , Palatinate ; † February 2, 1874 in Speyer ) was a general practitioner , conservative Catholic publicist , founder of the "Conservative and Greater German Party" in the Palatinate and from 1849 to 1858 Bavarian Member of the state parliament . He founded the Pfälzer Zeitung , which appeared until 1936, and the Jäger'schen Verlag in Speyer, which expanded rapidly under his son Eugen Jäger and became the main publisher of the Speyer diocese .

Live and act

Origin and youth

Johann Lukas Jäger was born as the son of the poor but very religious farm people Johann Jäger III. (1778–1834) and Elisabeth Maria geb. Engelhard (1785–1854), born in Harthausen near Speyer. He went to elementary school in his birthplace. Here Pastor Joseph Schöpf recognized the boy's intellectual talent, which is why he was finally allowed to attend the Royal College in Speyer, which later became the humanistic grammar school. Johann Lukas Jäger graduated from school there in 1832 with distinction.

Doctor and politician

The young man decided to study medicine and completed it in Würzburg , Heidelberg , and Munich , where he passed the exam in 1837 and then obtained his doctorate. In Munich he became a member of the Corps Franconia . After completing his studies, he returned to his homeland and got a job as an assistant doctor at the Speyer hospital.

In 1840 Johann Lukas Jäger settled down as a general practitioner in Annweiler am Trifels . On October 16, 1841, he married his bride Apollonia Josepha Ludowika Martin (1820–1911) from Kaiserslautern in the Liebfrauendom in Munich . This marriage resulted in 4 children, all of whom were born in Annweiler: Eugen Jäger (1842–1926), successor to his father as a publicist and parliamentarian, Franz Jäger (1844–1882), general practitioner in Edenkoben , Richard Jäger (1845–1899 ), Officer in the Bavarian army and Luise Jäger (1846–1926), married to Rudolf von Richter (1835–1919), who later became President of the Bavarian Senate at the Reich Military Court. Richard Jäger married Dora Bronzetti in 1875, the daughter of Major General Heinrich Bronzetti (1815–1882) and granddaughter of Carl Joseph Bronzetti (1788–1854). A grandson of the aforementioned Lieutenant Colonel Richard Jäger was the Federal Minister of Justice of the same name and Vice President of the German Bundestag Richard Jaeger , co-founder of the CSU .

In addition to his medical work, Johann Lukas Jäger dealt with natural history on the one hand and developed into a recognized specialist in the flora and mineralogy of the Palatinate. On the other hand, the doctor began to be interested in politics. He was socially engaged; the poverty of the simple rural population was seen by practicing Catholics on a daily basis. At the same time he advocated liberal institutions, uplifting of education and the fulfillment of the national unity wishes for the re-establishment of the fallen empire. He experienced the revolution of 1848/49 as a dedicated advocate of moderate demands for freedom, but without being unfaithful to the Catholic Church and the Bavarian royal family, the cornerstones of his worldview. In March 1849, Jäger founded the newspaper “Bote aus den Vogesen”, which was later renamed “Pfälzer Zeitung”. This publication - financed entirely from its own resources - was intended to be a mouthpiece for the moderately progressive citizens and a counterweight to the prevailing, provocatively revolutionary press in the Palatinate. Long before the founding of the German Center Party , the Palatinate doctor tried to bundle the Catholic-conservative forces by founding the so-called “Conservative and Greater German Party”. He moved into the Bavarian Chamber of Deputies for the Germersheim - Bad Bergzabern district in 1849 and was a member of the state parliament until 1858. When he was elected, the President of the Palatinate, Johann Baptist von Zenetti, reported to Munich in 1849 that Lukas Jäger was “a talented, knowledgeable man” who could be described as a “conservative deputy”. The Palatinate physician was also very active as a parliamentarian and even moved to the Bavarian capital for two and a half years in order to be more politically active. In 1852 the Jäger family returned to the Palatinate and from 1858 lived in Speyer. Jäger still published the "Pfälzer Zeitung", now with its own printing and publishing house, first in today's Zeppelinstrasse, later in Korngasse. In 1866 the son Eugen Jäger entered the business at the instigation of his father. Newspaper and publishing house expanded strongly. The national conservative Catholic "Pfälzer Zeitung", founded by Johann Lukas Jäger, existed until it was banned by the National Socialists in 1936. The paper also enjoyed great popularity thanks to its local history supplement Palatina , in which many important local historians wrote articles at the time, which is why it continues to this day is considered a sought-after source work. The Jäger'sche Verlag was closed by the state police in 1937 because of the printing of the papal encyclical Mit Brennender Sorge , and the owners were expropriated without compensation. It was not until 1951 that Jäger's descendants got the company back, which was taken over in 1972 by Ernst Klett Stuttgart. Since 1989 the company has operated as "Walter Wirtz Druck & Verlag".

Sickness and death

Johann Lukas Jäger had been suffering from stomach problems for a long time, which is probably why he had called in his son Eugen to support the publishing house. In the summer of 1873 the disease broke out with great violence, a stay at a spa in Switzerland did not bring about the hoped-for improvement. In the fall, Jäger stayed “in the Palatinate Mountains” to relax, in February 1874 he died at home in Speyer. He was buried in the municipal cemetery, the current old cemetery in Speyer .

Web links

Commons : Johann Lukas Jäger  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

literature

  • Viktor Carl: Lexicon of Palatinate personalities . Hennig Verlag Edenkoben, 2004, page 408
  • Rudolf Joeckle: Johann Lukas Jäger - doctor, politician and journalist . In: Heimatjahrbuch, Rhein-Pfalz-Kreis, Ludwigshafen am Rhein, Volume 20, ISBN 3-931717-08-9
  • Karl Scherer: Pfälzer Zeitung (1849-1936) , Historisches Lexikon Bayern, published on September 28, 2010.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ 200 semesters in Munich Francs . [Munich] 1936, p. 7f. (No. 12).
  2. ^ Karl Scherer: Pfälzer Zeitung (1849-1936). In: Historical Lexicon of Bavaria . September 28, 2010, accessed January 29, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Hunter, Johann Lukas
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hunter, Johann Lucas
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German parliamentarian, doctor, publisher and publicist
DATE OF BIRTH December 7, 1811
PLACE OF BIRTH Harthausen
DATE OF DEATH February 2, 1874
Place of death Speyer