Johann Martin Miller

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Copper engraving
Signature Johann Martin Miller (cropped) .jpg

Johann Martin Miller (born December 3, 1750 in Ulm ; † June 21, 1814 there ) was a German theologian and writer . He gained particular fame through his novel Siegwart. A monastery story with which he wrote one of the most successful German-language novels of the 18th century.

Life

Youth and Göttingen years

Miller was born the son of the Protestant pastor Johann Michael Miller (1722–1774) in what is now the Ulm district of Jungingen. From October 15, 1770 he studied theology at the University of Göttingen and in 1772 became one of the founders of the Göttingen Grove Association . Through the Hainbund he made friends with Matthias Claudius , Gottfried August Bürger , Ludwig Christoph Heinrich Hölty , Johann Heinrich Voss and Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock , whom he accompanied from Göttingen to Hamburg in 1774. In 1774/75 he studied in Leipzig.

Miller's grave monument in the old cemetery in Ulm

Return to Ulm and later years

The Satisfaction , scan from the 1783 edition

After his return to his hometown, in 1776 he published the sensitive novel Siegwart , which he had already begun in Göttingen . A monastery story . In 1776–1777, the correspondence of three Academic Friends appeared , a novel in letter form and “an example of the diversity of intellectual currents ... in the Age of Enlightenment, where, alongside the advocates of the unrestricted use of reason and understanding, those who advocated to use the development and appreciation of the emotional forces and also for the preservation of the Christian religion fixed in dogmas ”.

Miller was in contact with intellectuals of Sturm und Drang and the Enlightenment such as Friedrich Nicolai , Friedrich Maximilian Klinger , Johann Gaudenz von Salis-Seewis and Friedrich von Matthisson . However, with his later novels Miller was no longer able to "build on the surprise success of his first work ..." From 1790 at the latest, he was no longer active as a writer.

Johann Martin Miller (engraving by JJ Haid )

After his years in Göttingen, Miller worked near Ulm from 1780 as a pastor, from 1781 as a professor at the Ulm high school, from 1783 as a preacher at the Ulm Minster . In 1804 he was consistorial councilor, in 1809 district decan, in 1810 ecclesiastical councilor and dean for Ulm. He was a member of the Ulm Reading Society and an avid newspaper reader.

Miller became a Freemason on September 13, 1774 in the lodge to the golden circle in Göttingen . He was promoted to journeyman on December 11, 1776 in this lodge . In 1775 the lodge to the golden ball in Hamburg raised him to the master's position during a visit. He is said to have been a speaker at the Asträa Lodge at the 3 Elms in Ulm for a long time (the lodge was closed from 1795–1807).

Miller died in Ulm on June 21, 1814 at the age of 64. His grandson was the lawyer Adolf von Miller . An outline of his life written in 1793 appeared in the collection of portraits of scholars and artists and is one of the main sources of his life.

Act

During his time in Göttingen until his return to Ulm in 1775, Miller wrote numerous poems that were often set to music during his lifetime and can still be found in various song collections today. His best-known poem, The Satisfaction (“What do I ask a lot about money and goods / When I'm satisfied”), served with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (KV 349 / 367a), Christian Gottlob Neefe and his pupil Ludwig van Beethoven as several composers Text template. Numerous other poems were u. a. Musically arranged by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach , Christian Friedrich Daniel Schubart and Christoph Rheineck .

Above all, the tone of his simple verses was still known to authors of subsequent generations, such as the poets Eduard Mörike and Friedrich Rückert . His contemporary readers included Karl Philip Moritz and Friedrich Schiller as well as Johann Wolfgang von Goethe . His novel Siegwart. Measured by the number of reprints, a monastery history was the biggest box office hit at that time after Goethe's Werther .

In the 200th year of death, for the first time since 1783, Miller's collected poems were reprinted. His personal copy of the poems, which he has provided with numerous changes and corrections in view of a second edition, has been in the possession of the Museum Society Ulm since 2017 and is available on permanent loan to the Ulm City Library .

Works

  • Contribution to the history of tenderness. From the letters of two lovers. (1776, extension by appendix 1780)
  • Siegwart. A monastery story. (1776) ( digitized version and full text in the German text archive )
  • Correspondence between three academic friends. 2 volumes (1776/77)
  • History of Karl von Burgheim and Emiliens von Rosenau. 4 volumes (1778)
  • Karl and Karoline. (1783)
  • Johann Martin Miller's poems. (1783)
  • Correspondence between a father and his son at the academy. 2 volumes (1785)
  • The story of Gottfried Walther, a carpenter, and the little town of Erlenburg. (1786)

Deliverable editions

  • Song tone and trill. All the poems. Ed., With an afterword vers. u. come over. v. Michael Watzka. Elfenbein Verlag, Berlin 2014, ISBN 978-3-941184-30-5 .

literature

  • Bernd Breitenbruch: Johann Martin Miller 1750-1814. Song poet from the Göttinger Hain, novelist, preacher at the Ulm Minster. Exhibition for the 250th birthday. Ulm City Library, Schwörhaus, December 3, 2000 to January 27, 2001. Anton H. Konrad, Weißenhorn 2000, ISBN 3-87437-448-3 . (= Publications of the Ulm City Library; 20.)
  • Bernd Breitenbruch: Johann Martin Miller's novels and their reprints. With contributions to the Reutlingen and Tübingen reprints. In: Yearbook of the Free German Hochstift . 2013. Göttingen / Tübingen 2014, pp. 83–145.
  • Bernd Breitenbruch: Reviews of lieder and trills. All of the poems and the correspondence between Johann Martin Miller and Johann Heinrich Voss. In: Ulm and Upper Swabia. Magazine for history, art and culture. Andreas Schmauder, Michael Wettengel, Gudrun Litz (eds.). Vol. 59/2015. Ostfildern 2015, ISBN 978-3-7995-8049-6 , pp. 378–382.
  • Adalbert Elschenbroich:  Miller, Johann Martin. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 17, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1994, ISBN 3-428-00198-2 , pp. 514-516 ( digitized version ).
  • Alain Faure: Johann Martin Miller, novelist sentimental. Champion, Paris 1977.
  • Hans-Edwin Friedrich: Autonomy of love - autonomy of the novel. On the function of love in the novel of the 1770s: Goethe's Werther and Miller's Siegwart. In: [Goethezeitportal. http://www.goethezeitportal.de/db/wiss/epoche/friedrich_liebe.pdf ] (July 30, 2004)
  • Heinrich Kraeger : Johann Martin Miller. A contribution to the history of sensitivity. Heinsius, Bremen 1893.
  • Erich Schmidt :  Miller, Johann Martin . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 21, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1885, pp. 750-755.
  • Frank Raberg : Biographical Lexicon for Ulm and Neu-Ulm 1802-2009 . Süddeutsche Verlagsgesellschaft im Jan Thorbecke Verlag, Ostfildern 2010, ISBN 978-3-7995-8040-3 , p. 275 f .
  • Reinhart Schönsee: JM Miller's prose writings as a crisis phenomenon of their epoch. Univ. Diss. Hamburg 1972.
  • Manfred von Stosch (ed.): The correspondence between Johann Martin Miller and Johann Heinrich Voss. De Gruyter, Berlin 2012, ISBN 3-11-023417-3 .
  • Heinz Strauss: The monastery novel from Miller's “Siegwart” to its artistic height at ETA Hoffmann. A contribution to the history of literature in the 12th century. Univ. Dissertation Munich 1922.
  • Michael Watzka: a one-hit wonder? The poetry of Johann Martin Miller in the compositions of his contemporaries . In: Lenz-Jahrbuch, 21. 2014, ISBN 978-3-86110-575-6 / ISSN  0940-7499 , pp. 111-146.

Web links

Commons : Johann Martin Miller  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikisource: Johann Martin Miller  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Götz von Selle: The register of the ... University of Göttingen 1734-1837 . Hildesheim, Leipzig 1937, no.8619
  2. ↑ E. Schmitt: The Wohlersche bookstore in Ulm. P. 64
  3. ↑ Erich Schmidt: Allg. German biography. Vol. 21, 1885, pp. 750-755.
  4. ↑ Bernd Breitenbruch: Johann Martin Miller's novels and their reprints. With contributions to the Reutlingen and Tübingen reprints. In: Yearbook of the Free German Hochstift . 2013. Göttingen / Tübingen, 2014, p. 83.
  5. ^ Bernhard Appenzeller: The minster preachers to the transition from Ulm to Württemberg 1810. Weissenhorn 1990, pp. 404-412.
  6. ↑ Register of the lodge to the golden circle in the walk. State Archives Berlin-Dahlem, Sign.5.2 G 31 No. 19
  7. ^ Satisfaction (W.-A.-Mozart). In: YouTube . Retrieved January 29, 2019 (recording from KV 349).
  8. ↑ Michael Watzka: A one-hit wonder? The poetry of Johann Martin Miller in the compositions of his contemporaries. In: Lenz yearbook. 21 (2014). St. Ingbert 2015.
  9. ↑ Liederton and trills. All the poems. Berlin 2014, p. 245.
  10. ↑ Bernd Breitenbruch: Johann Martin Miller's novels and their reprints. With contributions to the Reutlingen and Tübingen reprints. In: Yearbook of the Free German Hochstift. 2013. Göttingen / Tübingen 2014, p. 91f & Liederton and Triller. All the poems. Berlin 2014.
  11. ↑ Bernd Breitenbruch: Johann Martin Miller's novels and their reprints. In: Yearbook of the Free German Hochstift. 2013, p. 90.
  12. ^ Henning Petershagen: Corrections after more than 200 years. In: Südwest Presse . November 19, 2016, accessed January 6, 2017 .
  13. ↑ Michael Watzka: The corrections of the poet. In: Augsburger Allgemeine . August 31, 2017, accessed January 29, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Miller, Johann Martin
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Protestant theologian and preacher
DATE OF BIRTH December 3, 1750
PLACE OF BIRTH Jungingen
DATE OF DEATH June 21, 1814
Place of death Ulm