Johann Matthias Schröckh

Johann Matthias Schröckh, painting by Benjamin Calau , 1770, Gleimhaus Halberstadt

Johann Matthias Schröckh , also Schroeckh , (born July 26, 1733 in Vienna , † August 1, 1808 in Wittenberg ) was a German historian and literary scholar, poet and doctor.

Life

As the grandson of the Lutheran senior Matthias Bel in Pressburg , he wanted to become a theologian like his grandfather. To this end, he began his studies at the University of Göttingen in 1751 and listened to the lectures of the church historian Johann Lorenz von Mosheim and the orientalist Johann David Michaelis with enthusiasm . Moved to the University of Leipzig by his uncle Karl Andreas Bel in 1774 , he continued his studies and on March 4, 1755 he obtained the academic degree of a master's degree in philosophy. He completed his habilitation on March 6, 1756 and in 1762 became an associate professor of philosophy.

On October 26, 1767, he was appointed full professor of poetry at the University of Wittenberg , which he accepted for reasons of existence. Nevertheless, he stuck to the continuation of the lectures he had begun in Leipzig on church history, the history of scholars and the history of theology, and took a leading position in this department at the Wittenberg University. After Johann Daniel Ritter left , he took over the long-sought professorship for history in 1775. Just as Schröckh was custodian of the university library in Leipzig, he was also in charge of the Wittenberg university library in Wittenberg from 1767 onwards.

Schröckh's day began at five o'clock with writing. At seven o'clock, or eight in winter, he went to his receiver for the first time. He then devoted himself to various things, such as academic circulation, the censorship of historical works, novels, the Wittenberg weekly newspaper, literary magazines, for example the General German Library , which had been printed in Wittenberg since 1775, and wrote reviews. After that, the historian continued writing. At 12 noon, the midday meal opened a longer period of rest and relaxation. At 3 p.m. he presented the second part of his lectures, which sometimes ended with a private seminar.

The total number of his daily lectures was earlier five, later three. The last part of the working day, the evening hours from 6 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., was again dedicated to writing. It was in accordance with this order, which was tailored to literary activity, that the Easter and Michaelmas holidays were used to write books and reviews. The elaboration of historical works naturally helped the quality of his lectures.

Schröckh's visit to societies was limited to attending church services and meetings, insofar as his official duty required it. "Pleasure trips" occasionally took him to nearby Wörlitz. With the diversity of social life in mind at the time, contemporaries had to find this life lonely. Nevertheless, Schröckh was an informed man. He lived "in his study like on a control room from which there is much to see near and far". In this regard, dealing with a few confidants, namely Johann Daniel Ritter , Franz Volkmar Reinhard , Karl Ludwig Nitzsch and Georg Stephan Wiesand , was quite productive. He often received scholars and educated strangers traveling through.

He used to read newspapers and magazines with political, literary and charitable content, including the fashion writers August Lafontaine , August von Kotzebue and English novels. His favorite authors were Lukian, Horace and Tacitus, Swift, Voltaire and Wieland. His humanity expressed itself in help and participation for "Jews and Greeks, friend and enemy". He granted foreign students advances, contributed to the salaries of Wittenberg school teachers, kept his library open to those interested, put young writers in touch with publishers, gave scholars and students advice, paid visits to sick people, including his craftsmen.

The upswing at the University of Wittenberg at that time was attributed to the work of professors such as Johann Matthias Schröckh and Franz Volkmar Reinhard by contemporaries. More guests from Hungary, Finland, Courland and other parts of Europe came to Leucorea. Schröckh was praised for his pragmatic, impartial nature of the history presentation, his “reasonable, moderate and tolerant way of thinking”, his cosmopolitan standpoint in the presentation of the sciences and the “liberal treatment of ecclesiastical and universal history”. His large-scale lectures on the history of all arts and sciences, including the theology of Emperor Augustus and the birth of Christ, confirmed the universal history of his faculty in this special field as well. He read a three-year cycle on church history, German imperial history, European state history, diplomacy and Saxon history. His lectures were among the most popular at Wittenberg University.

Schröckh's works can be classified into three groups: biography, universal history and church history. His pedagogical concern emerged in the creation of a four-part general world history for children and in the textbook of general world history for use in the first lessons of young people . Its importance lay in the source-based, collection-descriptive, popular-scientific presentation of church history. He saw in the Reformation the repristination of ideal early Christianity and in the Enlightenment the ideal state of higher development since then. Luther appears to him as a “bringer of freedom and early enlightenment”. The Reformation and the Protestant Enlightenment are in continuity with the original message of Jesus, which “Luther rediscovered”.

His real life's work is the 43-volume church history, which extends from the beginnings to the 18th century. The Christian Church History leads in 35 volumes up to the Reformation. It is followed by the eight-volume Christian Church History since the Reformation . His work also influenced the literature of Catholic church historians and Catholic church history teaching. Schröckh created a large part of his literary work to improve his living conditions. He particularly regretted the time invested in the "patchwork rich in volume" by Wiliam Guthrie and John Gray, "General World History from Creation to the Present Time".

The extremely fruitful church historian, who also courted the University of Frankfurt (Oder) and the city of Riga, was also the rector of the Wittenberg Academy in the summer semesters of 1776 and 1800 and was one of the most important professors of the same until his death. Schröckh died as a result of falling off the ladder.

Selection of works

• Textbook of general world history for use in the first lessons of young people , Berlin and Stettin 1774
• Historia religionis et ecclesiae christianae , 1777
• General world history for children , 4 d., Leipzig 1779–1784
• Introduction to the universal history . Berlin 1757 reworking by Hilmar Curas
• Christian church history since the Reformation , Leipzig 1804–1808
• Christian Church History , 35 vols., Frankfurt and Leipzig 1768–1803

literature

• Heinrich Doering : The learned theologians of Germany in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Vol. 4, Verlag Johann Karl Gottfried Wagner, Neustadt an der Orla 1835, p. 12 ( online )
• Constantin von Wurzbach : Schröckh, Johann Mathias . In: Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich . 31st part. Kaiserlich-Königliche Hof- und Staatsdruckerei, Vienna 1876, pp. 309–315 ( digitized version ).
• Gustav Frank :  Schröckh, Johann Matthias . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 32, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1891, pp. 498-501.
• Walter Friedensburg : Johann Matthias Schroeckh . In: Historical Commission for the Province of Saxony and for Anhalt (Hrsg.): Mitteldeutsche Lebensbilder. Volume 3, Pictures of Life in the 18th and 19th Centuries. Self-published, Magdeburg 1928, pp. 86-100.
• Wilhelm Kühnert : Johann Matthias Schroeckh. A contribution to the problem of church history and the diaspora . In: Yearbook for the history of Protestantism in Austria . Vol. 74 (1958), pp. 71-106, and Vol. 75 (1959), pp. 65-96.
• Werner Raupp :  Schröckh, Johann Matthias. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 14, Bautz, Herzberg 1998, ISBN 3-88309-073-5 , Sp. 1425-1427.
• Heinz Kathe : The Wittenberg Philosophical Faculty 1502–1817 (= Central German Research. Volume 117). Böhlau, Cologne / Weimar / Vienna 2002, ISBN 3-412-04402-4 .
• Dirk Fleischer: Early Christianity, Reformation and Enlightenment. The self-image of the Wittenberg historian Johann Matthias Schroeckh . In: Albrecht Beutel , Volker Leppin , Udo Sträter (eds.): Christianity in transition. New Studies on the Church in the Enlightenment Period . Leipzig 2006, pp. 269-81
• Dirk Fleischer: Between tradition and progress. The structural change of Protestant church historiography in the German-speaking discourse of the Enlightenment. 2nd volume, Waltrop 2006, pp. 442-516
• Dirk Fleischer: The Luther image of the Enlightenment period: On the Luther biography of Johann Matthias Schroeckh, as an introduction to the reprint of Johann Matthias Schroeckh's illustration and biography of Doctor Martin Luther (Leipzig 1778). Edited by Dirk Fleischer. Came 2013, pp. I – XXXIII.
• Dirk Fleischer: Church history as a science. On the history-theoretical theory of Johann Matthias Schroeckh. In: Johann Matthias Schroeckh: Church History or Introduction to Christian Church History (1772) (= think history. Texts on the foundations of historical meaning formation in modern times. Vol. 3). Edited and introduced by Dirk Fleischer. Nordhausen 2015, pp. 7–34.

Web links

• Works by and about Johann Matthias Schröckh  in the German Digital Library