Johann Peter Süßmilch

Johann Peter Süßmilch (born September 3, 1707 in Zehlendorf near Berlin ; † March 22, 1767 in Berlin) was a German pastor, senior consistorial councilor, ( epidemiological ) statistician and demographer . He is considered to be the pioneer of demographic and medical statistics in Germany.

Life

Johann Peter Süßmilch studied law, medicine and theology in Jena and Halle and served as field preacher in the First Silesian War in 1741 . On Sunday, August 13th, 1741, the former field preacher gave his inaugural sermon as parish priest of Etzin and his garlic branch . From 1742 he then served as provost and senior consistorial councilor in Berlin-Cölln (St. Petri parish) and in 1745 became a member of the Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences . He had contacts with Gotthold Ephraim Lessing and Immanuel Kant .

Berlin memorial plaque in Berlin-Mitte (Brüderstr. 10)

Berlin memorial plaque in Berlin-Zehlendorf (Berliner Str. 2)

Johann Peter Süßmilch's main work The Divine Order in the Changes of the Human Gender, Proven from Birth, Death and Reproduction , which he wrote in 1741, is considered a pioneering and groundbreaking work in the history of population statistics , with which he earned the reputation of Father of German statistics and demography . In this book, Süßmilch tries to provide evidence of the population's existence by proving the constancy of mass statistical characteristics as an expression of God's will. In his work he himself refers to Kaspar Neumann's work, in which the latter issued a monthly list of the dead in Breslau as early as 1687–1691 and noted the age and cause of death in it.

Works

• The royal residence of Berlin and the Mark Brandenburg in the 18th century. Writings and letters. Edited by Jürgen Wilke. Berlin: Akademie Verlag 1994. ISBN 3-05-000232-8
• The royal Residenzz Berlin rapid growth and edification , 1752 ( digitized version )
• The divine order in the changes in the human sex from birth, death and reproduction , Verlag Daniel August Gohls, Berlin 1741 (correct 1742; digitized version ), 2nd edition (in 2 parts), Verlag des Buchladen der Realschule, Berlin 1761–1762 (digitized version: part 1 , part 2 )
• Attempt to prove that the first language did not originate from man, but only from the Creator , 1756
• The joy over the goodness and help of God, was at the thanksgiving and victory feasts, because of on the 5th November 1757, bey Freyburg where Royal Prussian weapons ... lent all-important victory , Grynaeus and Decker, Berlin 1757 ( digitized )

literature

• Vincenz John:  Sweet milk, Johann Peter . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 37, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1894, pp. 188-195.
• Herwig Birg : The world population. Dynamics and dangers. Munich, CH Beck 2004. ISBN 978-3-406-519192 .
• Eckart Roloff : How many people can live on earth? He found a good answer to this key question early on: the Berlin provost Johann Peter Süßmilch. In: Landwirtschaftliche Zeitschrift Rheinland , 43/2010, page 42f.
• Justus Nipperdey : Johann Peter Süssmilch: From Divine Law to Human Intervention. In: Population-E , 3–4 / 2011, page 611f.

Web links

• Literature by and about Johann Peter Süßmilch in the catalog of the German National Library

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Eberhard Wolff: Sweet milk, Johann Peter. In: Werner E. Gerabek , Bernhard D. Haage, Gundolf Keil , Wolfgang Wegner (eds.): Enzyklopädie Medizingeschichte. De Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2005, ISBN 3-11-015714-4 , p. 1367.
2. ↑ Eckart Elsner: Süßmilchs Zeit in Etzin ( Memento of the original from January 5, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.