Johann Rudolph Becker
Johann Rudolph Becker (born March 28, 1736 in Rostock , † December 18, 1815 in Lübeck ) was an administrative lawyer in the service of the Hanseatic City of Lübeck, who gained importance as a writer and historian.
Life
Becker came from a Rostock family of university teachers and pastors. His father Johann Hermann Becker became a professor at the University of Greifswald in 1747 and pastor at the Marienkirche in Lübeck in 1751 . His two brothers also followed this family tradition; Peter Hermann Becker (1730–1788) became senior at the Ministry of Spirituality in Lübeck, Heinrich Valentin Becker became professor of theology at the University of Rostock .
Johann Rudolph Becker, on the other hand, studied philosophy and law in Jena from 1754 to 1757. In 1758 he was first educator of the children of the cathedral dean Christian August von Eyben and from 1759 to 1765 secretary of the canon Carl Friedrich von Clausenheim , who was also the Danish ministerial resident in Lübeck. In 1765 he became procurator of the cathedral chapter in Lübeck and in 1769 at the University of Greifswald licentiate in law and Dr. iur. Due to his subsequent writing activity, he became a member of the Academy of Sciences in Berlin in 1764 .
In 1773 he was given a permanent position in Lübeck as a finance secretary, i.e. in the state's financial authority. His tasks also included tax collection in the land area of the Lübeck exclaves . Here he made a living by adjusting borders. The Lübeck canon and Count Johann Carl Heinrich Dreyer appointed him notary.
In pursuit of his aesthetic interests, he was one of the founding members of the Enlightenment Society for the Promotion of Charitable Activities and pursued his thirst for historical research. Many of his historical lectures to members of the society have been preserved in the archive of the Hanseatic City of Lübeck .
His main work is a comprehensive chronicle of the Hanseatic City of Lübeck, which, due to its political importance and the large number of historians who have worked before him, has had a good source of sources since its foundation. The awkward history of the Kaiserl. and salvation. He had the Roman Empire free of the city of Lübeck printed at his own expense. Initially, however, the first two volumes appeared in 1782 and 1784, covering the period from the beginnings to the Peace of Westphalia .
The publication of the third volume, which should continue the work to the present day, was prevented by the Senate of the Hanseatic City, not least because of the censorship of the historian and Canon Dreyer. The manuscript was initially withdrawn. Permission to print was only granted after Dreyer's death. With the publication of the third volume, which ran up to 1800, in 1805, the first comprehensive history of the city was completed.
Works
Cumbersome history of the Kaiser. and salvation. Roman Empire freyen city of Lübeck
- Volume I, Lübeck 1782 in the Google book search
- Volume II, Lübeck 1784 in the Google book search
- Volume III, Lübeck 1805 in the Google book search (linked to Volume 2)
literature
- Wilhelm Mantels : Becker, Johann Rudolf . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 2, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1875, p. 222.
- Antjekathrin Graßmann : Becker in Lübecker Lebenslaufen , Neumünster 1993, pp. 37–39. ISBN 3-529-02729-4 .
- Hans-Bernd Spies: The belated appearance of the third volume of Johann Rudolph Becker's history of Lübeck (1806). in Rolf Hammel-Kiesow (ed.): The memory of the Hanseatic city of Lübeck . Lübeck 2005. ISBN 3-7950-5555-5 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Decree of March 7, 1784
Web links
- Literature by and about Johann Rudolph Becker in the catalog of the German National Library
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Becker, Johann Rudolph |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German administrative lawyer, writer and historian |
| DATE OF BIRTH | March 28, 1736 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Rostock |
| DATE OF DEATH | December 18, 1815 |
| Place of death | Lübeck |