Johann Ulrich Giezendanner

Johann Ulrich Giezendanner (born June 17, 1686 in Lichtensteig , † 1738 in Orangeburg in South Carolina ) was a Swiss goldsmith and pietist .

Life

Johann Ulrich Giezendanner was the son of the jug maker Georg Giezendanner (1655-1730) and his wife Ursela (née Bräker). His siblings were:

• Jacob Giezendanner (born June 23, 1683 in Lichtensteig; † unknown in Orangeburg), tin caster ;
• Georg Giezendanner (born September 9, 1691 in Lichtensteig; † unknown in Orangeburg).

He learned the trade of goldsmith in Toggenburg .

He got to know Pietism through his local pastor Niklaus Scherrer and August Hermann Francke in Halle . He was banned from Toggenburg on suspicion of pietism, as he had threatened the authorities with God's judgment. This led to an investigation by a pietist commission set up by the council, in which the secular side had the majority, as a result of which Johann Ulrich Giezendanner was expelled from the country in 1710 without trial and went to Zurich .

In 1714 he began to study theology at the University of Marburg and heard lectures from, among others, Johann Heinrich Hottinger (1681–1750) and worked as a teacher in the orphanage in Marburg. Because he gave sermons on his own in Marburg, he was expelled from Hesse in 1716 and, after a short stay in Heidelberg , returned to eastern Switzerland and held secret meetings in Bottighofen near Scherzingen .

As a representative of the radical Pietism of German-speaking Switzerland , he received his orthodox outlook confirmed in Zurich until he was also expelled from there after he was able to bring the local pastor Hans Jakob Schulthess (1691–1761) on his side, who also made him a friend Escorted defense to the Antistes; To this end, on June 29, 1716, he gave a sermon for inspiration at the country estate of Junker Johann Kaspar Schneeberger in Engstringen, in which he said, so now hear my word you dumb clumps of earth (meaning the pastors), where is your lie? and so hear, hear, you heads of this place, you step in as gods and lords of the land, but what kind of god do you have for your rulership, isn't it with you all that you make your belly a god? With great arrogance you proclaim your sins on the gaßen, go onf the gaßen, then you will find place and land that all tüffels-pfihl. Hans Jakob Schulthess, who still stood up for him in the council, was banished from the city together with Johann Ulrich Giezendanner. He found his first refuge with Johann Kaspar Schneeberger in Engstringen and then returned to Lichtensteig.

In 1734 he emigrated to America, worked as a goldsmith in Charleston and founded the first local church in Orangeburg County in 1736 for the Toggenburg, Rheintaler and Appenzell Pietists.

Johann Ulrich Giezendanner was married to Anna (née Grob) in Stäfa on July 4, 1730 .

literature

• Johann Ulrich Giezendanner . In: Church news about the Protestant communities of Toggenburg, Canton St. Gallen. Ebnat, Canton of St. Gallen 1824.
• H. George Anderson: The European Phase of John Ulrich Giessendanner's Life. In: The South Carolina Historical Magazine, Vol. 67, No. 3 (July 1966), pp. 129-137.

Web links

• J. Jürgen Seidel: Johann Ulrich Giezendanner. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Zinngiesser Lichtensteig (SG). Retrieved January 5, 2020 . 
2. ^ First Family. Retrieved January 5, 2020 . 
3. ↑ Kaspar Bütikofer: The early Zurich Pietism (1689–1721): The social background and the worlds of thought and life as reflected in the library of Johann Heinrich Lochers (1648–1718) . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2009, ISBN 978-3-647-55841-7 , p. 13 f . ( google.de [accessed on January 5, 2020]).
4. ^ E. Bloesch: History of the Swiss Reformed Church . BoD - Books on Demand, 2015, ISBN 978-3-7340-0766-8 ( google.de [accessed January 5, 2020]).
5. ^ Historical Society of Zurich Theologians : Yearbook of the Historical Society of Zurich Theologians . C. Schmidt, 1877 ( google.de [accessed January 5, 2020]).
6. ↑ Schulthess, Hans Jakob. Retrieved January 5, 2020 . 
7. ^ Georg Rudolf Zimmermann: The Zurich Church from the Reformation to the third anniversary of the Reformation, 1519–18190 . 1878 ( google.de [accessed June 3, 2020]).
8. ↑ Giezendanner's inspirational speech of June 29, 1716, quoted from Kaspar Bütikofer: The early Zurich Pietism. Göttingen 2009, ISBN 978-3-525-55841-6 . P. 489.
9. ^ Scheuchzer, Johannes an Bernoulli, Johann I (1716.07.04) - Bernoulli Wiki. Retrieved January 5, 2020 . 
10. ↑ Jolanda Cécile Schärli: Conspicuous religiosity: prayer healings, cases of possession and enthusiastic sects in Catholic and Reformed areas of Switzerland . disserta Verlag, 2012, ISBN 978-3-95425-016-5 ( google.de [accessed on January 5, 2020]).
11. ↑ Zurich marriage dates, 18th century, sorted according to the husband's family name (G – L). (PDF) State Archives Zurich, March 18, 2019, accessed on January 5, 2020 .