Johann von Besser

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Rococo portrait after Anna Maria Werner (taken from the writings of 1732).
Johann von Besser in "Illustrierte Literaturgeschichte" (1880)

Johann von Besser (born May 8, 1654 in Frauenburg , Kurland , today Saldus in Latvia , † February 10, 1729 in Leipzig ) was a German poet .

origin

His grandfather is said to have been a clergyman from the von Besserer patrician family who had been expelled from Ulm . His father Johann died in 1681 as a pastor in Frauenburg (Kurland) . His mother Dorothea was probably the daughter of the superintendent Paul Eichhorn and died after 1706.

Life

Better studied in Königsberg theology and came as a companion of Courland nobles Jakob Friedrich of Maydel to Leipzig , where he attended the local university to study law. On the recommendation of Prince Leopold von Anhalt-Dessau , he was electoral Brandenburg councilor in 1680 and legation councilor in 1681 . In this capacity, he was 1684 - 85 Elector of Brandenburg resident in London . King Frederick I of Prussia appointed him in 1690 to the master of ceremonies and court poet and raised him to the peerage. In 1701 he became a secret councilor and chief master of ceremonies. In the same year he was elected a full member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences . When Friedrich Wilhelm I abolished all superfluous court ranks when he came to power in 1713 , von Besser lost his offices and found himself in an oppressive position until he was appointed Privy Councilor and Master of Ceremonies at the Dresden court of Augustus the Strong in 1717 . He stayed here until his death. His successor in office was the poet Johann Ulrich König .

Better wrote praise and heroic poems on princes, love and student songs, festival poems, singing games, texts from masked festivals (so-called "economies") and epigrams. His Prussian Coronation History from 1712 is interesting as a historical document .

family

In November 1681 he married Catharina Elisabeth Kühlewein (1662–1688) a daughter of the first mayor of Leipzig Friedrich Kühlewein and Anna Catharina Trojer . The couple had a son and a daughter.

Works (selection)

  • Caeremoniale, 1695, digitized
  • S [an] r Churfürstl [ichen] Durchl [alsot] to Brandenburg Fridrich the Third ... Secret State Minister Eberhard Freyherr v. Danckelmann, 1692, digitized
  • Prussian coronation history […] Liebpert, Cölln / Spree 1702 u.ö. (Reprint: Berlin 1901)
  • From Herr von Besser's writings, both in bound and unbound speech […] Johann Friedrich Gleditsch, Leipzig 1711 a. ö. The third edition from 1732 is the authoritative, “Only complete new revision. Collective edition “(Dünnhaupt I, 536, 2.3). Digitized

Literature (selection)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Members of the previous academies. Johann von Besser. Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities , accessed on February 22, 2015 .
personal data
SURNAME Better, Johann von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German poet and court official
DATE OF BIRTH May 8, 1654
PLACE OF BIRTH Frombork , Courland , today Saldus , Latvia
DATE OF DEATH February 10, 1729
Place of death Leipzig