Johannes Fortmann

Johannes Fortmann (born November 25, 1576 in Elbingerode ; † September 9, 1654 in Wernigerode ) was a German Protestant theologian and crowned poet.

Origin and youth

Born in 1576, he lost both parents as a toddler († 1577 his mother Barbara nee Stehlein; † 1578 his father Justus Fortmann from Bremen) due to the plague. In the following years (1578–83) he was therefore taken care of by grandmother Catharina Stehlein (who had been widowed for 13 years). Heimbold raised in Elbingerode, where he also goes to school. Probably from 1583 he attended the Latin school in Quedlinburg and later in Wernigerode and Halberstadt , where he was a kurrendeknabe .

Studies, rectorate and coronation of poets

At the age of 18 he was enrolled at the University of Wittenberg in 1594 , then in 1596 he was appointed court master (that is, educator and presumably already preacher) at the court of Count Wolf Ernst zu Stolberg in Wernigerode for 1½ years . In 1598 he went again to the University of Wittenberg for a year, where he acquired the academic degree of a master's degree in philosophical sciences on September 26, 1598. Already here he restricts himself to buying books so much that he even has to approach the count for a necessary item of clothing out of sheer need.

From 1599 to 1604 Johannes Fortmann was vice rector in Wernigerode, in 1604 the poet, who was only 28 years old, was crowned poeta laureatus and appointed rector (until 1609). In 1608 there was an attempt to poach him from Braunschweig, but this was averted by a substantial increase in salary.

Court preacher and library inspector in Wernigerode

From 1609 Johannes Fortmann is a deacon and court preacher to Count Heinrich. In 1611 he donated together with Matthias Lutterodt (probably a close relative of his wife) a pulpit for the Nikolaikirche (demolished in 1873) (the pulpit with the coats of arms of the two is now in the chapel of the old Lutherans in Wernigerode). For forty years (1614 to 1654) Fortmann was chief court preacher at SSylvestri et Georgi and spiritual inspector of the county.

The 38-year-old ecclesiastical inspector has also been since 1614 and was thus in charge of the impressive Stolberg's library, which was founded between 1570 and 1606. John Fort's greatest achievement is probably the fact that he's famous library in the Thirty Years' War against pillage saved by having them collected from their various locations and let store Church in barrels in a specially-developed to vault the Wernigeroder. Some irreplaceable prints, including many sheet music, survived this difficult time.

In 1619 he refused an appointment to Braunschweig and in 1621 an appointment to Salzwedel (superintendent of over 50 parishes). Probably 1648 at the end of the Thirty Years' War an oil painting was created (“72 years old, 51 years of preacher”). Johannes Fortmann dies six years later, on September 9, 1654 in Wernigerode. His son-in-law Dr. med. Jacobus Haberstroh , who married their daughter Anna Catharina (born 1616) on January 13, 1645, will be his successor.

meaning

“F., who tried a lot in historical, spiritual and casual poems, comedies in heroic meter, is less through these and through his various printed writings on the sermon literature than through what he was doing in a time of great scientific desolation and devastation tireless scientific pursuit noteworthy h. Among the learned contemporaries with whom he was in diligent correspondence, he was considered one of the most knowledgeable men in Lower Saxony. Of his unprinted writings, five privately owned volumes at Wernigerode deserve to be mentioned, mostly of special historical records. He himself collected his own library with great sacrifices. ”(Ed. JACOBS in: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie Bd. 7 p. 193, Leipzig 1878).

family

On October 10, 1603, when he was almost 27 years old, he married Ursula Hayn (1579–1641), three years his junior, the daughter of Johannes Hayn († 1579) and Maria Lutterodt († 1593). The bride is led to the church by the ruling sovereign, Wolf Ernst Graf zu Stolberg. Ursula had attended school at the well-known Jungfer Magdalene teaching base, where she read and write, and also learned to sew and other things. Her mother died on January 20, 1593, Ursula Hayn was 13 ½ years old at the time and had eight siblings, five younger than herself. She came to her cousin Ursula Kaltenbach, the wife of Hermannus Lüddeke, who was largely stolb. Secretarius, where she with domestic. Work was raised.

In just 13 years, eleven children were conceived: three sons (one stillborn) and eight daughters. Six children die early. The youngest daughter Anna Catharina was born on October 10, 1616 (Johannes is now almost 40 years old). In 1626 (Johannes is almost fifty) three of his adult children (the two sons Adrianus and Johannes and an unnamed daughter) all die of the plague within 14 days. In 1632 his wife Ursula lay down with a serious illness for twelve weeks, but the 53-year-old recovered again. On May 12, 1640 the son-in-law, the husband of the eldest daughter Barbara, Dr. phil. et med. Tobias Haberstroh 56 years old.

On October 15, 1640, his wife suffered a head injury as a result of falling down the stairs and died of the consequences on January 29, 1641 in Wernigerode, after a week of sudden exhaustion, and is buried in the grave of her son-in-law Tobias. When Johannes Fortmann died, only the oldest and youngest daughters Barbara and Anna-Catharina were still alive; all the others were already buried in Wernigerode.

literature

• Eduard Jacobs:  Fortmann, Johann . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 7, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1877, p. 193.
• Wolfgang Gerdangk: Vocatio verbi Praeconis legitima, That is: Legal profession of a public teacher and preacher, e Num. 16. Johann Ockel, Quedlinburg, 1654 ( digitized version )
• Christian Friedrich Kesslin: News from writers and artists from the county of Wernigerode. Magdeburg & Wernigerode, 1856, p. 13 ( digitized version )
• Fritz Roth : Complete evaluations of funeral sermons and personal documents for genealogical and cultural-historical purposes. Self-published, Boppard am Rhein, R 3377 & 7098;
• Veronika Albrecht-Birkner : Pastors book of the church province of Saxony. Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, Leipzig, 2005, ISBN 3-374-02135-2 , Vol. 3, p. 91

Web links

• Publications by and about Johannes Fortmann in VD 17 .
• Johannes Fortmann  in the German Digital Library