Karl Knaake

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Joachim Karl Friedrich Knaake (born October 2, 1835 in Werben (Elbe) , † April 6, 1905 in Naumburg (Saale) ) was a German Protestant theologian , Luther researcher , founder of the Weimar Luther edition .

life and work

Karl Knaake, son of a simple arable citizen in the Altmark town of Werben an der Elbe, learned about poverty and deprivation as a child. Because of his outstanding achievements, Karl was transferred to the humanistic grammar school in Stendal . After graduating from high school in 1856, he began to study theology and philology at the University of Berlin as a Kurmärkischer scholarship holder . His university professor Karl Schneider excited the young student for the history of the Reformation and Luther's writings. Knaake later took up his failed plan to publish a complete scientific edition of Luther's works. After the exam he passed the second theological exam in the candidate convict in Magdeburg in 1861 and was hired as a scientific teacher in Salzwedel and appointed second preacher in Heiligenstadt .

In 1862 he married Juliane Müller from Werben.

Potsdam time

From 1864 to 1881 Knaake worked as a teacher and pastor in the cadet house in Potsdam . He took advantage of the proximity of the Royal Library as well as the antiquarian bookshops and booksellers in Berlin to intensify his studies and acquire source literature with the aim of publishing a critical, academic complete edition of all Latin and German texts, table speeches and letters by Martin Luther in chronological order. Little by little he built up his first collection of around 2,000 Luther and Reformation writings, which he acquired despite his limited financial resources. a. acquired through tutoring.

During this busy period in Potsdam, the Knaake couple had six more children after their first daughter, four of whom died within four years.

After more than 15 years of continuous research, Knaake's critical review of the Luther biography by Julius Köstlin , leading Luther researcher at the University of Halle-Wittenberg , should bring about a turning point. Having become aware of Knaake through these and other publications, Köstlin recognized the achievement of the man who had been working alone up until then and contacted him. Thanks to his relationships with the Prussian Ministry of Culture, Köstlin made it possible for Knaake's dream to realize a scholarly Luther edition. Kaiser Wilhelm I made 40,000 marks available for the prestigious project, which was considered a "national honorary task". Knaake was finally able to sign a contract with the Hermann Böhlau publishing house in Weimar in July 1882 as the publisher. The project was led by the “Royal Commission for the Publication of the Works of D. Martin Luther”.

Drakenstedt time

In order to devote himself more effectively to his scientific studies, he was given a small pastor's position in Drakenstedt near Magdeburg in late 1881 . He worked single-mindedly on the comprehensive task and visited numerous libraries and archives in the Reich as well as in Copenhagen , Prague and the British Museum in London in order to find further Luther texts. Shortly before the publication of the first volume of the WA, the University of Halle-Wittenberg awarded Karl Knaake an honorary doctorate in August 1883 . For the 400th birthday of the reformer, which was celebrated throughout the German Empire, the first volume of the Weimar Luther edition was presented to Kaiser Wilhelm I on October 19, 1883 in Berlin.

Due to illness, personal blows of fate and revision, von Knaake did not publish the 2nd volume until 1884 and the 6th volume in 1888, as well as parts from Volume 5 (1892), Volume 7 (1897) and Volume 9 (1893) of the WA. For health reasons, he resigned from direct work at the WA in 1897. He had long since handed over the development of further volumes to other employees. Knaake and the state commission had completely underestimated the size of the complete edition, which grew with increasing research, further finds and increased editorial requirements, but so did the generations of researchers after them. In Drakenstedt, Knaake succeeded in building up two further collections. Due to increasing health problems, he retired in 1901 and in 1902 moved to the civil servants and pensioners town of Naumburg / S. Until his death on April 6, 1905, he worked on the publication of the Luther Letters.

One fact remains undisputed to this day: "Without Knaake's enthusiasm, courage, willingness to make sacrifices, erudition and persistent diligence, the new critical complete edition of Luther's works would not have come about."

Luther and Reformation collections

Knaake, “a man of historical specialization, obsessed with bibliophile collecting”, built up not just one, but even three of the largest and most valuable private collections of Luther prints and manuscripts of the 19th century in his day. For the publication of the Weimar Luther Edition, Knaake sold around 2,000 Luther prints to the Prussian state government and the Royal Library . The second collection comprised 3,000 Reformation publications, which the Royal Library in Berlin acquired in 1892 and partially sold on to Wittenberg .

The third collection contained around 4,000 Reformation writings, Luther manuscripts and letters as well as ancient classics and the like. a. It was auctioned by Theodor Oswald Weigel in Leipzig from 1906–1908.

His collections were the tool with which Knaake began his life's work, the Luther edition. It took numerous dedicated generations of researchers into the 21st century to expand and complete them. 2009 was WA by Ulrich Köpf after 126 years finished with 123 volumes in four departments.

Fonts (selection)

  • as editor: Luther, Martin: D. Martin Luthers Werke. Critical total edition (WA). Vol. 1. Weimar 1883, Vol. 2. Weimar 1884, Volume 6 1888 and parts from Volume 5 (1892), Volume 7 (1897) and Volume 9 (1893).
  • as publisher: Reprints of German literary works of the 16th and 17th centuries, Halle a. S .: No. 18, 1879: three Reformation writings by Luther from 1520 (letter to Pope Leo X .; On the freedom of a Christian; Why the Pope's books were burned) and No. 28, 1880: Luther's writing against Hans Worst 1541 .
  • as publisher: Yearbooks of the German Empire and the German Church in the Age of Reformation. Leipzig 1872.
  • Contributions to the history of Emperor Karl V - Letters from Joachim Imhof to his cousins ​​in Nuremberg from the campaigns of 1543, 1544, 1547. Stendal 1864.
  • Luther's share in the Augsburg Confession. Berlin 1863.

Letters (selection)

  • Köstlin estate / Knaake correspondence. (Yi39II): University and State Library Saxony-Anhalt in Halle (Saale), Special Collections Department.
  • Archive of the commission for the publication of the works of Martin Luther. Correspondence between Knaake and Weiss. University archive of Tübingen. Sign. 752/1, vol. 1.

literature

  • Ilse cell : Karl Knaake - founder of the Luther edition. Background to person and work. A search for traces in pictures, letters and encounters. With a foreword by Prof. Dr. Ulrich Köpf. LIT Verlag, Berlin / Münster 2017, ISBN 978-3-643-13629-9 .
  • Ulrich Köpf : The Weimar Luther Edition. Review of 126 years of scientific history. In: Luther yearbook. Organ of international Luther research. Göttingen 2010, Vol. 77, pp. 221-238.
  • Hans Volz : Karl Knaake. In: Neue deutsche Bibliographie 12 , 1979, pp. 313-330. (see Knaake, Karl on deutsche-biographie.de)
  • Otto Albrecht : On the prehistory of the Weimar Luther edition. In: Luther writings on the four hundredth anniversary of the Reformer, published by the staff of the Weimar Luther edition. Weimar 1917, pp. 29-65.
  • Albrecht Beutel: Ilse cell: Karl Knaake - founder of the Weimar Luther edition. In: Theological literary newspaper. March / 2018, column 248-250. (Review)
  • Gerhard Müller: "Ilse cell: Karl Knaake - founder of the Weimar Luther edition." In: LUTHER. Journal of the Luther Society, 89th year, issue 1, 2018, p. 63 ff.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Cf. Theodor Oswald Weigel (Ed.): Library JKF Knaake. Catalog of the collection of Reformation writings of the founder of the Weimar Luther edition JKF Knaake, Volume 1: Luther. (Catalog No. NF3), auction: Leipzig, July 17 and the following days 1906, foreword p. 1.
  2. ↑ Cf. Karl Knaake: About the course of my scientific and practical training. In: AKPS, Rep. A, Spec. P, K 100, Archive and Library of the Church Province of Saxony, Magdeburg.
  3. ↑ The wedding took place on June 9, 1862 in Werben. Knaake family tree, privately owned.
  4. ↑ Cf. Count Franz von Haslingen: History of the Cadet House in Potsdam. Berlin 1906, p. 89 fu 93.
  5. ↑ Cf. Otto Albrecht: On the prehistory of the Weimar Luther edition. In: Luther writings on the four hundredth anniversary of the Reformer, published by the staff of the Weimar Luther edition. Weimar 1917, p. 42 f.
  6. ↑ See military church book GStA PK, VIII. HA, MKB No. 619, pp. 34 f., 39 f., 43, 57, 108 ff.
  7. ↑ Cf. Julius Köstlin: An Autobiography. In: Oskar Wilda (Ed.): German thinkers and their minds. Leipzig 1891, issue 9-12, p. 258 f.
  8. ↑ Cf. Otto Albrecht: On the prehistory of the Weimar Luther edition. In: Luther writings on the four hundredth anniversary of the Reformer, published by the staff of the Weimar Luther edition. Weimar 1917, p. 63.
  9. ↑ Cf. archive of the commission for the publication of the works of Martin Luther. Correspondence Knaake / Weiß, Drakenstedt December 22, 1881. University archive of Tübingen. Sign. 752/1, vol. 1.
  10. ↑ Certificate of honorary doctorate. Personnel file Knake. In: AKPS, Rep. A, Spec. P, K 100, Archive and Library of the Church Province of Saxony, Magdeburg.
  11. ↑ See Albrecht, Otto: On the prehistory of the Weimar Luther edition. Naumburg a / S. Festschrift 1917, p. 65.
  12. ↑ Otto Albrecht: On the prehistory of the Weimar Luther edition. Naumburg a / S. Festschrift 1917, p. 44.
  13. ^ Gerhard Ebeling : Dealing with Luther. Tübingen 1983, p. 211.
  14. ↑ See Johannes Luther : Auction of the Knaakesammlung. In: Zentralblatt für Bibliothekswesen, vol. 1906, issue 11, p. 470. www.digizeitschriften.de.
  15. ↑ Cf. Theodor Oswald Weigel (Ed.): Library JKF Knaake. Catalog of the collection of Reformation writings by the founder of the Weimar Luther edition, JKF Knaake , Volume 1–6, Leipzig 1906–1908.
  16. ↑ The WA includes the writings with 84, the German Bible with 15, the table speeches with 6 and the correspondence with 18 volumes - depending on the number. (Cf. Ulrich Köpf: Die Weimarer Lutherausgabe. Looking back on 126 years of science history. In: Lutherjahrbuch: Organ der international Lutherforschung. Göttingen 2010, vol. 77, p. 221).
personal data
SURNAME Knaake, Karl
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Knaake, Joachim Karl Friedrich (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Protestant theologian, Luther researcher, founder of the Weimar Luther edition
DATE OF BIRTH October 2, 1835
PLACE OF BIRTH Advertise (Elbe)
DATE OF DEATH April 6, 1905
Place of death Naumburg (Saale)