Karl Wilhelm Gottlieb von Köstlin

Karl Wilhelm Gottlieb Köstlin , from 1850 by Köstlin (born February 11, 1785 in Nürtingen , † November 11, 1854 in Tübingen ), was a German Protestant theologian , professor and ephorus at the Evangelical Theological Seminary in Urach (Württemberg) .

Live and act

Gottlieb Köstlin was the second surviving son of the Nürtingen deacon , later dean and (honorary) prelate Nathanael Köstlin and Sibylle Friederike Cless (1751-1824). He began his theological career at the seminary in Blaubeuren as early as 1797 , moved to Bebenhausen two years later and in 1801 moved to the University of Tübingen to study philosophy and theology as a scholarship holder of the Evangelical Monastery . Here were Christian Friedrich Schnurrer , Jakob Friedrich Abel , Friedrich Gottlieb Suskind , but also Karl Friedrich Kiel Meyerto his teachers. In 1803 he acquired the master's degree. After the usual vicariates, Köstlin returned to the Tübinger Stift as a repetitee in 1810. He spent the summer of 1811 in Landshut and Munich with his cousin, the philosopher Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling . He made the acquaintance of important scholars, including the theologian and later Bishop of Regensburg Johann Michael Sailer and the philosopher Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi . His patron, the university curator Karl August von Wangenheim , made it possible for him to study in Paris from May to October 1812. Here Gottlieb Köstlin also dealt with oriental manuscripts, but even more with natural sciences, his hobbyhorse. Several times he was a guest of the famous orientalist Silvestre de Sacy , was on friendly terms with Georges Cuvier and had an audience with Alexander von Humboldt .

After returning home, Köstlin became a deacon (second pastor) in Bietigheim in 1813 , but it was only four years later that he married Johanne Luise Süskind (1796–1874), a daughter of his academic teacher. In 1818, Köstlin became the first professor at the newly created Evangelical Theological Seminary in Urach, where his father had been dean since 1808. In 1843 he received the title and rank of full university professor, in 1846 he became Ephorus (director) of this institution. Events of the revolution of 1848 led to the removal of Köstlin from the management of the Ephorate in 1850, but while retaining his title and salary and being appointed knight of the Order of the Württemberg Crown , which was associated with the personal nobility. Four years later he retired and moved to Tübingen to his son Karl Reinhold von Köstlin . There he died as a result of a nervous crisis early in the morning of November 11, 1854. Two days later, Gottlieb Köstlin was buried in the Tübingen city cemetery. His neo-Gothic tomb now adorns the cemetery chapel.

Gottlieb Köstlin performed his teaching post with great conscientiousness and was anxious to convey religious, moral and scientific seriousness to his pupils, who were in a difficult age. His prominent students are the poet Eduard Mörike , “friend of the aesthetic, who avoids dry studies”, so Köstlin, with his friends Wilhelm Hartlaub (1804–1885) and Johannes Mährlen , the theologian Johann Tobias Beck , the theologian Matthias Schneckenburger , the classical philologist Wilhelm Siegmund Teuffel , the orientalist Rudolf von Roth and the historian Julius Weizsäcker . Köstlin was considered a luminary in the field of oriental studies and the Old Testament , but he only published one treatise in the Urach seminar program of 1846: De immortalitatis spe, quae in Libro Jobi apparere dicitur (On the hope of immortality in the book of Job). The attached seminar history, news about the royal [royal] seminar in Urach , comes from his pen.

literature

• Julius Köstlin :  Köstlin, Karl Wilhelm Gottlieb . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 16, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1882, p. 757 f.
• Obituary. Carl Wilhelm Gottlieb v. Köstlin , in: Evangelisches Kirchen- und Schulblatt, first for Württemberg 16 (1855), pp. 761–763
• Wilhelm Lang: Monastery memories 1846–1850 , Stuttgart 1891
• Maria Köstlin (ed.): The book of the Köstlin family , Stuttgart 1931, pp. 19–21, 136–137
• Rosemarie Muscat: The young Mörike in Urach , Stuttgart 1985
• The Evangelical Theological Seminary Urach 1818–1977 , Metzingen 1991, pp. 124, 128, 133–135
• Stefan J. Dietrich: Gottlieb Köstlin , in: From Hölderlin to Beate Uhse. The theologian family Köstlin, the literature and Blaubeuren , typescript, Blaubeuren 2006, pp. 11-13
• Stefan J. Dietrich: Sailor-scarred face. A professor from Urach under Alexander von Humboldt. Gottlieb Köstlin from Urach taught at the Protestant seminary for 36 years, most recently as Ephorus , in: Südwest Presse. Der Ermstalbote - Bad Urach , February 6, 2010, p. 39
• Stefan J. Dietrich: A great light that is weak in leadership. The Nürtinger Gottlieb Köstlin was an outstanding scientist, but failed as Urach monastery director , in: Nürtinger Zeitung , February 15, 2010, p. 15
• Priscilla A. Hayden-Roy: Carl Wilhelm Gottlieb Köstlin (1785-1854) . In: This: "Sparta et Martha". Parish office and marriage in the life planning of Hölderlin and in his environment , Ostfildern 2011, pp. 54–68