Ludwig Rhesa

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Ludwig Rhesa

Ludwig Jedemin Rhesa (also Martin Ludwig Rhesa) (born January 9, 1776 in Karwaiten ; † August 30, 1840 in Königsberg ) was consistorial councilor and Protestant theologian in Königsberg. He is considered a pioneer of Lithuanian culture in the German-speaking area.

Life

Born as the son of the beach guard Reehse in Karwaiten (lit. Karvaičiai) on the Curonian Spit , he went to Koenigsberg (Prussia) to study theology . There he was a scholarship holder in the Kypkeanum and changed the spelling of his name to rhesa . Initially garrison preacher at Fort Friedrichsburg , he became professor and director of the Lithuanian seminary at the Albertus University in Königsberg in 1810 . He collected and translated Lithuanian poems and dainos (folk songs).

The seasons of Christian Donalitius are especially known in German . Rhesa received the transcripts of the text from Pastor Johann Gottfried Jordan from Walterkehmen. He had received the manuscript from the widow Anna Regina Donaleit, née Ohlefant. A copy by Pastor Johann Friedrich Hohlfeldt from Gerwischkehmen was also available to him. Due to the requirement as a professor and the wars of Napoleon, Rhesa was only able to publish his book The Year in Four Songs in 1818 .

At the time of the Napoleonic Wars, Rhesa published the book Prutenia, Prussian folk songs , in which he also commemorates his queen.

Rhesa is a reference work to the evangelical preachers in West and East Prussia.

In his will, he left his fortune to the Rhesian Foundation for a Rhesianum dormitory based on the model of the Kypkeanum he visited. The Rhesianum was built in 1854 in the Mittelhufen district of Königsberg .

On his 200th birthday, a wooden memorial was erected near Karwaiten, his birthplace, which was submerged in the sand on the Spit.

Fonts (selection)

  • LJ Rhesa, Christian Donaleitis: The year in four songs. Königsberg 1818, online .
  • Brief messages from all the preachers employed in the Protestant churches in East Prussia since 1775 . Paschke, Königsberg 1834.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Karwaiten was one of the largest villages on the Curonian Spit. The church and school were rebuilt in 1748. When the dune began to cross the village, the residents gave up their village in 1791. Some moved to the southern edge of Schwarzort and gave the settlement its old name
  2. ^ Robert Albinus, Königsberg-Lexikon, Würzburg 2002
personal data
SURNAME Rhesa, Ludwig
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Rhesa, Ludwig Martin (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Protestant pastor, professor, poet and historian
DATE OF BIRTH January 9, 1776
PLACE OF BIRTH Karwaites
DATE OF DEATH August 30, 1840
Place of death Koenigsberg