Nathanael Friedrich von Köstlin

Nathanael Friedrich Köstlin , from 1838 von Köstlin (born September 17, 1776 in Nürtingen ; † March 9, 1855 in Stuttgart ), was a Protestant professor of theology, senior consistorial councilor and prelate and general superintendent of Tübingen .

Live and act

Nathanael Friedrich von Köstlin was the eldest son of the Nürtingen deacon , later dean and (honorary) prelate, Nathanael Köstlin and the Sibylle Friederike Cless (1751-1824). He attended the Denkendorf and Maulbronn seminars from 1790 and studied philosophy and theology at the University of Tübingen from 1794 to 1799 as a scholarship holder of the Evangelical Monastery . He obtained his master’s degree in 1796 with a thesis De Jurium Humanorum Origine ac Fundamento Cogitationes (reflections on the origin and basis of human rights), and in 1799 he completed a dissertation on the teaching of the New Testament on the moral world government of God . Then he supported his uncle, Joseph Friedrich Schelling (1737-1812), the father of the philosopher Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling , who was then dean in Schorndorf, as vicar .

In the years 1801 to 1808 Köstlin taught the older sons of the Count of Erbach-Fürstenau as "Hofmeister" ( private tutor ) . With his pupils he went on educational trips through Europe and accompanied their studies at the universities of Braunschweig and Gießen . Then he returned to Tübingen, where he had received a position as a second deacon (third pastor). Four years later, Köstlin took over the first diaconate and at the same time an extraordinary professorship for practical theology at the University of Tübingen. As early as 1813 he was appointed full professor - one of his students was Ferdinand Christian Baur , the founder of the evangelical school in Tübingen .

Despite the rapid academic advancement, Köstlin moved as city and official dean of the Hospital Church in Stuttgart in 1815 , became consistorial assessor in 1822, preacher and senior consistorial councilor in 1823, and finally, in 1835, prelate and general superintendent of Tübingen, residing in Stuttgart. The poet and critic Gustav Pfizer should be mentioned among his vicars . Since 1836 Köstlin was a member of the central management of the Württemberg charity.

As a member of the Chamber of Deputies , Nathanael Friedrich von Köstlin was one of the few prelates who campaigned in vain for the abolition of the death penalty in 1838 . In the following year he applied for an increase in the state subsidy for the parish widow's fund and for state support for the private teacher training institutes of both denominations. The revolution of 1848 prompted Köstlin to seek his retirement, but he remained active in the field of charity. He died in 1855, his tomb is still preserved in the Hoppenlaufriedhof in Stuttgart.

Committed to his Tübingen teachers Gottlob Christian Storr , Johann Friedrich Flatt and Friedrich Gottlieb Süskind ( older Tübingen school ), Nathanael Friedrich Köstlin represented a moderate form of biblical supranaturalism throughout his life . He impressed with sensitive sermons, some of which appeared in print, and was known as a patient and charitable pastor.

Honors

In 1838 Köstlin received the Knight's Cross of the Order of the Württemberg Crown , with which the personal nobility was associated. The Evangelical Faculty of Tübingen honored its former teacher with an honorary doctorate in 1841 .

family

Nathanael Friedrich von Köstlin was married to Heinrike Schnurrer (1788-1819), a daughter of the orientalist and Chancellor of the University of Tübingen Christian Friedrich Schnurrer , with whom he had five children, including the poet lawyer Christian Reinhold Köstlin , husband of the song composer Josephine Caroline Lang , a student of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy and friend of Clara Schumann . After the early death of his first wife in 1822, Köstlin married Henriette Rapp (1792–1823), niece of the sculptor Johann Heinrich Dannecker , her foster father, and widow of the copperplate engraver Johann Friedrich Wilhelm Müller , who gave her son, the later painter Karl von Müller (1813– 1881) brought into the marriage.

literature

• Julius Köstlin :  Köstlin, Nathanael Friedrich . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 16, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1882, p. 759.
• Maria Köstlin (ed.): The book of the Köstlin family , Stuttgart 1931, pp. 14–15, 134–136
• Priscilla A. Hayden-Roy: Nathanael Friedrich Köstlin (1776–1855) . In: This: "Sparta et Martha". Parish office and marriage in the life planning of Hölderlin and in his environment , Ostfildern 2011, pp. 45–54, 378 (portrait)
• Frank Raberg : Biographical handbook of the Württemberg state parliament members 1815-1933 . On behalf of the Commission for Historical Regional Studies in Baden-Württemberg. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 3-17-016604-2 , p. 466 .
• Karl v. Weizsäcker: Teachers and lessons at the Protestant theological faculty of the University of Tübingen from the Reformation to the present , Tübingen 1877, pp. 134-137

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Royal Württemberg Court and State Manual 1847 , p. 41.