Nathanael Köstlin

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Nathanael Köstlin

Nathanael Köstlin (born January 15, 1744 in Blaubeuren , † June 27, 1826 in Urach ) was a German Protestant theologian and honorary prelate in Urach.

Live and act

The son of the Heidenheim dean, the Senior Ministerii (Oberpfarrer) of the imperial city Esslingen am Neckar as well as Scholarcha (head of school) and marriage judge Cosmann Friedrich Köstlin (1711–1790) and the pastor's daughter Maria Sophia Köpke (1714–1791) grew up in a pietistic environment on. He first studied Protestant theology in the monasteries of Denkendorf and Maulbronn and continued his studies from 1762 to 1767 at the Evangelical Monastery of Tübingen , where he in the meantime wrote his master's thesis in 1764. After his exam in 1767 at the ducal consistory in Stuttgart, the Tübingen monastery took him over until 1770, first as a librarian and then until 1774 as a tutor . During this time, Köstlin maintained an intense relationship with the university chancellor Jeremias Friedrich Reuss , who was also closely related to Pietism and who, like Köstlin's father, had been a student of the main representative of Württemberg Pietism, Johann Albrecht Bengel . Köstlin took on the activity of a private tutor for the chancellor's children and assisted Reuss in the publication of his writings.

In 1774 Köstlin was appointed vicar in Stuttgart. Here he found quarters with the family of the court chaplain Karl Heinrich Rieger , also a student of a rascal and son of the pietistic theologian Georg Konrad Rieger . He met his niece Sibylle Friederike Cless, who lived as an orphan in the house of the court chaplain, and married her in 1775.

In the same year Köstlin received a position as a deacon (second pastor) in Nürtingen and at the same time was prepared by his superior for his future office as dean . Finally, in 1793, he was appointed dean, initially in Pfullingen and then in Urach in 1808. Here in 1823 he was awarded the title and rank of prelate for his many years of loyal church service.

During his long service, Köstlin held numerous sermons, some of which were recorded in writing, from which it emerges that he was most likely to be assigned to the conservative, non-speculative, inner-church wing of the Württemberg Pietists. In doing so, he was able to skillfully bring his pietistic theology into harmony with the Lutheran doctrine of the Württemberg church and stood on the pulpit as a staunch advocate of the Lutheran confessions.

In particular, Köstlin became known as the private tutor of Friedrich Hölderlin , who at the age of fifteen affirmed in a letter of thanks to his teacher that he had "made the firm decision to become a Christian and not a fickle fanatic ", which at the time meant, according to Luther's teaching, that the authority of God or of the Church and the sacraments is not to be questioned. Holderlin expressed great affection and admiration for his teacher and regarded him as a father. Only many years later did Holderlin move away from Köstlin's pietistic character and find a different view of the theological attitude.

The later philosopher Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling , who himself came from a pietistic family, was not only his nephew by marriage as the son of the sister of Köstlin's wife, but also his student at the Nürtingen Latin School. Like his school friend Hölderlin, Schelling was an admirer of Köstlin and a lifelong supporter of the Nürtingen school.

family

Nathanael Köstlin was married to Sibylle Friederike Cless (1751-1824), who through her mother was the granddaughter of the pietistic theologian Georg Conrad Rieger, and had the following sons with her:

Fonts (selection)

  • Latin and Greek style exercises in the Maulbronn seminar (Ger./Lat./Greek), 113 sheets, Maulbronn, 1760–1762.
  • Occasional and Sunday sermons in Nürtingen, Pfullingen, Urach and Stuttgart , 3 vol., Nürtingen, Pfullingen, Urach, Stuttgart, 1774–1825.

literature

  • JG Hauff: Nathanael Köstlin . In: Neuer Nekrolog der Deutschen , 1828, vol. 4, pp. 928–929 ( digitized in the Google book search)
  • CV of the prelate, dean and pastor Magister Nathanael Köstlin ; written by himself for the day of Petri and Paul, July 19, 1825, as the day of the official jubilation, University Library Tübingen, Mh. 978, Department 4.1, pp. 1-24
  • Swabian magazine of learned things to the year 1777 , fourth year, Stuttgart, 1777
  • Johann Jacob Gradmann (ed.): The learned Swabia or lexicon of the now living Swabian writers , Ravensburg 1802, pp. 306–308
  • Maria Köstlin: The book of the Köstlin family . Stuttgart: Kohlhammer Verlag , 1931
  • Reinhard Breymayer : From the aesthetic monastery student to the pietistic donor . Unknown letters from Hölderlin's uncle Wolfgang Friedrich Heyn (1745–1766). With a newly discovered wedding speech by Nathanael Köstlin on the marriage of Hölderlin's sister (1792). In: In Truth and Freedom. 450 years of the Evangelical Abbey in Tübingen . Edited by Friedrich Hertel. Stuttgart: Quell-Verlag, 1986 ( sources and research on Württemberg church history , vol. 8), pp. 128–176
  • Reinhard Breymayer: Pasture for the soul . In: Ulrich Gaier [ua]: Hölderlin textures 1.1. All my hopes . Lauffen, Nürtingen, Denkendorf, Maulbronn 1770–1788 . Edited by the Hölderlin Society Tübingen in collaboration with the German Schiller Society Marbach. ([Tübingen:] 2003) ( Schriften der Hölderlin-Gesellschaft , Vol. 20 / 1.1), pp. 204–226 and p. 387, note 362 - p. 390, note 223
  • Reinhard Breymayer: Hölderlin's Nürtingen clergy and Maulbronn teacher. In: »... so I / The monastery was somewhat useful ...« Hölderlin and Schelling's schooling in the Nürtingen Latin School and the Wuerttemberg monastery schools . Edited by Michael Franz and Wilhelm G [ustav] Jacobs. (Tübingen, Eggingen 2004.) ( Schriften der Hölderlin-Gesellschaft , Vol. 23/1; Materials on the educational history background by Hölderlin, Hegel and Schelling , Vol. 1), pp. 98-138, plus pp. 259-262 short biographies
  • Priscilla Hayden-Roy: Man test oneself, A sermon by Nathanael Köstlin as a context for Hölderlin's first surviving letter , in: Hölderlin-Jahrbuch , No. 34, pp. 302–329, Hölderlin-Gesellschaft Tübingen and Edition Isele, Eggingen, 2006
  • Priscilla A. Hayden-Roy: Nathanael Köstlin (1744-1826) . In: This: "Sparta et Martha". Parish office and marriage in the life planning of Hölderlin and in his environment , Ostfildern 2011, pp. 35–45. 377 (portrait)

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Kostlin, Nathanael
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Protestant theologian and honorary prelate
DATE OF BIRTH January 15, 1744
PLACE OF BIRTH Blaubeuren
DATE OF DEATH June 27, 1826
Place of death Urach