Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf

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Nikolaus Ludwig Count of Zinzendorf
Signature Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf.PNG

Nikolaus Ludwig Graf von Zinzendorf and Pottendorf (born May 26, 1700 in Dresden , † May 9, 1760 in Herrnhut ) was a German Lutheran - Pietist autodidactic theologian , imperial count, founder and bishop of the Herrnhut Brethren Community ("Brothers Unity") and poet numerous hymns .

Life

Memorial plaque on the house at Schloßstraße 26, in Lutherstadt Wittenberg
Nikolaus Ludwig Graf von Zinzendorf, detail from a painting by Balthasar Denner
Zinzendorf grave on the Herrnhuter Gottesacker

Zinzendorf was the son of Georg Ludwig (Reichs-) Count of Zinzendorf and Pottendorf (1662–1700) and Charlotte Justine Freiin von Gersdorff (1675–1763). Philipp Jacob Spener was his godfather. Zinzendorf's father died a few weeks after Nikolaus Ludwig was born; henceforth he lived in Großhennersdorf in Upper Lusatia with his pious grandmother Henriette Katharina von Gersdorff , née von Friesen . His widowed mother married the Prussian major general Dubislav Gneomar von Natzmer in 1704 . From 1710 to 1715 Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf attended the Pedagogy of the Francke Foundations in Halle , where he was shaped very much in the spirit of Pietism. Just Francke himself had great influence on him. Zinzendorf founded the Mustard Seed Order with Friedrich von Wattenwyl around 1715 (a collection of lovers of Jesus).

From 1716 to 1719 Zinzendorf studied law at the University of Wittenberg . From 1719 to 1720 he made a cavalier tour to the Netherlands and France . There he won the friendship of people of other denominations, including Cardinal Louis-Antoine de Noailles , with whom he remained in contact by letter, and experienced the possibility of cross-denominational unity among Christians. From 1721 to 1732 he was court and judiciary in the service of August the Strong in Dresden.

In September 1730, Count Zinzendorf came to Berleburg and founded a Philadelphian assembly there in the form of the Moravian Movement . However, this group could only hold its own for a short time.

In 1722 Zinzendorf married Erdmuthe Dorothea Countess Reuss-Ebersdorf . In May of the same year he bought the manor Mittelberthelsdorf in Upper Lusatia from his grandmother , where he had Berthelsdorf Castle rebuilt in baroque style from 1722 to 1724 . It was there in June 1722 that religious refugees from Moravia , descendants of the old Bohemian brothers, began to be accepted . They founded the Herrnhut settlement outside of Berthelsdorf, which is located below the Hutberg . Zinzendorf built a castle there from 1725–1727 , which he also referred to as a manor house, and from 1730–1746 the Vogtshof , which from 1756 served as the seat of the umbrella bailiff (the directorate) of the Brothers' Unity. In 1732 Zinzendorf left Berthelsdorf Castle to his wife as a residence.

From the congregation of the Bohemian Brothers in Herrnhut the church-independent congregation grew . On August 13, 1727, during a celebration of the Lord's Supper in the Lutheran Church in Berthelsdorf, the Moravian Brethren Church was founded through an act of penance by Pastor Johann Andreas Rothe , Zinzendorf and the entire community. After Zinzendorf's death, the Brethren took over the castle and the Herrnhut estate in 1764, while some of them had already moved to Böhmisch-Rixdorf in what is now Berlin's Neukölln district in 1737 . From 1731 onwards, the so-called Moravian Slogans were also published - Bible verses determined by lottery as the main ideas for each day. The slogans are reissued annually - translated into many languages ​​- up to the present.

In 1731 Zinzendorf brought a West Indian slave from Copenhagen to Herrnhut . His reports from St. Thomas motivated the church to do missionary work . In 1732 the missionary work of the Brethren began with the missionaries Johann Leonhard Dober and David Nitschmann . They traveled to St. Thomas and were ready to become slaves themselves. In 1735 missionary work began in North America among Indians in Georgia and in South American Suriname ; 1737 under the Khoikhoi in South Africa and on the Gold Coast ; 1754 in Jamaica .

Zinzendorf monument in Herrnhut
by sculptor Alfred Reichel
300th birthday of Zinzendorf: German postage stamp from 2000

In 1734 Zinzendorf was ordained as a Lutheran theologian. The orthodoxy was checked in Stralsund , the nomination as a candidate in Tübingen . In 1736, Zinzendorf was exiled from Saxony (finally in 1738) because his congregation had become too independent of Lutheran orthodoxy and was viewed as a threat to the unified regional church. He went to the southern Wetterau and founded the communities Marienborn in the county of Ysenburg-Büdingen-Meerholz , on the castle Ronneburg (both 1736) and the Herrnhaag (1738). In 1737 he was ordained brother bishop by the Reformed court preacher Daniel Ernst Jablonski in Berlin , who was also bishop of the Polish Brethren Unity. The Polish university was linked by succession with the old Bohemian-Moravian one, whose own episcopal succession could not continue beyond Johann Amos Comenius .

In the following years Zinzendorf lived in the Hessian Brethren and mainly traveled as a preacher to the Russian Baltic Sea region of Livonia and to England , North America , the West Indies and Saint Thomas . In 1747 he was allowed to return to Saxony, and in 1749 he achieved freedom of proclamation for the Moravian Brethren and the tolerance of the community as a community connected to the Saxon regional church . From 1750 on, Zinzendorf lived mostly in London . In August 1751 he stayed for a week with Friedrich von Wattenwyl in Montmirail . From 1755 he lived in Berthelsdorf .

From London, Zinzendorf sent excited criminal letters to Herrnhaag, in which "he threatened to have twenty to thirty people whipped to the blood" and called his son Renatus von Zinzendorf to England. Zinzendorf was deeply angry about the developments in Herrnhaag and warned his son to turn back. After the death of his wife Erdmuthe Dorothea , with whom he had very little contact, Zinzendorf married his close colleague Anna Nitschmann some time later . He had kept his relationship with Anna Nitschmann a secret before his wife's death.

family

ancestors

Pedigree of Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf
Great-great-grandparents Johann Joachim von Zinzendorf (1570–1626)
⚭ 1595
Marie Judith von Liechtenstein (1575–1621) 		Christoph Wilhelm von Zelking († 1631)
⚭ 1596
Esther von Hardegg on Glatz and in the Marchlande († 1614) 		Bartholomäus von Dietrichstein (1579–1635)
⚭
Elisabeth von Fränking († 1635) 		Franz Khevenhüller zu Aichelberg (1562–1607)
⚭ 1590
Crescentia von Stubenberg (* 1575) 		Friedrich von Gersdorff († 1606)
⚭ 1603
Margarethe von Metzradt 		Melchior von Loeben († 1636)
⚭
Martha von Kosel (1579–1637) 		Heinrich von Friesen (1578–1659)
⚭ 1601
Katharina von Einsiedel (1585–1667) 		Otto von Raben (1607–1631)
⚭
Eva von Wackerbarth (1608–1632)
Great grandparents Otto Heinrich von Zinzendorf (1605–1655)
⚭ 1628
Anna Apollonia von Zelking (1603–1646) 		Christian von Dietrichstein (1610–1681)
⚭ 1636
Maria Elisabeth Khevenhüller zu Aichelberg (1608–1676) 		Nicolaus von Gersdorff († 1631)
⚭
Anna Maria von Loeben (1595–1654) 		Carl von Friesen (1619–1686)
⚭ 1645
Justine Sophie von Raben (1619–1691)
Grandparents Maximilian Erasmus von Zinzendorf (1633–1672)
⚭ 1659
Anna Amalia von Dietrichstein (1638–1696) 		Nicolaus von Gersdorff (1629–1702)
⚭ 1672
Henriette Katharina von Friesen (1648–1726)
parents Georg Ludwig von Zinzendorf (1662–1700)
⚭ 1699
Charlotte Justine von Gersdorff (1675–1763)
Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf

progeny

Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf married on September 7, 1722 in Ebersdorf Erdmuthe Dorothea Countess Reuss zu Ebersdorf , daughter of Heinrich X. Count Reuss zu Ebersdorf and Erdmuthe Benigna zu Solms-Laubach . He had twelve children with her:

  • Christian Ernst (born August 7, 1724 in Ebersdorf; † November 24, 1724 in Berthelsdorf )
  • Henriette Benigna Justine (* December 28, 1725 in Berthelsdorf; † May 11, 1789 in Herrnhut) ∞ Johannes von Watteville (* October 18, 1718 as Johann Michael Langguth in Walschleben ; † October 7, 1788 in no grace )
  • Christian Renatus (born September 19, 1727 in Herrnhut, † May 28, 1752 in London, born Chelsea )
  • Christian Friedrich (born September 18, 1729 in Herrnhut; † October 25, ibid.)
  • Theodora Caritas (* October 24, 1730 in Herrnhut; † December 2, 1732 ibid.)
  • Johann Ernst (March 18, 1732 in Herrnhut; † May 19, 1732 ibid.)
  • Christian Ludwig Theodor (March 19, 1733 in Herrnhut; † August 31, 1736 at Ronneburg Castle , c. Herrnhaag )
  • Anna Theresia (born August 7, 1734 in Herrnhut; † December 15, 1738 in Marienborn , c. Herrnhaag)
  • Marie Agnes (born November 6, 1735 in Herrnhut; † February 17, 1784 ibid.) ∞ Moritz Wilhelm Burggraf and Count zu Dohna-Schlodien (born December 2, 1737 in Halle (Saale) ; † March 4, 1777 in Bath )
  • Johanna Salome (born August 4, 1737 in Herrnhut; † December 21, 1742 ibid.)
  • David (born September 22, 1738 in Marienborn; † June 6, 1742 ibid., Started Herrnhaag)
  • Elisabeth (April 25, 1740 in Marienborn; † February 11, 1807 in Herrnhut) ∞ Friedrich Rudolph Freiherr von Watteville (born January 1, 1738 in Montmirail ; † January 18, 1811 in Herrnhut); according to other information, he married Rudolf Friedrich von Wattenwyl (born January 1, 1738 in Bern; † 1809), son of the banker Niklaus von Wattenwyl .

plant

Zinzendorf influenced numerous theologians and poets such as John Wesley , Gotthold Ephraim Lessing , Johann Wolfgang von Goethe , Johann Gottfried Herder and Friedrich Schleiermacher ; in the 20th century, Karl Barth described him as the “first real ... ecumenist”.

Zinzendorf has about 2,000 hymns sealed. Some of them are still sung today , including the song of Jesus, go ahead . His grace is probably best known :

“ Come, Lord Jesus, be our guest
and bless what you have given us.
Amen. "

Music producers such as Jochen Rieger and Gerhard Schnitter have already dedicated concept productions to Zinzendorf's poetic and musical work , such as Jesu, go ahead , 1989 Gerth Medien , with the Schulte & Gerth studio choir and Herz und Herz united together , in 2002 Hänssler Verlag with the soloist ensemble .

Honors

Remembrance day: May 9 in the Evangelical Name Calendar of the Evangelical Church in Germany and in the Calendar of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America .

Street dedications : Some of the Zinzendorf streets are dedicated to him.

Church consecrations: Some churches and parishes bear his name, e.g. B. in Berlin , Cottbus-Schmellwitz and Heidenheim an der Brenz .

Fonts

literature

  • Peter Baumgart : Zinzendorf as a pioneer of historical thinking (= historical studies . H. 381). Matthiesen, Lübeck a. a. 1960.
  • Erich Beyreuther : The great Zinzendorf trilogy . Francke , Marburg 1988, ISBN 3-88224-600-6 .
  • Holger Bauer: Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf and the Lutheran Confession. Zinzendorf and the Augsburg confession from 1530. (= supplement of the Unitas Fratrum; vol. 12). Herrnhuter Verlag, Herrnhut 2004, ISBN 3-931956-19-9 (also Diss. Münster 2002).
  • Erich Beyreuther : Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf. Testimonials and photo documents. A biography . Brunnen, Gießen / Basel 2000, ISBN 3-7655-1191-9 .
  • Martin Brecht and Paul Peucker (eds.): New aspects of Zinzendorf research . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2005, ISBN 3-525-55832-5 .
  • Wilhelm Faix : Zinzendorf - belief and identity of a lateral thinker . Francke, Marburg 2012, ISBN 978-3-86827-339-7 .
  • Erika Geiger: Nikolaus Ludwig Graf von Zinzendorf. 4th edition. SCM Hänssler , Holzgerlingen 2009, ISBN 978-3-7751-4824-5 .
  • Hanno Herzler : Who has the heart of love. Nikolaus Ludwig Graf von Zinzendorf - the "father" of the slogans . Biographical audio book on 2 CDs, approx. 150 minutes, Gerth Medien, February 2010, ISBN 978-3-86591-463-7 .
  • Stephan Hirzel: The Count and the Brothers . Quell Verlag, Stuttgart 1980, ISBN 3-7918-4001-0 .
  • Ralph Ludwig: The Moravian. How Nikolaus von Zinzendorf invented the slogans . Wichern Verlag, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-88981-274-2 .
  • Johann Georg Meusel : Lexicon of the German writers who died from 1750 to 1800 . Gerhard Fleischer d. J., Leipzig 1816, p. 426 ( online ).
  • Dietrich Meyer (Hrsg.): Bibliographisches Handbuch zur Zinzendorf research . Self-published, Düsseldorf 1987 (bibliography).
  • Dietrich Meyer: Zinzendorf and the Moravian Brethren. 1700-2000. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2009, ISBN 978-3-525-01390-8 ( digitized version ).
  • Werner Raupp : Art. Zinzendorf, Nikolaus Ludwig von (1700–1760). In: The Dictionary of Eighteenth-Century German Philosophers. General Editors Heiner F. Klemme and Manfred Kuehn, Vol. 3, London / New York 2010, pp. 1320–1323.
  • Heinz Renkewitz : Zinzendorf. 2nd edition Herrnhut 1939.
  • Peter Vogt: Evangelical spirituality with Nikolaus Ludwig Graf von Zinzendorf (1700–1760) and the Moravian Brethren of his time . In: Peter Zimmerling (Hrsg.): Handbook Evangelical Spirituality , Vol. 1: History . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2017, ISBN 978-3-525-56719-7 , pp. 438-460.
  • Klaus-Gunther Wesseling :  Zinzendorf, Nikolaus Ludwig. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 14, Bautz, Herzberg 1998, ISBN 3-88309-073-5 , Sp. 509-547.
  • Peter Zimmerling : God in community, Zinzendorf's doctrine of the Trinity. Brunnen, Gießen 1991 (2nd edition, Olms, Hildesheim / Zurich / New York 2002).
  • Peter Zimmerling: Nikolaus Ludwig Graf von Zinzendorf and the Moravian Brethren . History, theology and spirituality . Hänssler, Holzgerlingen 1999, ISBN 978-3-7751-3347-0 .
  • Peter Zimmerling: Doing everything to love in freedom: Quotes from Count Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf (1700–1760) . Reinhardt, Basel 2000, ISBN 978-3-7245-1108-3 .
  • Peter Zimmerling: A life for the church. Zinzendorf as a practical theologian. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2010, ISBN 978-3-525-57009-8 .
  • Peter Zimmerling: Evangelical mysticism . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2015, ISBN 978-3-525-57041-8 . Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf (1700–1760): Mysticism in everyday life and the community , pp. 132–149.
  • Christoph Reimann: The diaries of Count Casimir zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg (1687–1741) as a self-testimony of a pietistic sovereign . Dissertation 2017, kassel university press GmbH, Kassel 2019, ISBN 978-3-7376-0622--6 (print), ISBN 978-3-7376-0623-3 (e-book).
  • Ulf Lückel: nobility and piety. The Berleburg Counts and Pietism in their territories. Vorländer Verlag, Siegen 2016.

Web links

Wikisource: Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf  - Sources and full texts
Wikiquote: Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf  - Quotes
Commons : Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Hans Schneider: Article Zinzendorf ; in: Theologische Realenzyklopädie, Volume 36. De Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2004, pp. 691–697.
  2. ↑ Michael Sachs: The flight of the evangelical wife Anna Magdalena von Reibnitz (1664– ~ 1745) with her five children from Silesia, threatened by forced Catholicization, in 1703 - a mood picture from the age of the Counter Reformation and Pietism. In: Medical historical messages. Journal for the history of science and specialist prose research. Volume 34, 2015 (2016), pp. 221–263, here: p. 227, note 5.
  3. ↑ Michael Sachs (2015), p. 227.
  4. ↑ Christoph Reimann: The diaries of Count Casimir zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg (1687–1741) as a self-testimony of a pietistic sovereign . Dissertation 2017, kassel university press GmbH, Kassel 2019, pp. 6, 9, 23, 26, 30, 43, 68 and 23 further pages.
  5. ↑ Ulf Lückel: Nobility and piety. The Berleburg Counts and Pietism in their territories. Vorländer Verlag, Siegen 2016, pp. 140–148.
  6. ^ Website of the Brethren Church: The Brethren Church is born .
  7. ^ Wilhelm Wibbeling: Zinzendorf on the Ronneburg . In: Hanau city and country. A home book for school and home . Hanau 1954, pp. 464-466.
  8. ^ Paul Wernle: Zinzendorf with Friedrich von Wattenwyl. Basel Journal of History and Archeology, accessed on May 27, 2020 .
  9. ^ Oskar Pfister: The piety of Count Ludwig von Zinzendorf , 1925, p. 288.
  10. ↑ a b Bernd-Ulrich Hergemöller : Man for Man , p. 765.
  11. ^ Gerhard Meyer: Nikolaus Ludwig Reichsgraf von Zinzendorf and Pottendorf: A genealogical study with list of ancestors and descendants , Hildesheim 1966, pp. 143-148.
  12. ↑ Gerhard Meyer: Nikolaus Ludwig Reichsgraf von Zinzendorf and Pottendorf: A genealogical study with ancestors and descendants , Hildesheim 1966, pp. 228-260.
  13. ↑ Historical Family Lexicon of Switzerland - Persons. Retrieved August 24, 2020 .
  14. ^ Nikolaus von Zinzendorf in the ecumenical dictionary of saints
  15. ^ Zinzendorf parish of Heidenheim
personal data
SURNAME Zinzendorf, Nikolaus Ludwig von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Zinzendorf and Pottendorf, Nikolaus Ludwig Graf von (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Lutheran-Pietist theologian
DATE OF BIRTH May 26, 1700
PLACE OF BIRTH Dresden
DATE OF DEATH May 9, 1760
Place of death Herrnhut