Nikolaus Schmidt-Küntzel

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Nikolaus Schmidt-Küntzel (born January 20, 1606 in Rothenacker ; † June 26, 1671 ) was a German farmer. He was called the learned farmer because he taught himself 15 languages , had an amazing general education , and published calendars alongside his agricultural activities .

Live and act

Childhood and youth

Nikolaus Schmidt-Küntzel was the son of the farmer Johann Martin Schmidt and his wife Katharina, b. Dealer. He grew up in Rothenacker on Dorfstrasse, which leads to Misslareuth , in a farm with a half-timbered house . The yard was surrounded by farm buildings. The village of Rothenacker was already a border village to Saxony at that time . The Schmidt farming family is said to have been wealthy. The son received the nickname Künzel from his grandfather. Despite the orderly family and rural conditions, the boy grew up without any schooling until he was 16. He was just a country boy in a village without a school, especially a shepherd boy , as was often the custom back then. He learned neither to read nor to write, although his uncle Kändler was a scribe . When he was 16 years old, his father hired a young servant who could read and write.

The autodidact

He learned to read and write very quickly from the ABC book of the aforementioned young servant because he had a good grasp of things. He learned the Latin handwriting and printing as well as the language because it was used as the official language in the church. Uncle Kellers also stood by his side now. The school teacher from Misslareuth gave Nikolaus a catechism in German, Latin, Greek and Hebrew. That was the reason for the brilliant mind to learn Greek and Hebrew as well. This led to the fact that over time he mastered 15 languages.

The other languages ​​are:

In the course of time, Schmidt obtained appropriate literature from teachers and pastors at trade fairs in Hof and Leipzig as well as in bookshops to deepen the knowledge he had learned. The Vogtland nobleman Christoph von Waldenroth supported him and let him into his library . He also went to public royal libraries in Dresden and the princely ones to Schleiz .

His extraordinary knowledge of geography , music , “ Arzney customer ”, “ weather customer ”, “ star customer ” and astrology, which was a matter of course for a calendar maker at the time, have also been passed down .

Result of his knowledge and skills

German scholars and princes became aware of Schmidt. The Duke of Saxe-Weimar wanted to hire the 27-year-old expert. In 1645 he was to be appointed to Dresden by Elector Johann Georg I. In 1653 he published the Schmidt-Küntzel'schen writing calendar, which was printed until the 18th century. With the proceeds from the calendar he was able to stabilize his farming economy again.

Private life

In 1637 his father died. He married Elisabeth Schmidt from Rothenacker and took over his father's business. His wife had nine children, five of them sons. In 1643, during the Thirty Years' War , his yard was looted and the stately library burned. After 1661 he fell ill and was bedridden for ten years.

reception

  • In the GDR, an LPG bore his name. Today the goods management company Nikolaus Schmidt AG, Tanna - Rothenacker location bears this name.
  • Schmidt-Küntzel's house is now a museum.

literature

Web links

Wikisource: Nikolaus Schmidt-Küntzel  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ 27: 712740Y in VD 17 .
  2. ↑ Website of the company. Retrieved January 30, 2013.
  3. ↑ Hans Jürg Buchmann: The story of the learned farmer from Rothenacker. On the Rothenacker website; accessed on January 30, 2013.
personal data
SURNAME Schmidt-Küntzel, Nikolaus
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German farmer
DATE OF BIRTH January 20, 1606
PLACE OF BIRTH Rothenacker
DATE OF DEATH June 26, 1671