Peter in the tree garden

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Peter im Baumgarten 1775. Copper engraving by Georg Friedrich Schmoll
Peter im Baumgarten in Hesse-Kassel's skirt 1776. Copper engraving by Georg Friedrich Schmoll

Peter im Baumgarten ( baptized August 30, 1761 in Meiringen , Canton Bern, in the Upper Haslital ; † probably 1799 in Hamburg ) was a Swiss shepherd boy who was first fostered by Heinrich Julius von Lindau in 1775 as a foster son ("Peter Lindau called in the Baumgarten") and then in 1776 his friend Johann Wolfgang Goethe took him in as a ward and foster son .

Life

origin

Several versions of Peter's origins were made after Peter's arrival in the Baumgarten with Goethe in Weimar . According to the common but erroneous legend, Peter was found in 1766 as an abandoned foundling child suckled by a goat in a tree garden near Meiringen in the Haslital and was named Peter im Baumgarten after where he was found. His middle-class Meiringer family "in the Baumgarten" can, however, be proven. Peter's father was Hans im Baumgarten (born before 1740, died after 1780); Peter's mother was Katharina im Baumgarten, b. Linder (died before 1780). What is certain is that Heinrich Julius von Lindau (1754–1776), who traveled erratically through Switzerland, only noticed the lively shepherd boy during his Swiss trip in mid-1775. The recurring assumption that Peter is of higher descent can also be dismissed, as both a baptismal certificate and a promemoria from the Weimar lawyer Johann Christian Ludwig Eckardt (1732–1800; since 1792 “from”) dated April 1779, commissioned by Goethe Document Peter's rural ancestry. Peter's insurance policy of June 1, 1784 with the Nuremberg Life Pension Company states that Peter is 18 years old, was born in wedlock and comes from Oberhasli in the canton of Bern . This contrasts with the entry of Peters in the Meiringen church register published by Fritz Ernst, according to which the baptism had already taken place on August 30, 1761. Peter's son Carl Heinrich Wilhelm im Baumgarten (1790–1864), master soap maker and sportsman in Berka an der Ilm , doubted the authenticity of his baptismal certificate in February 1835 in a letter to the Princely Solms Pension Chamber registrar and claimed to know his The father was an illegitimate son of the Duchess Anna Amalia , whom she left behind on a trip to Switzerland.

At the boarding school of Marschlins

Peter brought von Lindau to Johann Kaspar Lavater in Zurich with his mother's agreement . From there, Peter, like Lindau's first protégé Andreas Feurer, came to work as an intern in the Philanthropinum Schloss Marschlins (Canton of Graubünden) in autumn 1775 . For the food of twenty louis dor annually , von Lindau created a subscription plan, according to which he wanted to share the costs with one of his sisters and friends Peter Ochs , Goethe and the Count of Stolberg. The founder of the Philanthropinum in Marschlins, Carl Ulysses von Salis-Marschlins , took care of Peter personally. The economically underfunded boarding school in Marschlins was closed at the end of February 1776. At this point in time, von Lindau decided to seek death in the American War of Independence . Peter was supposed to accompany him as a boy, but was held back by his patrons in Switzerland. In his will, shortly before his departure at the end of May 1776, von Lindau gave Peter a legacy of 2000 Reichstalers in Louisdor, which corresponded to around 400 Louisdor. Johann Kaspar Lavater and Ulysses von Salis-Marschlins were named executors.

Peter's journey through the Swiss Central Alps

After the news arrived in Germany in 1777 because of the distance, that von Lindau had died of his injury, Peter was taken care of by the legacy of the deceased. The legatee, von Lindau, was due to his youth still under the tutelage of the headmaster of the Althessian knighthood, Carl Ludwig August von Scholley (1730-1813), which delayed the payment. Since the underfunded Philanthropinum was closed in February 1777, Peter came to Lavater in Zurich in April. The French geologist, botanist and politician Louis Ramond de Carbonnières arrived among Lavater's numerous visitors in May. He was a college friend of Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz from Strasbourg. Ramond, inspired by the alpine poetry of Albrecht von Haller , planned a trip through the Rhine Valley and the Swiss Central Alps . Lavater recommended that Ramond Peter, traveling alone, accompany him on the eight-week hike from May 31 to July 22, 1777. Ramond described his hike with Peter in his travel book, the Lettres de M. William Coxe à MW Melmoth sur l'état, published in 1781 politique, civil et naturel de la Suisse .

Peter in Weimar

Goethe's garden house. Drawing by Georg Melchior Kraus 1777

Von Lindau made friends with Goethe in 1775 on his first trip to Switzerland in Zurich . Von Lindau had received assurance from Goethe in Zurich that he would look after Peter after his death. This promise was probably renewed during Lindaus' two visits to Weimar in January and February 1776. After Lindaus' death on Manhattan and the dissolution of the Philanthropinum in Marschlins, Goethe was ready to take Peter in.

At that time, Goethe lived in the Stern's garden house . On August 12, 1777, Peter arrived in Weimar smoking a pipe with his black Spitz "Hansi". His first experience in Weimar, which he disliked, was running the gauntlet on the market square. Goethe took Peter into his household as a ward and foster son. Initially, Goethe tried to set up an education plan for Peter with the help of Johann Gottfried Herder and Charlotte von Stein . However, Peter showed himself to be a difficult and restless character. Pipe smoking, running away at night and jokes, finally the coloring of a bust of Lavater made of marble or plaster of paris with black ink with the omission of "eyes and mustache", were displeasing. Goethe therefore decided to keep his problem at a distance.

Peter in Ilmenau

Goethe brought Peter, supervised by his factotum and reporter Johann Friedrich Krafft (pseudonym; actually Feist or White ?; unknown - 1785), in Ilmenau with the Saxon-Weimar chief forester and gamekeeper Carl Christoph Oettelt (1727–1802, forester since 1797). From April 17, 1778 to 1781, Peter had board and lodging in his house. Oettelt was a tough teacher and treated Peter the hunter's boy as an upstart. His training as a hunter and forester ultimately remained unsuccessful, even after Goethe had placed him under Krafft's supervision. Oettelt used harsh words to deny the apprentice Peter any suitability and motivation. Peter came to Troistedt (between Weimar and Berka) in 1781 to the Saxon-Weimar chief forester and game master Johann Ludwig Gottlieb Sckell (1740–1808), in 1782/1783 to the Saxon-Altenburg chief forester Johann Ernst Clauder at the Hunting Lodge in Wolfersdorf , today’s District of Trockenborn-Wolfersdorf near Stadtroda (southeast of Jena). As can be seen from a letter from Clauder to Goethe's secretary Johann Philipp Seidel on December 26, 1782, Peter became a father for the first time there. After staying with Clauder, Peter lived in Berka an der Ilm until the end of 1785 as a volunteer with the Saxon-Weimar chief forester Johann Heinrich Gerlach.

Peters retraining and starting a family

With the support of Goethe, he trained as a copper engraver . An inappropriate love affair with Johanna Friederike Louise Hoffmann, geb. Berka an der Ilm May 28, 1768, there died March 17, 1814 (later, since the wedding in Berka on May 8, 1800 as the former widow wife of the Weimar official actuary Johann Justin Ludwig Wächter, born Weimar February 18, 1772, d Berka August 11, 1827), the only daughter of Berka pastor Wilhelm Conrad Hoffmann (1737–1801), and the forced marriage with the bride on February 20, 1786 in Berka an der Ilm , who had the births because of the premarital pregnancy joined by two sons and four daughters, ultimately clouded Goethe's relationship with his ward. Likewise, Goethe did not share his fondness for card games, tobacco and brandy. After the wedding, Goethe supported Peter in retraining to become a copper engraver. Presumably Peter learned from Johann Heinrich Lips in Weimar. It can be assumed that a “i. Baumgarten sc [ulpsit]. ”Signed and dated 1790 copper engraving portrait of Goethe based on a 15-year-old model by Georg Friedrich Schmoll depicting the journeyman's piece. In 1793 Peter tried to gain ground as a copperplate publisher in Weimar in Baumgarten. What has been preserved is an undated advertising leaflet engraved by him, in which Peter recommended himself to book and art dealers in the Baumgarten in Weimar. “Even before the birth of Johanna Sophia Euphrosyna, the sixth child, on October 1, 1793, Peter apparently had left the house, family and Berka; the entry in the church book names the father 'copper engraver, the time in Leipzig' [...]. "

Peter's unexplained disappearance

In 1798 at the latest, Peter disappeared in Baumgarten. His further fate is unclear. On the one hand, it is assumed that he emigrated to North America. According to other sources, he died in Hamburg in 1799 before his intended trip to America. Peter's wife remarried in 1800. Peter's son Carl Heinrich Wilhelm wrote to Goethe in 1818 to find out about his father's origins. A letter of reply from Goethe is not proven. Another letter from his son Carl Heinrich Wilhelm from 1835 states that Peter died in Hamburg.

Peter's significant descendant Arno Pötzsch

Peter's great-great-grandson on his mother's side, Arno Pötzsch, was an important Evangelical Lutheran hymn poet, whose poems can still be found in church hymn books to this day. In 1941, while he was serving as a naval priest in The Hague, the Swiss literary scholar and essayist Fritz Ernst (1888–1958) dedicated his book on Peter im Baumgarten to him.

literature

swell

  • Johann Wolfgang Goethe: Letters. Historical-critical edition . On behalf of the Klassik Stiftung Weimar Goethe and Schiller Archive ed. by Georg Kurscheidt, Norbert Oellers and Elke Richter. Volume 3, I. II A. II B. De Gruyter, Berlin / Boston 2014,
    • Volume 3 I. November 8, 1775 - end of 1779. Text . Edited by Georg Kurscheidt and Elke Richter (Editing: Eva Beck with the collaboration of Bettina Zschiedrich. Quoted title: GB 3 I).
    • Volume 3 II, AB Comment . Edited by Georg Kurscheidt and Elke Richter with the collaboration of Gerhard Müller and Bettina Zschiedrich (editor: Wolfgang Ritschel).
      • Volume 3 II A. November 8, 1775 - end of 1777. Commentary (title of the quote: GB 3 II A).
      • Volume 3 II B. January 1, 1778 - end of 1779. Commentary (title of the quote: GB 3 II B).

On Peter in the Baumgarten cf. especially the detailed biographical explanations of the editors in: GB 3 II B, pp. 549-556. For further information cf. the register in: GB 3 II B, p. 1195 f. with references to GB 3 I, p. 19 f. 159 f. 271-274. 371-373 and on GB 3 II A, pp. 25, 88-92. 479 f. 559 f. 566 f. 687 f. 889-904. 906 f. - For a portrait of Goethe after Georg Friedrich Schmoll see GB II A, p. 556.

Research literature

  • Anton Kippenberg : [Peter im] Baumgarten's engraving of [Georg Friedrich] Schmoll 's portrait of Goethe from 1790. In: Yearbook of the Kippenberg Collection , Vol. 2. Leipzig 1922, pp. 330–332.
  • Fritz Ernst : From Goethe's circle of friends. Studies around Peter in the Baumgarten. With twenty-five illustrations . Eugen Rentsch, Erlenbach- [on Lake Zurich, Canton] Zurich 1941 (119 pages).
  • Fritz Ernst: From Goethe's circle of friends. Studies around Peter in the Baumgarten. In: Fritz Ernst: From Goethe's circle of friends and other essays (=  Library Suhrkamp , vol. 30). Suhrkamp, ​​Berlin / Frankfurt am Main 1955, pp. 7–70 (new edition shortened by the documents and notes, revised in places).
  • Ernst Beutler : Essays around Goethe (=  Insel-Taschenbuch , 1575). Edited by Christian Beutler . Insel-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main / Leipzig 1995, pp. 448–458: "Peter im Baumgarten".
  • Reinhard Breymayer : Goethe, Oetinger and no end. Charlotte Edle von Oetinger, born von Barckhaus-Wiesenhütten, as Werther "Fräulein von B." . Noûs-Verlag Thomas Leon Heck, Dußlingen 2012, ISBN 3-924249-54-7 , pp. 13–26, 53–82, 93 f., 107–121 on Charlotte von Barckhaus-Wiesenhüttens admirer who was driven into disaster by lovesickness Heinrich Julius von Lindau , friend of Goethe, foster father of his later foster son Peter in the Baumgarten, Werther in a tunic, and to Peter in the Baumgarten himself.

Web links

Commons : Peter im Baumgarten  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The term “named by” often refers to the previous name. From a third party, the foster son is sometimes referred to as "Peter im Baumgarten called Lindau".
  2. ↑ Carl von Stein: Memories. Excerpt from: Goethe, his life in pictures and texts . Insel Verlag, 1998, text for Figure 229.
  3. ↑ JL von Eckardt: Pro Memoria for the von Lindau estate administrator Carl Ludwig August von Scholley , copy from the Salis archive, document LIX, excerpt from Fritz Ernst: From Goethes Freundeskreis. Studies around Peter in the Baumgarten . Rentsch, Erlenbach-Zurich 1941, p. 107.
  4. ↑ Peters Insurance Policy, Document LXXIII, reprinted in Fritz Ernst: From Goethe's Circle of Friends. Studies around Peter in the Baumgarten . Rentsch, Erlenbach / Zurich 1941, p. 115.
  5. ^ Fritz Ernst: From Goethe's Circle of Friends and other essays . Suhrkamp, ​​Berlin / Frankfurt 1955, p. 31 f.
  6. ^ Fritz Ernst: From Goethe's circle of friends . Rentsch, Erlenbach / Zurich 1941, p. 60 ff.
  7. ↑ According to the official rate in Weimar for public coffers since 1771, a Louisdor 5 Reichstalern was equivalent to 2 Groschen convention coin; see. Diedrich Desenius: Coin and money bill in Goethe's letters 1775–1779. In: GB 3 II A, p. LIII f. - 2000 Reichstaler had a value of 393.44 Louisdor.
  8. ↑ Nicholas Boyle: Goethe . CH Beck, Munich, p. 340 f.
  9. ↑ A child was out: Johann Friedrich August im Baumgarten, b. Berka an der Ilm June 4, 1786.
  10. ↑ After all, Goethe had taken on the sponsorship of Johanna im Baumgarten, * Berka an der Ilm February 2, 1789, Peter's third child (the second daughter).
  11. ^ The draftsman and engraver Georg Friedrich Schmoll came from Ludwigsburg ; he died prematurely in Urdorf in the canton of Zurich in 1785. From 1776 he was the second husband of Johann Caspar Lavater's sister Anna von Orelli, widowed Schmoll, widowed Schinz, nee. Lavater (1740-1807). Her first husband was Hans Conrad Schinz since 1768, her third since 1787 Hans Caspar von Orelli.
  12. ↑ GB 3 II A, p. 557.
  13. ↑ Nicholas Boyle: Goethe . CH Beck, Munich, p. 340 f.
  14. ↑ Cf. Fritz Ernst: To Mr. Naval Pastor Arno Poetzsch in ** [The Hague]. In: Fritz Ernst: From Goethe's circle of friends. Studies around Peter im Baumgarten (1941), pp. 5–7, here p. 5 on Peter im Baumgarten, Arno Pötzsch's “ Haslitaler ancestor”. See Reinhard Breymayer: Goethe, Oetinger and no end. 2012, p. 68 with note 174.
personal data
SURNAME Baumgarten, Peter im
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Lindau, Peter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss foundling
DATE OF BIRTH August 1761
PLACE OF BIRTH Meiringen in the Haslital
DATE OF DEATH 1799
Place of death Hamburg