Philipp Hoffmeister

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Philipp Hoffmeister (born April 17, 1804 in Eiterhagen , † March 5, 1874 in Marburg ) was a Reformed preacher, fairy tale collector, draftsman and naturalist.

Live and act

Church in Nordshausen, graphic after a drawing by Philipp Hoffmeister, around 1843

Philipp was born in 1804 in Eiterhagen in northern Hesse, the son of pastor Karl-Friedrich Hoffmeister . In nearby Kassel he met the Brothers Grimm - mediated by his aunt, the poet Philippine Engelhard . During his theology studies in Marburg from 1822 to 1826, Hoffmeister was supported by the theologian and philosopher Karl Wilhelm Justi and drew sociable (student) scenes. Since 1829 pastor in Kleinschmalkalden in Thuringia , he and his wife Margarete Duysing, a Marburg professor's daughter, had a daughter and a son who died young. From 1833 onwards he explored the possibilities of photographic image recording using light-sensitive substances (including carmine) and fixing agents (glue water). Hoffmeister enthusiastically roamed the area not only with his sketch pad and insect net, but also - inspired by Ludwig Bechstein - collected legends of the region. When Felix Heur, the "lucky finder", he published the handbook The Purposeful Catching, Killing and Storage of Beetles in 1838 , but the University of Marburg rejected his dissertation , which he submitted in 1839 . After he moved to Nordshausen near Kassel as a preacher in 1840 , he restricted his natural history work because of his deteriorating eyesight. Instead, he supplemented his 1846 biography of the Hessian landgrave Philipp the Magnanimous in 1856 with the résumés of his successors. Around 1858 Hoffmeister also wrote and illustrated the first chronicle of the medieval monastery church in Nordshausen. In old age Hoffmeister retired to Marburg, where he created the album Oberhessische Bauerntrachten for the Marburg Association for Hessian History and Regional Studies in 1869/70 . His late work, the Hessian folk poetry in Sagen und Mährchen, Schwänken und Schnurren, etc. published in 1869, Hoffmeister died in Marburg in 1874 at the age of 69.

Aftermath and significance

Philipp Hoffmeister in 1833 about "heliography", which he later understood as a daguerreotype , a pre-form of photography

Looking back, Hoffmeister boasted in 1863:

“By chance I came across the invention of the daguerreotype in 1833, which I called heliography. Since I unfortunately lacked all chemical knowledge, [...] these experiments had to remain very imperfect. […] I made my invention known in the Allgemeine Anzeiger […]. But nobody was interested in it until, in 1839, Paris Daguerre's procedure astonished the world. "

Around 1840 there was actually a discussion in German journals as to whether the Hessian preacher - and not the French "hereditary enemy" - had invented the daguerreotype , a pre-form of photography. Today one sees Hoffmeister's importance more in naming an idea and technical possibility at an early stage without actually demonstrating it and making it publicly available. Hoffmeister made a name for himself in the region as a dilettante at a high level. Through his drawings he documented a world that was already going under. At times, a small black cheese fly was named after him as "mycetaulus hoffmeisteri" - which is now known as "mycetaulus bipunctatus" after its discoverer, the Swedish naturalist Carl F. Fallén . And two of the legends collected by Hoffmeister were included by the Brothers Grimm in their world-famous fairy tales for children and households : The Ear of Corn and The Burial Mound . In 1999 Hoffmeister was re-appreciated by the Schauenburger Märchenwache through exhibitions, in 2012 the Förderverein Kultur- und Sozialzentrum Klosterkirche Nordshausen e. V. a monograph.

Works (selection)

Signature of Philipp Hoffmeister
  • Some notes about the church in Nordshausen, the monastery and the so-called good Born there , o. O. [Nordshausen] o. J. [around 1858] [manuscript, handed down in various versions, among others in the regional church archive in Kassel or in the Murhard library in Kassel ].
  • The heliography or the sun as a copper engraver , in: Allgemeiner Anzeiger und Nationalzeitung der Deutschen , November 7, 1833, 304, p. 3816.
  • The practical catching, killing and keeping of the beetles . A brief instruction for beginners and enthusiasts of entomology , Neuhaldensleben 1838.
  • The new Parisian invention to produce copper engravings through the rays of the sun , in: Allgemeine Anzeiger und Nationalzeitung der Deutschen, February 10, 1839, 40, pp. 495–496.
  • The life of Philip the Magnanimous , Landgrave of Hesse , Kassel and others in 1846.
  • Description of some customs and legends in Schmalkalden , in: Journal of the Association for Hessian History and Regional Studies, 4, 1847, pp. 109–118.
  • Philip the Magnanimous Successor . As a contribution to the history of the Reformation , Kassel 1856.
  • Autobiography , in: Friedrich Wilhelm Strieder et al.: Basis for a Hessian history of scholars and writers from the Reformation to the present day , Volume 20, Kassel 1863, pp. 51–65.
  • Hessian folk poetry in legends and fairy tales, swaying and purring etc. Marburg 1869.
  • Upper Hessian peasant costumes for the Association for Hessian History and Regional Studies , o. O. [Marburg] 1870 [Manuscript with introductory text and watercolors, University Museum Marburg]
  • Treasure chest for boys and girls. A collection of fairy tales, legends and stories from the homeland of the Brothers Grimm. Hugo Brunner (arr.), Kassel 1893.

See also

Literature and graphics

  • Karin Berkemann (ed.): Fairy tales, flies, drawing chalk. The hobbies of the Hessian preacher Philipp Hoffmeister (1804–74) , ed. from the Friends of the Culture and Social Center Klosterkirche Nordshausen e. V., Marburg 2012.
  • Jürgen H. Jungbluth: The classic natural history associations in Hessen. Their becoming and their contribution to biological-ecological state research , in: Michael and Joachim Kaasch (eds.), Nature and Culture. Biology in the field of tension between natural philosophy and Darwinism (contributions to the 15th / 16th annual conference of the German Society for the History and Theory of Biology / Negotiations on the History and Theory of Biology 14), Berlin 2009, pp. 337–357.
  • Egbert Koolman (arr.): Letters. Ludwig Emil Grimm , 2 Vol. E, Marburg 1985, therein: Vol. 1, pp. 399-400, 699-700.
  • Lindner, Erwin (ed.), The Flies of the Palearctic Region . Vol. 1. Handbuch, Stuttgart 1949, therein: p. 17.
  • Ernst W. Magdanz: Pastor history of the church district Kassel-Land from the beginnings to 1977 (publications of the Historical Commission for Hesse 33 / Kurhessisch-Waldeckisches Pfarrerbuch 4), Marburg 2002, therein: pp. 304-312.
  • Paul Schmaling: Artist Lexicon Hessen-Kassel 1777–2000 . With the Willingshausen and Kleinsassen painters' colonies, 2 volumes, Kassel 2001.
  • Gerhard Seib: The Boyneburg donation , in: Hessische Blätter für Volkskunde 60, 1969, pp. 135–146, figs. 1–8.
  • Árpád Soós, László Papp: Micropezidae - Agromyzidae (Catalog of Palaearctic Diptera 9), Budapest 1984, pp. 236-237.
  • Heinz Vonjahr: Philipp Hoffmeister. 1804-1874. Booklet accompanying the exhibition of the Schauenburger Märchenwache , ed. from the Friends of the Schauenburger Mörchenwache e. V., Schauenburg 1999.
  • Philipp Hoffmeister (attributed to): Portrait of a young man (possibly self-portrait), probably 1820s (on photo Marburg )
  • Philipp Hoffmeister: View of the excursion restaurant "Pfeiffers Garten", 1826. Historical town views, plans and floor plans. In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS).
  • Philipp Hoffmeister: The Dominican Staircase in Marburg with the University Church, 1868. Historical town views, plans and floor plans. In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS).

Web links

Commons : Philipp Hoffmeister  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Thuringian family friend. General display for town and country. Schmalkalden, October 8, 1895
  2. ↑ Helmut Köllner: Philipp Hoffmeister, pastor in Kleinschmalkalden, pioneer or inventor of photography? in "Schmalkalder Geschichtsblätter", issue 7/8, 2000/2001, pp. 173-176. ISSN 0946-5790
  3. ↑ Philipp Hoffmeister: autobiography , in: Friedrich Wilhelm Strieder et al: Basis for a Hessian history of scholars and writers from the Reformation to the present day. Volume 20, Kassel 1863, p. 61.
personal data
SURNAME Hoffmeister, Philipp
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Reformed preacher, collector of fairy tales, draftsman and naturalist
DATE OF BIRTH April 17, 1804
PLACE OF BIRTH Eiterhagen
DATE OF DEATH March 5, 1874
Place of death Marburg