Raymund Dapp

Portrait from the New General German Library . 37. Vol. 1; 1798

Raymund Dapp (born September 22, 1744 in Geislingen , † March 1, 1819 in Klein-Schönebeck near Berlin ) was a German Protestant theologian and pastor .

Training and early stages

Raymund Dapp grew up in his hometown Geislingen and then attended high school in Ulm . In 1762 he was enrolled at the University of Tübingen , but remained, as was customary, as a student of the local high school professors in Ulm. In 1769 he began studying theology in Erlangen . Then he went to Halle (Saale) to hear lectures from Johann Salomo Semler . There he came into contact with the ideas of August Hermann Francke . Then he moved to Berlin. Here he accepted a position as a private tutor and joined a theological group of friends whose members were united in a free way of life, in an intense scientific interest and a pronounced aversion to church-orthodox dogmatization. Well-known members of this group were the later Halle philosophy professor Johann August Eberhard , the Gotha general superintendent Josias Friedrich Löffler and the pedagogue Joachim Heinrich Campe . He also got to know Gotthold Ephraim Lessing , Moses Mendelssohn and Friedrich Nicolai , who belonged to this group .

Klein-Schönebeck

Relief of the Raymund Dapp memorial stone in Schöneiche

The most important moment came in 1778, when Dapp took over the parish in Klein-Schönebeck, east of Berlin, with the Schöneiche and Münchehofe branches . The inauguration took place on April 5th; on the first day of Easter he gave his inaugural sermon. In the same year he married the sister of a college friend. The marriage was happy and trusting, but without children, but the couple later adopted the young daughter of a deceased friend. In addition to the pastoral office with its various duties and tasks, the focus of Dapp's work was the industrial school he founded and directed in 1793 , a school in his parish village aimed at learning manual skills . In addition to elementary school knowledge, the children also learned practical skills, as required by the upswing in agriculture and manufacturing at this time. Ten hours a week were devoted to arithmetic, reading and catechism classes, and 30 hours a week in summer and 40 hours a week in work classes. Here the children were made familiar with the normal domestic work of a farm, but also with the processing of sheep's wool and flax , horticulture, the planting of mulberry trees and silk spinning . Dapp made sure that parents did not have to pay the teachers, so it was a real lesson and not a disguised paid job at school. This school was completely new and innovative for its time. He turned down offers from other pastors, and Dapp did not pursue any ambitions for a further church or academic career. However, he emerged literary through a number of collections of sermons as well as through a "non-profit magazine for preachers" published since 1805 and through the longstanding participation in the " General German Library " published by his friend Friedrich Nicolai . In the history of theology, his name is primarily linked to this review organ. Dapp published about a hundred reviews over the course of 24 years. He also supported his friend Nicolai in the preparation of the book “ Description of a journey through Germany and Switzerland ”. Nicolai wrote the novel "The Life and Opinions of Gundibert, a German Philosopher " largely during stays in Dapp's house in Klein-Schönebeck.

The residents of Schöneiche still remember him today for one reason: After Prussia was defeated by Napoleon's French troops and was occupied by the French in 1803/04, there were also serious attacks by the occupying soldiers in Schöneiche. On the other hand, Raymund Dapp stepped in and obtained the hiring of a village gendarme from the landlord and greater discipline on the part of the French soldiers from the occupation authorities. He may also have arranged for the staff cavalry officer and later major general von Lützow, who was seriously wounded in the fight against the French, to be accommodated in Schöneiche. Dapp was already celebrated as a "great philanthropist" during his lifetime.

Fonts

• Prayer book for Christian country people , Berlin 1785 (second increased edition, Züllichau 1799)
• Two sermons on the abolition of the beggar in the flat country and the new poor institutions established as a result , Berlin 1792;
• Short sermons and draft sermons about the usual Sunday and holiday gospels: in addition to an appendix of casual sermons and speeches, especially for country people and country preachers. Published by Raymund Dapp , Berlin 1793–1804 (6 years)
• Sermon book for Christian country people, for domestic devotion and for reading aloud in church: on all Sundays and feast days of the whole year, according to the Gospels . Berlin 1788. New, improved and increased edition, Berlin / Stettin 1797

literature

• Matthias Wolfes :  Raymund Dapp. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 17, Bautz, Herzberg 2000, ISBN 3-88309-080-8 , Sp. 335-341.

Web links

Commons : Raymund Dapp  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Biography on churches in Schöneiche