Rudolf Christian Wagner
Rudolf Christian Wagner (born March 14, 1671 in Nesselröden ( Werra-Meißner district ); † April 6, 1741 in Helmstedt ) was a German mathematician , physicist and university professor . From 1698 to 1700 he was Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz 's private secretary , with whom he had a lively exchange of ideas until his death in 1716.
Life
Rudolf Christian Wagner was born in 1671 in Nesselröden in northern Hesse . His parents, who came from Eisenach , were Johann Georg Wagner, legal advisor for the von Treusch von Buttlar family , and his wife Anna Katharina, née Kister. Wagner went to Jena in June 1685 , where he studied mathematics, physics, practical geometry, medicine and architecture. He heard medicine from Georg Wolfgang Wedel and Günther Christoph Schelhammer and architecture from Johann Heinrich Gengenbach . Wagner became Dr. phil. PhD. His sponsor and fatherly friend, the theologian Johann Andreas Schmidt , moved from Jena to the University of Helmstedt in 1695 . Wagner followed him in 1697 and attended medical and botanical lectures from Heinrich Meibom , Friedrich Schrader (1657–1704) and Johann Andreas Stisser . On Schmidt's recommendation, he came to Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz in Hanover as private secretary in 1698 . During this two-year period, he had the opportunity to expand his mathematical knowledge. Wagner maintained a lively exchange of ideas with Leibniz until his death in 1716. This is documented in more than 280 letters.
University professor in Helmstedt
In 1700 Wagner went to the University of Helmstedt as a master's degree, where he took two Leibniz calculating machines with him. On Leibniz's recommendation, in 1701 he was given the professorship for mathematics, which had been vacant since 1699 when Christoph Tobias Wiedeburg was transferred to the theological faculty. In 1706 he also received the professorship for physics as the successor to Friedrich Schrader, who died in 1704. Wagner introduced the experimental natural sciences in Helmstedt. He read about Isaac Newton , Francis Bacon and René Descartes , made star maps with his students and taught the construction and use of optical instruments. He completed his medical studies in Jena in 1708 with the dissertation De contrafissura ex principiis mechanicis, physicis ac medicis . He held lectures until March 1739. Andreas Georg Wähner and Johann Bernhard Wiedeburg were among his students .
Wagner was an honorary member of the Societas Conatium , a scholars' association founded in Hanover in 1699 and re-established in Helmstedt in 1711. His publications cover mathematical, physical and medical topics.
family
Wagner was married to Katharina Maria († 1735), daughter of the court pharmacist Ernst Leopold Andreae in Hanover, since 1702. The couple had three sons and three daughters. Wagner died, already seriously ill in the last years of his life, in April 1741 in Helmstedt.
literature
- Petra Diestelmann: Wagner, Rudolph Christian, Dr. phil. u. med., Prof. In: Horst-Rüdiger Jarck , Dieter Lent et al. (Ed.): Braunschweigisches Biographisches Lexikon - 8th to 18th century . Appelhans Verlag, Braunschweig 2006, ISBN 3-937664-46-7 , p. 726 f .
- Paul Zimmermann : Wagner, Rudolf Christian . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 40, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1896, p. 572 f.
Individual evidence
- ^ Alfred Kuhlenkamp (ed.): Contributions to the history of the Carolo-Wilhelmina , Braunschweig 1979, p. 17.
- ^ Braunschweigisches Jahrbuch für Landesgeschichte , Volume 89, 2008, p. 80.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Wagner, Rudolf Christian |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Wagner, Rudolph Christian |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German mathematician, physicist and university professor |
| DATE OF BIRTH | March 14, 1671 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Nesselröden (Herleshausen) |
| DATE OF DEATH | April 6, 1741 |
| Place of death | Helmstedt |