Samuel Collenbusch

Samuel Collenbusch (1724–1803), contemporary silhouette

Samuel Collenbusch (born September 1, 1724 in Wichlinghausen , † September 1, 1803 in Barmen , both today districts of Wuppertal ) was a German biblicist and an important representative of Pietism in the Bergisch-Rhenish area.

Live and act

Collenbusch's father, Johann Peter Collenbusch, was a manufacturer and businessman. In 1742, under the influence of the Wichlinghauser pastor Johann Peter Wülfing, there was a religious awakening experience that was to shape him. Collenbusch studied medicine in Duisburg and Strasbourg. In 1754 he and his parents' family settled in Duisburg as a doctor.

Here he also came into contact with the works of the Pietists Johann Albrecht Bengel and Friedrich Christoph Oetinger . His principles included, in particular, the strict orientation to the biblical scriptures.

But Collenbusch kept in contact with Wuppertal. For example, he took part in the Elberfeld meeting with Goethe, Johann Heinrich Jung-Stilling , Johann Gerhard Hasenkamp and Johann Caspar Lavater , as described in Jung-Stilling's life story . In 1783 he returned to Wichlinghausen.

The creeping blindness continued here. At the age of 65 he received his doctorate in Duisburg with a thesis on the Schwelmer Heilbrunnen, on which Schwelm's reputation as a bathing and health resort was based at the time . His religious beliefs found more and more followers, including among the well-known families in the valley. Collenbusch's thoughts found their way into 19th century German theology through the revival theologian Gottfried Menken , who was married to a daughter of the Siebel family in Elberfeld.

He was critical of Kant's philosophy on many points, which he expressed in several letters to the Königsberg philosopher. The important critic Walter Benjamin got Collenbusch to include one of these letters in his Deutsche Menschen collection . A series of letters set a monument. According to Adorno, this letter is said to have been Benjamin's favorite letter. According to his diaries, Gershom Scholem was also enthusiastic about Collenbusch's acidic questions to Kant .

literature

• Klaus Goebel , Samuel Collenbusch , in: Wuppertaler Biographien 2nd episode. Contributions to the history and local history of the Wuppertal, Volume 5 .
• Heinrich Holtzmann :  Kollenbusch, Samuel . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 16, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1882, p. 476.
• Hermann Cremer :  Collenbusch, Samuel . In: Realencyklopadie for Protestant Theology and Church (RE). 3. Edition. Volume 4, Hinrichs, Leipzig 1898, pp. 233-241.
• Ernst Barnikol :  Collenbusch, Samuel. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 3, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1957, ISBN 3-428-00184-2 , p. 322 ( digitized version ).
• Friedrich Wilhelm Bautz :  Collenbusch, Samuel. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 1, Bautz, Hamm 1975. 2nd, unchanged edition Hamm 1990, ISBN 3-88309-013-1 , Sp. 1097-1098.