Stephan Kunze

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Dr Stephan Kunze, preacher in Wulferstedt, lithograph around 1850 by CFBurkhardt

Carl Wilhelm Stephan Kunze , best known as Doctor Stephanus Kunze (born October 20, 1772 in Schwanebeck , † July 28, 1851 in Wulferstedt ), was a German Protestant theologian , local researcher and writer . He achieved particular merit by describing the district of Oschersleben (Bode) , parts of the Börde and Schwanebecks , in which he documented valuable statements about local history. He gained particular fame through his literary work, in particular his heroic poem Heinrich the Lion should be emphasized here.

Life

Kunze was in Schwanebeck, a small town in the Principality of Halberstadt , as the son of Jakob Christoph Kunze, councilor and balance master, and his wife Christiane Sophie Magdalene nee. Stallknecht born and baptized on October 25, 1772 in the local St. Petri Church . His older brother was the future cantor and composer Christoph Kunze (1770–1839). Together with his brother he received an excellent education at the cathedral high school in Halberstadt, whereupon he studied Protestant theology at the Martin Luther University in Halle-Wittenberg from 1793 . As early as 1795 he became headmaster of a school in Dardesheim . On November 21, 1802, Kunze was elected preacher of the congregation by the Huy-Neinstedt congregation at the suggestion of the monastery Our Dear Women in Halberstadt and took up this office on April 24, 1804. On November 14, 1811 - in the meantime the Kingdom of Westphalia had been formed - he moved to Schlanstedt because the local community had asked King Jerôme (Hieronymus) of Westphalia to preach him. After the death of the preacher Dies in Wulferstedt , the community entitled to vote - the Kingdom of Prussia was restored - asked the patron of the church and parish, King Friedrich Wilhelm III. von Prussia , Kunze to her pastor. On July 1, 1820, he took over this office until 1847, after which he lived on as pastor emeritus in Wulferstedt and four years later succumbed to a blow and old age.

Kunze began to write at a young age. His heroic poem Heinrich the Lion, only published in 1817, aroused the enthusiasm of the poet and literary patron Johann Wilhelm Ludwig Gleim (1719–1803), who then campaigned for him on various occasions. For example, on April 9, 1800, he wrote in an unsolicited letter to the Duke of Braunschweig :

“The rector Kunze zu Dardesheim is a young man of great talent. - Proof is that he chose Henry the Lion as the hero of a great poem of one and twenty already finished songs. I read three of them, found them excellent, and I wish that he would like to thank the descent of his hero for his happiness. "

After the poem was published, the Hereditary Prince of Braunschweig sent Kunze two precious porcelain vases on which scenes borrowed from the poem were painted. On March 24, 1819, Kunze was offered the doctorate of the philosophical faculty of the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (Gradum Doctoris et LL. AA. Magistri).

Marriage and offspring

On September 6, 1796, Kunze married Christina Charlotte Abel (1769–1841), a daughter of the homeland researcher and pastor in Möckern Joachim Gottwalt Abel (1723–1806). With her he had the following children:

  • Auguste Friederike Charlotte Kunze (born July 15, 1797 in Dardesheim - March 30, 1821)
  • Carl Heinrich Stephan Kunze (born April 23, 1799 in Dardesheim, † March 4, 1875 in Zeppernick), preacher in Zeppernick
  • Mathilde Theodore Kunze, later married Heger (born January 24, 1803 in Dardesheim; † October 20, 1877)
  • Gottwalt Wilhelm August Kunze (born December 11, 1804 in Huy-Neinstedt), 1831–1842 rector of the school in Schwanebeck, 1842–1850 pastor in Groß Ammensleben , from 1850 pastor in Osterode (Veltheim diocese)
  • Friedrich August Theodor Kunze (born March 25, 1812 in Schlanstedt)

Many of Kunze's descendants followed in his footsteps and also became theologians. His grandson Hermann Kunze (1836–1923) acquired a reputation as a homeopath in addition to his work as a pastor in Prödel . His best-known descendants were the classical philologist and papyrologist Wolfgang Luppe as well as the Stuttgart senior studies director and genealogist Martin Kessler.

After the death of his first wife, he married Sophia Carolina Wilhelmina Henrietta Nettmann, daughter of Pastor Nettmann in Schwanebeck, at an advanced age in Wulferstedt on April 25, 1843 .

Works

Kunze was active in many literary fields. He has sprinkled many poems into his works, and small works have appeared in Halberstadt magazines. Here is a selection of his works:

  • Spruchbuch for country school teachers , Halberstadt 1800
  • Faith and virtue doctrine of Christians , Halberstadt 1814
  • Sacrifice of devotion when erecting the memorial plaques for our German heroes . Halberstadt 1816
  • Heinrich the Lion , heroic poem, Quedlinburg 1817, new edition 1822
  • The pastor of Schönberg, 1. u. 2. Theil , Quedlinburg and Leipzig 1819; In this autobiographical novel he processed his time in Dardesheim and Huy-Neinstedt. Here he tells the authentic story of the shoemaker Heinrich Meutefin (1745–1816), whom he taught how to collect herbs in Huy. Meutefin was able to earn a living in old age by selling 15 medicinal herbs, to which Kunze contributed little poems. Schönberg stands for the village of Huy-Neinstedt, in which Kunze worked as a preacher and country pastor from 1802 to 1811.
  • Necessary and best storage of the orderly parish writings together with the attached drafts for a business calendar for preachers . 1820
  • About the religious celebrations at funerals. Following the example of the oldest Christian church . Journal for preachers. Hall 61 (1820) pp. 392–414
  • Small devotional book for Christian midwives and devout mothers in the most important moments of their lives , Quedlinburg and Leipzig 1821
  • Lawlessness the grave of all welfare: A contribution to the history of the Middle Ages and the destroyed Hohenneindorf . Halberstadt 1831
  • History of the Augustinian monastery Hamersleben, Quedlinburg, 1835
  • Diplomatic history of the Cistercian nunnery in Adersleben (near Halberstadt) , Halberstadt, 1836
  • History of the city of Schwanebeck, from the collected news and documents of the preacher D. St. Kunze zu Wulferstedt . Halberstadt 1838
  • History, statistics and topography of all the localities in the district of Oschersleben , Oschersleben 1842

Others

A Joachim Gottfried Abel Kunze is mentioned as the father in various later portrayals of life. This is wrong and is certainly due to a mix-up with Kunze's father-in-law Joachim Gottwalt Abel.

Literature (selection)

  • New Nekrolog der Teutschen, seventeenth year 1839, second part; Weimar 1841, printed and published by Bernhard Friedrich Voigt
  • Berlinische Nachrichten von Staats- und Schehreensachen No. 79, 1818, Verlag der Hande und Spenersche Buchhandlung
  • Martin Kessler The ancestors of pastor Hermann Kunze in Proedel (1836-1923) and his wife Anna geb. Färber (1842-1919) , Stuttgart 1982

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Evangelical pastors in Groß Ammensleben . In: Rüdiger Pfeiffer and Wilfried Lübeck (eds.): 1050 years of Groß Ammensleben 965 - 2015. A village through the ages (= contributions to the history of the Lower Börde, vol. 1). Kulturhistorische Gesellschaft Groß Ammensleben an der Straße der Romanik e. V., Groß Ammensleben 2015, p. 183 .
  2. ^ Official journal of the royal government in Erfurt . tape 38 . District President in Erfurt, Official Gazette, Erfurt September 7, 1850, p. 292 .
personal data
SURNAME Kunze, Stephan
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kunze, Carl Wilhelm Stephan (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German theologian, poet and local researcher
DATE OF BIRTH October 20, 1772
PLACE OF BIRTH Schwanebeck
DATE OF DEATH July 28, 1851
Place of death Wulferstedt