Ulrich Berchtold

Ulrich Berchtold (born April 11, 1729 - † November 25, 1794 ) was the Abbey Librarian of the St. Gallen Monastery from 1761 to 1773 .

Life

Ulrich Berchtold, baptized as Johann Nepomuk Bernhard, was the son of the Augsburg notary Josef Anton Berchtold and Maria Franziska Blank. He made his profession on May 21, 1747 in St. Gallen. He was born on September 19, 1750 sub-deacon and on June 5, 1751 Deacon ; He became a priest on September 22nd, 1753. The primacy took place a week later. He was initially a professor of philosophy . After that, on May 12, 1762, he was appointed the successor to the librarian of the St. Gallen Abbey Library , Pius Kolb , because of his good knowledge of Hebrew and Greek . At the same time he was government and palace councilor ; he also became spiritual counsel .

The monastery librarian and chronicler Franz Weidmann named Ulrich Berchtold a second Aesop . He was of short stature, unsightly and with a slight hump. However, he had an engaging nature that won his fellow men over to him.

Act

Ulrich Berchtold was a confessor in Wonnenstein during his time as a monastery librarian from 1771 to 1777 . Then Abbot Beda Angehrn appointed him as governor in the Disentis monastery , where conditions were difficult. Shortly afterwards, he had to return to St. Gallen because the Chapter of Disentis complained about his administration. It was said that Ulrich had amassed over 17,000 guilders in debt. However, it turned out that the debt was only 8,000 guilders. It was agreed that these would be taken over by the St. Gallen Abbey. Thereafter, on March 4, 1781, Ulrich Keller became owner in St. Gallen.

Eight years later, after long requests from the abbot, he went to Rome , where he would have preferred to stay. However, he returned in the fall of 1790 and brought with him an important work for the library. In general, Ulrich Berchtold made a great contribution to the St. Gallen library, he also pushed ahead with its conversion into today's baroque hall and took care of the integration of the holdings from Aegidius Tschudi's collection into the library, which was one of the most important acquisitions in history the Abbey Library of St. Gallen represented.

After his time in Rome, Ulrich Berchtold retired at an advanced age to the office of master chef in Rorschach. Once very popular with the people, he was no longer able to achieve much with his mediation during the French Revolution . Although he was still a member of the interim government, he died shortly afterwards with the popular nickname "Gallows Father", since he was usually called to comfort the dying.

literature

• Rudolf Henggeler : Profession book of the princely. Benedictine abbey of St. Gallus and Otmar in St. Gallen. Zug 1929, pp. 395-396.
• Franz Weidmann: History of the library of St. Gallen from its foundation around the year 830 up to 1841. Edited from the sources on the millennial jubilee. St. Gallen 1841, pp. 163–166.

predecessor	Office	successor
Pius Kolb	Librarian of St. Gallen 1762–1773	Gerold Brandenberg