Prof. Dr. Johann Friedrich August Göttling

* 05.06.1753 in Derenburg/Harz

† 01.09.1809 in Jena

Chemist, Pharmacist

 

His father, Pastor Göttling in Derenburg, and his mother, born Wurtzler, were not wealthy people. His father died very early in his life, so he grew up with relatives. He attended the cathedral school in Halberstadt and was able to acquire further knowledge from his stepfather, Pastor Wiegand in Grüningen near Greußen. This enabled him to become decisively interested in science in addition to practical and theoretical training at the private "Training Institute for Pharmacists" in Langensalza from 1767.

Subsequently, at the age of 19, he worked as a provisor in the court pharmacy in Weimar.

Göttling had already published his own textbook at the age of 25, in 1778, and in 1779 began publishing Germany's first pharmaceutical journal, the "Almanach oder Taschenbuch für Scheidekünstler und Apotheker".

Goethe was a frequent guest at the court pharmacy, was therefore familiar with Göttling's achievements, and in 1785 he arranged for the 32-year-old Göttling to receive a scholarship from the duke of 250 talers a year for study in Göttingen and study visits to England and Holland.

In 1788, the duke appointed him associate professor of chemistry at the Philosophical Faculty of the University of Jena, and he received his doctorate in January 1789. Göttling began lecturing on experimental chemistry and technology at Easter 1789. It was the first of its kind in Germany.

 

In 1789 he married Christiane Henriette Sophie Schultze, daughter of the Oberkonsistorialrat and Oberhofprediger in Weimar, in Jena.

The son, Dr. Carl Wilhelm Göttling, born on 19.01.1793, lost his father in 1809 at the age of 16.

The family was impoverished by the events of the war in 1806. The mother, with the support of Goethe, sold the father's library and laboratory equipment to enable the son to continue his studies. Casts of antique sculptures acquired on his study trips can be found today in the foyer of the Abbe Campus.

In 1826 he became director of the Philological Seminary and, as head librarian, was entrusted with the management of the university library. In 1847 he received the title of Privy Councillor. He was repeatedly Dean of the Faculty of Philosophy and Prorector of the University.

Prof. Dr. Carl Wilhelm Göttling died on 20.01.1869 in Jena.

© Gerhard Reuter, gekürzt: Ch. Apfel


Karl Christian Philipp Snell

* 19.01.1806 in Dachsenhausen

† 12.08.1886 in Jena

Physicist

 

Karl Christian Philipp Snell was born on 19.1.1806 in Dachsenhausen, Nassau, southeast of Koblenz. His father Johann Peter Ludwig Snell was a preacher in Dachsenhausen. His mother, Philippine Wilhelmine Snell, née Mencken widowed Schäfer, from Idstein (1774-1837) was an aunt of Otto von Bismarck.

His father died in 1817, and from the same year the eleven-year-old Karl attended the newly established grammar school in Wetzlar, Prussia, where his cousin Johann Philipp Ludwig Snell (1785-1854) had become principal in 1817. He was a radical liberal and represented this attitude also towards the authorities without embellishing his own person. This thinking greatly influenced Karl Snell in his younger years.

After graduating from high school, he studied philology in Halle from 1824. Already in May 1825 he changed to Giessen, because he had made himself suspicious for Prussia because of his participation in meetings of liberal student clubs. Karl Snell enrolled in philology and theology. After only one semester in Giessen, he matriculated at the University of Göttingen for philosophy, which included the natural sciences. Snell listened to lectures by Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777-1855). After two semesters he transferred to the University of Berlin, where he heard lectures by Schopenhauer, Schleiermacher Hegel and A. von Humboldt.

In the summer of 1829 he accepted a position at the "Vitzthum-Blochmann'schen Gymnasial Erziehungshaus" in Dresden as a teacher of mathematics, physics and chemistry.

 

In 1836 Karl Snell married Pauline Henriette Voland, who came from a Catholic family, in the Dresden Hofkirche. A son and two daughters were born to the couple in Dresden. In addition to his teaching activities, he also wrote mathematical textbooks.

Karl Snell applied for the position after the death of Jakob Friedrich Fries (1773-1843) with a letter to the dean of the philosophical faculty Carl Wilhelm Göttling (1793-1863). He assumed the professorship on April 16, 1844, and eight days later was awarded an honorary philosophical doctorate for his work on geometry.

In Jena another daughter was born in 1844, but already in 1846 his wife Pauline, only 31 years old, died in childbed.

In 1846 he married his sister-in-law Auguste Voland.

In the summer of 1847, Snell became dean of the philosophical faculty for the first time, and in 1849, prorector of the university.

In 1857 Ernst Abbe (1840-1905) came to Jena and attended Snell's lectures and was encouraged by him. After Snell became a widower for the second time in 1868, his youngest daughter returned to Jena from Scotland and kept house for her father. This is how she met and fell in love with Abbe - a frequent guest in the Snell household. They were married in Jena on September 24, 1871, in front of the district court.

At the age of 76, Snell gave his last lecture and died on August 12, 1886.
© Lambert Grolle, gekürzt Ch. Apfel


Rudolf Volkmann (1889 – 1947)

University Music Director

 

Rudolf Volkmann was born in Schlackenreuth on July 4, 1889.

He studied composition with Friedrich Klose, piano with Prof. Schmidt-Lindner, organ with court organist Ludwig Felix Maier and conducting with court opera director Felix Mottl at the Royal Academy of Music in Munich.

 In 1911 he became director of the Singakademie in Glogau (Głogów). In the years before World War 1, he performed as a pianist in various chamber music settings - including with Max Reger - and as a lied and aria accompanist in many German cities.

During World War I he was wounded in the Battle of the Somme in 1917 and came to Berlin, where he made the acquaintance of Richard Strauss and Arthur Nikisch, among others.

 

On Jan. 1, 1919, he was appointed university music director in Jena.

He thus took over the direction of the Academic Concerts and the Philharmonic Choir and the office of organist at the Stadtkirche. Almost simultaneously, he founded the a capella choir and merged the Bürgerlicher Gesangverein and the Zeiß'schen Gesangverein to form the Jenaer Männergesangverein.

He also founded the evening concerts in the city church.

After he first found accommodation in the house of Max and Elsa Reger, he later lived in Sedanstr. 16 (today's Ebertstr.) until his death.

Although he began his work in Jena under very unfavorable post-war conditions, he led the city's musical life to a new flowering through his musical and organizational energy. The conception and realization of the traditional Jena Academic Concerts bore his signature. The care of the memory of Max Reger was also a permanent concern for him due to his personal acquaintance with the composer. Jena music festivals with the participation of local ensembles and first-rate, internationally known musicians and singers, Bach festivals and German Tonkünstler festivals were decisively organized by him.

The 7th German Brahms Festival in 1929 was certainly a highlight in Jena's musical history. The Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and its conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler were guests in Jena. Among other things, there was a memorable performance of Johannes Brahms' German Requiem with the united Jena choirs - more than 500 singers - and the Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Wilhelm Furtwängler. Rudolf Volkmann was responsible for the composition and rehearsal of the choir, thus ensuring a lasting success of the performance.

  On the occasion of his 50th birthday, one could read that Rudolf Volkmann "is not only the appointed choir director to his singers, who is able to inspire the singing community for the glory of art, but that his lively, always forward and upward striving manner and his versatile untiring activity have elevated Jena to one of the leading musical cities in Thuringia." (Jenaer Stadtnachrichten, 5.7.1939)

 As a conductor and song and chamber music partner, he made music with artists such as Erna Berger, Adolf Busch, Karl Erb, Eduard Erdmann, Emanuel Feuermann, Edwin Fischer, Carl Flesch, Dusolina Giannini, Ria Ginster, Paul Grümmer, Gustav Havemann, Alfred Hoehn, Ludwig Hoelscher, Maria Ivogün, Wilhelm Kempff, Karl Klingler, Georg Kulenkampff, Tiana Lemnitz, Walter Ludwig, Enrico Mainardi, Maria Müller, Alma Moodie, Sigrid Onegin, Max Pauer, Mia Peltenburg, Josef Pembaur, Gertrude Pitzinger, Elisabeth Schumann, Rudolf Serkin, Max Strub, Franz Völker and Friedrich Wührer.

 

Rudolf Volkmann kept Jena's musical life alive through the war years with tireless energy, and as early as 1945 he was again conducting major choral symphonic performances.

In November 1945, the President of the State of Thuringia withdrew his supervision of the Academic Concerts and transferred it to Hermann Abendroth, General Music Director of the Weimar State Orchestra.

Rudolf Volkmann took his own life on October 2, 1947, and was buried in the Johannis Cemetery.

© S. Krahnert


Christiane Charlotte Kosegarten (1795-1822); a. k. a. Charlotte Christina Kosegarten and Charlotte Christine Kosegarten

First wife of orientalist Johann Gottfried Ludwig Kosegarten

 

Christiane Charlotte Kosegarten was born Charlotte Passenhagen in 1795. In 1818 she married Johann Gottfried Ludwig Kosegarten, who had been appointed professor for oriental languages at the University of Jena in 1817. On December 31, 1819, the couple's first child was born, a son who was baptised Gottfried Carl Gotthard.

Christina Charlotte Kosegarten died on August 20, 1822 at the age of only 27. Just a few months earlier, her son Johann Ernst Gustav Kosegarten had died on March 18, 1822 at the age of seven months.

© R. Seifert


 

Johann Gustav Stickel

* 18.07.1805 in Eisenach

† 21.01.1896 in Jena

Prof. of theology, Prof. of oriental philology.

 

Johann Gustav Stickel, the son of Johann August Benjamin Stickel (1771-1837), the inspector and later accountant of the penitentiary in Weimar, and his wife Johanna Augusta Lämmerhirt (1777-1848) attended the Gymnasium in Weimar, where his preference for oriental languages developed.

In 1823 he enrolled at the University of Jena to study theology and philology. He received his doctorate in January 1827 and his habilitation in November of the same year. Since, according to the custom of the time, the dissertation had to be presented personally to the minister in charge, Gustav Stickel came into contact with Goethe, which was repeated several times due to their mutual interest in numismatics and oriental studies.

After a study trip, he became associate professor of theology in 1830 and received his doctorate in theology in 1832. In April 1836 he became a full honorary professor of theology for oriental languages in Jena. In 1848 he became a full professor of oriental languages at the philosophical faculty.

Johann Gustav Stickel was the university teacher who belonged to the faculty of the university for the longest time. He was active in Jena for almost 70 years, and with 136 semesters he worked at the Salana the longest of all academic teachers in the 19th century.

He founded the Oriental Seminar and created the Oriental Coin Cabinet (1840), which he also expanded. He wrote numerous treatises of numismatic and paleographic content.

On June 3, 1848, he was inducted into the Senate and was several times Dean and Prorector of the University of Jena.

Gustav Stickel was an honorary member of several domestic and foreign numismatic societies. In addition, he became a Knight of the Order of the White Falcon in 1858 and a Privy Councillor in 1892.

In 1889, a medal was dedicated to Stickel, commissioned by the Grand Duke of Jena, Karl Alexander. It honored Stickel for his 50 years of scientific activity as an orientalist and in his role as curator of the oriental numismatic collection.

He was married to Charlotte Rosalie, née Schultze from Weimar. (1796-1875). The marriage was blessed with four children, two boys and two girls.

© Ch. Apfel


 

Moritz/Moriz Wilhelm Constantin Schmidt (1823-1888)

Philologist

 

Moritz (Moriz) Wilhelm Constantin Schmidt was born in Breslau on November 19, 1823, the son of Higher Regional Court Judge Moriz Wilhelm Eduard Schmidt and his wife Bianca, née du Vignau. In 1826 his family moved to Schweidnitz, where he later received private lessons and attended high school in 1831. His preference for ancient languages developed during his school days. After obtaining his high school diploma he began studying classical philology at the University of Breslau. He continued his studies in Berlin, where he also received his doctorate in 1844. In the following years he worked for the magazine "Philologus" and from 1847 he worked as a school teacher. In 1857 Schmidt was appointed associate professor at the University of Jena. Here he received a full honorary professorship in 1864 and a full professorship in classical philology in 1869. From 1874 to 1882 he was also active as a professor of eloquence. From 1869 he held the directorship of the philological seminar at the university. He was also given the title “Hofrat”. In the winter semester of 1876 he carried out the official business of a rector at Jena University. After his health had deteriorated since the late 1870s, he suffered a stroke on May 30, 1885 and died in Jena on October 8, 1888.

© R. Seifert


Johann Wolfgang Klett (1770-1791)

Medical Student

 Johann Wolfgang Klett was born in Zella on June 26, 1770, the son of Johann Peter Klett and his wife Ottilia Klett, née Oehlers. His father died very early, so his mother took care of his upbringing and let him tutor privately for eleven years. Klett enrolled at the University of Jena in April 1788. He died in the town on the river Saale on January 11, 1791 of rheumatic fever.

 © R. Seifert


Dr. Christian Müller

* in Hamburg

† 15.03.1713 in Jena   und seine Ehefrau

 Clara Justina, geb. Bamberger

* 18.06.1643 in Jena

† 15.05.1695 in Jena

In the church book weddings is found on 04 November 1663 the entry:

 "were married at home: "The honorable and well-deserved Mr. Christina Müller of Hamburg and The honorable and full of honor virtuous maiden Clara Justina Bambergerin, of the honorable and wise Hans David Bambergers, merchant and council relatives alhier S. hinterlas. Marital daughter".

 In the upper part of the gravestone as an ornament the coat of arms, formerly in the red base a golden wheel (Mainz/Erfurt coat of arms).

 In the lower part, the writing is distributed almost over the entire surface framed by a laurel wreath and arcantus leaves, the wording of the inscription:

 

Allhier

Expect

The joyful resurrection

Mr. Christian Müller

From Hamburg

And

His beloved wife

Frau Clara Christina Müllerin

Born in Bamberg

Which on both sides

To immortal memory

This tomb

has been erected

MDCIV

 © Ch. Apfel


Anna Beier (1611-1647)

Second wife of city chronicler Adrian Beier the Elder

 

Anna Beier was born in Magdala on June 23, 1611, the daughter of the chamberlain Heinrich Ringler and his wife Anna, née Wickmann. Her father later worked as mayor in Magdala and city judge in Jena.

On May 1, 1837, she married the archdeacon and city chronicler Adrian Beier the Elder (1600-1678).

The marriage produced seven children, but only a few reached adulthood. Anna Beier died on February 23, 1647 in Jena shortly after the stillbirth of her youngest child and was buried in the town  on the river Saale on February 26, 1647.

© R. Seifert


Johann Christian Günther

* 08.04.1695 in Striegau/Schlesien

† 15.03.1723 in Jena

Poet

 

Johann Christian Günther was born on April 8, 1695 in Striegau (Polish Strzegom) in Silesia. His father was a poor town medical officer who taught his son Latin and Greek until he was 15 years old. From the age of 15, Johann Christian Günther received poetry and rhetoric lessons at the newly founded Gnadenschule in Schweidnitz, a Protestant type of school where no school fees had to be paid.

Because of his inclination towards poetry, he fell out with his father, who expected his son to study medicine.

After leaving school, the nineteen-year-old fell in love with Leonore Jachmann from Schweidnitz, six years his senior, to whom he wrote numerous love songs and verse letters. Leonore remained his muse throughout his life.

From 1715 he studied medicine in Frankfurt/Oder, Wittenberg and Leipzig, but could not make friends with the study of medicine. In 1716 Günther bought the title "Poeta laureatus caesareus", believing that this would raise his rank as a poet. Highly indebted by the purchase price, he was imprisoned because he could not pay.

In Leipzig, Professor Johann Burkhard Mencke (1674-1732) was particularly influential on him and promoted Günther intensively. He wrote a poem for him on the death of his daughter, and many of Günther's approximately 600 poems were casual poems for bereavements, marriages, and academic occasions.

An application to the Dresden court in 1719, initiated by Mencke, was a great failure.

He tried in vain to finish his medical studies, but his father refused any financial support. Thus, also in 1720/1721 in Kreuburg, Silesia, the attempt to work as a poorly paid doctor for the poor in the countryside failed, since he lacked the necessary degree.

He had to break off his engagement with the pastor's daughter Barbara Littmann, as he could not fulfill the agreed conditions - above all the reconciliation with his father.

The failures built up a potential for addiction that led to alcohol abuse. Penniless and psyche-broken, Johann Christian Günther arrived in Jena in October 1722. He had followed his Silesian friend Carl Sigmund von Eben und Brunnen (1698-1738) and lived with him in Leutragasse. Through von Eben and Brunnen he received encouragement, and he also had contact with the historian Burkhard Gotthelf Struve (1671-1738). With a pupil of Struve, Christian Gottlieb Buder (1693-1763), a jurist who was librarian of the university library in 1722,

Günther was able to work.

However, in mid-March 1723 the poet died in Jena, probably of tuberculosis.

© Ulrich Kaufmann, gekürzt: Ch. Apfel