Gotthard Friedrich Stender

Gotthard Friedrich Stender ( born August 27, 1714 Leave; † May 17, 1796 in Sonnaxt ), called the old Stender ( lett Vecais Stender ) was a Lutheran pastor and Courland Baltist. He is considered the founder of the Latvian secular literature and wrote a grammar and a dictionary of Latvian language.

Life

His father Hermann Konrad Stender was a pastor in the Curonian leave. This and Rector Isack farmer in Subbath taught him classical and oriental languages. 1736-1739 he studied in Jena and Halle theology, ancient languages ​​and rhetoric. After that, he was a teacher at the Francke Orphanage. Meanwhile pietistic direction led him to a freer conception of Christianity. After his return to Courland, he worked as a private tutor and studied mathematics. In 1742 he was hired as a vice principal at the school Mitauschen city.

1744 Stender pastor of Birsgallen in a circle Riga. The spiritual work on the Latvian people explained his familiarity with the Latvian language. 1752 robbed a fire and a cattle plague him his possession, and he became a pastor in the Lithuanian Záimen. Since he found no leisure here, he gave up the post in 1759 and emigrated to Helmstedt from. The Duke of Brunswick, he made a globe three feet in diameter. In 1760 he became rector of the newly established secondary school in King Lutter.

In 1763 he moved to Hamburg, where he was appointed by the mediation of the Russian ambassador at the Danish court as a professor of geography to Copenhagen. Also, King Frederick V. wanted a globe, the Stender constructed in a size of 23 feet in diameter. As a result of a difficult political situation and financial predicament his professorship was repealed two years later, and he returned to Courland.

In 1766 he was Adjunct and three years later successor of Pastor G. Chr Radetzky ( Georga Kristofa Radecka; 1688-1769 ) in Selburg and Sonnaxt. Most recently, he was provost of Selburgschen diocese and pastor Sonnaxt ( Sunakste ). He made at least 15 writings, including his Augstas gudribas grahmata no pasaules un Dabbas (the book of the high wisdom about the world and nature).

Stender was married to Anna Elisabeth of Brunswick. Their son Alexander Johann Stender came to prominence as a theologian and lexicographer a name.

Publications

  • New full Latvian grammar; 1761
  • Description of a new highly convenient washing machine; Jelgava, 1765
  • Catechism in verse, to a relieved religious instruction; 1781
  • Latvian grammar; 1783
  • Thoughts of an old man over the near condition beyond the grave; 1786
  • Latvian Lexicon; 1789
  • Truth of religion against the unbelief of Frey spirits and naturalists; Hartknoch, 1784
  • Philosophical thoughts on important items: Beylagen as to the thoughts of an old man on the nearby state beyond the grave; 1795
  • Written fables and stories for the formation of wit and manners of Latvians according to their mode of thinking and dialect
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