Wilhelm Martin Leberecht de Wette
Wilhelm Martin Leberecht de Wette ( born January 12, 1780 in Ulla, near Weimar, † June 16, 1849 in Basel ) was a German theologian.
Life
De Wette was born in Ulla, near Weimar, the son of a pastor. He attended high school in Weimar, where he learned crucial influences by Johann Gottfried von Herder, who often took off to school exams. In 1799 he began the study of theology at the University of Jena. His main teachers were Johann Jakob Griesbach, Johann Philipp Gabler and Heinrich Eberhard Gottlob Paulus; of the latter, he was encouraged to free critical research. In both the methods and the results it took an extensive special position among the German theologians. His living he earned in Jena, among other things through translations and through participation in Schiller's journal. He was strongly influenced by the early Romantics and developed during his Jena years an aesthetic theology. His dissertation on the Pentateuch and the Old Testament historical work influenced the research alttestamenlische sustainable. In 1805 he married Eberhardine Boie, who died the following year in childbirth. The passage of the French Herre by Jena de Wette lost his possessions. After his doctorate, he was a lecturer in Jena and in 1807 professor of theology at the University of Heidelberg, where he became friends with Jakob Friedrich Fries, whose system of knowledge, belief and prosecute based on his dogmatics ( textbook of Christian dogmatics in its historical development shown) should. In 1810 he occupied a similar chair at the newly founded Friedrich-Wilhelm University in Berlin, where he graduated in 1817 through the mediation of Friedrich gap with Friedrich Schleiermacher friendship. However, he was dismissed in 1819 from Berlin, because he had sent a letter of condolence to the mother Karl Ludwig Sands, the murderer of Kotzebue. A petition in his favor on the part of the Senate of the University was unsuccessful. A decree was issued which deprived him not only the teaching license, but also banished from Prussia. During these weeks he found a wide range of financial support from scholars, including some of his opponents Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel.
He moved back to Weimar. Here he used the time to prepare an edition of Luther and wrote the two -volume novel Theodor or the consecration of the doubter (1822 ). This Bildungsroman of a country parson was very popular among the fraternity of learning. During his time in Weimar de Wette started with great public success to preach. In 1822 he was elected as a preacher at St. Catherine (Braunschweig). But the sovereign, King George IV of England, did not allow his introduction with regard to Prussia. then took de Wette in March 1822 appointed professor at the University of Basel. It had been four years previously. Here he briefly worked closely with Charles Follen. Although he was hampered by conflicts between pietism and speculation, de Wette soon won great influence at the university and in public. In 1829, he acquired Swiss citizenship and thereafter five times rector of the university, which owed him a large part of its renewed reputation, especially in the theological faculty. Despite difficult conditions, family- he was incredibly productive. Besides, he showed poetic talent ( he wrote the drama The renunciation; Berlin 1823) and the novel Heinrich Melchthal, as well as ambitions for art, music and church architecture.
Was buried de Wette in the graveyard of St. Elisabethen in Basel. 1872 this cemetery was shut down and the city built in 1898, a road leading directly from his former grave. In his honor, carries this road and the adjoining school house from 1903 his name. His tomb is now located on the Wolf graveyard. 1860 gave friends of de Wette Ferdinand Schlöth a memorial bust in order, which is now in the auditorium of the Museum at the Augustiner Gasse.
Writings (selection )
- Contributions to initiate in the Testament (1806-1807)
- , Repeatedly issued comment on the Psalms (1811 )
- Textbook of Hebrew- Jewish Archaeology ( 1814)
- About Religion and Theology ( 1815)
- Textbook of Christian dogmatics (1813-1816)
- Textbook of historical-critical introduction to the Bible (1817 ), later editions edited by Hermann Messner and Gottlieb Lünemann
- Christian ethics (1819-1821)
- Introduction to the New Testament ( 1826)
- The German theological educational institution in North America, Actenstücke, explanations and requests (1826 )
- Religion, their nature, their appearance, and their influence on the life (1827 )
- The essence of the Christian Faith ( 1846)
- Succinct and Exegetical Handbook to the New Testament (1836-1848)
De Wette also gave letters of Martin Luther out (5 vols, 1825-1828 ).