Johann Jacob Zimmermann (1644–1693) was a German nonconformist theologian, Millenarian, mathematician, and astronomer.
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Zimmerman was born in Vaihingen, Württemberg (now Germany) in 1644, lived in Nürtingen, and studied Theology at the University of Tübingen, where he was awarded the title Magisterhut in 1664.
He took his first post as a Lutheran minister at Bietigheim (Baden) in 1671, but already was developing a reputation through his scientific and occult writings, publishing under the name Ambrosius Sehmann.
A famed astronomer and astrologer, Zimmerman produced one of the first Equidistant Conic Projection star charts of the northern hemisphere in 1692.
But in 1685 Zimmermann was removed from his post by Lutheran church leaders, in part for his Scriptura Sacra Copernizans, which defended the astrological theories of Nicolaus Copernicus. As a testimony to his importance as a scientific writer, the work was reprinted in Hamburg in 1707, this time under Zimmermann's own name.[1]
Traveling to Frankfurt on Main, he became a follower of Jakob Böhme, a Pietist pastor and prominent critic of the established Lutheran church. Zimmermann made a living as a writer and teacher, and gradually developed a following in the city of Hamburg, creating elaborate theories predicting the end of the world. In his Muthmassliche Zeit-Bestimmung, Zimmermann set out his belief that the apocalypse would occur on the "edge of the wilderness" at the end of the autumn of 1694. His work centered on an elaborate textual and numerological interpretation of the biblical Book of Revelation, especially chapter XII. Zimmermann planned to lead his followers to North America to build a "Society of the Woman in the Wilderness" to greet the dawn of this new world. His group, termed Rosicrucians, were to number 40, and were to lead a largely solitary life practicing Astrology, Astronomy, Geomancy and a variety of arcane mathematical and magical forms of divination. Zimmermann began negotiations with Pennsylvania Governor William Penn to obtain land for his settlement.
Unfortunately, Zimmerman died as the group of eleven families were preparing to travel from Rotterdam. His disciple Johannes Kelpius was elected to take Zimmermann's title of magister, leading "the Hamburg Group" (including Zimmermann's widow) to an area near Wissahickon Creek, Pennsylvania. Here they established a religious community which, while still famed in local legend, dissolved shortly after Kelpius' death in the early eighteenth century.
Zimmerman is mentioned (as Dr. Zimmerman) in Book 3 of Isaac Newton's Principia (on p. 505) as having observed the great comet of 1680.