Johann Martin Miller

Johann Martin Miller

Johann Martin Miller (3 December 1750 in Jungingen – 21 June 1814 in Ulm) was a German theologian and writer.

Life

Miller was the son of an Evangelical pastor, Johann Michael Miller (1722–1774). At the University of Göttingen he studied, from 15 October 1770,[1] theology, and in 1772 he helped to establish the Göttinger Hainbund literary group, through which he became acquainted with Matthias Claudius and Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock. In 1773 he accompanied Gottlob Friedrich Ernst Schönborn (and, in 1774, Klopstock) from Göttingen to Kassel. In 1774 and 1775 he studied in Leipzig.

Miller wrote folk songs, many of which were set by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and others: for example "Was frag ich viel nach Geld und Gut, Wenn ich zufrieden bin." ("What need have I of cash and pelf, while I am satisfied"). In 1776 he published Siegwart, eine Klostergeschichte ("Siegwart, a Tale of the Cloister"), the biggest sensation since Werther and a bestseller. From 1776 to 1777 there appeared Briefwechsel dreyer Akademischer Freunde ("Correspondence of three friends at the academy"), an epistolary novel, once described as "an example of the diversity of intellectual currents ... in the Age of Enlightenment, when beside the advocates of the unrestricted use of reason and intellect there were those who were only interested in the unfolding and appreciation of the powers of the anchored sensibility [Gemütskräfte] and who also advocated for the preservation of a dogmatic Christianity.".[2] His work is comparable to that of Nicolai, Klinger, Salis, Matthisson.[3]

After finishing his studies he was active in Ulm and its surrounds: from 1780 as pastor, from 1781 as a teacher in the high school, and from 1783 as cathedral preacher. In 1804 he became a consistorial councillor, in 1809 district deacon, and in 1810 spiritual councillor and deacon for Ulm.[4]

Miller entered Freemasonry on 13 October 1774 at the Zum goldenen Zirkel lodge in Göttingen. On 11 December 1776 he was elected fellow-craft. In 1775 he helped found the Zur goldenen Kugel lodge in Hamburg. For a long time he was speaker at the Asträa zu den 3 Ulmen lodge in Ulm (which was shut during the period 1795-1807).[5]

Johann Martin Miller died at the age of sixty-four on 21 June 1814 in Ulm.

Works

References

  1. ↑ Götz von Selle. Die Matrikel der... Universität zu Göttingen 1734-1837. Hildesheim, Leipzig 1937, Nr. 8619
  2. ↑ E. Schmitt. Die Wohlersche Buchhandlung in Ulm. S. 64
  3. ↑ Erich Schmidt in Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie. Bd. 21, 1885, S. 750-755
  4. ↑ Bernhard Appenzeller. Die Münsterprediger bis zum Übergang Ulms an Württemberg 1810. Weißenhorn 1990, S. 404-412
  5. ↑ Matrikel der Loge Zum goldenen Zirkel im Geh. Staatsarchiv Berlin-Dahlem, Sign. 5.2 G 31 Nr. 19

Sources

External links