Karl Friedrich Bahrdt

Karl Friedrich BahrdtTemplate:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp (Template:IPA; 25 August 1741 – 23 April 1792), also spelled Carl Friedrich Bahrdt,Template:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp was an unorthodox German Protestant biblical scholar, theologian, and polemicist. Controversial during his day, he is sometimes considered an "enfant terrible"Template:Sfnp and one of the most immoral characters in German learning.Template:Sfnp

Life

Early life and education (1741–1768)

Bahrdt was born on 25 August 1741 in Bischofswerda, Upper Lusatia,Template:Sfnp where his father was pastor of the local church.Template:Sfnp The elder Bahrdt was later a professor,Template:Sfnp canon, and general superintendent at Leipzig.Template:Sfnp He received his early education at the celebrated school of Pforta,Template:Sfnp but some commenters have found his training to have been grossly neglected.Template:Sfnp

At sixteen,Template:Sfnp he enrolled in the University of Leipzig, where he studied under Christian August Crusius,Template:Sfnp who was then head of the theological faculty. The boy varied the monotony of his studies by pranks which revealed his unbalanced character, including an attempt to raise spirits with the aid of Dr Faust's Template:Interlanguage link multi.Template:Sfnp

After graduation, he lectured on biblical exegesis for a time as an adjunct to his fatherTemplate:Sfnp before becoming a catechist (Template:Lang) at the church of Template:Nowrap. He proved an eloquent and popular preacher and returned to the university as a visiting professor (Template:Lang) of biblical philology.Template:Sfnp He published a popular book of devotions, The Christian in Solitude, but was required to resign his positions and leave the Leipzig in 1768 on account of his irregular conduct.Template:Sfnp

Career (1768–1787)

Christian Adolph Klotz was then able to secure him the chair in biblical antiquities at the University of Erfurt. As the post was unpaid and Bahrdt was now married, he made his actual living as an inn-keeper and from private tutoring. Once he completed his doctorate of theology at Erlangen, he was able to persuade the faculty at Erfurt to appoint him professor designate of theology and began reading lectures. His orthodoxy had by this time completely vanished: Bahrdt was now an extreme rationalist and determined to popularize the position.Template:Sfnp He was not dismissed on this account, however, but left Erfurt in 1771 on account of his debtsTemplate:Sfnp and the personal and professional quarrels he had become embroiled in with his colleagues.Template:Sfnp

He left for a post as professor of theology and preacher at the University of Giessen. His personal behavior was no less or more objectionable than elsewhere, but his publication of God's Recent Revelations in Letters and Stories (Template:Lang) between 1773 and 1775 made plain his departure from official doctrine. The work—a "model version" of the New Testament in modern German—occasioned a memorably scornful attack on its poor taste by GoetheTemplate:Sfnp and prompted Bahrdt to again resign his position and relocate.Template:Sfnp

He then served as the director of the educational institution (Template:Lang) established by Carl Ulisses von Salis-Marschlins at his Château de Marschlins.Template:Sfnp It had languished since Template:Interlanguage link multi's death in 1772, but Bahrdt disliked the strict discipline maintained by von Salis, resigned in 1777, and prompted the closing of the school.Template:Sfnp

Bahrdt next served as general superintendent at Dürkheim-on-the-Hardt at the invitation of the count of Leiningen-Dagsburg.Template:Sfnp He also attempted to establish a new school at Heidesheim.Template:Sfnp His luckless translation of the Bible followed him, however, and a 1778 decision of the Court Council of the Empire prohibited him from holding any professorial office, lecturing in any capacity, or publishing any work on theology.Template:Sfnp He again fled from his creditors and was imprisoned for a short period in Dienheim.Template:Sfnp

In 1779, he took refuge in Halle, now in dire poverty. There, he kept a tavern with a billiard tableTemplate:Sfnp near the town gate.Template:Sfnp In spite of senate and theological opposition, he obtained permission from the Prussian minister Karl Abraham von Zedlitz to lecture on subjects other than theology.Template:Sfnp He would lecture in the morning on moral philosophy and then retire for the afternoon to his public house, which was largely patronized by students.Template:Sfnp He repudiated his wife and lived with his mistress and their daughters.Template:Sfnp

Compelled to write to earn additional income, he developed an astounding literary activity,Template:Sfnp although most of his works are now considered comparatively worthless or even a caricature of Enlightenment rationalism.Template:Sfnp He directed all his efforts at the development of a "moral system" intended to replace supernatural Christianity.Template:Sfnp

German Union and later life (1787–1789)

Having become a Freemason at some point, Bahrdt founded a secret society to that purpose in 1787 called the German Union of the Two and Twenty, from its original number of members.Template:SfnpTemplate:Refn To make time for more writing, he gave up his lectures, although he opened a new inn at Weinberg near Halle.Template:Sfnp

In 1789, he was arrested partly on account of a pasquinade he had written concerning a religious edict passed by PrussiaTemplate:Sfnp the year before, owing to the religious reaction that set in upon the death of Frederick the Great.Template:Sfnp The king reduced the term to one year, which Bahrdt devoted to writing his autobiography,Template:Sfnp "a mixture of lies, hypocrisy, and self-prostitution", along with indecent stories and coarse polemics.Template:Sfnp The German Union was dissolved upon his arrestTemplate:Sfnp and publicly exposed by Johann Joachim Christoph Bode'sTemplate:Sfnp More Notes than Text (Template:Lang).Template:Sfnp Most of its members went on to join the Illuminati.Template:Sfnp

Death

Bahrdt died of a severe illnessTemplate:Sfnp in Nietleben near Halle on 23 April 1792.Template:Sfnp

Works

• Books by Karl Friedrich Bahrdt at Open Library
• Template:DNB portal
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See also

• Heinrich Paulus – another rationalist theologian (1761–1851)
• Hermann Samuel Reimarus – another rationalist theologian (1694–1768)

References

• Template:Cite ADB
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