Seize the Book, Jail the Author: Johann Lorenz Schmidt and Censorship in Eighteenth-Century Germany

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CHRISTIAN WOLFF (1679-1754), professor at Halle until his expulsion in 1723, then professor at Marburg until his triumphant recall in i 740. The most influential German philosopher of his time, he inspired Johann Lorenz Schmidt's Bible translation . Photo courtesy Herzog August Bibliothek, Wolfenbuttel. WERTHEIM FROM THE SOUTH. Illuminated in the center, just below the main city church and alongside the Tauber River, is the palace of the Catholic prince, where Schmidt was incarcerated in 1737. In shadow on the slope to the right of the church is the main palace of the Lutheran counts, where Schmidt taught the comital children . Photo courtesy Grafschafts-Museum, Wertheim. JOHANN LUDWIG VOLLRATH, Count at Lbwenstein-WertheimVirneburg (1705-90). He and his younger brother, Friedrich Ludwig, became the chief patrons of Schmidt's Bible project. Photo courtesy LbwensteinWertheim -Freudenbergsche Domanenverwaltung Kreuzwertheim . FRIEDRICH LUDWIG, Count at Lbwenstein-Wertheim-Virneburg (1706-96), who patronized the Bible project and corresponded with Schmidt while the latter was in jail and exiled. Photo courtesy Grafschafts-Museum Wertheim. -" .I·· r.••• ,···· AMONASOPHIE FRIEDERIKE, COUNTESS DOWAGER AT LOWENSTEIN-WERTHEIMVIRNEBURG (1684-1746), holding a picture of her late husband, Heinrich Friedrich (1682-1721). Amana played a key mediating role between local supporters and opponents of the Wertheim Bible. Photo courtesy GrafschaftsMuseum Wertheim. LUDWIG, COUNT OF HOHENLOHE -LANGENBURG (born 1696, ruled 1715-65), who shared with Countess Amana a regency on behalf of her underage children. Hohenlohe became the main local opponent of Schmidt's Bible project. Photo courtesy Sekretariat Furst zu HohenloheLangenburg . KARL THOMAS, Prince at Lowenstein-Wertheim-Rochefort (born 1714, ruled 173589 ), who tolerated Schmidt's Bible project under a printing agreement with his comital cousins. Though he took Schmidt into custody under the emperor's orders in 1737, Prince Karl became increasingly reluctant to serve as jailer. Photo courtesy Sekretariat Furst zu HohenloheLangenburg . JOACHIM LANGE (1670-1744), professor of theology at the university of Halle and the leading Pietist polemicist of his time. Lange became the key intellectual opponent of both Christian Wolff and Johann Lorenz Schmidt. Photo courtesy Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbuttel. FREDERICK WILHELM I, King of Brandenburg-Prussia (born 1688, ruled 1740-86), who banned the Wertheim Bible throughout his territories in 1736. Photo courtesy Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbuttel . KARL VI, Holy Roman Emperor of the German Nation ) (born 1685, ruled 1711--40). In 1737, his aulic council directed all the authorities of the empire to ban the Wertheim Bible and incarcerate its author. Photo courtesy Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbuttel. LOISE ADELGUND VICfORIA GOTTSCHED NEE KULMUS (171~2), whose comedy Piety in a Hoop Skirt satirized Schmidt's Pietist opponents and suffered Prussian confiscation as a result. Photo courtesy Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbuttel. JOHANN CHRISTOPH GOTTSCHED (1700-1766), professor of rhetoric at the university of Leipzig, the most prominent German literary critic in the i730s, and an important secret sympathizer of Schmidt. Photo courtesy Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbuttel. THE NORTH SEA PORT-OF HAMBURG, where Schmidt lived undercover as "Johann Ludwig Schroter" in 1738-46. His local patron, Dr. Johann Heinrich Sttiven, lived close to St. Nicolas Church, in the left center of the picture. From the author's private collection. JOHANN FRIEDRICH MAy (1697-1762), executive secretary of the German Society in Leipzig, who gave shelter and support to Schmidt on his escape to Hamburg in 1738. Photo courtesy Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbuttel. FREDERICK II (later "THE GREAT"), King of Brandenburg -Prussia (born 1712, ruled 1740-86), who expressed sympathy for Schmidt and may have played a role in bringing Schmidt to the enlightened court of the king's sister and brother-in-law at Wolfenbuttel. Photo courtesy Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbuttel. KARL I (b. 1713, ruled 1735-80) and PHILUPPINE CHARLOTIE (1716-1801), Duke and Duchess of Braunschweig-Wolfenbuttel . Photo courtesy Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbuttel. JOHANN FREDERICK WILHELM JERUSALEM (1709-89), chaplain to the ducal court at BraunschweigWolfenbuttel and a leading rationalist theologian. He was one of the inner circle at court who almost surely knew "Schroder's" true identity from the moment of his arrival in Wolfenbuttel . Photo courtesy Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbuttel. WOLFENBUTIEL, the North German ducal residential town where Schmidt spent his final years. He served as a math tutor to the pages at the court, centered in the assembly of large buildings on the left. Photo...