Johann Jakob Pfeiffer


Johann Jakob Pfeiffer was a German evangelical theologian, as well as a professor, and later, dean, at the University of Marburg.

Life and career

Pfeiffer was the son of Kassel master dyer, Hieronymus Pfeiffer and his wife Anne Elisabeth. He was educated in Kassel's preparatory schools, and in 1755 he enrolled at the Collegium Carolinum. There, he studied under Johann Gottlieb Stegmann and Justus Heinrich Wetzel. In 1757, Pfeiffer began his studies at the University of Marburg. At university, he studied theology, mathematics, logic, and metaphysics. By 1760 he was attending the University of Göttingen and continuing his education in Theology under Samuel Christian Hollmann, Johann David Michaelis and Christian Wilhelm Franz Walch. By the next year, he had returned to his home as a preaching candidate, and in 1761 he was ordained and given a position as a preacher in Cassel. When he wasn’t actively preaching, he was known to continue his own theological education, as well as instruct his parishioners and neighbors in both Old and New Testament exegesis.
In 1765, Pfeiffer was assigned to a preaching position in Langenschwalbach. By his own testimony, taken many years later, the years he spent in Langenschwalbach were the happiest of his life. He returned to Cassel in 1769 to take up the position of preacher at Karlskirche, the central church of the Oberneustadt community.
In 1779, Pfeiffer was named director of the newly constructed Lyceum Fridericianum, but by December of that year, he had been appointed associate professor of Theology at the University of Marburg, replacing Heinrich Otto Duysing. From 1781 to 1790, he was the Dean of the Theology Faculty at the University. Pfeiffer was awarded his doctorate in Theology in 1784, and in 1789 was promoted to full professor. In addition to his duties as Dean and Professor, he also served as a Councilor of the Consistory, overseeing all evangelical protestant churches in the Landgraviate of Hesse-Cassel.
On October 2, 1791, Pfeiffer performed the confirmation of Prince William II, Elector of Hesse, whose religious instructor he had been for most of the prince's adolescence. Two months later, despite the ministrations of his colleague Christian Friedrich Michaelis, he died due to complications from a chronic inflammatory illness, from which he had suffered for many years.

Family

Johann Jakob Pfeiffer married twice. On March 24, 1772 he married Lucie Rebecke, the daughter of Johannes Rüppel, onetime personal chaplain of Landgravine Charlotte of Hesse-Homburg and archdeacon of St Martin's Church, Kassel. Together they had the following children:
Lucie Pfeiffer died giving birth to twin sons, Franz Georg and Christian Hartmann. On April 16, 1785, Pfeiffer married again, this time to Sophie Christine, daughter of Johann August Waitz of Schwarzenfels. They had two daughters:
  • Marianne Charlotte
  • Caroline Catherine Louise Henriette
Through his marriage to his second wife, Pfeiffer became the brother-in-law of,, and, all of whom were married to his wife's sisters.

Works

Dissertatio Philosophica De Adquiescentia Hominum in Voluntate Divina' Predigten Entwurf zum Unterricht im Christenthum Magnificentissimi Orationem Aditialem Viri Amplissimi Iohannis Henrici Iung in Auditorio Maiore Habendam Indicit Progr. de praemiis virtutis christianae
  • ''Anweisung für Prediger, und die es werden wollen, zu einer treuen Führung ihres Amtes; nebst eingestreuten historischen und literarischen Bemerkungen''