Philipp Matthäus Hahn (25 November 1739 in
Scharnhausen (today part of
Ostfildern
Ostfildern (; Swabian German, Swabian: ''Oschtfilder'') is a town in the Esslingen (district), district of Esslingen in Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. It is located approximately 8 km southeast of Stuttgart. It was formed in 1975 ou ...
),
Duchy of Württemberg
The Duchy of Württemberg () was a duchy located in the south-western part of the Holy Roman Empire. It was a Imperial Estate, state of the Holy Roman Empire from 1495 to 1803. The dukedom's long survival for over three centuries was mainly du ...
– 2 May 1790 in
Echterdingen (today part of
Leinfelden-Echterdingen)) was a
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany, the country of the Germans and German things
**Germania (Roman era)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...
pastor, astronomer and inventor.
In about 1763 he devised a precision
sundial
A sundial is a horology, horological device that tells the time of day (referred to as civil time in modern usage) when direct sunlight shines by the position of the Sun, apparent position of the Sun in the sky. In the narrowest sense of the ...
, or ''heliochronometer'' that incorporated the correction for the
equation of time
The equation of time describes the discrepancy between two kinds of solar time. The two times that differ are the apparent solar time, which directly tracks the diurnal motion of the Sun, and mean solar time, which tracks a theoretical mean Sun ...
.
In 1774 he designed one of the earliest mechanical
calculator
An electronic calculator is typically a portable electronic device used to perform calculations, ranging from basic arithmetic to complex mathematics.
The first solid-state electronic calculator was created in the early 1960s. Pocket-si ...
s of which two are known to have survived to the present day. A renowned clockmaker, several horological museums display his works, including the
Deutsches Uhrenmuseum which contains a mechanical orrery (planetarium) and a Weltmaschine by the "Priestermechaniker (priest mechanic)".
Philipp Matthäus Hahn's influence upon Friedrich Schiller's
Ode to Joy
"Ode to Joy" ( ) is an ode written in the summer of 1785 by the German poet, playwright, and historian Friedrich Schiller. It was published the following year in the Thalia (German magazine), German magazine ''Thalia''. In 1808, a slightly revi ...
According to
Reinhard Breymayer,
Friedrich Schiller
Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller (, short: ; 10 November 17599 May 1805) was a German playwright, poet, philosopher and historian. Schiller is considered by most Germans to be Germany's most important classical playwright.
He was born i ...
's verses "Brüder - überm Sternenzelt/ muß ein lieber Vater wohnen" ("Brothers, above the starry canopy/ There must dwell a loving Father"), reflecting the poet's Philosophy of Love, are a reference to the astronomer and pastor Hahn's Theology of Love.
[ Cf. Reinhard Breymayer: Erhard Weigels Schüler Detlev Clüver und sein Einfluss auf Friedrich Christoph Oetinger (1702–1782) ��In: Katharina Habermann, Klaus-Dieter Herbst (Ed.): '']Erhard Weigel
Erhard Weigel (; 16 December 1625 – 20 March 1699) was a German mathematician, astronomer and philosopher.
Biography
Weigel earned his Master of Arts, M.A. (1650) and his habilitation (1652) from the University of Leipzig. From 1653 until his d ...
(1625–1699) und seine Schüler''. Universitätsverlag Göttingen, Göttingen 2016, pp. 269–323,
here pp. 317–322: Nachweis einer Verbindung zwischen dem mit Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 1756 – 5 December 1791) was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition and proficiency from an early age ...
und Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. He is one of the most revered figures in the history of Western music; his works rank among the most performed of the classical music repertoire ...
vertrauten Franz Joseph Reichsgraf von Thun und Hohenstein
The House of Thun und Hohenstein, also known as Thun-Hohenstein, belonged to the historical Austrian nobility, Austrian and Bohemian nobility. There is one princely and several count, comital branches of the family. The princely branch of the fami ...
, dem Mechaniker Philipp Gottfried Schaudt und dem Pfarrer Philipp Matthäus Hahn. Findet sich eine Spur von Hahns Theologie in Schillers Ode "An die Freude"?
Count Thun in Vienna was a nephew of Josef Friedrich Wilhelm, prince of Hohenzollern-Hechingen in Hechingen
Hechingen (; Swabian: ''Hächenga'') is a town in central Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated about south of the state capital of Stuttgart and north of Lake Constance and the Swiss border.
Geography
The town lies at the foot of th ...
near Onstmettingen. Both ordered an astronomic machine constructed in Onstmettingen by Onstmettingen's pastor Hahn and produced by Onstmettingen's head teacher Schaudt.
Count Thun's wife, Maria Wilhelmina Reichsgräfin von Thun und Hohenstein née Comtessin von Uhlfeld, is remembered as the sponsor of a musically and intellectually outstanding salon in Vienna and for her patronage of music, notably that of Mozart and Beethoven.
Cf. Reinhard Breymayer: ''Astronomie, Kalenderstreit und Liebestheologie. Von Erhard Weigel'' ..''über Friedrich Christoph Oetinger und Philipp Matthäus Hahn zu Friedrich Schiller, Johann Andreas Streicher, Franz Joseph Graf von Thun und Hohenstein, Mozart und Beethoven''. Heck, Dußlingen, 2016. - .
References
Bibliography
Primary sources
* Philipp Matthäus Hahn: ''Kurze Beschreibung einer kleinen beweglichen Welt-Maschine.Faksimile-Neudruck der wiederentdeckten Ausgabe Konstanz, Lüdolph, 1770''. Herausgegeben von Reinhard Breymayer. Mit einem Geleitwort von Alfred Munz. Tübingen : Noûs-Verlag Thomas Leon Heck, 1988.
bout the astronomic machine ordered by Josef Friedrich Wilhelm, Prince of Hohenzollern-Hechingen.
* Philipp Matthäus Hahn
uthor– Jakob Friedrich Klemm
djoint author ''Etwas zum Verstand des Königreichs Gottes und Christi ("Fingerzeig") * samt einem Auszug aus dem "Theologischen Notizbuch" von Philipp Matthäus Hahn mit neun ausgewählten Abhandlungen aus dem zeitlichen Umfeld der
Epheserbriefauslegung von 1774''. Herausgegeben von Walter Stäbler. (Stuttgart : Verein für württembergische Kirchengeschichte c/o Landeskirchliches Archiv Stuttgart), 2016 (''Kleine Schriften des Vereins für württembergische Kirchengeschichte'', Nr. 20).
edaction: Reinhard Breymayer.– .
* Philipp Matthäus Hahn: ''Hinterlassene Schriften''. Hrsg. von Christoph Ulrich Hahn. Heilbronn
m NeckarRothenburg ob der Tauber, 1828.
Secondary sources
* Walter Stäbler: ''Pietistische Theologie im Verhör. Das System Philipp Matthäus Hahns und seine Beanstandung durch das württembergische Konsistorium''. Stuttgart: Calwer Verlag, 1992. – Ev.-Theol. Diss. Münster in Westfalen 1990.
* ''Philipp Matthäus Hahn 1739–1790. Pfarrer, Astronom, Ingenieur, Unternehmer''. Teil 1: ''Katalog''; Teil 2: ''Aufsätze''. Stuttgart : Württembergisches Landesmuseum Stuttgart, 1989.
* Reinhard Breymayer: "Anfangs glaubte ich die Bengelische
. i. von Johann Albrecht Bengel stammende">Johann_Albrecht_Bengel.html" ;"title=". i. von Johann Albrecht Bengel">. i. von Johann Albrecht Bengel stammendeErklärung ganz ..." Philipp Matthäus Hahns Weg zu seinem wiederentdeckten "Versuch einer neuen Erklärung der Offenbarung Johannis" <1785>. In: ''Pietismus und Neuzeit. Ein Jahrbuch zur Geschichte des neueren Protestantismus''. Im Auftrag der Historischen Kommission zur Erforschung des Pietismus herausgegeben von Martin Brecht, Friedrich de Boor, Klaus Deppermann, Ulrich Gäbler, Hartmut Lehmann und Johannes [Christian] Wallmann, Band 15 (1989). ''Schwerpunkt: Die Gemeinschaftsbewegung''. Göttingen (1989), pp. 172–219.
* Günther Schweizer: ''Familie, Vorfahren und Verwandte von Philipp Matthäus Hahn. Pfarrer, Astronom, Ingenieur und Unternehmer. 1739-1790''. Herausgegeben vom Förderverein Stadtmuseum Leinfelden-Echterdingen e. V. (Tübingen: Prof. Dr. Günther Schweizer, 2006.) (''Schriftenreihe des Fördervereins Stadtmuseum Leinfelden-Echterdingen e. V.'', Band 2). .
* Werner Raupp: Art. Hahn, Philipp Matthäus (1739–1790). – In: Heiner F. Klemme und Manfred Kuehn (General Editors), The Dictionary of Eighteenth-Century German Philosophers. Vol. 2, London/New York 2010, p. 443–445.
External links
A Brief History of Mechanical CalculatorsJim Falk, Things that Count. Part 2, "The emergence of the modern calculator"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hahn, Philipp Matthaeus
1739 births
1790 deaths
People from Ostfildern
18th-century German inventors
German Protestant clergy
People from the Duchy of Württemberg